doveman

Hi HAV What's all this about a UTC Mk II and when can I buy it? I can't possibly buy a Mk I if there's a new, improved version on the horizon ;) Hah yeah, your Superlux headphones look just like the twin of my Samson ones! Good to know you don't notice the weight of the 1600 mAh UTC when mounted. With the foam tape, is it possible to separate the UTC from the headphones and then stick it back on, or would I have to dispose of the tape and use a new piece if I needed to separate them?

Thanks Bourrinopathe, it's very useful to have feedback from a user. I'm just looking at the Duracell USB rechargable battery I used with the (not very good) IR board I made a while ago, which says its capacity is 3.75v/1150 mAh (although it says its output is 5v/0.6A so it obviously has to step up the voltage). I didn't run into any problem with that running out when I was using it as long as I remembered to charge it, although I did have two of them so I could easily swap them over if I'd forgotten to charge one. If HAV's batteries are native 5v and don't have to step up/convert then I guess the 650 mAh one might last as long as these 3.75v/1150mAh ones though and I'm leaning towards the 650 mAh one to minimise the chance of any problems with the weight. My velcro circles are about 18mm diameter, although the space on my headphones is about 25mm, so if I can find bigger velcro pieces I could use those. It might be better to use double-sided foam tape as HAV suggests but the velcro makes it easy to detach stuff when necessary, which I imagine wouldn't be so easy with foam tape. I'm reluctant to rely on rubber bands as when I was using the IR board I made I found that anything attached above the centre of the board pulled it in so that the board didn't sit straight and as the headphone's band flexes that affected the alignment of the LEDS, although to be fair the material I was using for the board wasn't very strong so it may not have been a problem with something more rigid. Even so, if I can stick to just securing it on that one point on the side of the earpiece it will make it simpler.

UK. We haven't left the EU just yet [emoji11]

Shame only ships to Germany

1 : BodyOrgan 2 : geert 3 : Lobinjaevel 4 : Nash 5 : Doveman

Hi HAV I'm currently using an EDtracker mounted on the top of my headset, which works OK but only does pitch, yaw and roll, has to be calibrated every time I plug it in and is connected via a USB cable to my PC (which isn't really a problem as the headset is wired anyway). I'm interested in getting a UTC to use instead with my PS3 Eye (internal filter already removed but I still need to get a decent filter to stick on the outside) but I'm not sure whether it will attach to my Samson SR850 headset securely. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samson-SR850-Professional-Reference-Headphones/dp/B002LBSEQS I've attached a photo which shows how I've removed the circular parts on the sides with the brand name on (these are just pushed on with plastic pins so came off very easily) and stuck a velcro pad in their place. This works great for the microphone I've attached on one side (the mic is mounted to a piece of foamboard with the opposing velco stuck to it) but that probably wouldn't take the weight of the UTC or hold it secure enough, so I wonder if you have any ideas? I guess I should get the 650mAh version to minimise the weight and I'm never going to fly for 8h straight, so I don't think it will be a problem to charge it ever night after I use it but I'd be interested to hear from others who have already bought the 650mAh version if they're happy with it or wish they'd bought one of the others.

As the screen stays black when you press Delete, the problem may be the port you're using on your graphics card is unable to show the BIOS on that monitor. I recall having a similar problem, something like only one of my two DVI ports worked for the BIOS, so you could try switching to a different port or if the monitor has several inputs, like DP and DVI, then try adding an extra cable to connect the one you're not already using and select that in the monitor's menu to see if that works for the BIOS.

Awesome panels you've made there, well done.

I've managed to collect two red trigger FFB2s and one silver trigger now. I'd like to keep one of the red triggers unmodified, as they seem to be more sought after so I'll probably be able to get more for it if I decide to sell it one day and I think they're slightly improved from the original silver trigger so might be more reliable/longer-lasting and I want to be sure I have something to fall back on in case I have difficulties with this project. Can I combine one red trigger and one silver trigger FFB2 to make this project or do I need to use two of the same model, in which case I'll have to keep looking for another silver trigger?

