gardnerjr

what are the errors from compiling? what can happen is you get "unprintable" characters somehow in the ide. copy+paste into a browser text box might convert them into someother character. there are all kinds of strange ways this can happen. if you get very odd things like this you might need to look at the actual file in a hex editor, to see what characters are really there or fix them. i'd also suggest using something like git/github for source control, even if you don't plan on ever sharing code with anyone else, being able to see history of your changes and go back to previous versions/etc is super handy. plus with something like github you have an offsite copy in case anything goes wrong.

iirc from when i did this, you end up getting one buffer like that for each line of the CDU screen. there are 9 lines on the screen, each with own bufffer that's 24ch wide. if dcs updates one line, only that one callback gets called. if dcs updates the whole CDU, each callback gets called in turn. if anything changes in that line, that callback function gets called and you effectively have to draw the whole line all at once. if it is getting cleared, the whole buffer contents will just be empty space characters. there's no real "structure" to it, its a 9x24 character screen. the cdu doesn't do any graphics, its just a text display.

the cduLine8Buffer is a declaration of a 24 character long string buffer that holds the results of DCS updating that specific field. the 0x1280 is an address/offset of where dcs-bios should watch for changes (that's defined by the different features of the different aircraft/etc). As DCS changes that value, dcs bios effectively is copying that 24 characters into its (this) stringbuffer. the second param is a callback (a function) in your code that will be called when that change occurs. so basically: DCS changes something at a specific place where DCS-BIOS is watching so it copies the data and then calls your method to tell your code it changed, so you can do something with it

oh nice, you fit it all in a 4x20. I'm thinking about doing similar, making the little side ones show the current channels too, right not it only shows the "active" radio. it's a good suggestion to have them in the order of the cockpit, i honestly have NO IDEA why i have them in the order i do?

yup! and now i'm working on a multi function radio panel that LOOKS like an ARC-210 but actually is ALL the other radios (uhf, vhf am, vhf fm, ils and tacan) that attaches to the side of the left panel. i'm not done with that yet but i'm close! and this one i printed completely, used a cheapo laser to etch, etc. just to see how it would turn out. i might buy a real panel from somewhere, my laser etch is pretty inconsistent and i still have to paint a couple of the knobs.

I can't believe its rolling up on a year since i last posted an update here in this thread! Last time i said, "if i had a 3d printer..." so yeah, i got one of those, an Ender 3v2. I've done tons of mods to that even, and have learned (a little bit!) of 3d modelling to draw out some custom things. So now i thought i'd post a couple updates here! A right side console! As usual, i started with a cardboard prototype, to figure out how big it would be, and how i could mount it. Then some panel parts from pcflights, a usb controller from desktop aviator, a couple of LCD panels and arduinos, and a cdu board and caution panel from TekCreations. after figuring out the size and shape, i realized that a rolling stand might be the best way to do this side, with room inside/underneath to store the joystick and mount. I also decided to add power and usb "pass through" that i can plug the jetseat into. I built it into 2 parts, the "console" with all the electronics, wood frame of things i had around, and a mix of 3x printed and painted plexi for the sides/etc. an inside view of the stand: (since that pic was taken i've also upgraded to a virpil base, and since THEN, i've had to re-print that extension. (i broke that one while stress testing a 3d printed mount to attach the virpil to my desk mount). the gray cable is the extension that connects out of this stand to the jetseat. completed stand, from the other side. i 3d printed ejection and parachute handles and mounts for them, though they're not hooked up to anything. i printed a little box to hold some kneeboard/manuals, bought some decals from various places, and painted the shark face on the side. (i'm thinking about adding some fake panel lines and rivets but haven't found the time The whole setup (though this pic is before the yellow handles and manuals mount.

