Warhog

No, I wanted the cockpit to look interesting when powered down. Instead of "OFF" flags I used red LEDs that turn on when the instrument is not in operation. So now you will see a glowing "OFF" instead of the flag. Its not the way its done in real life, I know. But I took "Graphic License" as its termed and changed a few things to suit my taste. I applied that same logic to other instruments. The Hydraulic Gauges for instance. If I loose Hydraulics the gauge will indicate that as well as the Caution panel. But I also added a small red LED beside each gauge that lights when the hydraulics are down and I can immediately see which side is screwed. You can see the LEDs in this pic. Triise, With regards to the fuel panel, this is the only place I used servos besides the flaps gauge. Because of the reverse double shaft gearing required, servos were a better choice as they have the torque needed for a geared type of movement whereas the VID steppers do not.

Tools don't get factored in when calculating costs...only materials. If that were the case, I would also have to factor in my time under "construction costs. Since I normally bill my time at $125.00 per hour, that would make this little build REALLY expensive. :lol:

That sure looks like the same thing Weeb. It even includes the capacitors and the resistor you need. But please be aware that the resistor value may not be correct. You need to get the data sheet for the MAX 7219 and read the section on calculating the resistor value based on your particular application. Its under in the section that describes the "iset" pin on the 7219.

Those are leds in the tactiles so you need a current limiting resistor or they will fry. I use 12v for them. Altimeter, VSI and Air Speed Indicator... Don't use servos! Use zero setting stepper motors. The VID 60 series is what you want. I just ordered 6 from China last week. I have my VSI and Speed Indicator done, almost. The VSI needs to be calibrated with the sim and the Speed needs one of those VID60 motors for the rotating numbers at the top of the faceplate. Here's the front of the altimeter. The pressure setting is an oled and the digital display is of course self explanatory. We changed the program for the oled so the digits now roll like the real display when being changed. Looks very cool. I will replace the 7 seg display with another oled but it hasn't arrived yet and I'm anxious to get the whole thing operational. and now the back This is the same stepper motor I use in the EMI panel. Its nice and small, very smooth and not very expensive. I use them in everything except slow moving gauges such as fuel, flaps and hydraulics. Servos are being used for those gauges. The motion is not very apparent in slow moving gauges so servos work well in those situations. Speed Indicator This still shows the gears I was using. I have removed the gearing for the drum as the VID60 is continuous so I don't need that extreme of a gear ratio any more. Your panels look really nice but your lettering sucks big time. I'm not trying to be nasty but its really evident that there is a problem here. I expect your new to CNC because if you weren't you would be raising bloody hell about this. Its either excessive backlash somewhere in your x or y axis or it could also be a flexure problem in the y axis. Do you have any measurement gauges/indicators of any kind. You should read up on how to check the accuracy of your mill because once you have isolated the problem you can try to reduce the error. But you need to know where its coming from in the first place. I would also complain to the seller about this. Its unacceptable to have this occur in any machine of this calibre. Its like buying a new car and it can only go 50km/hour because after that it shakes like hell. One more question, what depth are you cutting your letters. Typical cutting depth for engraving is .003". You only need to remove the top black surface which is extremely thin. In the close up of your CMSP, it looks like your using Rowmark engraving plastic, same stuff I use. What software are you using for the machine, Mach3? Is it properly calibrated to your machine and also do you have the axis acceleration and deceleration setup as well? These could be adding to the problem.

I just had a look at that web site again and I see they asking 26 Euro's with 10 Euros shipping. Thats like $40.00US And did I say stupidly priced. I think its down right robbery. Now if you can solder, then assemble your own based on the following. Its really not very hard as I did it and last year I knew nothing about this stuff. I couldn't even solder worth a damn. I actually made my own PCB and went from there. But you can buy one from China and solder it up yourself save a shitload of money. Here's the cost breakdown: MAX 7219 from China - 2 for $1.50 = $0.75 ea. PCB already made for you - $1.68 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PC-NEW-MAX7219-lattice-contol-panel-PCB-printed-circuit-board-for-arduino-Good-/171462457882?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ebf57a1a Connectors: $0.50 Couple of capacitors, a resistor and a bit of wire. $1.00 Complete cost in parts $3.93 and no shipping charges vs $40.00 from a commercial outlet. Hello??? thats 10x the cost of making it yourself. Whats wrong with this picture people. Make your own everyone. Its not that hard.

Neal, it's just a pcb with a MAX7219 chip. That's how you are suppose to drive 7seg displays with MCU's like Arduino's. If you check out the Arduino web site there are lots of examples and sample code for it. My Tacan, ILS and all my radios use 7 seg dispalys with DCS-BiOS and Ardiuno Pro Minis. If you can make your own PCB then don't bother with this, otherwise its not a bad idea as long as they don't get stupid with the price.

