donbinator

I actually had the same idea a while back but couldn't find anything affordable (if I'm understanding your question correctly). I remember as a kid those little plastic pucks that would lift an image up to the surface. I asked on my thread and got this response from metalnwood: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1851434&postcount=65

Warning Panel almost done Warning panel is coming together, but I need to figure out how to make the front panel better. In order for the LED's not to bleed I'm cutting out each indicator hole from 3/16" plastic, then cutting out the indicators themselves from 1.8" plastic. Made the indicators just slightly too small, but I'm going to try to fill with black glue or maybe paint. Also the fact that my cat bumped it off the table and one of them fell out means I should probably look at a better way to glue them in :). Circuit board has turned out nice on the first try, accepts 6 to 12V supply, turns it into 3.3V and interfaces with my PoKeys modules over I2C.

I just buy semi opaque white cast acrylic, spray paint it black, then I etch through the paint and cut all in one step. No need for masking and multiple passes through the laser that way. It shows up as white, but you can shine green light through the back.

Tack ensamvarg! I guess I'll just order some and try it :).

metalnwood, which lasermax product are you using to get the semi-opaque background? I see black on white but I don't see anything about how my green is going to shine through...?

Ah snap. I just realized my IO controller supports I2C and your part has 16 outputs :(. Sigh. Just got the parts for my design in the mail today...I'm tempted to ditch the ULN2803's. The MCP23018 would drastically free up IO and require fewer wires to the board. I was trying to keep it simple with 1to1 IO but in hind sight that was probably not a good idea. They support 25mA per output which is exactly the max current for the LEDs I'm using. Argh.

ULN2803's are exactly what I'm using (it takes 6 :)). I get what you are doing but I don't feel comfortable playing with the higher-current-shorter-duty-cycle thing for the LEDs. If for some reason your multiplexer (not sure what's clocking it) were to stop you'd burn out whichever LED is stopped on. Not to say that's a bad design, I think it's likely a pretty common design. I just don't have the confidence for it :). For my ignorance I pay in lots and lots of little tiny solder joints. :(

Hmm, not sure what you mean. I don't see how I could multiplex the LEDs and still have individual control using fewer resistors. Multiplexing would involve have a duty cycle amongst a row of LEDs, I could have one resistor per row but then I'd have to make up for the 1/n duty cycle by increasing the current through LED quite substantially in order to make up for the lack of brightness. What am I missing? :book:

Yep, I just finished schematic and am in layout now for the warning panel. What a PITA. Not complicated but I sure had to get my copy/paste/auto-increment foo down for the schematic. I'm seriously considering having the board house stuff the parts as well for me as I'm really not looking forward to soldering 46 0603 LEDs and their corresponding resistors...

Zahry, maybe it's already been discussed or is "well known" and if so I apologize, but where would I mount the three projectors for a three projector system with your screen? I'm already running around with a tape measurer...:). Could I settle for two projectors?

I'm confused about everyone who plans to use Rift (now owned by facebook) for their "cockpit". I can understand playing computer games with a head mounted display where one hand is on the mouse and the other with you middle finger at the D key or whatever (I've spent many hours doing just that), but what do I do with a head mounted display sitting in my cockpit surrounded by gauges and dials? What's the point to my front panel? As far as projection vs. monitor, I get that when you stretch stuff out your resolution is decreased, but what is your goal? I would much rather have 180' field of view than what I can get with three monitors on bezels, which gets me about 100' at best. Almost every commercial high end simulator uses a setup very similar to what zahry is peddling. I for one am excited about it. I've already spent thousands on my cockpit and I'm only half done. One of the more important aspects is the view. I would probably still use my trackIR but have it locked until I turned my head up or far to the side. Space is another thing though, I don't have enough space for the screen where my cockpit currently sits, but given half a chance I'll rearrange stuff to get the space.

I'd be interested in knowing where you got that. I am still buying 60% opaque plastic and spray painting it flat black. It looks pretty nice but it would be nice to skip that step :).

"hello gentlemen, welcome to all from Italy, with a glass of Italian red wines." I'll be having a nice Valpolicella grown wine myself tonight!

Isn't Deadman producing a book? Someone on here is....

Does anyone have a copy of "The Modern A-10 Guide: The A-10 exposed" or whatever it's called? I just got my copy of the F-18 version but it sure would be nice to have the A-10 version so I can do my own designs...sure wish they would run another print batch....

