Froglips

I have been thinking about how on earth to build a set of FFB rudder pedals from a spare MS FFB stick I have. It seems like by following PeterP's excellent dual motor cyclic work that it should work. However, it doesn't. It appears to me that every FFB motor is receiving the same signal no matter which axis it is assigned to. I have three MS FFB sticks plugged in, two are assigned to the cyclic and one to the pedals yet they all maintain the cyclic's position when I trim.

Great idea. Wish I had your drawings when I built my collective.

Awesome. Thanks AlphaOneSix and PeterP. Those are a great help.

If anyone has come across good pictures of the cyclic grip from multiple angles please post a link. I am going to attempt to build an exact duplicate of the cyclic for use with PeterP's FFB mod. This will be modeled in clay then cast when I have it right. My wife is a clay artist. Finally something useful from her expensive hobby!

PeterP, Both have a green power light....both are selectable....where is the photo-cell? Not doubt this is the problem:) Why is there a photo-cell? Both are grey. The one that works (maybe the photo-cell has so much dust on it that it is covered!) has a very strong FF. Wow! I can't imagine two in parallel! Thanks for the help Peter! Follow-up: Fount the photo-cell. Black taped it. All is well and works like a charm. I am starting disassembly tonight:) I am going to try to build a KA-50 grip with all the buttons in the proper place including the double trigger. There are certainly more than enough buttons. available between two controllers.

PeterP, Thanks:) As many times as I have reread this thread, I don't know how I missed that. I have FFTest up and running. It sees the MS FFB stick. When I select the stick the sliders and buttons become active. However, when I move the sliders nothing happens. I haven't disconnected anything yet:) When I grab the stick and push a button or pull the trigger I do get a FF shake like it is programmed for some FF action. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I click "Start" under Constant Force Effect then move the sliders. Nothing:(

How to test FF Peter, I have two MS FFB sticks disassembled and I am trying to test whether I have them wired correctly. In your video you show what appears to be a calibration program that allows you to vary the FFB input to the stick to move the stick. I am running W7 x64. I have looked in the calibration utility for W7 and can't figure out what you using. Can you help? Froggie

Peter, Thanks for the picks and the video. The video really helped a lot. I didn't understand that it was a full disassembly of both sticks. This will require more design work than I had planned for it to fit into my set-up but it certainly seems worth it when I watch your original trim video. It seems like I spend much more time building my pit then I do flying. That was the case with my F-16 pit too. By the time I finally got my pit working for Allied Force everyone had moved onto other flight sims. I simply have to get rid of this full time day job. It is really interferring with my simming!

Peter, Can you take some photos of how you merged two controllers for double the motor power? My cyclic is disassembled to build a new KA-50 grip so why not do this mod too? Froggie

Wow. Shivers...

No Otto but have you searched at Digikey? Never seen so many switches. http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/switches/configurable-switch-components-body/1115073?k=push%20pull%20switch or http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/switches/pushbutton/1114209?k=push%20pull%20switch

Actually I have already built a collective head using the X-Key matrix board. It was easy because the board is very small and very easy to program. As you don't have any Xkeys experience I will mention that you have seriously underestimated the power of the XKeys matrix board. It has onboard memory so can be programmed without Macroworks running or using Macroworks one has access to a powerful programming language that allows you to utilize every kind of switch contact possible from rotaries to pots to any kind of multi-position switch. I have a step by step picture gallery of the construction of my collective at www.scsimulations.com and am working on the cyclic. I am using Helios for my switch panels at the moment. The wife nearly divorced me while I was building my Falcon cockpit. I will take the Black Shark and Warthog build a bit slower:)

Hellfrog with help from Spike and a few others have it mostly sorted. See this thread. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=80921&page=3 Be sure to use Notepad++.