Very nice Triise. Super clean look. I tried those tactiles with the leds. They are really nice and inexpensive. You happy with them in terms of brightness? They seemed a little bit dim for my liking but maybe the ones i got were just very low intensity. @Anton- all you said was it wouldn't fit in 5.75" wide. :music_whistling: and Mine did.:lol:

Mine fit ok. It's 5.75" wide and the display is 20x2. It just takes some creative fiddling.:music_whistling:

The creation of hot spots is dependent on how you design the caution panels "cell structure" and the material used for the face plate and not on how many LEDS you use. Even my first caution panel used only one LED per cell. This is a picture of my first Caution Panel. In the dark it was actually too bright with all the LEDs lit, but there were no hotspots. It used a lattice structure to create the cells as does my second panel. The lattice is made from white styrene. To create a type of diffusion filter, to ensure there were no hot spots, I sanded the back of the acrylic faceplate with a fine paper (600grit) and that created the diffusion. It worked well but it could have been better. This is my second (and latest) caution panel build. It uses only one LED per cell. It also has a very thin sheet of white plastic that acts as a diffusion filter. When all assemble the brightness is perfect. It is quite bright when in a well lit room and we are only talking 20mA. But it needed to be bright so I could added a diffusion sheet. It's now perfect in both normal room light and a dark room. As with my first panel the underlying structure is built as a lattice of white styrene plastic which does a marvelous job at reflecting the light throughout the cell which also contributes to diffusion. And finally, you can see the diffusion layer and the effect it produces. No hot spots. I use a diffusion sheet between the LED and the Acrylic faceplate as below. This diffusion sheet is just a sheet of .02" thick white styrene. It comes in various thickness so its easy to try different thicknesses to find what works for you. This only works as I described by using clear acrylic painted black and engraving through the paint. You could use engraving plastic but then the LEDS would need to be brighter and the diffusion sheet deleted from the build. And here it is almost complete...need to painted the edges black, drill a few holes and clean it up a wee bit. It's always good to see how others have built their panels. I find it helps generate new ideas and hopefully more creative approaches to solving these kind of build problems.

That may not be the best advice as I'm often as confused as most everyone here looking for answers.:megalol: My caution panel is still under construction so i cannot attest to how well the MAX7219 works with an LED matrix. I have used it on numerous occasions to drive 7 seg displays for my Tacan, ILS and UHF Repeater. I will definately be using it to drive the Caution panel. I would first get the data sheet for the 7219 and read it carefully. It's easy to install but there is important info on decoupling capacitors and setting max current. Then see the Arduino site as they have libraries for it. Lastly, refer to the last page of the DCS-BIOS Users Guide as there is the beginnings of a sketch to run the matrix. Then after you've done all that, let me know if it works and I'll use it as well.:music_whistling: :lol: Kidding aside, my matrix is already in place and my design of it will not work with the example Ian provided in the Users Guide. My sketch had to remap all of the indicators because I screwed up in laying out the PCB. :doh: So it won't work with your matrix once you've built it. I do believe Ian's sketch is the solution your looking for.

This is what Anton is talking about. A framework to divide the area into 48 cells. Then you get this. Only one cell being illuminated One Arduino board can handle the entire Caution Panel assuming that you lay out the circuit board as a matrix. You can use a MAX7219 chip to direct the output from the Arduino board to all or one or any combination of LEDs and you won't need a resistor for each LED. If you attempt to light every LED from an Arduino board "as is" the current draw will fry the board. 48 LEDs x 20mA = total current of 960mA

So even after all that they didn't work? Mine worked really well. Three different sizes and every one worked perfect.

I was also reading that a lot of the chinese 7219 required delays in the code to work properly. I'm talking 20ms or so especially on power up. It lets them stabilize before they start working with incoming data. That could be misinformation but they said it worked and I found that in several posts in other forums I was reading. Maybe as a last ditch effort. Nothing to loose trying it. I also read that a majority of the chinese 7219 clones worked well although sometimes a little quirky so its a good idea to have a bunch on hand just in case you do need to swap out chips. When you look at prices, whats an extra $5 for 10 more. Its insurance. I just ordered another 10 for good luck. How about the 20x2 LCD displays...any problems with those reading the same data? Do you mean 2 - MAX7219's connected to one Arduino board or one MAX7219 per Arduino board running 2 boards, each on a separate com port displaying different sets of data? .

Separate. Are you using the cheap chinese 7219 chips? I have had a couple of chips that didn't function properly. Have you tried a different set of 7219 chips? It the easiest thing to try first just in case. At least you eliminate one possibility without expending a great deal of effort.. I must admit that it bothers me that Chinese 7219 are less than a dollar a piece yet N.American and European sources are ten times that price. Why? This might be a silly question but have you installed decoupling capacitors .1uF and 10uF at each chip?

