FlyHirundo Rudder Pedal: introduction

[oemlegoem 29]

I would like to introduce the rudder pedal and yoke that I developed. I have now  created a start-up company, based in Switzerland, to sell these products under the market name of FlyHirundo. Hirundo is a family of birds the best known is probably the barn swallow.
The rudder pedal in now finished and the yoke is in the final stage of development. I would like to discuss technical aspects in this thread, to explain some special technical features, and get feedback in this forum. It was agreed with the Avsim administrators/moderators to avoid commercial discussions.

In this thread I will show the rudder pedal, and I will open another thread for the yoke. The rudder pedal is a robust all stainless steel construction. It has a linear movement of 150mm, and 8 metal springs to provide resistance to the movement. The brake action is sensed by load cells. This means that the brake action depends on the force applied, like in a real plane with a hydraulic brake system, and does not depend on potentiometer rotational movement.
The mechanical movement is robust and reliable, using sealed bearings running on stainless steel tracks. The 142mm bearing spacing is very wide in order to lower the forces in the bearings induced by the torque created by the forces on the pedals.
The bearing system, together with the metal springs provide a very smooth, precise motion without indent.

The FlyHirundo rudder pedal will be technically and pricewise competitive to other high end rudder pedals available on the market. I will explain more technical details in coming posts. But first, have a look.

I am looking forward to your comments,
regards
Jozef

Edited October 4, 2019 by oemlegoem

[oemlegoem 29]

The rudder pedal and yoke will be shown inside, outside and "inflight" at FSweekend at the Aviodrome in Lelystad. Looking forward to see you there.

The design targets were: robustness, precision and smoothness, adjustability and serviceability.

In the following photos, more details can be seen about the adjustability. These are:

The pedals can be shifted up and down over a total range of 30mm. Furthermore, the pedals can be set at any angle.

The rudder pedal can be screwed down to a bottom plate (not supplied) or it can stand on 6 rubber feet (supplied). Although the rubber feet provide quite a good hold, the rudder pedal is likely to be pushed back depending on the force applied to the pedals. For such a situation, a web strap is supplied that can be attached to slots at the front, and put around the pilots chair.

To apply a braking force, the pedal is rotated forward. Initially, there is a small rotation (resisted by a spring) during which no brake force is generated. This is like in a hydraulic brake until the brake pads make contact with the brake disc. This initial angle is adjustable. Once the slack is taken up, brake force is applied. The force applied to the pedal where the signal to the flight sim reaches a maximum, is also adjustable.

In the first post, you could see the springs providing resistance to the rudder movement. These springs can also be removed to adjust the force from a maximum of 100% down to 25%.

Looking forward to any comments.

[N1125Y 22]

Very impressing did you have a price in mind ??? 

[oemlegoem 29]

N1125Y, thanks for the comment. Before starting this thread, I had agreed with the forum administrators/moderators to keep out commercial marketing (as this is against the forum rules). My aim was to get a technical feedback from forum users, and I was afraid that a discussion around price would pull the discussions too much in that direction, at this stage.
Price however is a central element, and I will inform more in about 2 weeks time in this forum, when I will show the rudder pedal and yoke at FSweekend in Holland.
I hope for your understanding.

[N1125Y 22]

I hear you, however, for most of us the price is kind of the weakest Link .... there are some great product in the market which out or reach for most of simmers .... anyway will be interesting to follow up and to see the evolution of your product.

All the best and luck 

 

Yair 

[lownslo 592]

Very nice looking rudder pedals!  The all stainless construction and sealed bearings are top shelf design choices.  It seems from the photos that there is a surface finish on the major stainless parts... if so what is it?  Also, how much does the entire assembly weigh?

Congrats on what looks to be a strong competitor!!

Greg

[oemlegoem 29]

6 hours ago, lownslo said:

Very nice looking rudder pedals!  The all stainless construction and sealed bearings are top shelf design choices.  It seems from the photos that there is a surface finish on the major stainless parts... if so what is it?  Also, how much does the entire assembly weigh?

Congrats on what looks to be a strong competitor!!

Greg

Hello Greg
Thanks for the comments. The outside cover, backplate and pedals are brushed stainless steel, and then "3M Stainless Steel Cleaner & Polish" is used. So no special coating. The inside parts are stainless steel, deburred on one side after laser cutting. The total weight is 7.2kg 15.9lbs.

Coming weekend 2&3November, I will exhibit at the flight simulation event in Lelystad. The inside of the rudder pedal and yoke will be shown, and in operation with a flightsim. Being able to grab and feel the metal is better than just looking at a square box from the outside.
http://fsweekend.com/en/home/

Following picture shows the casing with FlyHirundo logo, and webstraps (supplied) that can be wrapped around the legs of a chair. As an alternative, the rubber feet can be removed and the rudder pedal can be screwed to a panel, such as a wooden plate (not supplied) pushed against a back wall.  

Edited October 26, 2019 by oemlegoem

[HJG 0]

Yesterday I was at the FSweekend and saw the yoke (protoype as I understood) as well as the pedals. I had a close look inside both and as an engineer I was very interested in the technic used and the construction. I have to say: I was impressed how smooth and accurate the movements are and the build quality. All parts are metal (stainless steel). If you buy these ones, you buy the last yoke and pedals in your life.