@Camelany chance of also publishing this to the amazon kindle fire store thing? just realized i have a kindle fire that i use for nothing anymore, and i could totally use it as a kneeboard. but you can only install apps from the amazon store, not the full google play store?

trackir completely changed the game for me. and now that i have it configured and set up the way i like it, i don't think i could play without it. while the the jetseat isnt that same level, it is also a great way to get more information without seeing it on the screen. high g's? are the airbrakes out? did i just get hit by something? you can feel it in the seat instead of having to look.

in what you pasted for not working: void printChar(int row, int col, unsigned char c) { int16_t x = 13 + col * 19; int16_t y = row * 32 + 6; // myGLCD.drawChar(x, y, c, 0x07E0, 0x0, 3); } the // at the beginning of the line myGLDC.drawChar line makes it a comment, not code, so this printChar method doesn't actually *do* anything. remove the // and it should work? if that doesn't compile, presumably the library for the 5" has a different signature for printing text?

sounds good. i snagged a pack of JSTs on amazon to see how those work out, thanks for the tip!

wish i had a pic from a little more of an angle, but also an 80/20 setup (a monstertech knockoff?) the left panel is also clamped to the desk, you just can't see the clamp. its probably right near the limit of what it should hold without breaking my cheapo desk. the center is actually lower now, and i 3d printed an extension for the joystick. i'm building a right panel, but instead of clamping to the desk, i'm going to make it a roller cart, which maybe i'll be able to put the left console into? this desk is also my home office, and the kids play games there too so i have to be able to pack the whole thing up. the left console is just one usb, the main console is usb, power, hdmi, and the right will be usb+power, (plus power+usb out for the jetseat) when i finally build a collective, i think i might need to either mount it to the chair, or get a new chair that's more accommodating?

So far, when i have a few sets of wires to connect from one section of a panel to another, i've been using dupont style connectors. but i have a couple of places where i have like 8 or 10 pin connectors and making them is a pain. and then they aren't "keyed" in any way, so i have to make sure i use the same color wires or some other obvious way of marking which way is which. (i had some 4 pin that were 2x2 which has all kinds of ways to orient it wrong!) pic for context, since i had to take the whole thing apart to get the display out and fix it, then put it all back together (a rather large flaw in the design!) i've seen some going with network style RJ45/etc, but it seems that the connectors are relatively huge (and the wires relatively small in comparison?) for my power connectors for the led backlighting, i'm thinking about switching to male/female plug style connectors since which one is which doesn't matter at all. What are y'all using? what do you recommend? any clever easy to use ones i've never heard of before?

help us help you. what is it doing? what is it not doing? things i see, without having this device or anything to actually try this. you're calling the same `showNumberDec` in 3 places, once when the 1 changes, once when the 10's place changes, and to the *pointer* value of the letter change? and all 3 of them are setting the full contents of the display? from a quick scan of GitHub - jasonacox/TM1637TinyDisplay: Arduino library to display numbers and text on a 4-digit 7-segment TM1637 display module. i'm presuming you want something like this in the 10 change, to only set the first segment of the display // showNumber( value, leadingZero, width, segment) display.showNumber(newValue, false, 1, 0); // set 10's place to 0th (first) digit this in the 1 change, to only set the second segment display.showNumber(newValue, false, 1, 1); // set 1's place to second digit then this in the channel change to only set the 3rd segment (nothing sets the 4th segment) display.showString(newValue, 1, 2); // show the string part in just the 3rd digit

Slaw, all of your devices look just amazing. the thrustmaster or whatever rudders i have are "good enough" to get by, but i'm working on hording up some cash to be able to get some nice ones, and all of yours look like beautiful devices to own. can't wait to see more info. by then i'll maybe be able to afford one

