Mike Powell

well done. good example of a useful concept.

Very nice!

Home cockpits tend to be long projects, and as you've already noticed, interfacing hardware tends to have a short "product life span". Over the years I've watched many people struggle with items that are no longer supported and/or no longer produced. With that in mind, Arduino has substantial appeal. It is such a versatile and successful module that it has a massive user base and is very likely to be around for a long time. It has the additional advantages of many, free online tutorials, low cost clones, multiple suppliers, and the existence of a flight sim specific code base in the form of DCS-BIOS.

People build panels in as many different ways as there are people. I've seen them made from cardboard, Masonite, wood, plastic, and metal. It's up to you, your skill level, and what degree of fidelity you're looking for. Same thing's true for the interfacing boards, though there is a lot of interest in using Arduinos. Software depends on the simulator software being used. Here, in DCS land, you have the great advantage of having DCS-BIOS which will do most of your interfacing software for you, but not all, you still have to set it up for your particular cockpit implementation. There's probably no way to avoid learning some programming. This is a very involved hobby. You learn new stuff daily. Or maybe a better arrangement of those words is: You must learn new stuff daily if you're going to be involved in this hobby.

Wow. I don't know if I'm more envious of the pedals, or of the fact that you have a shop which is provisioned with enough high quality "scrap" to build them. Well done, sir!

Information is where you find it. There's rarely a good single source. Generally I've had to assemble bits and pieces from multiple sources. For the B-8 flight grip (also called an MC-2) check manufacturer sites: Guardian Electric, Otto Engineering, Mason (part of Esterline). They've all made it at one time or other. I've seen catalogs with dimensional drawings (though I can't find them now). Infinity Aerospace makes a slightly smaller version for the sport aviation market. You can buy a new B-8 grip through Aircraft Spruce. Search through pictures on forums. People post pictures, sometimes with a ruler in the pic. Ebay can be a source of info as sellers generally post pictures. Visiting an aircraft museum is not a bad idea. Many have volunteers helping who can be sympathetic to polite requests for help.

Just in case no one's mentioned this yet (cough, cough) Learn to solder! Even milspec metal-on-metal connectors have problems. Simple wire ends stuck together will cause no end of grief. The problems won't be something as simple as a disconnected circuit, though you'll see those too. You'll experience a variety of intermittent problems. If you have enough non-soldered connections, you'll eventually see non-ohmic connections form when (usually invisible) corrosion at the connection point turns the connection into a diode like structure. Circuit malfunctions will be so weird as to define description. Frustration will set in. You'll begin to drink heavily and pull your hair out. Your sleep will be affected. Eventually you'll give up on sim building and take up Karaoke. It will be terrible, so just learn to solder.

One of the desired effects of the military G-seats is to shift the pilot's viewpoint. If you're smashed down into the seat your perspective of the MIP, HUD, etc. changes, and this happens exactly when it's most important to get things right. This is one of the reasons that bladder types G-seats were developed. (Not to say there aren't other approaches.) So, if you're looking for super realism in addition to better immersion, shifting the viewpoint is something to keep in mind.

These used to be everywhere in surplus stores, but now they are far less common. I think they were often referred to as "push-on, push-off" switches. They may also be called "latching push button switches". Here's a link to a similar switch http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/pb-229/dpdt-push-on/push-off-switch/1.html

What Ian says is correct. A bit more detail: The DTS2 board provides a "modified sine wave" output that can be used with an external filter/amplifier board to produce 400 Hz power expected to be on the order of 30 watts. If you have an instrument with several synchros and the total power demand of that instrument is less than 30 watts then you should be able to use one DTS2 board to drive one synchro input and a filter/amp board, and additional DTS2 boards, synchronized to the filter/amp board, to drive the additional synchro inputs of the multi-synchro instrument. If the multi-synchro instrument requires more power than about 30 watts then you need a separate source of 400 Hz power. However, there's nothing to say you couldn't build a more powerful filter/amp board. The one I'm planning is based on a pair of LM1875T audio power amps. They cost about $3 each. The LM3886 costs $6~7 and handles about twice the power, but remember you still have to pay for the DC power supplies feeding the amps. This isn't the most efficient method of generating 400 Hz power, but uses readily available parts and does produce clean power. If you have a lot of synchro instruments, it's probably worth tracking down a 400 Hz power source.