I haven't had a chance to get it running as I ran out of Pro Mini's:music_whistling:. Got 10 more on order though they're coming from China so I imagine it will be 2 weeks yet. What I do have running is the ILS with a 7 seg display and a 7219 in it and the UHF repeater also uses 7 seg display with a 7219. They both seem to work fine. I haven't had all of my panels wired up yet as I'm getting the front dash put together. I did have one very odd situation which I haven't had a chance to explore yet. I was calibrating 2 servos for the r & L Fuel tanks/gauge and when one was running everything was good but I couldn't get both of them to work properly at the same time. Not sure why yet. I just seem to keep running out of time and nothing gets completely finished. I won't be able to look at the 7219 issue for a little while but as soon as those Pro Mini's get here I will get them all up and running or be on here asking for help.

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is. I'm a newbie at this as well. And in that light I helped Ian write the Users Guide so laypeople like you and I could understand what to do without needing to learn much at all. The developers guide to me is unbelievably foreign. I have no idea what it means, does or whatever. Maybe one day but not today. You shouldn't have even looked at it or anything in the advanced level of the Chrome app. If you want to start making panels, adding some LED indicator lights and have the ability to adjust volumes or change channels in the cockpit then all you have to do is cut and paste stuff that has no meaning to me at all. All you need to know is that if you do exactly whats in the Users Guide...IT WORKS. Its step by step. Just follow the steps and have faith that if you follow the steps in the correct order and do only what your told to do then all will be well. And don't try to bite off more than you can chew as your still learning. If you jump too far ahead you will probably get frustrated. Start with implementing everything in the Users Guide first as in all the basic controls that are documented. Once you have a handle on all of that, then move on to the more complicated stuff. If there is something that is unclear, ask us. We are all here to learn, to help each other and to grow in our knowledge, in our skills and our abilities and to pass on to others the same:).

Are you running several displays from one Arduino board? If you use several boards on different com ports would the same be happening?

Its true. He turned me into a monster:animals_bunny: . I spend every waking moment thinking about electronics and programming. Not so much programming yet as my brain couldn't handle the combined input of both disciplines at the same time. I don't have the band width to handle the data stream. And I don't want to end up like my poor Pro Mini yesterday... FRIED and smoking.:( :pilotfly:

I did understand what you were asking and I had considered doing it as well. But after thinking about how the r encoders work and how they are synced in game, there will be situations where you won't get them to work like you want them to. Consider you just got into an airframe that is already in flight. The volumes on the radios are set on high. Your r. encoder is turned to low and a hard stop is preventing it from moving any lower. You can turn the encoder higher but the radio volumes are already on high. So how'd do you turn them down with you r encoder now that its movement is limited because you have a hard stop installed. You can't. That's the problem. I don't see a solution to it other than letting your r. encoders turn freely. @dirkr. When you say the accuracy decreases to a forth I'm not sure how I should interpret that in physical movement of the pot vs reported values. Can you expand on that statement as to what exactly you could expect after implementing the code.

Nope. It didn't make any difference to me whether it rotated 300 degrees or 5 x 360 degrees. I'm not sure a blocking solution would work as the encoder wouldn't work properly if you jumped into an aircraft in flight and the volumes in the cockpit were all set to high. You couldn't turn them down. But in the big scheme of things, I would prefer this little irregularity to a barrel full of data jamming up my serial connections.

Not to mention the software used for USB to Video is DisplayLink and its is very problematic with Win7 64. It also has major issues with most Nvidia products. From my experience with DisplayLink, I would stay away from it....far away!

I installed 10k pots in several panels but the amount of data from the pots was huge and they were constantly outputting data. I was concerned I would have the same issue I had with Helios and pots. It caused so much lag I couldn't use Helios. I even had the cascade box checked in Helios but to no avail. I did find a cure though...I switched everything to rotary encoders. They work as well if not better than pots. The only draw back is that rotary encoders require the use of 2 pins whereas pots only need 1. But it was worth it. No lag and no constant stream of data clogging up everything.

Thanks Peter WOW! I'll have to spend a bit of time digesting that info. :huh: May be a wee bit over my head and my abilities at this point in time. However, I really haven't spent any amount of time thinking about the whole calibration issue. The focus has been on just getting an actual gauge built. Now that they're almost finished I will need to give this a lot more thought.

You got that right:thumbup: Very nice work Peter. They look quite excellent. I'm curious as to how you went about calibrating the gauges so they match the sim. Was it a mathematically calculated process or just by eye so to speak. Looking forward to seeing the finished cockpit.:)

For each action such as a volume control, Ian has provided several options for you to choose from such as a potentiometer, a rotary encoder...even a push button. All of these components could cause the volume to increase/decrease and then code to make that happen is also provided. If in fact the "DcsBios::SwitchMultiPos" was the choice that came up in the "simple" category, switch over to "advanced "and see what other options are available. I think you will find the normal selection for that switch type listed there. It's probably a typo in the app that lists that switch as a fiirst choice selection instead of an option.