rocketeer

I guess no one knows the answer to my helios questions above. Will wait for Craig the creator to answer. Remember long ago I tackled the dual ring knobs on the Tacan and ILS? Both the Tacan right side frequency and ILS left side frequency knobs are concentric rings. The outer knob for both control a two position rotary switch, while the inner knob controls the frequency via an encoder. While I managed to drill a hole through the rotary switch to connect the inner knob to an encoder below the rotary switch, I thought that was challenging enough. Then yesterday I realized that I've left out the right side knobs on the ILS. Since the volume on the ILS is on the outer knob, it needs to be above the encoder for the inner knob. I found it tough to drill a hole through the potentiometer without breaking its function. Then I came up with the idea of using gears. I realized today that I have an RC hobby shop near by, so I had to go get some gears. The red portion consists of the outer knob that controls the volume on the ILS panel. It rotates a hollow tube on the right side, connected to the right gear via set screw. This tube slides on to the encoder below and rotates freely, not glued. Putting it over the encoder helps to keep it straight. A bit of WD40 helps grease the tube and the encoder so that when I turn the tube it does not rotate the encoder inside. The left gear is also set screwed the another tube that is this time hot glued to a potentiometer below. The gears don't come with any hub. I used another outer knob that has a hole and set screw already in place, then hot glued this spare knob to the gear to act as a hub to hold the tube in place. Repeated this for the other tube. The blue part is the inner knob connected to a thin rod inside the right tube and connects to the encoder below. I drill a hole in the encoder to make the rod sit deeper into the encoder and then hot glue them together. So there you have it. Pot and encoder together. I'm pretty proud that I cracked this in two days. Its fun and rewarding to figure a solution to pit building challanges, and I try to make the solution as simple as possible, though sometimes difficult. I still envy those of you with CNC machines that turn out jaw dropping panels like pitbldr's, epecially combined with PCB boards!

somebody did this for blackshark too like 2 years ago on a monitor screen. He kinda disappeared from this forum. You took it a step further and used it on a projected screen. Really cool! :thumbup: Now you can touch your way through all the sims and play them immediately more intuitively than using the mouse. Pit builders like some of us have not flown much, just building. I think for some of my less favorite sims I'd go this route.

Thanks guys. Now that I have most of the input switches for the two consoles, I'm trying to get the right console wired up. Tested all input switch types with Helios-push button, toggles 2 way and 3 way, pots, rotary switch and encoder. All worked great. Then going through the list of panels in Helios I noticed there is no SAS panel. Is it hidden somewhere else? Also in the A10C sim I noticed some interesting switches not covered in the user manual but mouse clicks seem to work on them. - canopy jettison lever button - extend boarding ladder button - internal Canopy disengage lever - anti G suit test button - arm ground safety override switch - Seat height adjustment switch - Emergency handle Are all these switches only available through lua script and are not in Helios like the SAS panel?

Your idea of using a knob instead of building a turn wheel for the presets is good. Much easier than making a wheel and smaller gear to turn the encoder.

Nicely color coordinated and I like the hinged doors. I don't suppose you plan on putting switches on the left and right consoles or even the front console? Personally I can't fly using mouse clicks to control switches.

Are you sure you want to get all steam gauges? The cost of each alone can buy a monitor that can simulate all gauges with Helios. I'd rather start everything with the cheapest method possible. Then later as funds become available i can choose to upgrade whatever I like. But that's just me.

While this looks great, simmeters doesn't have all the A10 gauges even if you have the dough to buy them all. If you can find the rest of steam gauges from eBay, you may still have to use the monitor after all for whatever steam gauges you can't buy. So using a monitor may still be necessary.

it's been a long time. Since I moved to a new state, just got the garage tidied up and built a pegboard for my tools. Built a new base for my side consoles. Many of you are using Dimebug's or y2kiah's plans. Those are excellent plans. But I prefer something simple and light for now. Things may change later. Cut my right console's panels into individual pieces for easier maintenance later. Will start wiring and interfacing the panels soon.

Interesting. You secure it to the bigger piece by glue or Velcro? Are you making the other panels?

Congrats. Sounds like a dream job. I won't have Monday blues on this one. :smilewink: Helios would be great but I know it works for A10C and black shark, not sure about lomac. I think it can work for falcon 4 too since your simulator is an F-16. Best to check with Gadroc. I think lomac gives limited control. It does not let you control most panels or switches. With a sim card you probably can wire some switches to it and use svmapper etc to set keystrokes. But still the controls will be limited and generic compared to the DCS series that allow control over 300 plus switches.

