Blue73

Thanks TechRoss! HaHa, yes mate they've been put in an acetone vapor-bath. The smoothed surface also improves finger grip, raw 3d printed parts are a little slippery. cheers John

All electronics are now complete (except the radar panel) and working in sim. Here's a couple of shots of the interior lighting panel. I'm going to switch my wiring to local face wiring sockets then a ribbon to the Arduino, much neater that way. This also shows my v2 Arduino mount where it's reverse mounted and bolted directly to the face plate. Not having to remove the knobs to get to the USB socket is an advantage, it also allows for a slimmer form factor as it doesn't need to slide out. cheers John

Cheers Tinkickef, just mounted like other designs.

The Anti Ice Pitot switch also has this same issue, treated as a toggle.

Hi, I posted this within another thread but I wanted to create a new thread that I'll update as I add polling support to new controls. So far the switches.h and potentiometers.h functions have a new function call pollInputCurrent(). With regular polling the initial state of your switch boxes will be force pushed to DCS. This is useful as the current control state is synced with the sim control state. Unzip/Copy this file to your Arduino DCSBIOS library location, backup up the old one first. Location: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Arduino\libraries\dcs-bios-arduino-library-0.2.11\src\internal DCS-BIOS with Polling Funcs.zip Sample Code. //ECS Panel #define DCSBIOS_RS485_SLAVE 18 #define TXENABLE_PIN 2 #include <DcsBios.h> #define DCSBIOS_IRQ_SERIAL DcsBios::Potentiometer cabinTemp("CABIN_TEMP", 0); DcsBios::Switch3Pos engAntiiceSw("ENG_ANTIICE_SW", 10, 11); unsigned int g_iInitIntervalCounter = 0; void setup() { DcsBios::setup(); } void loop() { DcsBios::loop(); if ( ++g_iInitIntervalCounter == 0 ) { PollAllControls(); } } void PollAllControls() { engAntiiceSw.pollInputCurrent(); cabinTemp.pollInputCurrent(); //... }

Thanks Aaron! Once I've completed the design phase I'll release the STL's. I'm still improving the old designs. cheers John

Hi All, I'm working on the next four boxes running down the right hand side at once. Controls are in for the first three, waiting on 45 degree POT's for the sensor panel. Here are the vapour smoothed buttons, it started off as ABS 0.09mm layer height 3D print then smoothed and the stripe painted. cheers John

:) yes, I've been printing boxes on the right hand side and trying out vapour smoothing on my new rotary knobs. Had to reprint a few times to get the technique right. It's come out well, will upload pictures.

You can dynamically instance your DCS.BIOS controls which allows you to load a new set when a new aircraft is detected.

I've gotten used to driving the switch twice, so no issue. Thanks Andrew for bringing us F/A-18 DCS.BIOS. cheers John

I have same issue, on the ground it works okay but in the air it acts like a toggle control.

This is as far as I'll go for the RADAR altimeter, it has been 3D printed. As I play in VR a working gauge it is not priority 1 at this stage. The encoder has been wired into the sim.

Hi All, The Bleed Air and Temperature controls are complete. Everything works as intended, the magnets do a great job with the detent feel. Bleed Air Control Parts HE Sensor Installation Completed Assembly Side View, 7 pins are required, 5 sensors, +5V and GND. Temperature Control Parts Completed Assembly, will need to shorten the outer POT shaft length. Both together. cheers John

Cheers Stefan. Honest answer, I didn't know it existed :) I've designed and printed it now, shipping is too expensive to have Mouser send just this POT. Much appreciated for the heads-up, if I do require other components I'll add it to the order.

Hi, Bleed Air Knob Design. Uses magnets again for both the HE sensors and the detent action. cheers John

Hi All, Currently working down the right hand panel. Here is the cabin and suit temperature control. Those are two apposing 16.5mm POTS. Will run an initial test print tomorrow. cheers John

Hi Rustbelt, Does the laser cut the lettering at the correct thickness or do you need to generate a path that fills in the letters? Thanks.

Hi All, The wing sweep lever is finally complete with working code. I had to write a small amount to manually send the required DCS.BIOS control messages from the 5 HE sensors. The front panel has all the cutouts ready for the upcoming dials and indicators. The handle has six fishing lead weight balls embedded to make the handle feel allot more substantial. Ignore the quality of the faces, the light coming from the side accents the 3d printing lines. In reality it can't be seen and the black is much darker than it appears here. Text will be lasered properly later. That AV Cool switch will need to be brought forward 1mm. cheers John

Happy to help my fellow cockpit builders :) If anyone wants to reduce the delay to the minimum I had to use, I've found 4 ms to be the bottom end before outgoing messages are dropped. Another technique is you can assign a cockpit button state to force sync all your buttons, e.g. the battery switch. A change with the battery state causes all Arduino's to run the init cycle for 30 seconds. cheers John

When I didn't copy the sdef folder I got that up down see-sawn howling sound. I can't remember ever hearing it now for flyby's.

Nice :)

Hi Andrew, Here are my additions/changes made to switches.h. For your main code I've found regular polling is the best way to update the controls. Unzip/Copy this file to your Arduino DCSBIOS library location, backup up the old one first. Location: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Arduino\libraries\dcs-bios-arduino-library-0.2.11\src\internal Switches.h.zip Sample Code DcsBios::Switch3Pos flapSw("FLAP_SW", 9, 10); unsigned int g_iCounter = 0; void PollAllControls() { flapSw.pollInputCurrent(); } void loop() { DcsBios::loop(); if (++g_iCounter > 60000) { g_iCounter = 0; PollAllControls(); } } Note: Doesn't work for toggle type controls as sending a repeated '1' to the sim tells it to toggle the control. Luckily these are rare. cheers John

Just select the text and extrude into the plate, it should auto switch to a cutting action. Cheers John.

Awesome Rustbelt, thanks for the link!

The new function needs to be inserted into the DCSBIOS library rather than your code. Once done all you do is call the new function within your setup. My libraries are in the following folder, C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Arduino\libraries\dcs-bios-arduino-library-0.2.11\src\internal Can you PM me your email address so I can send you the updated switches.h file? The functions are slightly different for switch3pos and switchmultipos. I could be more elegant and rewrite his function to accommodate this variation but instead left it as is and repeated much of his code leaving out the delta check. Edit: I could post here but not sure of the T&C's. cheers John