whartsell

Overview: how to get data from the uC to the Sim from a high level this is pretty simple. The data flows as follows: uC>>Computer>>Sim. From the uC to the computer: currently im using integrated serial over USB for the communication from the uC to the Computer. the data currently flows in 1byte messages. This can easilly be sent from the uC without any problems. each message byte is different depending on the device being controlled. example the rotary encoder has a possible 7 high bits for an address and one low bit for increment up or increment down. A 0 means increment down. A 1 means increment up. e.g 00010101 means encoder 5 incremented up 1 step. This message is written out via the serial port. The computer basically listens for the message on the defined com port and decodes the address and the value. From the computer to the sim: This part is probably what everyone is the most familiar with. I wrote a udp client/server in python that takes the message above and just sends a command to the sim. In order to make this simple I used the format that Helios uses. The software looks for addresses that it cares about and when a message comes in on the associated com port it takes the value and creates a string based on the address then sends it to the sim via udp.

after viewing all the posts related to cockpit building I notice a large gap in what technology will be used to make all the panels "work" with DCS. I have been experimenting with Opencockpits.org's IOcards and while they were very flexible the lack of current docs and the cost importing to the US became a large hindrance. Being an enthusiast of micro controllers (uC) I started looking into how difficult it would be to replace the IOCards gear with my own home grown solution. In order to make real components work you really only need to implement a few basic things: multiple switches multiple 7 segment displays multiple encoders multiple character based displays how to get data from the uC to the sim how to get data from the sim to the uC. I figured for an initial proof of concept i would start with the Tacan display as it has displays (outputs) and encoders(inputs) I have implemented a single rotary encoder with two 7 segment displays to interface with the tacan 10s digit control and display in the sim. After a few days of working on this in my spare time i got it to work. A schematic of the poc hardware follows. I have attached a schematic of the diagram that shows the hardware side of things. I will post a video of it working and more details. Sorry if it appears that I am rambling as i have so much info to convey and not sure how much interest people may have and how detailed to get. My plans are to get all the basic components to work and then to go down two paths. 1. go the opencockpits like route and produce specs and hardware for "primitive" types (e.g a display controller, a switch controller,etc) 2. create unique specs and hardware for "plug and play" types of components (e.g. a tacan,a cdu,etc) please let me know if anybody is interested in this as i can go a detailed as you like, just ask Will

+1 for opencockpit cards...i have been using them for POC and love em