agrasyuk

it's not "arduino vs joystick". Both have purpose, it is the builder who needs to decide what tool he needs to use for a particular application. Arduinos can accomplish functionalities that joystick boards cannot, like indicators for example. Arduino based DCSBIOS devices can be programmed to act differently depending on what craft is loaded and the list goes on. Choose the right tool for the job. And keep in mind that most of the times it's the " hard "road that ends up being the easiest one. Effort always pays off. True in all aspects of life.

Not finding anything that will fit the built at the moment. Hopefully something turns up eventually. LDG panel stencil to trace the exact cutout. Fitting for irregularly shaped surfaces. the strangely shaped SAS panel fits in perfectly. the rectangular that i made earlier will be up for sale shortly. LDG panel stencil to trace the exact cutout. Fuel panel, now with knobs. the receiver lever is not spring loaded but spring tensioned to keep position. this provides for a nice heavy-ish pull action. Backlight turned out beautifully for that one. IOU a picture once the console gets some power of it's own.

You are on the right track. 1. Megas can absolutely be used as slaves . As for the limited Nano pins there are several techniques that were used: I2C bus, 74HC165 shift registers for inputs and 74HC595 SRs for output,Resistance ladders on analog channels clincrease number of possible inputs quite a bit.

yep, exporting those MFDs is a major leap. now you will need to start making custom button and switch boxes

I'd say leave the matrix for momentary buttons. For latched switches use dedicated input pins.

glued the new side plate with polyurethane glue yesterday. today I grinded the edges away. Belt sander is a great tool, but it starts to melt the acrylic pretty fast. after removing the rough edges it was back to file and a vise for this job. The shape came out pretty good. anyone with source for Otto mini trim switches? mouser has the castle ones in stock... TK-4G4312 is backordered. I almost gave up on making my own backlit Flap switch guard is being assembled. engraved face sheet will be heated and pressed around the housing.

Lob, thank you for the comment! Part that I dread the most, modification of the right throttle handle. after some poking around the slew amplifier board is alive so i will be reusing the original slew stick. Embedded picture of the original into CAD, drew and cut replacement side plate with rearranged switch mounting points. Cutting original handle was accomplished on table saw, one messy and smelly operation even with respirator. my attempt at 5 way switches for now needs additional work, works but the feel is horrible. replacement front plate is engraved. Fuel panel is complete. I don't want to remove section of rail from my console so the fuel reciever handle moved slightly left from original location. still this looks organic enough for me. Interfaced with one of my old GPWiz cards , this way I will be able to use it for other sims.

it's possible to build your own cheaper. But pair of TM Cougars will be your best value. mounting , wiring and mapping over 50 buttons will not be trivial feat. You already spent 4 digit amount on your system even before all the controls and HMD. And there is not much saving all's there either - Pair of Controllers for DIY solution will run you 50-60 bucks If you were planning for a more detailed cockpit then it's different and DIY is warrantedjust my 0.02 Good luck!

wow, That is quite a build effort and quite an effort documenting the build.

Conversion of A-10a throttle: removed the microswitch bank. Cut and glued a bracket from 0.25" acrylic to hold hall sensor/microswitch assembly as well as Bodnar BUO836X and slew sensor amplifier. sensor Arms are cut from 6mm acrylic, tightens around hall sensor shaft with M2 bolt. Electronics are bolted into threaded plastic with standoffs, that way the entire assembly is self standing and comfortable to work with. sensor Arm is of length to provide exactly 80degrees of rotation (since that's the model I got). Microswitch is activated after the idle detent is passed. Wire management still in progress. Thinking whether to put the effort painting with the green primer... New front plate is in progress. the original is dull, lit with orange and a bit scratched. Waiting for another coat of paint and then to be engraved and lit with SMT diodes embedded into the acrylic. I found a font that resembles the actual very closely , but still Curious if anyone knows the exact font used on this panel (it's not the MS33558) . Turned some Knobs for the right grip directional switches i'm building. One of those tasks that seems trivial but turns into huge pain. Ended up making a dedicated tool and part holder . Now I can turn a dozen of them in minutes with precise repeatability if I ever need more

As was said a Lots of options. For button inputs BBI32 by leobodnar or GP-wiz controllers can be used . For analog axes the big bodnar card can be used. Other input cards exist. Read the sticky topic on top of this forum. Arduino and DCS-BIOS is the way to deal with outputs such as indicators, dials and most screens (handles inputs as well). Gets quite a bit more technical so I'd say this will be your step 2 after you master the above. Again, the sticky topic describes DCS-BIOS in detail. What plane are you building? Good luck

