great idea since is expandable to switch behavior or other levers. But for just that purpose adding an resistor to the pot of the throttles would also work.
Kirill, recently my honeycomb throttle quadrant is no longer recognized. i think it is the usb-c female connector pins on the back of the device. i think Honeycomb is out of business or having major issue. No communication. i watched your video on the Arduino board. Would this be a fix for my problem by bypassing the factory connection
Thanks for your question. I don't think Honeycomb Aeronautical is out of business or at least I could not find any information about it. If your device is still under warranty, I would request an RMA. Otherwise, if it's just the USB-C pins, I would simply replace the USB-C female connector, which will save you a lot of work. It is definitely possible to replace the whole Honeycomb controller with an Arduino board running the joystick library or with a joystick interface by Leo Bodnar. That will take care of all buttons, switches, and pots. However, you will lose the ability to load plane profiles via Honeycomb Configurator. But if you are using AirManager that should not be a concern.
@@rcbruce841 Unless Arduino joystick library has been updated, any Arduino board that is based on ATmega32u4 chipset can be used such as Arduino Leonardo and Arduino Micro and their clones. I used Leonardo as it is larger and the form factor is exactly like the Arduino Uno. If you have Airmanager from Sim Innovations, any Arduino board including Mega should work, but everything has to be programmed in Airmanager rather than in Arduino IDE. I haven't used it myself, so I can't comment on how easy it can be done. Here's the link just in case: siminnovations.com/wiki/index.php?title=Arduino
This is interesting, will there be room on the Arduino Leonardo to add dedicated rotary switches for Comm1, 2 and Heading? That way no need of pushing a button before changes can be made.
Hi Abdul, I only used 6 analog ports on the Leo for the 6 axes. There's still plenty of digital I/O ports for other switchers and rotary controllers. You can even expand them by using a switch matrix. It is also possible to use the AirManager, in which case I would rather go with Arduino Mega since it has more I/O ports.
I recently develop an odd behavior on my default axis 1. When traveling from hi to low idle I see the reverse button gets engaged on/off rapid fashion without me going to reverser stage. Seams like a bad connection.I opened the housing and I’m assuming it may be a defective potentiometer, since the wires looked good. Would you have any ideas how to resolve the issue I’m expecting ?
Hi Kamil, which plane are you flying? For the King Air C90 (and 250/350), the low/high idle is on a different pair of axes than the thrust reversers. The two middle axes control the prop levers while the two axes on the right control the condition levers. If the axis controlling one of the condition levers affect the prop levers, I would assume there's a glitch somewhere in the firmware. I don't think a faulty potentiometer should cause such a weird behavior.
@@kiralema I actually fly Kodiak 100 in msfs. To be clear I’m still on stock bravo without your mod. My reverse detent is a button press action not an axis. My issue is when I’m getting close to idle the button occasionally engages in a flashing fashion on/off, before I place the the lever into the Rev detent when it should engage . Seams like bad calibration or else. I probably could request rma but I hate to wait forever. I’m wondering if I could do something on my own.
I think I understand now. I may be wrong, but it does sound like a faulty potentiometer. The "button" engages whenever the controller reads a certain analog signal from the pot. But the pot may also generate such a signal in a wrong spot if the resistive element inside is damaged at a certain position. The pot may need to be replaced. Unfortunately, even if you manage to find the exact one and replace it, it still needs to be recalibrated within the firmware, which is a closed source :(. In this case, the RMA may be your best bet I am afraid. P.S. I just realized it happens very close to the idle position. If that's the case, either the calibration (as you mentioned) or the "damping" factor in the software may be off. Damping (or averaging the signal over some time) prevents occasional spikes in the analog signal. I don't know how the original firmware is designed, but it may be the cause of this issue. Again - not much can be done unless you use your own controller or request the RMA.
great idea since is expandable to switch behavior or other levers. But for just that purpose adding an resistor to the pot of the throttles would also work.
Great video. It’s good to have options.