A brief update. Synchronization has been implemented. The DTS2 board will synchronize itself to an external 400 Hz source, and will switch to its internal timing if the external reference is removed. This simple sounding function took a surprising amount of time. The synchronizing function is basically a feedback circuit. Not too many eons ago I took a feedback and control class, and thought I did pretty well at it. Of course that was done with continuous variables and with the expectation that applications would be continuous voltages or mechanical positions. The synchronizing function is controlling a digital oscillator (a counter inside the PIC) using a rather low resolution 8-bit micro and binary arithmetic. Took me awhile to figure out how to begin to model the dynamics of the control loop and how to stop it from bouncing around. If it worked the first time, I guess it wouldn't be any fun. The next step is verifying the serial control input functionality. This is "proven" code lifted from earlier projects. What could go wrong? To find out, I've written a simple Arduino sketch...

There is a huge range of possibilities. I suggest you decide where on the "reality scale" you want you project to sit. Do you want an exact copy of a real cockpit, or are you looking for something a step above a joy stick, mouse, and keyboard, or something in between? Another way to look at the same question is to decide if you primarily enjoy the building and look at the flying as testing and validation of that building, OR do you just want to fly with a bit more realism? And of course, yet another way of looking at this is to check your bank balance. In this hobby "DIY" does not mean inexpensive. Much of what you need to know about electronics can come from the Arduino site (arduino.cc). Yes, there is a great deal you can do if you know lots about electronics, but the Arduino is increasingly a central component for interfacing everything from switches to instruments. Buy an Arduino and work through a few of the samples on arduino.cc, and take a look on this site at the fantastic things people are doing with the Arduino. Equally (or more) important is looking through the projects here. See what people have done and decide how close their projects are to what you want. People have posted here not only to ask for help on their own projects, but also to share their problems and solutions with others. So, let me emphasize again the importance of reading the material on this site. Many, if not all, of your questions are answered here somewhere. Yes, there is a lot to sift through. Regard it as a necessary part of your project research.

A progress update: A design goal of the DTS2 is that it can be optionally used with a 400 Hz power supply, or that it can be used to drive a filter-amplifier combo that produces limited amounts of 400 Hz power. The second option is useful if you have a small synchro gauge and don't have a separate source of 400 Hz power. Since the cost of filter-amplifier combo looks to be perhaps $10 for semiconductors and $2~20 for the bare board (depends on quantity, source, etc.) this second option has a certain appeal. The first option, however, looks useful when you do have a 400 Hz power source, or you have a need to interface an instrument with multiple synchro inputs. Both of these situations requires that the DTS2 boards be able to synchronize with an external 400 Hz timing reference. Developing the synchronization functionality is what currently occupies my time. At present, it works but has an annoying amount of bouncing about as it responds to changes in the reference signal timing. Looks like a great application for a phase locked loop or for a PID controller. Unfortunately I'm working with an inexpensive 8 bit micro lacking multiply-divide capability and a somewhat vintage brain which is increasingly refusing to remember classroom discussion from the distant past. Still, progress is happening, and it is fun.

Wow! Very nice.

@Ian. The filter has four stages which is overkill. You get a fair waveform from two stages, but the cost of going from two to four is almost zero. Both filter channels together require only a single quad opamp. The passive components are surface mount devices costing pennies. @Gadroc. There are $15~20 in semiconductor devices on the board along with a few dollars worth of passives. The bare board can cost anywhere from $2 to $20 depending on quantity, lead time, and choice of manufacturer. It's double-sided, 9.5 square inches. The board has a pair of power amplifiers which need heat sinking. I'm planning on mounting the board(s) on a chunk of sheet aluminum along with an Arduino which will act as PC interface as well as provide any needed local processing. Re scopes: I used Tektronix scopes throughout my career, though toward the end I was spending a lot of time squinting at a logic analyzer. Tek gear started showing up frequently at swap meets and I picked up a pair of Tek454 scopes for about $35 each. (I must admit it almost broke my heart to see ten or so Tek 7000 series scope mainframes sitting in the dust at an outdoor swap meet. They had been the elite, high end scope of choice.) I've never gotten around to buying a DSO. I suspect the smaller size and weight will eventually be what gets me to do so. The '454 was the portable field scope of its day for a great many, but that was only when compared to 50 pound scopes on large four wheel lab carts.