Warhog

::lol: .... :music_whistling: Hey DM Not to worry my friend. This hobby has so many f**king acronym's its hard to keep up or in my case ...REMEMBER:( As to your earlier post... Yes, the only stick font available for free that's any good (assuming you have some version of AutoCAD) is the romans.shx font. The military fonts are pretty much a no go unless somebody has a stick font version of them that I don't know about. Please keep in mind that stick fonts are what rotary engravers work with. When it comes to laser engravers... I have no idea:huh: . But I expect lasers would be more versatile and offer a completely different feature set than a RE would since its older technology. (BTW DM...RE is short for rotary engraver :lol:). Just pulling your chain DM. Wait till your my age. You need to carry a little book around just to decipher a simple email. What can I say? Gettin old really sucks...right Gordy!:P So who has a laser on this forum and is doing engraving? Care to chime in re: fonts and military fonts and what results your getting.

Excellent. Glad to here all is now good. Best of luck on your build. And don't forget to take pics as you progress.:)

I just clicked on one of the files and a screen with text appears. I then did a right click and picked "save as" and saved the file as shit.dxf. It downloaded the file (in Chrome) and then I just clicked on the file and it opened in AutoCAD. No problemo. So its back to...what is it that you expect to happen. What software are you wanting to use and what is it that you expect the software to be able to do for you. You may be thinking it will do something that it can not. Do you have AutoCAD? If so all you need to do is double click the file and it opens. Did you spell the extension correctly? It should be newfile.DXF or dxf. Case matters not I saw that you miss-spelled it a few posts ago as in DFX. It won't open with that spelling.

Maybe what you need to do is tell us what you thought these dxf files will let you accomplish. Do you have any CAD or CNC background? It is difficult to provide assistance with out this information. DXF files are in fact text files. They are used as a vehicle to move drawing data from one CAD program to another in a very basic, stripped down, text format. The DXF file extension is short for Drawing eXchange Format

In situations where you are driving a mass, such as the gearing you mentioned, acceleration is a must. I was being rather general by saying that acceleration is not necessary as I was assuming most gauges would consist of just a pointer attached to a shaft. Your solution to have choice in the code to either use acceleration or not is perfect. I must admit that when I consider some of my other projects, such as my real 5" ADI which will be retro fitted with steppers, I will be driving a substantial mass. In that case I will need acceleration. Did you try adjusting the current with the built in pot on the Easy Driver board. I had some terrible movement in some of my testing. Adjusting for the correct current made a huge difference. When you do it on the fly, you can hear the change it makes. As long as you recognize the potential issues going that high. For instance your slow speed is ultra smooth but as you increase speed you loose torque and now your tiny pointer weighs 2 lbs. One of the other problems using 32 micro steps is the number of steps per revolution that are generated. At at higher speeds they will become unmanageable especially with a 16mhz Arduino. I think the solution to getting smooth operation throughout all the possible speeds a gauge may be subject to is by using a transmission so to speak...like an automobile transmission. (Holly shit this guys is nuts):crazy: as in a transmission that changes gears with speed. I don't know how this would be accomplished in code but you would change step rates as the speed changes. At high speeds full steps are perfect, at low speeds 1/8 steps are perfect and then something proportional in between the 2 extremes. I know from experience that some gauges can be run with VID29-05 motors and need nothing else at all. My AOA gauge is only using Stepper.h as the library and it runs beautifully right from an Arduino board. I ran it for six hours as a test. But I will, in fact, switch it over to the Easy Driver to save pins and also to be consistent. I have seen several people run four VID motors from a Mega. Total current draw is less than 20mA/motor so we are only at 80mA. I believe you can safely take it up to 200mA total devices per board without fear of damage. But that's a terribly inefficient as you need four pins per motor which is a waste when pins are always at a premium. I have 4 VID 6606 chips and I tried to drive the VID motors with one and then another but no success. I will have another go at it when I get some time but so far I am pleased with the Easy Driver boards I'll download your changes to the code and see what we get. We'll talk more in the very near future. Thanks again Gadroc for spending time on this. John

Check this out Clay. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=138862&page=5 Scroll down to my pics and you can see one way to make the CLP.

