i ran the main handle wiring on the joysick of doom, cut the traces, soldered 2 wires for each button, ad nauseum. i decided to add a structural wire between 2 now dead termanals through the heat shrink and looped it around a screw post to add structural beef to the relatively thin wiring. cut a foot of cable from an old parallel cable to get the wires, which were in a variety of colors and stripe patterns, i used pairs of similar color so that i can identify the ends later. solder shrink run and re-assemble everything. more heat shrink to bundle the ends and protect it from chaffing, and a plastic cable harness to attach the bundle to the stick. its kinda loose but il probably use the surplus room for the potentiometer wires.
also decided what to do with the handle of secondary stick. i destroyed two potentiometers trying to get one to fit in the socket that an old skool toggle button used to go. after that i rummaged though the salvage bin i found some large plastic trim pots with the right size peg to fit into my knob. it was kinda small so i wrapped it in a lot of electical tape till it fit, and tightened the retention screws. i was kinda concerned they would crack the plastic but it held and i tested it with a multimeter and a battery (right way to read a pot is to use it as a voltage divider, ground one side and apply voltage to the other and read the voltage at the center pin), and it worked and felt pretty solid. so now what was a 2 xis stick is now a 3 axis stick. it also doesnt get in the way of the main stick which is a plus.
i still have 3 more axis ports at my disposal. i still dont have a throttle lever anywhere on the unit. i may do a single slider and a couple trim knobs/sliders, or i may do a a dual throttle and rudder knob. another idea is to add a port for an external throttle and rudder.
