How is the Throttle Direction inverted? On idle, the Throttle Handle should be facing the Front Cab Wall, and when throttling up, the Handle should be pulled toward the driver. Why? This is a safety thing: If You ever find Yourself in a panicked situation where the train has to stop quickly, You can just shove all the levers forwards which will set the throttle to Idle & apply brakes.
Thats awesome! I use the raildriver right now but some of the controls are getting worn out and not as sensitive as it used to be. Thinking about tearing it apart and making something like this but get new dials for the controls.
I love that you a) built this but more so that b) you gave joe public the plans and part list. Good on you for that. Mulling the options in my head (sometimes the best part of designing) I like the idea of round aluminium 10mm discs with lightly drilled notches that allows a springed ball bearing still in it's plate to slot into each hole (the type that are part of cupboard closers). That gives me the notchiness I want and it has to feel like it has weight too so it will be tightly clasped. Instead of pulsed electronics I was thinking of using a connection plate out of a cheap analog multimeter attached to the aluminium disc. It would give me the on/off connections for each key press. Original throttle controllers would have used a similar albeit heavy duty system of copper fingers connecting to copper plates activating contactors in the engine electrical section. Anyway, lots to do but for those interested there are cheaper key to usb interface boards then the BBI-32 I have a Led Wiz from a project that stopped. It fits the bill perfectly but I see the price of them has gone up a lot since I bought it. A clone can be made though if you or someone you know is handy with electronics: forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=132903.0
Hello Thank you for your comment... I was "entertaining" in my head the idea of making the notches same way as you described but due to limited resources and time I simplified the mechanism. Expanding on the idea you presented, bear in mind that while increasing the throttle you are using (in game) different key press to the one that is used for decreasing the throttle (or brake) so achieving this with mechanical on/off switches at the same axis is challenging (?) - I may have missed an obvious solution to this while planing similar approach hance at the end I opted to use encoders. Any how, Thanks again for the comment and good luck with the project!
I just built one of these using a lot of 3d printed parts, programmed all the buttons but cannot get it to appear in any of my games, any thoughts, thanks
Hello Can Windows "see" the Button Box Interface? (Game Controllers setting) Did you used BBI-32 Button Box Interface ? What games are you using? Are you sure that game is supporting controllers (any)? For Derail Valley you need to use external program (free) like JoytoKey that emulates key presses. You said "programmed all the buttons" Was that done via JoytoKey ?
@@anoxoldhide9813 I am using BBI-32 windows recognizes it all functions work in the in the windows testing, I am using ts2020 also open rails cannot get BBI32 to show up in any of these games, any help would be appreciated, thanks
joytokey.net/en/ use this.... Are you using this external program to assign your buttons? If no ten use this as a background running program. This is how I'm using it with Derail Valley
@@anoxoldhide9813 I am using joy to key, I worked at the config settings and I got it to work mostly, I will have to tweek a few settings. Thank you for the replies
nice controller, I am building one as well, what are the switches at the end of the handles for?. Or if there is some kind of wiring diagram . Great work on the design. Thanks
Switches at the end are assign to the reverse function of corresponding handle, for example at the throttle, switch will reduce the power. I'm using this to set the lever position in the game to the all the way back position that would match position at the controller. Due to the nature of the game mechanics sometimes when I move the lever to quickly, it may not registered all the notches (inputs in the game) then I move the lever all the way back and hold the small button until position in the game match the controller. Good luck with your project and thank you for kind comment
Very cool project, will admit I'd love to have a crack at making something like this myself, just not very electronics savvy. Personally would like to make a desktop unit based on a steam engine, basic functionality would be much the same but I'd like to have some added bits like some sort of sensor in the mini firebox that'd trip the keyboard command when you poke the shovel past it for firing, maybe have some kind of chute so there could be little nuggets of coal, they'd just tumble down from the firebox to the bunker opening in an endless circle as you shoveled for effect.
That would be nice project to make! You are right, this is not "electronically heavy". And your idea would have some interesting mechanical problems to overcome. Myself, at some point, made drawing (very basic) of a stem locomotive controller but wasn't happy with a look so didn't took this any further. You should explore your idea and may only suggest to use Sketchup (or similar program) at some point as it helped me with my project
@@anoxoldhide9813 Well, the main thing holding me back is how to convert the movements of the mechanical levers, valves, etc. into keyboard presses/simulator commands. What electronics to use, and how to program them if necessary? As for a design, I was thinking of doing a scaled down backhead and cab, almost like a cutaway model. The controls might be a little overscaled to make them easier to use, but the idea is to have a portable unit. The firebox would have some sort of screen or flame bulb for the fire effect, and a clear piece of plexiglass or plastic to deflect the nuggets of coal down the chute and avoid breaking the screen or bulb when stoking. If I can't have a sensor to trip when the shovel passes by it, another way would be to put the trigger for the stoking command into the foot pedal for the firedoors, the actual shoveling could then just be for show. Either way, the coal access would be on the side of the boiler from a bunker hatch instead of the back of the cab to keep the chute arrangement simple, possibly with some sort of access door for "raking the grates" to clear any blockages. Be neat to have a working water glass, but without any feedback from the sim it could just be on some sort of randomizer circuit to make it go up and down randomly every so often. I've seen a unit with real water in it, but for simplicity's sake I think I'd just like to put a series of blue LEDs inside the water glass housing.