Ask yourself what you want out of building a cockpit. Is it to have a fly or to also satisfy a need to build and design for fun. If it's to have and fly and you want to get to a point where you can sit and fly as quickly as possible, check out y2kiah's thread for plans on the frame, Flim sells plans for an ACES-II seat, and search around for plans to most of the panels along with what IO modules to use with Helios for switches etc. I started that route then kind of regretted being impatient as now I'm considering what it would take to take my hobby to the next level and rent out cockpit/simulators to others by the hour. In this case you have to consider copyright infringement / ethics of using stuff you copied to make a profit. If I were to move forward with my idea I would either have to redesign several parts from scratch or enter agreements with the various folks who put in the work that I did not (even if I just used something as a reference, I'm a software/firmware engineer by trade and as such deal with copyright/pollution issues regularly). In any case, definitely do some personal soul searching on what it is you really think you will enjoy out of the process and have fun!!!! I know I am.

Ah that's a great idea! I was totally spacing on the fact that you are only displaying so the OCR can pick it up. I'll likely be doing the same since much of my 27" Front Panel monitor is hidden...thanks for the tip! :)

I'm using a USB Video adapter (in my case USB to VGA for an old 5" LCD I had laying around). Works like a charm so far. You can hook quite a few of them up if the resolution remains relatively low. Mine is set to 800x600. You can find them on ebay for around $30. My plan was to use it for the CDU. Something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-3-0-to-VGA-Video-Card-Multi-Display-Cable-Adapter-for-Windows-7-8-Perfect-/351015277398?pt=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item51ba241356

Mr. Burns, in my experience the 25mA rating for the LED is quite bright, and you can get away with less, but you'll have to experiment with what the maximum brightness you want is, and what current that ends up being per LED. So let's assume your acceptable maximum brightness ends up being around 18mA, then 31 buttons times 18mA is 558mA. Most often each USB output from the back of your PC will support up to 500mA, but powered hubs will often support up to 1A per output. All of that said, you would have to look at the specs for your GGG interface card and find out how much current it can provide. If I were to use LEDs to light my UFC I would personally plan on giving my UFC it's own power supply and driver IC's to drive the LEDs. This will also allow things like Pulse Width control for dimming (set current to your maximum desired brightness, then use a Pulse Width Modulator to adjust brightness in game). I'm going to first try the light board method first though with a big ol' green light in the box to backlight the keys, except for the Warning indicator which obviously has its own light. Your way will probably look a lot better though. We'll see how I do :).

Deadman, I never saw for sure what you are using as rails? I'm having a heck of a time finding something that will work and isn't really really really expensive. I was going to do the whole aluminum L bracket thing but I would much rather have something more sturdy and with holes already in the right places...

I wonder what it would sound like if you routed the center channel to headphones....? Have you tried that? I'll try it when I get a chance and see how it sounds.

Is there a way to get the air traffic to go to my headphones while the rest of the world sounds go to my speakers?

Jaroslav, of course people would be interested! It looks beautiful and well constructed! The issue isn't so much whether people want it or not, it's whether or not we want to dish out that much money all at once (having not idea how much you would be able to sell it for). Generally I've found that folks are willing to spend thousands over several years putting something together piece by piece, but not all at once. That said don't be discouraged. I believe that with the right marketing one can sell cockpit stuff like what you have at a premium to the right market, but it's a niche market and I'm not sure, but I think most of them don't spend much time on these forums (they are rich and generally don't have time to tinker too much :)). All that said, hit me! When you know what you are going to charge I'm absolutely interested! I'm building an A-10C cockpit right now but I know it won't be my last. I was even considering starting a location where folks can go and learn to fly the A-10 (or Huey?), F-18 etc. I think there's a market for that as well. In the mean time I'm just like you and enthusiast just waiting to quit my job to follow my dreams :).

Yay! I finished phase 1 of my C# program to interface my PoKeys modules to DCS. I did eventually figure out that the UDP connection from export.lua is actually a connection and not just a broadcast (the listener uses that same connection to send data back to DCS). For that reason I can't use multiple listeners on the same socket, so I had to add a connection in my export.lua to talk to my app separately (makes sense). Anyways, if anyone is interested in a half finished app that appears to work great for Digital Inputs from a Pokeys module let me know and I'll post it along with the source. Go easy on me though it's my first C# program so there's a lot of stuff I would rewrite in hindsight. Analog coming as soon as I need it. Elec panel is wired up and working, next up is the....whatever the one with the master arm switch is called, I have to redesign the panel since my first design doesn't fit the hole I made in my front panel :(. After that I think I'm going to tackle the CDU and front CDU input thingy (I really need to brush up on my terminology :)).

LOL!!! You totally had me going there Cali. I was all like "WTF? A DCS forum troll??!" As usual I didn't read to the bottom of the "email" which gets me in trouble at work all the time :).:doh: