In the middle of a flight the buttons on the yoke started giving strange results. For example, the rocker switch on the right horn started to act more light the hat switch in terms of the button # that FSUIPC would see. Very strange.  First thing I tried was powering down the yoke and restarting it hoping that might "reset" the yoke firmware, but no luck. I then took the yoke handle off the shaft and tried to clean the contacts between the handle and shaft as best as I could. When I reassembled the handle back onto the shaft I was a bit surprised and greatly relieved to find all was working as expected again. I don't really know what the issue was -- could of been some dirty contacts, or maybe shutting the yoke down for 30 min finally reset the firmware. In any case, just wanted to pass on the experience in case someone else runs into a similar problem.

Al

Edited September 30, 20232 yr by ark

I've had an issue before where the yoke handle wasn't fully seated on the shaft and was resulting in spurious button presses being registered. I thought it was a faulty yoke but Chris quickly diagnosed the issue and it turned out that I needed to reseat the yoke handle as I hadn't pushed it on far enough. Unfortunately I reckon I'd be SOL getting tech support today...

On 10/1/2023 at 4:57 AM, c150student said:

I've had an issue before where the yoke handle wasn't fully seated on the shaft and was resulting in spurious button presses being registered. I thought it was a faulty yoke but Chris quickly diagnosed the issue and it turned out that I needed to reseat the yoke handle as I hadn't pushed it on far enough. Unfortunately I reckon I'd be SOL getting tech support today...

With the single set screw holding the yoke handle onto the shaft I think the constant "push-pull" on the yoke from normal flying can result in the yoke handle moving a bit so the electrical connections with the shaft become unreliable. I thinking off adding a second set screw on the top side of the yoke handle.

Al

Edited October 2, 20232 yr by ark

32 minutes ago, ark said:

I thinking off adding a second set screw on the top side of the yoke handle.

One screw on top still leaves some room for the sideways movement of the bracket against the shaft. I've added two with approx. 120 degrees spacing - they fix the handle perfectly well.

2 hours ago, SergeyPe said:

One screw on top still leaves some room for the sideways movement of the bracket against the shaft. I've added two with approx. 120 degrees spacing - they fix the handle perfectly well.

Did you drill the new holes in the black flange using a drill press? If so did you have to take the black flange off the yoke handle in order to do that? Or did you just drill the holes using a hand drill?

Thx,

Al

Edited October 2, 20232 yr by ark

9 hours ago, ark said:

Or did you just drill the holes using a hand drill?

A hand drill is sufficient. Of course it's better to take the flange off which is quite easy- just remove the 3 screws holding it in place. You'll also need a thread tap to cut a thread for the set screws.

9 hours ago, SergeyPe said:

A hand drill is sufficient. Of course it's better to take the flange off which is quite easy- just remove the 3 screws holding it in place. You'll also need a thread tap to cut a thread for the set screws.

Do the 3 screws that hold the flange hold anything else? I have some concern those screws may also hold the electrical connector with the 5 pins in place.

And yes, I know I'll need a tap for the M5 set screws if I do end up doing this.

I appreciate the help -- thanks.

Al

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by ark

13 minutes ago, ark said:

Do the 3 screws that hold the flange hold anything else? I have some concern those screws may also hold the electrical connector with the 5 pins in place.

You are welcome😀. The connector is mounted on a thin circular steel plate which is sandwiched between the flange and the body. After the screws are removed and the flange is taken off the plate with the connector will hang on the wires running from the shift register PCB (i. e. an electronic board) to the connector. Don't worry, the wires are strong and are not prone to damage; just mark the position of the plate against the handle body to ensure the correct connector orientation.

BTW, here are the pictures of my flange; the extra holes were made when experimenting with a metal B737 handle replica from Opencockpits which didn't work out as the replica was way too heavy. The one on the photos is also a 737 replica, but plastic- moulded.

6 hours ago, SergeyPe said:

The connector is mounted on a thin circular steel plate which is sandwiched between the flange and the body.

What helps to make sure the thin circular steel connector plate is properly centered?

Al

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by ark

4 hours ago, ark said:

What helps to make sure the thin circular steel connector plate is properly centered?

It's being centered by the screws; there's no sideways "play". Just make sure that the plate is not rotated 120 degrees so that the connector has the correct orientation..

21 minutes ago, SergeyPe said:

It's being centered by the screws; there's no sideways "play". Just make sure that the plate is not rotated 120 degrees so that the connector has the correct orientation..