I don't know in what part of the world you are but I highly recommend Leo Bodnar BBI-32 www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=205 Than just use free software like I do to assign commands to your controller joytokey.net/en/ My other video may be helpful as well (?)
Actually the reverser lever is prepared for dynamic brake (it even has a sticker made for it). As the game currently doesn't support dynamic break, I set this up for reverser. This controller emulate key presses so you can assign any function to any lever or button
Hi, I'm doing a similar project. Do you know how to get the rotary switches to work with Train Simulator? In some cases Rotary switches work ideally better than potentiometers, for example the throttle lever on most US locomotives which contains a total of eight notches.
Hi Unfortunately I would not be able to help you with rotary switches. At the beginning I was trying to use them as well as switch will have more "mechanical bait" to it, but revers action of the lever turn out to be difficult as separate key press was needed. At the end I have decided that as long as the game has a specific key assigned to the throttle than rotary encoders will emulate key press via external program such as JoytoKey... joytokey.net/en/ Try to use encoders rather than rotary switches as encoders have separate impuls forward and backwards so in practise you will be able to assign two keys to one encoder (throttle up and throttle down)
@@anoxoldhide9813 oh yeah, it looks like to be the only way. I also need more stiffness to my encoders since my own made levers seems too heavy for them. Should I print some gears and add more tension that way? Thanks
If I only had an access to the printer I would definitely made some gears to transfer linear movement to the encoders. Or just print a part that would hold a spring and small ball that is pressing against gear (shaft assembly) with notches. In my mind, having a 3d printer gives you a great amount of opportunity to tackle the mechanical part of the controller so Yeah... go for it!
hmm can not get my axis to work on JoytoKey. It just pushes the brake or throttle to full within the first inch of movement. Can not find a video on how to program an axis.
@@TumbleTrashOfficial i had changed the design a little from the video to be more in line with a gear shifter but I had a separate piece of equipment to simulate the wheel if that's what you mean.
Once again thanks for taking the time to reply and also for your kind offer of help should I need it. I have downloaded Sketchup and your 3D Plan. Is it possible to convert the 3D plan to a dimensioned 2D plan, sorry to be such a pain but I really would like to build your controller and would hope that my finished item would be as good as yours.
Thanks again for taking the trouble to reply. I have a biscuit tin handy but will have to scoff the contents first. As an alternative I thought of using 3" or 4" UPVC Soil pipe with a blank cap. How is easy is it to interface the controller with TS2021?
I will say it will be easy to interface with TS2021, the way BBI-32 works is that emulates key presses so any key that controls the sim can be assign via JoyToKey free software. If you ever stuck with setup I would be happy to assist And soil pipe with a blank cap was my option B (still on my shelf)... actually it is a 4" straight connector and cap
Also angled aluminium 20x20mm profile is not on the list. Regarding usb cable it is fairly common and available on amazon so I haven't included in the list. Never counted the total costs as officially, as far as my wife is concerned all was for free...
Hi Thank you so much for taking the trouble to share your plans and parts list. I recently bought a RailDriver Controller but much prefer the authentic look of your controller. May I ask what roughly was the build cost? Barrie
Hi, thanks for your comment. I do not have plans available, project happen spontaneously and started with simple drawing "how I would like a train sim controller to look" sort of approach. After that just started gathering bits and assembling... Already few viewers are interested in making one for themselves and I would love to assist (always was hoping that I will be able to make a video on how to but finding a hard time to find free time those days). Would list of materials and components be any good for you?
Outstanding from concept to actually building the model and interfacing it to the software. Great to see a 'thinker' here on RU-vid! Do the gauges indicate engine RPM, trainline air pressure, etc?
Hi Jim, sorry I have missed your comment and Thank you for yours. My controller do not have any physical gouges however Game (Derail Valley) has working indicators as per your enquiry...
Hi, thank you for your comment It took me 3 days to complete this controller (not including the designing part, however the initial drawing popped in to my head fairly quickly and then I have spend some time, 3-4h in SketchUp to visualize the design), that was long weekend and I mean looong weekend, roughly 36 working hours.
Software is a Joytokey free download. And I'm using rotary encoders to emulate key presses. Whole thing is connected to Leo Bodnar Electronics BBI-32 universal USB controller. For actual axis you will need to use potentiometers and different product: BU0836X
