bnepethomas

I've used the PWM pins on a Arduino, works well. Good dimming range with no obvious flickers https://github.com/bnepethomas/bne-arduino-flight-simulator-interfaces/tree/547932be65f759cf038e3f2a632a62336e5e0f8f/PCBs/OH - Hornet Forward Upper Output Shield I take the output directly from DCS BIOS https://github.com/bnepethomas/bne-arduino-flight-simulator-interfaces/blob/547932be65f759cf038e3f2a632a62336e5e0f8f/DCS BIOS Sketches/Active/UIP_MAX7219_NEXTRON_POWER_RELAY/UIP_MAX7219_NEXTRON_POWER_RELAY.ino

I'd second Kicad

the plans for most of the pit are moving to Fusion 360, its very close to general release, so worth a wait

Its very much 100% Open Hornet - I did actually start with the Dogfight boss pit - but then moved pretty much entirely to OH. The pit started as a bit of a quick and dirty, but then I disappeared down the rabbit hole

Very good question. Funnily enough I've discovered I need to bring the stick closer towards the seat as I can't place the rear support rail across the pit. That may help a little - but I think there will end up be a 'please be careful' list when a newbie jumps into the pit

Getting closer - finally mounted the stick

Finally lit up the backlighting (both Max7219s and Pixel Leds) along with UFC and general indicators. A major thanks to the Open Hornet team for sharing the plans.

very confident the answer is no - I'm using an Arduino Due for those tasks

its getting a little closer - the Open Hornet project makes this so much easier - pretty much 12 months since it started to get serious

Here you go Left_Console_Input_Controller.ino

I'm using an Arduino to drive DCS BIOS - here's the steps I use 1: On switch toggle - send DCS status change of cover 2: Set a flag to activate in 200mS or so 3:Let the Arduino do its many loops 4: After the timer has been met send the DCS command to toggle the switch

really nice work Anton!

thanks - it feels like its getting close to being flyable!

thanks Sir

Ta - the throttle is a Wingwing

Absolutely - Open Hornet makes building a pit so easy

Getting closer

really nice work sir

The Flight Illusion controller card uses a virtual serial port - I found this document from many years ago - unfortunately I could find much else /* 00 Start of frame 65 Device ID 101 – 65 Hex Data 0 01 02 = 0 3 f5 13 = 5109 2 31 4e = 20016 4 Set Attitude Command FF End of Frame 0 01 02 = 0 3 f5 13 = 5109 – 13F5 2 31 4e = 20016 – 20017 MSB is +ve negative bit. Commands for Flight Illusion Gauges Byte 1: Flag byte:&h00 Byte 2: Address: 1-255; address zero forbidden! Byte 3: Command byte: Bit 3 always "1": CCCC.1SHL H & L are the data bits to "repair" the "forced to one bits" in byte 4 & 5), S= sign bit of the integer value) CCCC is the 4 bits command(0001-1111, so 1-15) Byte 4: Data Low; &h00-&hFF; bit0 always 1 : XXXX.XXX1 -> XXXX.XXXL Byte 5: Data Hight:&h00-&hFF: bit1 always 1 : XXXX.XX1X -> XXXX.XXHX Byte 6: End byte:&hFF Altimeter Commands: 0= noop 1= Initialize 2= Set Instrument Address; Value 0-&hff (odd addr. only),second byte:&HAA 3= Set Scan frequency (Needle Speed) 4= Set Altitude (-9999 to + 50000) 5= Set AirPresure mode (byte1: 0= Inches HG, 1= Milibar), byte2:0=no connection, 1=connected to altitude) 6= Set Needle zero displacement; Number of steps between sensor and needle 7= Send info about instrument; Reply &h00, Address, Type, Model, Version, Airpressure 8= Switch lights: Low byte= DL00.0000; D=display on/off, L=light on/off 9= Set Instrument Model &Version, Low Byte=Model, High Byte=Version 10= Write an EEPROM byte (Blocked; is for debug only) 11= Direct Needle Control (0 to 1079); Sets needle independent from altitude 12= Set Airpressure value */

A long time between drinks - but heres some progress on the Open Hornet Based pit

Hi Guys - mine landed last week - set them up over the weekend - they are a nice setup. Soon to be added to the Hornet pit. Cheers peter

Fighting with the search engine and feeling really blonde. In previous projects I've done things the hard way and not used DCS-BIOS - just using LUA natively. Finally discovered how crazily easy DCS-BIOS makes pit building with the Hornet. Just stuck on one little thing - how do you send the basic stuff like pause sim, change view, as these aren't in the aircraft specific modules. And in the Common Module I can see outputs, but not inputs. I'm sure it is something completely obvious Thanks Peter

Hi guys check out Open Hornet the work is already done https://openhornet.com/ cheers Peter

Well the good news is got it running - and pretty sure the root cause was I had been using the Arduino IDE and Serial Port monitor for testing a Led Matrix, which only had the port running at 9600. The ironic way I discovered it - was came out this morning to check things and much to my dismay the Genuine Mega wasn't working, so it was time to backtrack. After powering everything down and powering up and not running the Arduino IDE with other code that used the serial port, things worked fine on the Genuine Mega, so then tried the Mega with the CH340 and it also worked. PHEW

I managed to find an older original Mega - and it worked first time. Same sketch. Non-communicating Mega at the top, and the classic (working) below - So I'm guessing it something to do with the CH340. Any bright ideas?