I didn't discover any ground breaking technology to make those. The body comprised of laser cut .220mil acrylic mid layer and .100mil top layer. Bottom layer is the PCB holding 6.5x3.6mm SMT tactile buttons and 1206 SMT backlight LEDs. supporting back layer has a recess for rotary switch wire (rotary is not soldered to PCB) and is used as drill guide for mounting. Middle layer is drilled and tapped to hold M2 screws. top and mid layers are welded together with dichloromethane (acrylic cement) , bevel is cut with hand router and a guided chamfer router bit. button tabs are cemented into recesses and once solid sanded. rotary switch housing is glued, will house either Grayhill or a rectangular ALPS miniature rotary. the entire assembly is sanded, washed and coated with several layers of paint until the backlighting bleed is completely blocked. waiting for the paint to dry is the hardest part, I do have several ruined assemblies where paint got lifted after i impatiently recoated before the prior layer completely hardened. my old molds warped after few years of improper storage, so I had to redo the button molds. buttons are cast with clear resin, washed, coated with several layers of black and then layer of grey (with days of wait between the coats). laser engraved in a fixture and hand painted with white runny paint to fill the engraved recesses. going forward i will be masking buttons during the engrave stage . white striping is a sticky vinyl tape. Not greatest solution, it's not very sticky and some stripes separated after few days. glued back on with a tiny drop of superglue. Will be lathe turning aluminum knobs for the switch. connectivity is via adapter PCB that exposes buttons into a ordinary header. I intend to use a pair of POKEY56 cards configured into joysticks since I already have those. 30 buttons + 3 switch positions leaves 3 extra inputs that I exposed on the adapter PCB. (joystick has 32 buttons +4 HAT inputs)

Just because there is a subfolder doesn't mean people will post in right section. There will need to be someone constantly cleaning things up and moving to right place. I'd say yet another subforum (because that what "folder" means) not needed. What can be useful is a sticky topic where users share any of such resources. Topic stater will need to monitor the thread and keep the first post up to date

Full size MFCDs. In comparison to TM MFD

А разве возврат денег в Стим не до того как 1 час игрового времени прошел? Насколько знаю после часа не возвращают

wash the knob very well with soap dish and old toothbrush. let dry. spray paint (or even better airbrush, much finer pigment) with layer of white and wait patiently - 2 days. block the arrow imprint with modelling clay. if it's the flat surface pointer knobs then use thin strip of quality masking tape for scale modeling. tutorials exist on how to cut thin strips of masking tape (for model car pinstripe painting) as well. paint layer of light blocker - black. or better yet 2 layers (sometimes one will not fully block the light) and leave it to cure. reapply wider strip of masking tape to the pointer (if it is the combined white black line and coat with grey. the hardest with the process is waiting. all in all it takes a week or so. it's crucial to let the coat harden for at least 48 hours before masking. if you feel adventurous you can try earlier but you risking lifting the paint . good luck.

Thank you Gianlu. this is a two pole breaker. one pole is used to supply the switch signal as input into arduino running a DCS BIOS slave sketch. second pin is setup to output state of the switch in game inverted . this output controls Darlington transistor that opens up a high current from supply through second pole of the breaker causing it to trip. Naturally the problem with this solution is when you try to power the switch to from OFF to ON the Darlington is in the open state (since the game sends inverted position - 1) and the circuit will immediately trip. This is not an issue with pure magnetic hold as you can hold the switch up until the game sends the signal to hold it on. The trick is to have enough delay. delay achieved by 1. breaker with sufficient delay. 2. powering the circuit with just enough amps over the breaker rating to cause a slower trip. In my case it's breaker rated for 1Amp, an old laptop 16V power supply and a 10W 4 Ohm resistor (it does get warmer to the touch after few trips). the quick schema and a dirty piece of code is below. I tried to write a separate handler for this with software delay , but somehow I 'm having difficulty extracting the actual switch position from the game. Video was recorded with hardware delay and the solution below. DcsBios::Switch2Pos antiSkidSwitch("ANTI_SKID_SWITCH", 4); void onAntiSkidSwitchChange(unsigned int skidTripValue) { if (skidTripValue==0) { digitalWrite(11, HIGH); } else if (skidTripValue==1){ digitalWrite(11, LOW); } } DcsBios::IntegerBuffer antiSkidSwitchBuffer(0x1110, 0x0080, 7, onAntiSkidSwitchChange); pinMode(11, OUTPUT);

Revisiting my Landing gear panel design. Indicator lenses and switch guard plate will get permanently installed after the yellow striping is painted for the DL Override area. Testing my approach of simulating the magnetic hold switch (anti-skid) with a circuit breaker. the Needle in the flap gauge is individually lit with 3206 SMT diode.

For a 3 screen setup I'd go with 3 1080p monitors of the same size.

It was already mentioned above that matrix will not work reliably for toggles. To connect more toggles buy a few more arduinos (the Nano from china are inexpensive at all). But for now you can start with the main 4 Arm switches.

AHCP is actually a very simple project - it only has toggles. map the event of the releasing of bothth side to send the "off" position the switches in the link will work of course , in case you were looking for a momentary switch. the brackets in the (on)off(on) notation means the switch will spring back to middle position, vs on-off-on that will keep the position . I guess you now understand what (on)-off-on means then for cheap toggles I would check ebay or aliexpress before going to amazon. and no need to get the weather cap version good luck

Awesome looking PCB. Placement of buttons indeed prevents the device fitting between standard rails. to overcome I'm developing my CDU PCB with SMT buttons. or you could make a ~2mm backplate shaped spacer to clear the solder points from the rails , something like the pictured spacer for MFCD bezel i'm working on :

best of luck on your build. I attached some documents that floated around the forum. with that 3D printer doesn't look like the best tool for purposes of making panels MIL_MS25212 Basic Panel Dimentions.pdf Panelbuildingfocussedondimensions.pdf

I'm not sure what solutions you already came across and considered. I would look into something like this: https://bergisons.simpit.info/motion-integrated-g-seat It is quite an undertaking however. If this is your first project I would look to build something much simplier . Good luck.