But wait, there's more! The next thing i wanted to do was replace the fire pull stickers on my panel with indicator lights for gun ready, steering, canopy, etc. those 4 lights would handle the left, right fire handle spots, so i had to think of something to put in the middle where the apu sticker is. i decided on making a single missile launch light in a similar style to the other indicators. Then i decided to make something like the NMSP to fill in the blank space below the MFD's. i found some green backlit pushbutton switches that seemed like they'd work. as part of all this, i'd need to power a whole bunch more lights and switches, and the nano i was using to power existing things wouldn't have enough inputs. at first i was going to use another nano or the uno i already had, but then also realized i don' t have any more usb spots in the hub inside the panel, and so the simplest solution would be replacing the nano with a mega. So here's a sample of the incoming parts: First, i tried to manually etch some text with a dremel to make those things. but i couldn't make anything small enough and consistent enough to meet my (arguably) low standards so I bought an el-cheapo laser cutter/etcher off amazon (like $150?) I wanted something small and effectively throwaway if it didn't turn out to be useful. I don't have the time, energy or space to buy a good one after experimenting a little bit i found some settings that worked reasonably on the plexi i had, as long as it was painted first. here's the missile launch one test lit: the scratches etc in the paint were entirely unintentional, but now i like that it has a weathered look. unfortunately all of them are way too bright when lit, so i think i might wash them with a layer of thinned black paint to hopefully dim them a little. The nmsp turned out to be a big pain. making a mini panel with all the buttons wasn't super complicated: Height, and width wise, this will work where i want to put it. you can see it mounted up to the mega, which i intended to mount on the back of the monitor stand inside the panel. i ended up using the laser etcher on super low power to cut the text and triangles out of black electrical tape, which i then taped on to the fronts of the buttons. vinyl would be a much better and more long term solution, but for now the electrical tape seems to be fine? you can also see some servos i was experimenting with to put in the fuel panel for the hydraulics gauges. (i know they won't be perfect or even that correct, i was more just looking for something to fill in the space and be able to tell when the hydraulics are changing/dead. But the problem came to be this: depth-wise, there's not a lot of room with the monitor there behind it, so there's no way for these deep buttons to fit. my first inclination was to carve out some space in the "floor" of the panel. After doing that, it wasn't enough. the monitor stand was also in the way. so i planned on cutting the bottom of that out to make room. but even then i was going to have to move the entire monitor stand back, which would mean the monitor would no longer be right up against the front where the mfds are. so then i thought, maybe there's a thick bezel on this monitor case, maybe if i take the front of the monitor case off, there will be more room. When i took the monitor apart, i realized that the display size is a lot smaller than the monitor frame, and that the display was glued to the front side of the case. i melted the glue to remove the lcd panel, and that lcd panel is almost exactly the size and shape of the mfds outer frames. i could take the display and controller out of the frame, and glue the display directly to my plexi front, and not need the monitor frame OR the monitor stand taking up all that space inside the panel! Somehow i have no pictures of this whole part of the process. After removing the monitor stand from the equation, a LOT of things got simpler inside the panel. it became a lot easier to wire things, i could mount the arduino (and now the lcd controller) on the back side of the frame instead of hidden behind the monitor stand. the bottom nmsp buttons now had room and simpler wiring, and the new indicators that were mounted above the panel also had simpler wiring and room. it also meant there was now also easier space and access to add switches to turn on/off the mfds as well. i made little mounts to hold the switches, and mounted those as well. if i had a 3d printer, i thin this would have been much simpler and had much better results. the mounts i made are fine, but i might re-make these parts if/when i buy a printer. Here's the newly upgraded panel, with the new additions (you can see how bright the steering engaged light is, it washes out entirely in the pic, and i need to get some fabric/somthing to fill in the slot for the landing gear lever so that doesn't bleed so much light from the backlighting of that panel) new features: 5 indicator lights above the mfds trivial servo based hydraulics gauges in a new mini panel etched on my cheapo laser etcher nmsp panel with all functional and lit buttons and able/stow switch. that mini panel has 2 more pushbuttons that i haven't figured out what to map to yet power switches for the mfds the arduino has a couple empty spots left left to do: i need a whole bunch of switch covers/caps some more cleanup doing the math on the switch covers/etc i'd re do if i had a printer, its almost to the point that its cheaper to buy a lower end ender 3 or something than to keep buying other people's parts. i'm also super tempted to print and build some of the authentikit stuff, just because i find that project awesome. my kids also want a 3d printer for who knows what, so now i'm evaluating getting a reasonable one, not a cheapo like i did with the laser.

roger, wilco. thanks for the info, guess i missed that one before!