Kirill, recently my honeycomb throttle quadrant is no longer recognized. i think it is the usb-c female connector pins on the back of the device. i think Honeycomb is out of business or having major issue. No communication. i watched your video on the Arduino board. Would this be a fix for my problem by bypassing the factory connection
Thanks for your question. I don't think Honeycomb Aeronautical is out of business or at least I could not find any information about it. If your device is still under warranty, I would request an RMA. Otherwise, if it's just the USB-C pins, I would simply replace the USB-C female connector, which will save you a lot of work.
It is definitely possible to replace the whole Honeycomb controller with an Arduino board running the joystick library or with a joystick interface by Leo Bodnar. That will take care of all buttons, switches, and pots. However, you will lose the ability to load plane profiles via Honeycomb Configurator. But if you are using AirManager that should not be a concern.
@@kiralema Kirill any suggestions which ardrino board to use if i decide to go complete change
@@rcbruce841 Unless Arduino joystick library has been updated, any Arduino board that is based on ATmega32u4 chipset can be used such as Arduino Leonardo and Arduino Micro and their clones. I used Leonardo as it is larger and the form factor is exactly like the Arduino Uno.
If you have Airmanager from Sim Innovations, any Arduino board including Mega should work, but everything has to be programmed in Airmanager rather than in Arduino IDE. I haven't used it myself, so I can't comment on how easy it can be done. Here's the link just in case: siminnovations.com/wiki/index.php?title=Arduino
This is interesting, will there be room on the Arduino Leonardo to add dedicated rotary switches for Comm1, 2 and Heading?
That way no need of pushing a button before changes can be made.
Hi Abdul, I only used 6 analog ports on the Leo for the 6 axes. There's still plenty of digital I/O ports for other switchers and rotary controllers. You can even expand them by using a switch matrix. It is also possible to use the AirManager, in which case I would rather go with Arduino Mega since it has more I/O ports.
Thank you for the quick reply.
So just wire the encoder and asign it function with Air Manager?
@@CMDmed6067 That's what I would do. You can also program it yourself without the A/M.
I recently develop an odd behavior on my default axis 1. When traveling from hi to low idle I see the reverse button gets engaged on/off rapid fashion without me going to reverser stage. Seams like a bad connection.I opened the housing and I’m assuming it may be a defective potentiometer, since the wires looked good. Would you have any ideas how to resolve the issue I’m expecting ?
Hi Kamil, which plane are you flying? For the King Air C90 (and 250/350), the low/high idle is on a different pair of axes than the thrust reversers. The two middle axes control the prop levers while the two axes on the right control the condition levers. If the axis controlling one of the condition levers affect the prop levers, I would assume there's a glitch somewhere in the firmware. I don't think a faulty potentiometer should cause such a weird behavior.
@@kiralema I actually fly Kodiak 100 in msfs. To be clear I’m still on stock bravo without your mod. My reverse detent is a button press action not an axis. My issue is when I’m getting close to idle the button occasionally engages in a flashing fashion on/off, before I place the the lever into the Rev detent when it should engage . Seams like bad calibration or else. I probably could request rma but I hate to wait forever. I’m wondering if I could do something on my own.
I think I understand now. I may be wrong, but it does sound like a faulty potentiometer. The "button" engages whenever the controller reads a certain analog signal from the pot. But the pot may also generate such a signal in a wrong spot if the resistive element inside is damaged at a certain position. The pot may need to be replaced. Unfortunately, even if you manage to find the exact one and replace it, it still needs to be recalibrated within the firmware, which is a closed source :(. In this case, the RMA may be your best bet I am afraid.
P.S. I just realized it happens very close to the idle position. If that's the case, either the calibration (as you mentioned) or the "damping" factor in the software may be off. Damping (or averaging the signal over some time) prevents occasional spikes in the analog signal. I don't know how the original firmware is designed, but it may be the cause of this issue. Again - not much can be done unless you use your own controller or request the RMA.