Thanks, that will be great. I'm in no hurry, so whenever you've had the time to check them and are happy with them. In the meantime I'll buy some more components, which is the easy bit [emoji5]

Love that we have such talented and generous mod makers here, these cockpits look amazing.

Looks like you're making good progress there BY, especially impressive with two kids to look after. I don't have any myself and still can't find any time! If you'd be kind enough to share the files I'd need to order your PCBs that would be a massive help to me. I can solder OK and over the last year or so I've been buying Arduinos and switches, pots, etc. but designing PCBs is something I've never done and not having the time to teach myself how to at the moment is preventing me from moving forward, so it would be great if I could benefit from the work you've already done, rather than having to learn how to make the wheel myself so to speak (and I'm sure I'd waste a lot of time and money before getting it right). If I understand correctly, sites like http://dirtypcbs.com/ require me to buy 10 of each board I want and it's about $14 for that, so I'd have to order 10 of each of the Input, Output and Slave boards at a cost of $42 but that seems OK, as I'd probably need at least that many by the time I've built all the panels for a complete cockpit. The actual panels are going to be tricky for me as well but I'll probably just knock up something in foamboard or wood to start with, as they're easy for me to work with using the tools I have available and then I'll replace them with nice backlit acrylic panels when I've worked out how to make them myself or I can afford to buy some pre-made ones (which is probably going to be more practical and cost effective, considering my limited tools and abilities).

+1 It seems crazy to have it so small, especially when the rest of the screen isn't being used for anything. Would be nice to have a hideable briefing window overlaid on the F10 map, so that we could make pre-flight markings on the map to refer to in mission and maybe a notepad where we could type notes, to make it feel more like we were preparing for a mission rather than just reading a bunch of text and trying to make plans in our head, which we've probably forgotten by the time we've started up our aircraft!

Ah thanks, it shouldn't be an issue for 2GB cards then I guess.

Can you say roughly how much VRAM is needed for the 8k DLC? If it needs at least 3GB for example, knowing this would save those with only 2GB from trying it.

+1

Ah thanks for the explanation. I've completely disabled the Intel IGP, so it isn't an issue for me. I guess for anyone who needs extra outputs (e.g. for a Helios screen if they're running triple screens for DCS and don't have a spare output left on their main GPU) they'd be better off getting a cheap card for that, unless they have sufficient RAM to use the Intel IGP without it being a problem. A cheap second-hand card would probably be cheaper than an 8GB upgrade but I haven't checked current prices.

So at what point does the available RAM get reduced by an amount equal to the VRAM on the card?

So if you had 8GB RAM and a card with 8GB VRAM, would you be unable to boot Windows?

I wonder what one is meant to do if using a newish card together with an older card for Helios or such like, as the latter is considered legacy now and not supported by the Crimson drivers as far as I know. I don't imagine both the Crimson and legacy drivers can both be installed at the same time can they?

One complication with simming is you don't have an engineer to make sure your equipment is working correctly. So we both might use a FFB2 stick but I have no idea if mine is producing the same output as yours or if there's a fault that's making it harder to fly than it should be. I guess the only way to be sure would be if someone who uses the same stick and knows what it should be like to fly using it to came to my house and tested it. I know I'm probably just making excuses for my poor flying though :)

+1 I think x-plane has a "save situation" feature to allow you to continue from that point later and it would definitely make long DCS missions more manageable for many people.

Tonike is absolutely right. The reference to DX on the motherboard is purely to the onboard graphics. If a motherboard doesn't have onboard graphics then the specs won't say anything at all about DX but that doesn't mean that you can't use a DX9/10/11/12 graphics card with that motherboard. The CPU runs the program of course but any DX commands are just passed to the GPU to execute.

I don't think it's necessary to use head tracker.dll though, as FTNoIR and OT can present as a TrackIR device, which DCS supports natively.