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I just put one together for myself based on this video. Let me know if you still need some help.

Yes, the demo at 0:26 is using X-Plane 11. It works better in X-Plane because the multiengine aircraft in X-Plane properly feather their props when the prop control is moved all the way to low RPM! I wish MSFS modeled that behavior!

Don't give up! Hopefully it is something trivial. When you get back to it feel free to message with where you are stuck. For example, does your computer recognize the Teensy when connected on USB? Are you able to download a program to the Teensy? Do you have a multimeter to confirm the correct voltages are observed (3.3V, and can also verify the voltage from the slider to analog input). Hope you get some time in the future to complete it! Good luck!

@@wdubel Hi I will indeed, I can install no problem but when I press or slide nothing happens it's a pro micro, thank you 😀

Hi David! First step is to check the datasheet to determine which pin is your center tap - usually pin 2. Those are the pins you will wire individually to your analog inputs on the Teensy. The other two pins connect to analog ground (AGND) and the 3.3V reference voltage. You can connect all of the pin 1 on the slide pots to AGND, all of the pin 3 on the slide pots to 3.3V, and connect each center tap of the individual sliders to the analog inputs (A0, A1, A2, ... A6) separately! The AGND and 3.3V can be shared, but the center taps to analog inputs obviously need to be separate. You can also use a multimeter (set to measure resistance in Ohms) to determine the center tap pin if you don't have a datasheet or just to confirm.

@@wdubel thank you so much, waiting for some carbon fibre before attaching the pots to the lid , ive added pitch knobs and ignition switch ,praying it all works lol, all the best

I have not tested the Teensy 2.0, but I suspect it would work just fine. The price difference (in the US) between the "legacy" 8 bit boards and the newer 32 bit boards is just about $3, unless you already have the 2.0 lying around in which case you can just test it firsthand. Good luck with the project!

@@wdubel hi no i'm starting from scratch, the teensy 2 is £10 and 3.2 is £20 was trying to be cost affective lol

I just checked out the Blue Pill boards and FreeJoy... there is a little additional setup to install the bootloader and get the Arduino integration (if desired) but worth it for the additional configurability that FreeJoy offers. Thanks for comment and great info!

@@wdubel I just use a cheap little ST-link v2 to install bootloaders on the bluepill.

Thank you! The Teensy are quite expensive, now version 4. Nice to save the pennies now food is so expensive (UK).

Thanks! You would use a separate Arduino for the rudder interface, though the electronics and programming work the same way. You'll need three analog inputs - one for left/right rudder action, one for left brake and one for right brake. Some use two channels for the left and right rudder but since they move together it isn't necessary - when one is forward other is back. The difficult part of the project is the mechanical assembly!

@@wdubel thanks for the tips. I will try it.

There is plenty of space however camping spots are not marked. We did not find locations that you can readily put stakes in the ground as it is all hard rock. You'll need large rocks to secure your guy lines in place of stakes. The wind picks up unexpectedly and can easily take your rain fly and send it over the cliff! Disclaimer: you are responsible for you own navigation, safety and life. That said, we set up our two tents approximately around 33°26'13.9"N 111°27'13.3"W (33.437185, -111.453692), though closer to the south edge of the cliff. If you really like to live on the edge, we did find a really nice spot that was just off and under the south edge of the cliff. I was not so brave and instead chose a spot where I could sleep walk in the middle of the night to relieve myself if needed. Bring a good headlamp and enjoy your trip!

I used the Arduino Teensy 3.2.

I have not tried it but I would expect the Teensy driver to work independently from the Saitek driver. Note that if you have multiple controls for throttle you should only map/assign one to the simulation throttle. As an odd example you could have the Saitek throttle control engine 1 and the Teensy control engine 2, but if you assign both to the same control usually the last moved control "wins".

The slide potentiometers are 75mm long end to end and have a travel of 60mm.

