Stick button assignment question

I am replacing my current stick with the one pictured below. I would like to make the red button autopilot disconnect and also smoke on.

How i plan on doing it is have an A/B switch on my right side panel set of switches to denote A side cruise and B side acro.

When switch is in cruise the red button on stick works as autopilot disconnect. When switch is in acro the red button turns on smoke.

My thought is that i will not need the autopilot disconnect any time im doing acro so why not repurpose the button during acro.

Has anyone done this before? Does anyone see any potential pitfalls/issues with this setup?

Newbie to all this so trying to think outside the box.

My grip is the tosten military grip.

Thanks for the input and advice.

I haven't heard of anyone doing anything like this, but it could be done. Generally there are enough buttons/switches on the grip to assign them to the needed dedicated functions.

Most of the stick switches generally just make a connection to ground to turn on the function. The multifunction switch signal could be routed through a selector switch which would route the signal to the desired function.

My main concern is more on the operator side whether you could keep the functions straight. I guess some sort of indictor to indicate which mode you are in might help.

Talked to Kevin yesterday at Tosten booth here at OSH about switch for smoke. He has an option for the right toggle switch to lock in the up position for smoke “on”, center “off”, and spring loaded down for short bursts.

Personally, I would not assign two functions to one switch due to human factors. Keep it simple.

RV74ME said:

Personally, I would not assign two functions to one switch due to human factors. Keep it simple.

Click to expand...

Read this twice!

I've heard of MFD but not multi-functional-switches before. It's experimental so if you have the electronic skill, go for it. Make it fool-proof because confusing between AP-Disconnect to Smoke_ON during a formation flight is dangerous.

Multifunction switches

If you don't have an auto-trim autopilot, make the disconnect switch one that allows keeping a firm grip on the stick.

It's your airplane. Don't see why a dual-function stick switch won't work.
With glass avionics you have "soft" buttons. So not a stretch to have multifunction switches, as long as you have clear indications of what a switch is currently selected to do.

My stick hat switch can be toggled by another switch to either be trim switch or to direct landing/spot light (and in the future radio freq select, and other functions). Of course I have a display clearly showing which function is selected.

Note that I duplicated stick switches on the panel for backup.

Amazing what you can do with an Arduino and display for a few bucks.

Finn

Thanks everyone for the advice/input.

One issue would be that the disconnect is a momentary contact and I would want a on off for smoke. There are work arounds but that just adds complexity

Bob burns
Rv4 n82rb