I spent some time looking for a decent set of rudder pedals but I couldn’t find anything for the price that I was willing to pay. I decided to make my own.
This project started off with me trying to use an old broken keyboard controller and digital inputs. I isolated the pins that corresponded to several keyboard outputs, but this option wasn’t flexible and didn’t provide any analog outputs. I then heard about the Teensy and decided to give it try.
On the Teensy website they already had an excellent starting point for a DIY joystick project. For the prototype I don’t need any buttons so I removed that code. Initially I had each potentiometer on it’s own output. After finding out that no software that I owned would be able to read these 2 signals as a single input I modified the program to output on the same channel. There is a deadzone but in the traditional sense. The code will output the highest signal and the difference between the signals must be about 2%. This allows the user to press in both pedals at once giving no output, then slightly letting off of one pedal jumping to max output instantly.
I’d like to test these out in Star Citizen and Kerbal Space Program before I create the final thing. I know I’ll add some buttons and make a full controller. For star citizen I’m thinking of buttons for shields and weapons, and of using something like a couch recliner handle for an ejection handle.
Parts list
| Springs | $ 4.75 |
| Teensy-LC | $ 11.49 |
| Female Jumper Wires | $ 6.29 |
| Single Row Breakaway headers | $ 3.50 |
| Prototype PCB (I used 3cm x 7cm) | $ 9.32 |
| 10K Potentiometers (link to used)* | $ 3.76 |
| servo arms (link to used)* | $ 11.56 |
| Servo pushrod | $ 6.19 |
| Total** | $ 56.86 |
*I added links because these servo arms pressure fit very well with the potentiometers. Requiring just a little amount of force with a vice to seat the arms.
**Additional parts I didn’t have to pay for because I had
screws, 2 x 4, hot glue, solder
In the list above I linked to the searches for these parts, the prices change constantly and it’s quite often you can get a better bulk rate on these if you are going to use them for other projects. Besides the springs and Teensy I have enough parts to recreate a complete second prototype so the price is a bit misleading, but still representative of what I would expect for a typical person to have to spend to acquire all the items if they didn’t have the less common items.