TigersharkBAS

Thanks Warrior :-) New videos up in first post

Moved videos to first post.

Doesn't work with my panel I'm afraid.

Hi dvarrin, As someone who has just embarked on this process myself I can offer you what I have learnt so far. - Where can we buy all those switches and buttons, Especially the buttons having a protection cover as in an aircraft? Any electronic component store really. I believe Radio Shack in the US sells some of this but a good site is RS Components or Farnell (google them). You are looking for Toggle Switches and more specifically, double throw toggle switches. The covers you speak can normally be found in the Accessories section of of the switches area. - How do you do the connection with the computer. How many buttons can we have for a joystick and what do we need for the interface with the computer? You need a USB interface. I got mine from GroovyGameGear.com and it will support 32 buttons as if you had a 32 button joystick. - How do you put lables on the metal plates? This one I am still trying to work out. Particularly since we are talking white writing on a black surface which is not common. Still working this one out I'm afraid. - Where do we find gauges and how do we make them showing the same informations as the gauges in the game? That is complex. Several gauges exist but they will require programing to get them to read and display values from A-10. If you feel you are up to it I might be able to provide a few links. But this is not for the faint hearted. Building a panel is one thing, getting interactive info from the sim to a gauge is whole other thing.

I will test this with a custom panel prototype I have built.

Hey Boot...how did you label your panel?

Sure Warrior. I am still planning this all in a detailed video and such but here goes. The toggle switches are DTDP (Double Throw Double Pole) switches. The could also be single pole but I plan to find a use for the second pole later. The USB interface is from GroovyGameGear.com. It allows up to 32 buttons and is a plug and play gamepad type interface. The enclosures I bought from an electronics store in Australia but naturally any enclosure you can find will work. The key challenge here is how to hook up a toggle switch with a USB controller so that it sends only a "pulse" like a button press and not keep the connection open. At the moment the interface thinks that you are continuosly holding down a button when throw the switch. A-10 doesn't mind this so much but I am trying to make this as generic as possible so I will be posting my solution for making a toggle switch send a pulse using a very simple and cheap IC. Need anything else?

Thanks Nightmare. Obviously it still needs a little work. For the moment there is just a piece of paper providing the labeling of buttons and I need to work on the drawing around the L/G Horn Silence button. But things will progress :-)

Hi there, This thread was started quite some time ago. It was designed to share with you my experience in building a toggle switch panel from scratch with little to no electronics experience (but I picked things up and did a lot of research on it). There is still a lot of useful information in this thread but this original post has been moved to the recently announced Warthog Pit Wiki I created for the express purpose of capturing all the knowledge throughout these forums. You can find the entire tutorial at this link: http://deadfrogstudios.com/warthogpit/index.php?title=Building_a_Custom_A-10_Panel_Using_a_GP-Wiz40

+1 to Headspace's post. I for one, greatly appreciate the videos put together by youand also by Tyger. Thanks for looking out for the noobs.

Hi Panzerard. I am little confused. Email changes? I never changed emails. In fact...I have confirmed they are the same. I know you only trying to help but my frustration is really building up here. Why such a complicated system to access the beta forums? I just want to get in there to see if anyone has solved the same issue I have to get beta3 running. I have also emailed support with screenshot evidence of my forums accounts to get access to the beta forum. Surprisingly, the most frustrating experience around DCS A-10 has not been dealing with beta issues (it is great to see it evolve) but the whole technical issue around getting access to the right forum....sigh.

I have checked my website and forum email addresses and user name. Still no access to beta forum :-( Can someone help. Since Beta3 I can't even load my game anymore.