LOW COST FORCE SENSOR 4 TM COUGAR

Hi,

My name Is Francisco Pizarro, I live in Chile, and I have been a fan of flight simulators since I can’t
remember. One thing I do remember is flying in a monochrome monitor, resolution 320x240…
maybe MSFS 1.0….

Cool isn’t it?.....

Now…. Well…

It’s another…. Completely different thing……..

The coolest!!!!!!!!!

Although one thing is cooler than this ….. the real aircraft of course… hahaha!
So…. WHAT’S NEXT…..

I’ve always wanted to build my own cockpit. Unfortunately my work gives me the real thing…. Yes
I’m a pilot by the way, flew T-37, A-36, A-37B, Mirage 50 and now I’ve been trying out some of the
F-16…. So when I say great job Benchmark… it’s because the sim looks and feels almost the same
as the real thing.

But enough talking about me and let’s get started.

After a lot of searching through the web, I almost felt compelled to buy the FSSB
(http://www.realsimulator.com/html/fssb.html) but spending that much will leave with no extra
money for the rest of my future F-16 Home made cockpit… so I started looking for the cheap
options…. And this is what I got….

By the way…. The above picture of the cougar is my already modified joystick…. So the look is
exactly the same on the outside. The only difference is that the full movement on each axis is
about ¼ of an inch…. Which is the real movement of the side stick..
THE MATERIALS
 4 FSR-402 FORCE SENSOR RESISTORS

You can find them on:

http://sensitronics.com/products/force_sensing_resistor.htm; or
http://www.tekscan.com/flexible-force-sensors; or
http://www.interlinkelec.com/catalog/Force-Sensors; or
http://www.imagesco.com/sensors/force-sensors.html.

 2 Connectors with wires…. I took two from a broken RC aircraft, the ones that connects
the servos to the Receiver.

I used two that came with 2 wires in each of the three connections, so it was easier to
comply with the electric diagram.

 4 small 2-pin plugs for the FSRs, you can find them at any electronic house like RadioShack.
 1 Aluminum 3.4”x3.4” plate. The thickness of the plate must be 2 millimeters. I got this
from a friend that works at an aviation workshop.
 Double sided Scotch tape….

And finally….
 1/2” diameter felt rings

Like these….

You can find them at any “home” store in your country…. They are the things you
put under the legs of chairs, tables, etc, and they help to avoid scratching the
floor…

The good thing about them is that they are self-adhesive and that they behave as
high density non-conductive foam.

 Tools…. Like screw drivers, pliers, 6-point screwdriver for the outside bolts,
precision soldering iron, and whatever you need to get the job done…
THE CONCEPT

Note that the variable resistors have 3 points and the FSR-402 (FSR: Force Sensor Resistor) only
two, well, the explanation is electrically easy: the resistors in the diagram are in fact the “pots”,
the as the original pots in the cougar… though… 3 wires.

Electrically a pot is nothing else that one resistor divided into “two” by a center wire that points
the place where the resistor is divided, leaving two smaller serial resistors (R1 & R2):

RESISTOR

R1 R2

So, if we use the “pot” or variable resistor formula for dividing voltage, we get:

V𝑖𝑛 x (R2)
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 =
(R1 + R2)

Talking about the FSRs now, they are pressure sensitive variable resistors that decrease resistance
as the pressure increases so, if you connect two FSR-402 in a serial way, that is, joining together
one of the two wiring connections in each FSR, you get a pressure sensitive “pot”, as shown in the
above schematics.

The “servo” connector is used to achieve this…

As you can see, the red wire in both pairs is connecting one end of each FSR-402…

So far we managed to replicate the cougar “pot” with 2 pairs of pressure sensitive resistors.
INSTALLING THE NEW FSR “POTS”
The first thing to do is disassemble the cougar completely….

This is the shape we need to cut on the aluminum plate. Cut the four corners (dotted lines) to
match the numbers shown.

1.81” or
46 mm

1.81” or 3.4” (86 mm)

46 mm

3.4” (86 mm)

When you finish… DON’T THROW AWAY THE SMALL PIECES … you’ll use them later…
Afterwards we need to cut a 1 inch diameter hole in the middle of the “cross shape” aluminum
plate:

1”

This plate will serve as a flat horizontal platform for our force sensing “pots”…

What to do with the little corners cut off the plate? ... soften every corner with a metal file to
leave them almost round shaped. It’s not compulsory but it’s more elegant (although I must say
that none of my design is elegant AT ALL! Ha ha ha)

Once you have everything cut, put the “cross shape” plate inside, between the holes of the screws
that tighten the outside metal ring (the one that holds the rubber cover of the stick).

(This is not the actual Aluminum Plate)

Now we are ready to put everything back inside the cougar…. But don’t tighten the bolts and nuts
that hold the original structures of the original pots…. I mean these…

Why?

Because we need to put the new force sensing pots in between the corners as shown in this
picture:
 This is the diagram showing the placing order:

Original POT structure

Rounded Aluminum corners,
glued to the Original POT
structure with double sided
tape.

FSR-402, glued to the “cross shape”

Self-adhesive felt, “cross shape” plate
plate with double sided tape
adhered to the
rounded aluminum
corner

When you have everything put and glued in place, you may tighten the nuts and bolts… none of
the FSR, the rounded aluminum corners, felt…. Anything, should be lose… this way, the FSRs have
a pressure on them:

When finished, when you press fwd/aft, left/right, there should be no more movement than a
quarter of an inch, what happens inside is: Torque input with the stick… Fwd/Aft or
LH/RH
At this point, no rotation is achieved since
the FSR prevents it.

PRESSURE/FORCE PRESSURE/FORCE
INCREASE DECREASE

The “desire” of rotation of the original POT structure is converted into

increased pressure in one of the FSR and decreased pressure on the
other.
Connect back all the wires of the cougar but, of course, connect the new FSR “POTs” in the
corresponding plug, folding the original pots wiring away.

Close everything,, plug the cougar back to the computer, turn it on, go to the HOTAS Cougar
Control Panel and calibrate it again.

If the wires were plugged in the wrong way, press the “+” in the corresponding axis (light blue box
with a red “+” symbol) of the CCP to leave a “-“ symbol and then calibrate it again.

By now, that should do the work…

Need to say: This job was a lot of trial and error process so, I urge you to test, test and test if
something’s wrong… I got mine working beautifully so you should be able to get yours working as
well.

WARNING: don’t connect the TM Cougar to the PC unless every wire is plugged in… or you may
get an “OVERCURRENT USB DEVICE, UNPLUG IT BEFORE…..” as I said…. Trial and error… so this is
the voice of experience speaking ;-)

HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AS I AM NOW!!!!