Thank you Toxaq. All the VID series motors I purchased are available on http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Glorification-vid29-02-original-car-instrument-stepper-motor-changan-star-instrument-motor/1522916989.html There also appears to be another knockoff on AliExpress. Prices can be as low as $1.50 each so it pays to check out a number of vendors before you put down money. Btw, all these knockoffs are based on the original Switec Stepper motor. The price of Swtec is also quite low so it really doesn't matter what manufacturer made the motor as they are all exactly the same. The appearance may be a bit different. The standard stepper is the VID29-05 Double shaft stepper is the VID28 Continuous rotation stepper is the VID60 (built in IR detection) Gadroc, these particular motors only draw 20mA (max) so multiple motors on a single Arduino is not a concern from an over current perspective. This might be of assistance. http://guy.carpenter.id.au/gaugette/resources/vid/20091026113525_VID29_manual_EN-080606.pdf

How are you handling the "going past 12 o'clock" situation with the altimeter? As you know, one 360 degree revolution is equal to the DCS export value of 65,535. Are you counting the number of full revolutions? On all my continuous rotation stepper motors I have a IR receiver/emitter setup that triggers a digital pin and sets zero at precisely the same location and then everything starts from that point. The VID stepper motors are specifically designed for use in automobile gauges. They have very little, if any, shake and thats probably because they have approx. 945 steps/revolution . Imagine using micro stepping with these motors at 8 micro steps/full step. We would be talking about some very large numbers. So far I have found that micro stepping these little motors is not required but I have taken it up to 4 steps/full step on occasion. There is a lot of flexibility using these motors. I guess that is one reason they are so popular, especially among the racing enthusiasts. So far I have the VVI, Air Speed, AOA and even part of my Standby ADI running the VID motors. In the photos below you can see the VID 60 motor with the integrated IR detector for zero setting. Its built right into it. And then there is the two shaft VID motor (just barely visible in the pic) running the dial face pointers. It works very well just in full steps so far. I am now in the process of getting my EMI running. All the motors are installed and ready to calibrate. Because this panel has so many gauges, I have decided on a different tact. I am going to be using 12 Easy Driver boards (btw, Chinese knockoffs are $1.50 ea) and a ChipKit UNO32 which runs at 80MHz. This way I can run all 12 motors with one board. All the other gauges will use the Pro Minis. I have had the same issue with some of my NEMA motors. There are several ways to deal with the shake and one is to implement micro stepping. That is actually one of the major reasons I started using the Easy Driver boards because its so easy to control the size of the step. In fact I understand that you can actually change from micro stepping to full steps on the fly. I have no idea how to do that but it certainly would solve the issue of shake completely. You use full steps at high speed and as the motor slows down it goes into half step, then 1/4 step and ultimately micro steps at very slow speeds. Result...no shake. Unfortunately that is beyond my level of programming as are most things.:music_whistling: The whole issue of getting gauges up and running, and running well, can be very problematic as I am finding. If there is anything I can help with or to brain storm or talk out a problem that I may have already dealt with, let me know. I have a fair number of gauges already built but not fully tested however I would be happy to do what I can to assist. :thumbup:

From what I understand, acceleration takes up a good bit of time to implement so leaving it in the code when it won't enhance the quality of a gauges movement is not really justifiable. If someone decides to build a full on motion simulator I think they will be using a much different code (a robust code) for DCS-BIOS to run the motion controls. (especially if it's me in the cockpit):music_whistling: :lol: But one thing I learned over the past few weeks about using stepper motors is that the Arduino boards are just barely powerful enough to run three or four motors simultaneously and do it accurately and without any lag. Now understand that I am not speaking from experience here. But I have been doing a lot of research to try and diagnose why Adrians Altimeter was loosing steps when he was in a full dive http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=145193. To that end I consulted with Mike McCauley, the author of the Accel Library and Brian Schmalz who designed the Easy Driver board as they have both done a lot of work with stepper motors and various MCU's. They both stated that the Arduino board has limitations in driving stepper motors. Now maybe if you use one Arduino board for two gauges it will not be an issue but there are over 40 stepper motors needed for a full cockpit so that becomes a bit of a problem. But my point here is that any code related to driving stepper motors should always be tweaked to the point of maximum performance. Removing acceleration is just one step (pun):music_whistling: closer toward that goal.:)

This looks to be rather exciting. I was wondering if you had tested the stepper motor code with actual motors yet. From looking at the ino file it appears your assuming the user will be employing driver boards with step and direction pins. I don't know if your familiar with the Vid series of motors. They are a very popular 4 pin motor used for gauges and can run directly from an Arduino board without creating an over current situation or needing a driver board . But they will require 4 pins and different code. Is this something you could include? As much as acceleration has been included in your code, you can actually remove it as it's not necessary . I had some discussions with the author of the Accel Library and the designer of the Easy Driver board and it was agreed that acceleration is not necessary in our application. We are not moving any kind of large mass up to a specific speed. In fact, all we are doing is mimicking the movement of a pointer which exists in a virtual setting that already has "the appearance" of what acceleration actually does. Acceleration is necessary for CNC but when we just want to create a gauge for a cockpit, which is basically just a Repeater, we do not need acceleration . An added benefit of removing acceleration is that the code will run even more efficiently.:) I was wondering how you were intending to zero the stepper motor in the sketch of the VVI and Altimeter. I didn't see any reference to setting zero, or the start point in your examples. Could you elaborate on this please. Gadroc, could talk a little about the wiring needed for th RS-485 and what is required so I can do some testing. And one final comment, I would like thank you for your time and effort in this project. What Ian and yourself have contributed to this community has made it possible for so many to take their cockpits to a level that only a few have ever been able to achieve. I commend you both for your contributions. John