Yes, I can confirm it works in MSFS, which is shown at the end of the video. Make sure on the controls page that you are not filtering by "Assigned" controls (on the left at 14:07). Initially you will need to assign them so change the filter to see available controls. In the video I do have it filtered since the controls are assigned already though I see now that is confusing!

@@wdubel it worked! Thank you

Your project came out great! The color coded levers are perfect and the gear switch is a good addition. Well done!

Some of the axis controls have several versions you can map in the control settings. I see that mixture has a 0 to 100 version and a -100 to 100 axis version that can be selected. For some controls you need to match your controller range with the correct axis type for proper control. I had to map the correct axis for the CH pro pedals for example, or else it was either 0 or 100% deflection in game. For others it may work either way, as long as you observe the full range of values in the simulator as you adjust the physical control. Be sure to view all available control types and select only the axis type that works best, which may require trial an error. Be careful to not map multiple axis types to the same control - be sure to clear the one you do not want.

Thanks for your comment! The Toliss A319 looks almost study level, but I have not moved up to the big jets yet. I do hope MSFS 2020 gets some of the aircraft and systems detail that we get on X-Plane. It's unfortunate that even the props on MSFS 2020 cannot be properly feathered yet.

​@@wdubel before your video , i don't know teensy card, plenty of solution for building your own Xplane environement, sorry pour mon anglais

This is a great starter project since all of the needed circuitry (for example pull up resistors for switches) is built into the Teensy. I do not have a circuit diagram however the connectivity is straight forward: Connect the center post of the pots to your analog inputs (A0 through A5), one side of all pots connect to analog ground (AGND), and the other side of all pots to the 3.3V reference (red wire in the video). The provided example program and joystick interface supports exactly 6 analog axes starting at A0. The program can be modified to use whichever analog pins you prefer, but if you stick to A0 through A5 no changes are needed. You can absolutely add a trim wheel, and if you do I would suggest using a rotary encoder (instead of a potentiometer). An encoder will use two digital inputs instead of an analog input. An encoder might be preferred for two reasons: 1) you will want the wheel to be able to make several revolutions whereas a pot is usually limited to a single rotation with stops. 2) you will probably want the position of the wheel to be relative/arbitrary at start up (so that it doesn't jump values when you first move it).

@@wdubel Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and sharing the video.

The throttle quadrant does not seem to work with FlightGear out of the box. I tried installing FlightGear on Windows just now and the good news is that the Teensy joystick is recognized. Unfortunately only 5 of the 6 axes are correctly recognized in the Joystick settings, and even after configuring the 5 recognized axes I am unable to affect the simulated controls. I did see some instructions online on setting up custom bindings. It is likely that with some tinkering you could get the controls functional, but it is not something that "just works" as it does in X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

@@wdubel I appreciate the time you took to test that out. I might give it a shot. Could you explain a little more how to connect a USB cable to the board? Do you by chance have the circuit diagram? Thank you.

@@scarymoviesg The Teensy boards include a USB Micro B port that accepts a standard USB type A to Micro B cable (same as used to charge most Android phones prior to USB C). Since the port is already connected and wired up no circuit diagram is needed. Just connect the Teensy to your computer with the standard USB A to Micro B cable. Regarding the FlightGear setup from your earlier question, this FlightGear wiki is what I found online (untested): wiki.flightgear.org/Input_device

@@wdubel I will definitely check that out. Thank you once again for the help. Edited: is it possible to use rotary potentiometer instead of the linear ones? Will the configuration be the same?

@@scarymoviesg A rotary potentiometer will work the same as a slide potentiometer. My first tests with the Teensy configured as a joystick were with small 10k ohm rotary potentiometers. However, I find the slide potentiometer to be much easier to control (and to visually confirm position) than using a knob, and will more closely match the control movements of actual aircraft.

Indeed

I find the battery life to be as advertised, which at the highest setting is just under an hour. I use mine on medium most of the time, which gives around 8 hours depending on which medium you program. The lowest settings are useful for reading what is right in front of you, and lasts for days. The AA powered Zebra Headlamps are the best headlamps I have ever used, but pricey. I highly recommend them and the AA Eneloop batteries they run on. I believe the H502 has been replaced with the H503, with a brighter 330 lumen 4500k or a 260 lumen high CRI model. They are wide angle flood lights, not spot lights, so you'll want a separate light to see more than 20 feet away.