Mine started doing the same. one of the motors, on the right side, second one down, squeaks. sometimes it just is a few squeak squeak squeaks, and it goes away. other times it is fine, but then suddenly it is just squeaaaaaaaaaaaaaals constantly and i have to unplug the seat. nothing looks physically wrong with the motor, but i haven't tried popping open the plastic holder or anything yet.

got my jetseat today, WAY quicker than i expected it (especially when the tracking said it was released from Russia on the 19th and arrived at JFK yesterday!) hooked it up and WOW. even at default settings of 50 in sim shaker i could probably shake a tooth loose! i'd hate to see what happens if i set it to 100! still dialing things in but the game feels totally different with a rumble underneath you. and OMG THE BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

updates for the new year! its taken a bunch of my vacation time, but i now also have a fuel panel set up with the throttle. got a custom made fuel panel from pcflights.com that also includes the 4 SAS switches at the bottom of the panel. made a wood frame for it out of leftover stuff i had, and some plexi sides and back, and backlighting for the panel from leftovers before. the dial for the fuel lights is actually hooked up to an LED dimmer control that controls the lights inside the panel itself. so the dial "works" in that it does *something* it just doesn't do what it is intended to do painted up, even though nobody will ever see inside: opened up the throttle, took out the bottom plate and extra weights, and cut a piece of aluminum to fit the throttle and fuel panel. drilled and tapped holes in it, and the throttle then screws down to the plate, and the wooden fuel panel is screwed down to the plate through the bottom of the aluminum plate, and the aluminum plate is drilled and tapped to mount on the original plate that came with the the desk mount. now that there's a panel there for switches, i also have the ejection arm level and ejection handle hooked up, and as @No1sonuk suggested, used magnets to hold down both handles. there's also little ones in the tops of both that makes the lever "lock" to the ejection handle when disarmed as well. the magnets are probably one size too big, as they both require a fair amount of force to get moving (good for the ejection handle i guess? ). the switch for the ejection handle was scavenged out of a dishwasher repair i did this break as well. i also "repurposed" the top 3 switches to be CDU, EGI, and pitot heat, so that i can do pretty much all of startup (aside from radios and NMSP) without using the mouse. i bought a logitech radio panel, but it arrived DOA, i'm thinking about sticking that to the left side of this panel, i still have one open usb spot inside the hub inside to plug something into. Here's the full setup so far. am tempted to do a right side one with the countermeasures, warning panel, cdu, but there's no way i'm building a CDU. when one of you guys builds one for sale like the UFC, i'll totally buy it and do the rest of the right panel

oooh, magnets. that's a good idea! i could glue a little magnet on one side and probably just a screw into the other side. and it wouldn't be a lot of weight for no reason. it is pretty much the exact right size, and is light enough to double stick tape to the throttle: Untitled by John Gardner, on Flickr some more progress today, my wife had out hobby paints for something else, so i tried adding some details. i can't paint the white text small enough, so i ordered some white on black labelmaker tape for that. Untitled by John Gardner, on Flickr

today i started making a little ejection handle thing to mount on the throttle. i'm not sure *how* i'm going to do that but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. i started with Flim's plans for the ACES II seat, and resized the sizes down 75%. used a bunch of leftover 1/2" and 1/4" plywood scraps i have from other projects: Untitled by John Gardner, on Flickr painted up and mostly assembled: Untitled by John Gardner, on Flickr i started trying to figure out what switches that i have that i can use for this (i really want to just hook up a switch to the ejection arming lever to get rid of one more thing i need to click with the mouse for startup!), not sure i'll actually hook up the ejection lever, but maybe? the thing i've run into so far is that these wood levers are really light. WAY lighter than i thought they'd be, so they're light enough that they don't hold any of the switches i have "down". so i might have to find some lead weights or something to put into the handles so they have enough mass to hold down a switch? i also need to do a little more painting/etc to put stripes/info on them to make them look more realistic, and figure out how i'm going to mount this to the throttle. in a couple weeks i think i'm going to make that fuel panel that would be just forward of the throttle, maybe i'll encorporate this into that for mounting. otherwise, there's always double stick tape :D

the above says what email to send the payment to but not via what service/etc, i'm presuming paypal? if not let me know, getting ready to send you some cash :)