Pocketing is the problem. The only time you pocket is when your letters are at least .25" high. Most lettering is .15". Do not even think of pocketing letters that size. The caution lights panel should only require one operation... engraving. I think you might be trying to do too much. What I suggest is that you send me your CamBam file and I will have a look at it and let you know what I think. I can also send you some of my files to have a look at so you can see how I am doing it. The only time I have to wait for CamBam to finish processing is when I am doing gauge faces. That's only because the lettering on gauges are much higher than normal panel lettering so I use a pocket operation to cut the letters. Clay, send one of your typical CamBam files to me at jfw@cogeco.ca. I'll see where the problem is and get back to you. John

I hope you didn't pay $8 bucks a piece for those push buttons. If you did this link is gonna make you cry. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5Pcs-Green-Square-Cap-DC12V-Light-SPDT-5-Terminals-Momentary-Push-Button-Switch-/141732400034?hash=item20ffe8cba2 :music_whistling: I spent many hours on eBay looking over the Chinese components and for what we are doing their products and pricing is just whats needed to make this whole effort affordable. I used those Chinese push buttons for the NMSP and the Fire Ext. in my first cockpit... When I started my second cockpit I decided to go for a much more realistic approach so I made my own Korrey switches from scratch. Each button has two LEDs, one for the top and one for the bottom. Deezle, I was thinking that even if those 7 seg displays are a little intimidating, you could always use LCD 1x8 displays for the radios. There is an excellent video tutorial in the first DCS-BIOS thread that Ian made to demonstrate how easy it is to use them. You should check it out. The displays cost virtually nothing if you buy Chinese. http://www.ebay.com/itm/8x1-LCD-Display-Character-Module-w-KS0066-HD44780-Controller-Black-White-/301020329281?hash=item461635b541

Hi Clay...actually the term is pin gauges cause I'm getting old and I forget stuff which really sucks. Anyways, you start by ensuring somewhere on your workpiece there is a hole in around 1/8" diameter thereabouts. It's not important what the diameter is since you will have a pin gauge set. Select the correct pin for the hole. Try and keep that hole to bottom left just as you do for 0,0. I also clamp a straightedge on the table that is perfectly parallel with one axis. With the pin pushed into the workpiece, I gently move the spindle head with pin chucked up in it and slide it tight to straightedge. When you' re done that, set zero in the DRO's and regen the tool paths. Now I should regress back to your drawing when it's in CamBam. In preparation for using the pin for registration you need to ensure that the drawing your working with shows this hole. In fact this same hole needs to be at 0,0 on the screen when you generate the g-code. If you want to check for accuracy, you can do a drill operation. Pick a second hole on your drawing that, like the registration hole, has already been cut. Select it and choose the drill operation but only have the drill depth set to -.0001. That way when you have your pin gauge still in the chuck you can run that little bit of code to move the pin overtop this second hole to see how accurate your workpiece alignment is. Move the pin down into the hole and if your workpiece is properly registered the pin should slide right in. I don't like to use edges for registration as it's difficult to keep everything in position as your trying to get perfect registration.i get perfect alignment to .0005" using the pin method. :) ...the Caution Lights panel eh? Tell me how you will make that before you start cutting anything. That panel is not so easy and I would like to see what your process will be. It might save you some major aggrevation.

Squadron: 31st COG Callsign: WarHog Preferred Airframe: A10C, UH-1H Please include me in the 31st COG squadron and I'll play on whatever side the squadron is assigned. In addition to registering here for the Blue Flag fight should I also register on the Buddyspike website? Thanks guys. Looking forward to flying in this campaign.

Well done Clay. Looks like you are now on the road to making your first panel. Question...does the tape hold on that piece of UHMW. I ask that because I understand UHMW has a waxy surface so that could be a problem for you. If you try to cut something that requires more force the workpiece may actually slide on that type of material. Be careful. Also, you may want to have some larger diameter cutters. As much as 1/16" is needed for most cuts, it would be a huge time saver to have a 1/4" and a .375" endmill for pocketing large areas. You will also want a 1/16" or 1/8" ball nose cutter. How is your zeroing routine ...have you got that down now. Reason I ask is there will be times where you need to flip your workpiece to cut the back. You will need to re-zero it on a new zero point which brings me to my next point. Dowel pins...they are 2" long and they come in a set with diameters incrementing at .001". Best to buy Chinese as they can be expensive. They come in a set http://www.starrett.com/metrology/metrology-products/precision-measuring-tools/fixed-gage-standards/Pin-Gages#currentPage=1&displayMode=grid&itemsPerPage=24&sortBy=wp/asc You will need these to help you in ACCURATELY registering a workpiece that you have flipped.

