New - Want to Build - Where to start?

[mrpanicy]

Howdy All,

I have been going through the forums after reading through the instructions many times, and I see that alot of improvements are being discussed. Having the step by step made my first foray into "making" a bit easier, but now that I see people are actively improving on the design I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Where should I start? Is there an updated step-by-step coming? Does anyone know the status of the kickstarter/injection moulding? After pricing out the component's I see that I would be spending around $240 including the 3D printing, so I would want to ensure I am making the best possible version of this amazing design.

[Ghostpilot]

Hi and welcome to the forums.
Yeah, I can see why it looks a little bit overwhelming at first glance.
Have in mind though, that not all alterations were for the better. I build my own version and made alterations to the design, not necessarily to make it better, but mostly to make it work with what I had.
I couldn't easily get all those parts from overseas (I'm from Europe) so I had to start substituting parts right of the bat so to speak. With one substitute came another to make the next one fit and so on.

I will try to break the overwhelming part down into smaller bits. ( I ramble on about things here that I don't have 100% knowledge of. Feel free to correct me where I am wrong)

• The initial design that is meant to be 3D printed can be seen as original branch of the project. That one is made to use potentiometers (variable resistors) as means to calculate the angle of the arms. I would think this is the design that is the cheapest in parts, although I know nothing about the cost of 3D printing.
• Some members on this forum, Jeruw and SCmaik among others made aluminium versions based of that design. But they quickly found out that they had to alter the design in some ways to make it work in aluminium. Not only because the difference in material and how to fasten the various parts to each other. Aluminium is a lot stronger than plastic so the parts didn't have to be as thick as the plastic equivalent to work. Jeruw made a design that put a lot of thought into the visuals of the parts and how they fit together, making a more streamlined look.
• Then they found ways to improve or simplify the design to fit their needs. Some parts were switched out for parts bought from a supplier called Actobotics. It was bearing blocks, and shafts mainly.
• --> SCmaik did this with another thing in mind. The Actobotics shaft is actually not a solid shaft but a pipe. This was to be able to fit a diametrically magnetized magnet on/in the end, and switch out the potentiometer for a non contact hall effect sensor to sense the angle of the arms. Not to get too technical here, but a hall effect sensor senses (in our way of using it) the rotation of a magnet without having to be in contact with it. So nothing will slow down or rub against the shaft, meaning the pivot arm will turn as smooth as can be without any disturbance.
• SCmaik is responsible for many improvements done to the initial design and one of them is the addition of a return spring for the Z axis (height). This modification if you can call it that, is possible to add to any version as long there is room on the center of the base plate and the handle plate for a spring anchor of some sort. He used spring anchor screws from Amazon supply I think, while I made my own from scrap I had in my parts drawer. Anythings goes as long as you use the right type of spring.
• Then there are the hybrid versions, where only some parts were switched out and the main bulk of parts were still 3D printed.
• As a completely different creature altogether is the force feedback prototype. That one I know absolutely nothing about, but it looks awesome.

The project files as released on this site, are for 3D printing. If you don't have your own 3D printer, it will sadly get expensive right from the start when you have to find someone willing to print the parts to you for a price.
SCmaik released his files if you want to make an aluminium or plastic/aluminium hybrid version. It can be used to make both the regular potentiometer version or the hall effect version.


Sourcing parts:
For the hall effect version, a few parts can be had for free by ordering free product samples from a company called AMS. I got my magnets and hall effect sensors from them for free. The samples are limited to maximum three of each part sampled and total three different products to be sampled. That is plenty enough for what wee need as there are three axis in the Delta Throttle. I sampled three magnets, three hall effect sensors and some extra part that I may or may not use later.

I make my own parts and altered them to fit what material and parts I had at hand. For starters I switched to metric screws all around and made my own bearing blocks to fit some ball bearings I had in my parts drawer at home.
I haven't released my files yet, because I am not done with my build yet. But they are in no way secret as I based my design of SCmaik's files and am obligated to make them public as well.

I also managed to get product samples of the part referred to as rod ends. It's really a shaft-mounted wobble free rotational bearing, but I am sure it has a real name also. My rod ends came from a company called Igus.de a German company specializing in making bearings, slide rails and other mechanical components from though plastics. I sampled ALL 12 rod ends needed for the build, but I don't think you normally can sample that many of a single product. The salesman who called me back seemed interested in what I would use them for, so he let me sample all 12 in one go with one condition, that I must send him photos of the build once it is done.
The others on the forum are using rod ends from the RC hobby company Traxxas, or possibly Chinese made equivalents bought on ebay.

Springs: The original bill of materials use either McMaster or Amazon supply for springs and other mechanical parts. The shipping would be more than the combined worth of the parts for me, so I bough springs from a company in Sweden instead, called Sodemann Fjädrar. I dodn't remember the part numbers by heart right now, check my build thread for those. Also, the link goes to the Swedish version of the page, but there are 14 flags in the top right corner where you can change language and find country specific re-sellers.

So... Where do you start?
Here is a thread called Throttle geometry, which talks about what measurements and dimensions that are important and why. I found that thread very useful when I modified the parts for my own build. As long as I maintained those important distances, I don't have to make any alterations to the code to make it work. At least in theory. I'll know for sure when i get that far in my build.

Again, have in mind that I am not done with my own build yet, so I am really not qualified to give advise as I have done here. I haven't verified if they indeed are good advice. Proceed at your own risk, as they say.