Trim Deck Lite
Trim Deck Lite is a set of trim wheels for elevator, aileron, rudder plus three buttons for controlling trim reset, auto-trim or something else. Each wheel has a friction damper; they will not freewheel or move of their own free-will.
This is a video of the full Trim Deck:
Trim Wheels
The elevator is 110mm in diameter, the rudder and aileron are 80mm in diameters. They all use a optical encoders producing 100 pulses per revolution. This provides a very smooth motion.
The wheels protrude from the bottom of the case.
Push Buttons
Three general purpose momentary push buttons, single color and constantly illuminated.
Software
SPAD.next is required to alter the speed of trim adjustment. This is certainly true for MSFS if you want the rotation of the wheels to match in-game speed (as show in the video).
The wheel emits 100 events per rotation. Other software (e.g. Mobiflight, Axis and Ohs) that allows mapping of device events to SIMCONNECT data values should also work and games that have built-in functionality to make external trim wheels work effectively should too. As I haven’t personally tested these alternatives I cannot attest to their effectiveness.
These table shows the SIMCONNECT events and values I use in SPAD.next.
Trim
The size of the increment/decrement can be adjusted to taste and/or to aircraft. Some aircraft have built-in trim sensitivity adjustments that may also be helpful.
| Trim Wheel | SIMCONNECT data value | Increment/Decrement by |
|---|---|---|
| Elevator | ELEVATOR TRIM POSITION | 0.001 |
| Aileron | AILERON TRIM PCT | 0.025 |
| Rudder | RUDDER TRIM PCT | 0.025 |
Black Square Starship
The Starship seems to work better with a larger increment of 0.005
Mounting
The size of the wheels does make mounting slightly challenging. The housing is approximately 136x51x170mm, the elevator wheel protrudes ~30mm.
There are three mounting options:
An adapter that fixes directly onto my mounting bracket,
A base with 1/4” screw socket for 1/4” desk clamp (not included) and 4 x m3 hardpoints for your own mounting options
Flat bottom
If you have an idea for a custom mount, get in touch and I will try to accomodate you.
Photos
A close-up of a customer build of the Trim Deck with black/gold colorway. Custom colors on request.