I don't like that refueling thing stick up so high and blocking the view, so I'm don't buying. :music_whistling:

Anyone who knows how to bind encoders and rotary switch is welcome to comment too. Gadroc, any input?

hey Ragtop, your two videos on switches and pots are excellent. :thumbup: Can you do a video on encoders and another on rotary switch? or at least give a brief explantion how the wiring should be done and esp. how the bindings should be set in helios for encoders and rotary switch? should encoders be treated like two inputs with a common ground or like analog input with also three input, but besides the ground, one is like input and another +5V? screenshots or videos would really :helpsmilie:

You are welcome. When you use helios for the first time, go to the 10c tab and click on the 'set up Helios' button on the right. Also watch Helios set up guide on YouTube by ragtop and cap loz. If you follow the steps given and the bindings of the switches don't work, check that the path of the game stated in Helios is correct in the dcs interface screen. Also try to run Helios editor, Helios control panel and dcs game as administrator. Any problems just post here and many people will jump in to help. You will love this community. With more and more people joining pit building, you problems will not be unique. So we'd help each other like brothers in arms. welcome to the madness.

Here is a simple method. Get the hagstrom keyboard card or the Leo bodhar's Bu0836X. The hagstrom card is treated like a keyboard. Then you assign keystrokes to each input in the card. The Leo card is treated like a joystick controller in windows. You then use the wonderful Helios and bind the inputs to the game. No programming like PIC in both cases. It doesn't get simpler than that.

Thanks. I dug out my two side panels after one year's absence. Dusted them off. Looking at this angle the knobs look like a chess set. Played with the switches for a while. Feels good hearing and feeling the clicks on the switches. Hope I can resume this madness soon. Except for the encoder that costs a bit more, the rotary switches, toggles average about $2-4 each. Unlike a honeywell switch at $50 for one. Anyway, it's a personal thing, if one decides to spend that kind of money on one switch. If I could wire all these switches here to a sim card, I'd already have > 50% of switches in the A10C cockpit funcitonal! That'd be fun.

Y2kiah, your design is awesome, and the panels you built are awesome too. how much of the cockpit frame have you build? Just thinking as you build the actual you might find the need to make some adjustments. I know the plans are finalized yet.

Moken, in your list, besides toggles and rotary, you'd want to also include other types of switches, like push buttons, rockers, encoders. and push-pull switches. Within each type, break down into even more details. eg. for push buttons, most will be momentary types, some may be latched. For toggles, besides 2 or 3 positions, one direction may be latched, the other may be momentay etc. you are on the right path, listing panels and the types of switches. but within each panel, there are many switches. to be even clear, you can paste a picture of the panel. then number the switches. then specify which switch (and number) uses what type of toggle, push button, rocker, rotary, encoder etc. Then for output, for each panel, which one requires led, lcd, or 7 segments. when you are done compiling all switch types and output display types, you'd be shocked at the number. it'd be like 300-400 etc. then you'd try to buy each switch at the average price of $2-3 rather than the authentic honeywell at $50 each. do your math first before trying to do everything authentic. this is a simulator hobby. so we are supposed to simulate, not build the real thing, unless you print money. else this hobby would require a second mortgage. :)

Moken, from your first picture, some of the knobs can be found from radio shack or Fry's here in the states. And many of the A10 knobs are the same as those from the F16, which can be bought here. http://temp.aviationsimulationgroupcom.officelive.com/AircraftKnobs.aspx That's where I got some of mine as these F16 knobs can't be found on the typical online electronics stores.

Y2kiah, that is one awesome looking pit. Just curious, how does your pit differ from dimebug's in terms of dimension and features? I noticed that yours have swing out side panels, and of course the hood.

The fill disable switch is just a push pull switch. Look at my post #402 http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=48697&page=11 They are small push pull switches. Worst case get normal size push pull switches that can be found online or Ace hardware store. As for other knobs and switches, I've spent a lot of time gathering most of them last year, as seen in my thread. Personal life troubles interrupted my progress.

Building analog gauges requires pretty advanced skills compared to cutting panels and wiring switches. Unless you plan to buy them, which is very expensive. I say you have enough things on your hands, building the CP frame and panels, sourcing for many switches and knobs, wiring and configuring them, getting LCD and LEDs and seven segment displays and figuring out the output solution. Why dont you just use a monitor to display the gauges for now, then upgrade to analog ones later you have more time, money, better skills? There is much to do and learn, so my own approach is to get a basic CP done first, no analog gauges, no back lighting, even no CP frame, conquer all input switches first, then the various output displays mentioned above. Then worry about other upgrades later. But that is just my own approach. You may have more time and financial resources to tackle all at the same time. I just have to prioritize mine.

Why do you need to use Honeywell switches? They are very expensive IMO. personally I get mine from radio shack, digikeys, other online sites etc. so long as it works. If you are building a full pit, there'd be hundreds of switches. The cost adds up quickly if you get switches that are a few times more expensive than normal ones.

If you can make mold copies or 3D printing, you can make replicas of real parts or knobs that we can't source from the market. There are some that I've not been able to find.

Jcook, if you are near one of the Techshop locations, then you can attend a 3D printing class. Then pay the shop access time by the hour or day pass or month pass etc and use whatever equipment they have for which you have attended its class. Then you don't have to buy the equipment. Rather you'd renting it by the hour. If you buy one, I suppose you make render in CAD or scan (if you have that access too) and sell some highly sorted after parts to recoup your investment. There are parts in the popular A-10 and F-16 cockpits that you can make for a start.