I can support Frog's observations. I have not seen RAM demands that high. However I am running 16Gb and no swap file. My Palit 560Ti cards are 2Gb each but are SLIed so only 2Gb available. As I understand SLI, you don't get to count both cards RAM. No issues on high settings. Noise? I wear headphones. Jet engine could be running, I wouldn't hear it:)

Ranger79, Nothing wrong with Helios. I am running it (or was before I porked my setup). What are you having trouble with?

GregP, Which version of SoftTH are you running? 2.05, 2.06, or 2.07? I have four monitors, a 26" 1920 x 1200 camera view, a 21.5" Helios, and two USB monitors, a 10.1" FOR THE Shkval and a 9" for the Abris. Post your SoftTH config, and monitor.lua so I can see you set up. I just copied over my A-10C set-up and poof no go. I am going to reload BS2 and start from scratch. Something has gotten porked I think.

I don't think so Frog. The options.lua in that folder doesn't get updated with any changes I make.

Yea. Seemed odd to me too. Maybe a SoftTH thing. I will try it without SoftTH.

Airdog, I added UIMainView = Viewports.Center to my monitor config. Now BS2 won't boot. What is this line supposed to do? _ = function(p) return p; end; name = _('Airdogs Pit'); Description = 'AirdogsPit' Viewports = { Center = { x = 0; y = 0; width = 1920; height = 1080; viewDx = 0; viewDy = 0; aspect = 1.77777777777778; } } Shkval = { x = 575; y = 1152; width = 930; height = 345; } ABRIS = { x = 1675; y = 1461; width = 754; height = 495; } UIMainView = Viewports.Center

My frame rate has dropped dramatically. I used SoftTH to run BS1 in full screen mode. I was getting 35fps+ most of the time. I have not been able to get SoftTH to function with BS2 (yes, I switched to the 64 bit executable). Running in Windowed mode is giving me about 18 fps. If I run in full screen I cannot export my Abris and Shkval but I get 40+ fps. Trying to figure out why SoftTH works with A-10C but does not appear to work with BS2.

CNC/Laser engraver pitbldr et al, I believe you have both a CNC machine and a laser engraver. I have been researching CNC machines and the software associated with them. The CNC machines use gcode to program their cutting passes. What does the laser engraver use? If gcode, do you have the gcode for the panels you have designed? I have software that converts lots of different types of graphics files to gcode but not pdf files. I have been practicing with software that simulates the CNC cut so I can understand the gcode tweaking process. It would be easier and cheaper to just purchase panels but noone seems to be doing KA-50 panels and it will probably be fun to make my own anyway.

Hmmm, actually either name set LEFT_MFCD or SHKVAL, RIGHT_MFCD or ABRIS will work. Just won't work on full screen. I was getting better framerates with BS1 and SoftTH v2.07. I haven't played A-10C since the 1.09 update that messed up Helios. I thought I remembered that you could export MFDs in full screen mode.

Exactly the same monitor set-up. Exactly the same Monitor options.lua I have tried full screen, windowed, every possible resolution from 1920 x 1200 to 2944 x 2280. I cannot get the ABRIS or Shkval to appear anywhere outside of their places on the cockpit. Suggestions? Hmmm, have to run windowed to export? Yea, it works. Frame rates are nothing to write home about in windowed mode.

Burned up another install FYI everyone, So I renamed my BS v1.02 folder to KA-50v1.02ModMan and reinstalled v1 so I could install BS2. The Good: BS2 found the BS1 install and everything went smooth as silk. The Bad: Although the BS1 v1 reinstall found my serial number, it STILL deduced one more install. Down to four now. Every reinstall has ALWAYS cost me one. The Ugly: Not much. BS2 is clearly on the Warthog standard now. Wow on the graphics. Wow on the framerate hit with everything on high.

Laser or spindle cut Gadroc et al, I was getting ready to purchase a CNC machine set up for doing sheet acrylic signage. It has a special plastic spindle. It is a Zen Toolsworks CNC with a 7" x 7" bed. Software all set-up and ready to cut. Seeing this thread I am wondering whether a spindle machine will cut panels like I wanted. Why did you go with a laser? Does your machine run gcode?