Huh, i just started running into this too. i noticed it in the a10c advanced flight qualifications for air to air refueling, which are pretty long missions. all my switches work for startup, but then you don't really use many/any of them until shutdown like an hour later. and i noticed that flipping the switches didn't actually do anything. i tried going to pause, and flipping all the switches of/back on, but even that didn't seem to be right. odd. i'll check usb power settings when i play tomorrow?

oh i know. i've built other woodworking projects and projects and this is one that i enjoyed being out building stuff, and now using it. as i get more and more into dcs and the a10 i'm realizing how useful some of the things would be to have. i think a CDU is above my skill level given the circuit boards and things i see people making in othe threads, but i'm REALLY tempted to do that one too! i'd love to have space to do a more full center console and instruments, but that won't happen until kids here start going to college... and then i won't have the money to build that :D

What did I end up with? Functional MFD's, with screens behind them UFC Landing gear panel with functional flaps gauge, gear and transit lights, with 2 mostly unused buttons repurposed to lamps test and takeoff trim Armament/hud panel with all but 2 switches functional Mini fire handles with lights, fire extinguisher, jettison, canopy buttons Power + partial fuel panel, no gauges Adjustable backlighting I can do a LOT of the A10 startup on the panel and throttle. Things missing: CDU/EGI switches, countermeasures panel, pitot heat, SAS switches, radios If I were to start over, but stay desktop: I'd make it one more "section" wider. Each section would be ~1/2" wider I'd make it another inch taller and deeper If I had a little bit more room, I'd use a monitor a little big bigger, so I can have ADI, HSI gauges in-between the MFDs A 10 port or more usb hub? the one i have is FULL and one of those ports appears to only supply power, no data (powers the monitor at least!) Possibly build a right side mini panel that mounts to the desk like the thottle and stick, with countermeasures, cdu, ils, tacan? A radio panel (possibly reusing an existing one, not building from scratch) Parts list: 7 Port powered USB hub, using all the ports (amazon, had for years and wasn't being used) UFC (buddy fox) Thrustmaster MFDs (ebay) Monitor (amazon) Landing gear, Armament, Power panels from pcflights 2 2045 joystick cards from DesktopAviator 1 Arduino Nano Lots of On-Off, On-Off-On, (On)-Off-(On), On-Off-(On) toggle switches (pcflights?) Lots of mini pushbutton switches (ebay?) 2 micro roller switches (ebay) 1 5 way rotary switch (pcflights?) 1 RC car shock (amazon) LED dimmer circuit (amazon) 5v green LED strip lights (amazon) 3 yellow LED toggle pushbuttons (ebay) Lots of wire, dupont connectors (ebay/amazon) Lots of brass motherboard standoffs, screws (ebay/amazon) Lots of plexiglass (home depot/lowes?) Leftover 1/2" plywood from other projects Green, black spraypaint Various size wood screws Various M5 bolts/nuts/machine screws Tools used: Benchtop band saw for cutting small wood, plexi Benchtop sander Drill, driver M5 tap Wire cutter Automatic wire stripper (got one of these before getting into the project, it is life changing!) Dremel-like rotary tool Jig saw Lot of little tools, calipers, punch, Things learned: Programming / using an arduino - I thought this would be WAY harder than it was. I've been programming since junior high, so I wasn't intimidated, but man, DCS-BIOS made this so trivial it isn't even funny. Kudos to those guys, it is an amazing setup. Soldering - I'd done some before, mostly soldering wires together, replaced some capacitors in an LCD TV, but this included soldering a lot of small things like small wires to the LED strips, and soldering a header onto one of the 2045 boards to power the LEDs Crimping dupont connectors - ugh, even after doing like 100 I think I still have like a 50% success rate. Maybe I have a cheap kit, but I've gotten way better It would be nice to have room for a laser cutter and 3d printer, then I'd just laser cut/print a ton of this stuff instead of cutting, sanding. - but that also would require a lot more upfront planning and layout. That's not how I usually build things :D