I got some price information (about the pedals): it’s clear, you can’t have this build quality for the same price as the well known plastic yokes and pedals we all know; every level of quality has it price. But if you can afford it, in my opinion this is a nearly perfect set of desktop yoke and rudderpedals for a reasonable price.

Greetings from Holland,

Hans

BTW. I will not disclose the price; I leave that to Oemlegoem

Edited November 3, 2019 by HJG

[oemlegoem 29]

On 11/3/2019 at 1:22 PM, HJG said:

Yesterday I was at the FSweekend and saw the yoke (protoype as I understood) as well as the pedals. I had a close look inside both and as an engineer I was very interested in the technic used and the construction. I have to say: I was impressed how smooth and accurate the movements are and the build quality. All parts are metal (stainless steel). If you buy these ones, you buy the last yoke and pedals in your life.

I got some price information (about the pedals): it’s clear, you can’t have this build quality for the same price as the well known plastic yokes and pedals we all know; every level of quality has it price. But if you can afford it, in my opinion this is a nearly perfect set of desktop yoke and rudderpedals for a reasonable price.

Greetings from Holland,

Hans

BTW. I will not disclose the price; I leave that to Oemlegoem

To Hans HJG: thanks for the nice comments.
For full disclosure: I do not know who Hans is. So his comment is not a "friend's support".

About the yoke, to be more precise, the main body is series construction, but the yoke handle was a temporary arrangement. So the comments of HJG should be understood as referring to the main body construction, but not the handle.

The price I published at FSweekend for the rudder pedal is an introduction price of 772Euro excluding VAT and transport. This is 100Euro below the other well known rudder pedal on the market that uses load cells for the brakes. But in my opinion, the FlyHirundo rudder pedal has a better, higher quality engineered design. E.g. the pedal travel forward-backward is 150mm.

Since publishing the first post, I have improved the load cell and brake spring attachment. This was shown at FSweekend. I will show more about that in another post.

Edited November 6, 2019 by oemlegoem

[oemlegoem 29]

Since publishing the first post beginning October, I made an update to the braking system. There are now 5 steps or phases in the brake action, mimicking a basic hydraulic brake system.
The brake action is sensed by load cells.

Step/phase 1:
The pedal is in rest position. No brake action is applied.

Step/phase 2:
The pedal is pressed against the resistance of a spring (left) but no brake action takes place. This corresponds to the brake pad moving towards the brake disc. The movement at the top of the pedal is ca 10mm.

Step/Phase 3:
After moving ca 10mm (at the top of the pedal), a point is reached where additional resistance (right spring) is felt. This corresponds to the brake pads setting on the brake disc. This is the point where brake action starts.

Step/Phase 4:
The pedal is pressed down further with increasing resistance, corresponding to the hydraulic compression of the brake system. Brake action increases. The top of the pedal moves ca 50mm.

Step/Phase 5:
The pedal is now completely depressed, corresponding to the hydraulic system being completely compressed. The pedal does not move further, but by pressing harder, the brake action still increases.

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by oemlegoem

[oemlegoem 29]

It has been a while since I reported on the rudder pedal status. I had made a few units of the rudder pedal that I had shown on FSweekend in Lelystad, and they were in use with customers since then. I intentionally kept the number of units small since I wanted to get feedback from the experience gained and improve if necessary.

Based on the experience gained, I made an update to:
- the bearing system
- the belt drive
- the pedal adjustment possibilities and features
- the control of the differential brakes
- a bracket to place near a wall or attach a belt looped around a chair.

The main change is in the bearing system, and I will explain in this post. I will elaborate on the other changes in future posts.
The design as shown in Lelystad, and which was received very well, uses V-wheels as bearings sliding mechanism controlling the yaw. Although small, there was some flexibility in the system, and that was also noticed by the customers. I changed to a new track system which is stiffer, and with separate bearings to take up horizontal and vertical forces. In total, 28 roller bearings are used.  Including the bearings for the belt drive and to hold the pedal axis, in total 36 roller bearings are used in the rudder pedal.
You can see the new arrangement in the picture. You can also see a wider belt with a stiffer support.

Edited March 8, 2020 by oemlegoem

[oemlegoem 29]

In an earlier post, I had shown that the pedal can be shifted up and down by 30mm, and positioned at any angle. This is important if e.g. you want to position your foot so that it presses against the bottom part of the pedal for moving the rudder, and you want your toes to be clear of the top part of the pedal so that brakes are not applied.
In the improved version, I added a bracket that allows for further adjustments.

The first picture shows the bracket on top. It helps to put your feet in the same position on the left and right pedal.
In the second picture, the bracket is at the bottom. It helps in a situation where the hollow part of the foot is on the bottom part of the pedal and you don't want your toes to press the top part of the pedal.
In the third picture, the bracket is at the bottom but reversed, so that you can put your heel on it. But normally I would prefer to keep my heels on the floor. 

 

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Edited March 9, 2020 by oemlegoem