Any potentiometer in the range of 1k to 20k ohms will work. 10k ohms is probably the sweet spot for current consumption and accuracy. Higher than 20k and you may see issues with accuracy and noise, and lower than 1k starts to draw a significant amount of current. For example: 3.3V / 1kOhm = 3.3mA * 6 sliders = 20mA through the sliders.

Yes! Something with dual concentric rotary encoders (similar to the Garmin GNS-430 knobs), a swap button, and maybe a small display would work great.

I used the Teensy 3.2, but 2.0 and LC should work as well. I do not have a wiring diagram however the connectivity is straight forward: Connect the center post of the pots to your analog inputs (A0 through A5), one side of all pots connect to analog ground (AGND), and the other side of all pots to the 3.3V reference (red wire in the video). If your Teensy does not have a dedicated analog ground use the GND that is closest to the 3.3V pin.

@@wdubel thank you for the video and your prompt reply parts will be ordered today as it's my lock down project

Arduino Leonardo or pro micro works too

No, unfortunately the Arduino Nano's USB implementation does not natively support a full HID joystick. Other Arduino boards like the Leonardo and Micro do have native USB support - boards with a 16u2 or 32u4 chip for example, however the code will be different than the Teensy K20 family USB support regardless.

wdubel ah that’s a bummer, I drove three hours today to buy a nano to make a throttle quadrant and button box and now I’ve realised it’s useless haha! Oh well I’ll get a teensy then! Thanks for reply

@@wdubel I have the leonardo and having a heck of a time to find the code, how did you find yours

@@jacobmayhle6650 Since I was using the Teensy, I installed the Teensyduino add on for the Arduino IDE, which happens to come with the Complete Joystick Example as shown in my video. For your Leonardo which also supports joystick, you can search for "arduino leonardo joystick" and find an instructables which guides you through downloading the ArduinoJoystickLibrary from github to include in the Arduino IDE examples.

Ok so is the hid different from the ide?

Yes, any of the six analog control surfaces can be mapped to rudder, though I would recommend using a self centering control for rudder such as the thumb control wheel found on RC car transmitters. Any potentiometer in the range of 1k to 20k (10k ohms is best) will work as a drop in replacement. Also many flight sticks have a self centering twist in the handle for rudder use, such as the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.

@@wdubel I have a yoke, so this is the reason I am interested in this. A flight stick does work, however I would like to make something like this with a lever than I could move left to right that I could mount maybe beside my yoke,

I tried using an Xbox thumb stick to try the rudder movement however it jerks its not smooth. Is there any way you would be willing to help me? , Maybe join my discord or something? Thanks in advacnce!

@@smite0568 If the thumbstick jumps values, it may be worn out. If the output of the thumbstick divider appears linear (measured with a multimeter), the ADC may be picking up noise. Some recommendations to reduce noise: If your ADC supports it (Teensy provides an analog ground) be sure to use the analog ground for the potentiometer ground terminal. Some PCs have noise on the USB power; try connecting a fast (low ESR/ESL) 0.1uf capacitor between Vin and gnd, and/or one between the analog ground and the center terminal of the xbox thumb pot, close to the ADC. For jitter issues, you can correct a lot in code by averaging the last 3 to 5 values. My email is wdubel at gmail.

@@wdubel Well I have a Mega 2650 board but I have no clue how to really use it. I have one of the project kits I got a while back, and thought maybe I could use it however I cannot figure out how to make windows see it as a joystick. When I mentioned using an Xbox controller joystick, I meant I was using the joystick and remapped the controls and its not smooth. Its a newer controller as well. Also I have someone else I have played with who tried mapping the same thing on the controller and he had the same issues.

Hi Rudy. Unfortunately I am not able to sell and ship. Thank you for the comment!