Rokmonkey

Also.... http://www.sparkfun.com

Well, better late than never, but here's some of my outlines for my own BlackShark main panel. They units are fractional inch. I have yet to add a couple things, like the landing gear panel, and the like. MainFrontInstrumentPanel-InstrumentsFractionalInch.pdf MainFrontInstrumentPanel-OutlineFractionalInch.pdf

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but M0jo, is that an X52 that you modified there? If so, got any info on it, looks cool.

If by real life, you mean the actual KA-50 Cockpit dimensions, then no. I just sat down in my chair with a tape measure, and guesstimated what a good overall size would be, comfort wise. Then fit all the components necessary onto the board. Honestly, do not get hung up on having real dimensions, I don't know of anyone here or elsewhere having actual cockpit dimensions of the KA-50 or A-10C. And in reality, it will probably be either too small or too large for your needs as a simpit. Get it to look right, relative locations of gauges, panels etc and make it comfortable, that's more important IMHO.

I can post mine, but I did mine in Inventor, so it may take a bit for me to get it in dimensions. There are alot of dimensions :/

Looks good, I agree with everyone else, in that your ADI and HSI are far too close to your other gauges, especially if you are making analog gauges. I don't know how TriggerHappy did his, but I just sort of eye balled mine, alot of revisions to find something ergonomic.

I don't know if you are going for something super realistic, or something close to get the A-10 feel. I'm working on a black shark pit, but my comfort while flying is far more important that exact dimensions. I took someones pit dimensions (sorry I can't remember the name right now) and have since tweaked them that fit my controllers and gauges and the like. What i'm saying is, just get close, uses Dimebugs dimensions as a start and tweak it to your liking.

You can get it to swing, you just need a linkage or two. I'm planning on using solenoids to set flags.

@MudRat02 The ADI (Attitude and Direction Indicator) in Blackshark has a lot of additional capabilities, such as bank and pitch correction indicators for an assigned attitude, which adds a few more servos to the mix. Mikes Flight Deck for instruments actually covers a normal AI from fixed wing aircraft which does as you suggest though, which is most likely what I will be making for now. @KLaFaille That is perfect, almost exactly what I was looking for. Definitely good insight on that one. I think I can re-engineer that to make one. @Mike Love your books. Also, very awesome gauge you have there. Great insight.

Yeah, that's really what I was thinking. I think I'm going to make them exceptionally simplified. After playing a game tonight, I realized I don't even notice half of the features of those instruments.

Interfacing is no problem, I am using AVR's for each gauge, which is simple enough to use. ( I have a bit of experience with them) And as I'm a Grad Student in Mechanical Engineering, I've got access to a well stocked and furnished machine shop. All the gauges except for ADI and HSI are quite straightforward. I'm guessing, for your response, most people don't make all mechanical gauges.

I'm starting to work on my own simpit, and am starting with the instrument panel. I know I'm stepping a bit far ahead when thinking about making complex instruments like the ADI and HSI, but I am anyway. I plan on making all mechanical instruments, and have a copy of Mikes Flight Deck to help out, but it doesn't cover anything as complex as the ADI in the Black Shark. I am curious if anyone has made a mechanical ADI and/or HSI for their Blackshark Simpit. I've been searching online, but not really getting anywhere. There are, as I count them, 7 axes on both, and thats a whole lot of servos, so I'm just out looking for ideas about where to start.

Awesome looking gauge. I'm making my own gauges to, only I'm using a Teensy++ 2.0: http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/ So, that's another option too, it just requires a little more programming, which isn't too hard if you use Teensyduino. It's nice cause AVR's are quite easy to program and the Teensy has native USB support.

Perfect, thank you.

I'm working on some external instruments for DCS Black Shark and have decided to explore export.lua and have a couple questions that I haven't been able to answer through my reading. First and foremost, what is the frame rate for the simulation engine. Is it a fixed rate, or is it tied to something else? Is it something that needs to compensated for when playing online with people who have their simulations running at different rates (doubtful, but still..) The other, slightly less important, but handy to know; Is there a large compiled list for arguments for the instrument values and joystick pitch/roll/yaw data? There is the nice list in the export.lua file but there are more buried in other files, just wondering if there is a completel list floating about. Thanks.

I've just started using FaceTrackNoIR for DCS Black Shark. It doesn't have the headtracker folder like DCS A-10C does, but does anyone know if this sort of thing would help for that as well?