OK, good, that's what I hoped was the case.

Now it's time to go out and find a couple of M5 steel set screws! 🙂

Thanks again for all the info -- much appreciated.

Al

Edited October 4, 20232 yr by ark

11 hours ago, ark said:

Thanks again for all the info -- much appreciated.

😀😀😀 Don't hesitate to ask more questions- being a reasonably early yoke adopter, I've had a lot of talks with Chris on the design improvements (funny that in most cases he was considering or even introducing the similar changes). Finally I've seriously overhauled the yoke internals, with the substantial changes made both to the mechanical and to the electrical parts and making it a perfect product (from my point of view at least😁).

So if you face any further issues, I'll be happy to help (considering that Chris is unfortunately not offering the excellent support that he used to provide).

Sergey

Edited October 4, 20232 yr by SergeyPe

15 hours ago, SergeyPe said:

😀😀😀 Don't hesitate to ask more questions- being a reasonably early yoke adopter, I've had a lot of talks with Chris on the design improvements (funny that in most cases he was considering or even introducing the similar changes). Finally I've seriously overhauled the yoke internals, with the substantial changes made both to the mechanical and to the electrical parts and making it a perfect product (from my point of view at least😁).

So if you face any further issues, I'll be happy to help (considering that Chris is unfortunately not offering the excellent support that he used to provide).

Sergey

Thanks for the offer to share more info -- I felt I was becoming a bit of a pest.  So since you have offered, I would certainly be interested to hear what type of changes you suggested to Chris and what the resultant improvements in yoke performance are. Although I have an electrical engineering background, to this point I have not felt compelled to open the yoke case for any reason.

Al

Edited October 5, 20232 yr by ark

20 hours ago, SergeyPe said:

So if you face any further issues, I'll be happy to help (considering that Chris is unfortunately not offering the excellent support that he used to provide).

Thanks for sharing! I don't have issues with my yoke now, but it is good to know that there are a few solutions to solve issues that might develop or even improve on the yoke.
I hope that Chris will return one day but until then it is great we can at least help each other.

3 hours ago, ark said:

I would certainly be interested to hear what type of changes you suggested to Chris and what the resultant improvements in yoke performance are.

Well, the need for the changes is directly related to the yoke version that you have. So you'll definitely need to open the case, which is not a big deal- 8 screws on the sides of the case cover, and you are there. First check the pitch travel translation mechanism- it can be either a plastic rack/ pulley or a toothed belt/ pulley combination. The first version is the early one; I've replaced it with a belt/ matching pulley for the following reason. With rather strong springs on the roll axis the bottom of the case is flexing a bit at the extremes of the roll travel. This leads to the carriage holding the yoke shaft to tilt a bit, either pressing the pulley against the rack or lifting it up creating a "dead zone" in pitch axis. Replacing the rack with a belt takes up these tilts, ensuring the reliable belt- pulley contact. The new parts are 3D- printed: I've added the pictures and the files for printing to this folder. I'll check the belt type later today.

The second mod is much more serious. Examining the case/ rail flex I've realized that it also created an additional pitch and roll drag at the extreme roll positions as the carriage tilt explained above was leading to the end of the shaft moving sideways, strongly pressing against the bushing at the front of the case. After some consideration and a couple of discussions with Chris I've decided to replace the pitch rail with a completely different type (MGW15H with 330 mm rail). It is extremely rigid and have practically no rail-carriage play; being bolted to the bottom of the case it's perfectly stable eliminating any flex. It also eliminates the need for a front bushing which can be removed. The benefit of this particular rail model is that it has almost the same height as the stock rail/ carriage so it fits the case quite well- I've just had to enlarge the top of the hole for the shaft in the front wall by about 1 mm. I also had to remove the bottom parts of the roll bearing brackets with a dremel to fit the new carriage. Now the shaft movement is absolutely smooth and stable with any combination of roll/ pitch extreme positions. I've put the mod pictures in the same folder. The metal pulley on these pictures was an option that didn't work out because of it's high mass/ inertia; with rapid pitch movement it could slip the belt teeth, spoiling the calibration, so I moved back to the printed plastic one.

I know that Chris was considering a similar modification with a different rail type/ changes to the case size but I'm not sure if any of these units were put into the production.

There are some minor but important hints and tips that I can provide about this mod but please bear in mind that it requires a complete disassembly of the yoke mechanics plus some metalwork skills will be needed so you'll have to think twice (maybe more😁) before going for it.