Comfort trumps all at my age. :smilewink: You should see my cockpit seat...a big comfy recliner. Nothing else will make my big ass smile as much as this seat does. Although, that's probably not an image you want in your head. :doh: :megalol:

Hi Deezle Thank you for the compliment on my radios. If you want to use 7 seg displays just do a search using arduino and Max7219. It's easy to make these and programming the arduino is not hard at all. They really make a huge impact on your cockpit. :thumbup:

Clay CNC certainly has a learning curve to it and it will take some time to get setup properly and establish a routine for consistant results. CamBam uses the outline of the letter unless you are using stick fonts. When you want large sized fonts, choose Arial and pocket it. Otherwise use RomanS which is an AutoCAD font and then you can choose engrave. You should always place your drawing with 0,0 at the bottom left when in CamBam. After you fasten you work piece onto the table, move your cutter to the same place relative to yoru work piece and then pick the x and y DRO's in Mach3 and they will reset to zero. Last thing is to pick the "recalc tool path" located under the window that shows your workpiece tool path lines. If you need to make a tool change, once the new cutter is in place and the z axis has been zeroed, pick GoTo Zero and it will move your tool into the exact same starting point. Do another recalc tool path and you are set to start cutting again. BTW, before picking GoTo Zero, ALWAYS move you cutter up from your workpiece a 1/4" or thereabouts, to ensure it doesn't drag through your workpiece. You really need to have a good understanding of both software packages to obtain consistent results. Not only that, but trouble shooting will be much easier as well. If you have access to a machine shop you might want to have them provide you with a 1/4" thick 12" square piece of aluminum that has a ground surface on both sides. When you want to engrave or make pcb's you fasten it to you table and then tape your work piece to it. I use a ground aluminum plate over my table. Btw, are you using the tape I recommended and are you covering the entire surface with it?

Holy crap Gordy...I had no idea you were that far ahead. Especially with a bout in the hospital. Looks great my friend. John

Tekkx if I can give you a hand at the drawing part...I work in AutoCAD and can export .dxf files to those who would like copies for milling parts such as the PCB. Just let me know and I'll be there. John

I Know. I understand. I was the same. But it starts slowly. It's like a drug thats fun once in a while. Then you say "well maybe just on the weekends" But then you start to want it through the week as well. Then you start to need it... That's how it always starts. That's how I started... and now I'm hooked.:( :megalol: But I love it.:pilotfly: and so it begins.....:music_whistling: :megalol:

Well done Tekkx. I must commend you on an excellent effort. Two very important qualities for a successful cockpit builder is creativity and ingenuity. I see you have both. I'm looking forward to seeing your finished cockpit. Thank you so much for all the time you have put into this project and also for making your results available to all. That's what we are all about.:thumbup: John

I would just keep it simple for the moment. If you use a USB connection you won't have to worry about anything else other than the code to run the speed indicator. At the moment DCS-BIOS only provides data for specific planes. So start with the A-10 module and get it running as toxaq has suggested. I know Ian has been planning to find a way to extract a common airspeed, direction, altitude etc regardless of the module. but that won't happen anytime soon. Your first priority should be to get a good understanding of DCS-BIOS. As well you will want to get a good handle on writing code for the Arduino. The DCS-BIOS users guide has a number of simple examples you can use. Examples are all based on using the Arduino Uno but you can use pretty much any other Arduino board. I use, almost exclusively, the Pro Mini, a rather inexpensive board ($2.50) if ordered from China. That way I don't get all pissed off if I accidentally fry one cause I got 10 more in my parts bin.:music_whistling: Once you have gone through all that info and you are in the building phase, post any additional questions to the "Cockpit Building" section. Good luck and happy building. John

What you need to do is to start reading. Begin with the users guide at http://dcs-bios.a10c.de/docs/v0.2.0/userguide.html and follow the steps precisely as documented. This guide was written for the layperson\novice so it won't be difficult to understand. Next, go through this thread http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141096 where you will find lots of good info. At that point you will be building stuff. Not an air speed indicator but you have to walk before you run. Have fun and we will see you in a couple of weeks.:thumbup:

Why don't you add some LCD displays for the panels you've shown above. They're only couple of dollars each, they are easy to connect with DCS using DCS-BIOS and they look really cool as well. There is even a tutorial in the first thread on DCS-BIOS where Ian takes you through the process in about 3 minutes. And thats pretty easy if you ask me.