Warhog

:lol: if you knew how many times I have redesigned and rebuilt a panel or instrument because I thought I could do even better the next time. And I actually do turn out a better end result each time because, during the process, I have learned what NOT to do.:doh: If I didn't have some self control I think I could probably redo every panel and make it so much more than the previous one... but then I would never get to fly in my cockpit :music_whistling: :pilotfly: With the ADI, I tried to install a stepper motor in place of an existing syncro. That way I was able to use the exact same gear train. You'll have to make a little IR detection circuit to zero the sphere in pitch and roll. After that, calibration will be easy. The whole project is quite the interesting challenge. The HSI, though, scares me a little. I just hope it will be doable. @Gadroc, I would be very interested in how you were able to integrate the existing indicators with DCS. BTW, how is your EMI coming along? Did you decide on using stepper motors or servos?

That looks sooooo nice Calum. Well done.:thumbup:

The VID60 motors are available on AliExpress. I believe you will have to buy them in lots of 5. They are actually for a clock. The have an inner and outer shaft (hour/minute hands). The inner shaft is what you will use and it is 250 steps. I would loose the h bridge in favor of the Easy Driver board. It gives you much more flexibility and is very inexpensive. Try a couple of them. You won't be disappointed. The x25 is the Switec motor I was referring too. VID series are a knockoff of that motor. The code you found was written for my VVI. There will be documentation in DCS BIOS at some point in the future for it and the VID60 motor. The ADI you have can be run with small NEMA motors. I use servos for all of the indicators but I think you could use the existing coils to control them. I just didn't have enough electronics background at the time to make it happen. I'm planning on doing exactly the same thing with an HSI. We will see how that works out. The gearing inside these things is amazing. I had an HSI from a 727 that I tore apart. The gears and bearings I salvaged were really helpfully in modifying/building other instruments. Glad you liked the pics. I'll be posting more as things move forward. I hope you will do the same.:)

....and you also need to leave a single digital pin for the Rs-487 "enable" pin. Good job getting the bus working Hans.:thumbup:

Thanks guys. @ Anton, I was seriously considering one of the Slaw pedals. After your comments I was pretty much convinced that they were the ones to buy, not to mention, they look really nice. But I'm a glutton for punishment :music_whistling: so I thought I would see if I could actually build my own pedals. I also had a preference for a pendulum type of design as found in the A10C. I was very happy with the end result. They have virtually no slop or play anywhere, the damper affords very precise movement and the range of motion in the toe brakes is better than I've had in any previous sets of pedals. My ultimate goal was pedals that were smooth as butter yet built like a brick shlt house. In that regard it was a complete success. My only regret is that I could have done a better job on how they look. :smilewink: I'll have some more pics soon as I have finished the sensor placement, calibration and finishing touches.:thumbup:

Very nice work indeed. Looks like you have a real ADI there.:thumbup: Have you given any thought to how it will be run. I,m working on gauges myself. I think you'll find the VID series of stepper motors will provide excellent performance for your needs. The VID60 is continuous rotation with a built in IR detector for zeroing it. Perfect for the altimeter. For the right console, the enviro gauges as well as the hydraulic gauges at the top of the fuel panel are using VID29 motors. The VID28 motor has a dual shaft which is perfect for the fuel, speed and accelerometer gauges and the VID29 is the standard stepper that I use for the EMI gauges. They are a bit of a special group of motors as I run them from a more powerful board, ChipKit Uno32. It runs at 83mhz. You will find that Arduino boards will struggle to run more than 2 motors at a time as they only run at 16 MHz. The ADI needs a more powerful motor so I use a small form NEMA bipolar motor for this instrument and the Standby ADI. Depending on how you drive pitch on your ADI, mine has the motor in the ball, there are some very small NEMA11 motors that will fit inside it and should do the job. I should know for sure shortly as its next on the list to get up and running. I have adopted the Easy Driver board for all my stepper motors. It cuts down on the number of pins you need to drive a stepper. Chinese knockoffs run about $1.60 so it is cost effective and you get the choice of using micro stepping depending on what gauge your building. VID motors are available staring around $3.50 on AliExpress or eBay. You can also use Switec motors. They were the original motor that the VID motors were copied from. I tried a few servos, used one for the flaps, and didn't like their performance. They were loud and they only had 180 degree swing. The VID29 motors have 315 degrees of swing which handles a lot of the cockpit gauges without the need for adding gears. You can check out my photo sites ( in signature) where you will find almost all of the gauges in various stages of build. It might give you some ideas on how you can design and build these things your self. If you ever need to chew the fat on a particular issue or pick brains for ideas, I'm always monitoring the forum. I'm happy to help if I can. As you say, it's a great community and sharing is what makes it so great.:D And I almost forgot, welcome to the forum. I'm very much looking forward to seeing pics as your cockpit moves forward. Good luck. It's a rather long journey we take here.:smilewink:

Thanks Gordy but when you get to my age its called "Hoarding" not recycling:lol: Its what all old people do.:music_whistling: :smilewink:

I haven't been able to get Helios to work either. I checked the export.lua file and it was intact. I even made a new one and tried Helios but nothing worked. I finally went to the backups and still the same. Nothing seemed to work. I haven't tried DCS-BIOS yet but if its screwed as well, Ian (being the programming genius that he is) should be able to get it back up and functioning fairly quickly.:thumbup: I just wonder if the argument numbers have all changed.:( That may account for Helios being totally unresponsive.

Wayne, thank you so much, you are too kind. I'm happy to be able to show my work to everyone and I hope it provides some inspiration to other builders. I would also like to point out that the single most important factor allowing me to succeed has been my TAIG CNC mill. Because of its extreme accuracy and ease of use The TAIG mill has been responsible for the making of virtually every single part of my cockpit. So far I have not found another tool that comes even close to replacing it. If I had to choose just one tool for cockpit building, it would be the TAIG CNC mill. With respect to your question as to how stable these pedals might be, I would say with some degree of confidence that they should be incredibly stable. They will be through bolted to a large 3/8" thick 18" x 24" aluminum slab with #1/4-20 cap screws. That base will then be through bolted onto the steel framework of the cockpit base again with 1/4-20 cap screws. The individual pieces of the pedals are made from a min of 1/2" thick aluminum plate with all holes being drilled and tapped for #10-32 cap screws. I would hesitate to think any part of this contraption could be bent or warped by human interaction alone. They are as sturdy and stable as the perverbial brick shithouse. :megalol:

Thanks Mike and everyone else who posted. As to scrap, I always made it a habit to picked a few end cuts ( they were always very cheap) every time I went into Metal Supermarket to pick up my order. It's the same with electronic components. I needed 2 10uf caps so I ordered 50. Never know when you might need extras. If I needed 12" of 1/2" square aluminum I would order 24" just in case I screwed up my first try at whatever it was that I was making. Over the years I accumulated a rather good inventory of scrap, be it brass, aluminum or steel. When you have a metal shop this just tends to happen naturally. @Diode663... yes indeed. That is a motorcycle steering damper. It was just the correct size for this use. It works well. One more bit of info, there will be no Centre detent for these pedals. I expect that a real A10 has nothing of the sort. It will be interesting to fly without a detent. I have never done that before.

Hey Deezle That lighting panel looks really great. However, that said, I wanted to give you a heads up on the pots mapped to Helios. I used that exact same method with my second "mini" cockpit. I use an HID board and mapped all of the pots for lighting and the volume controls for the radios to helios. At first it worked really well but over a short period of time I started to get issues with the pots...jitter. But just a little. The problem really started to show when I was using all of the pots where they were set to various positions. I believe the combined jitter caused Helios to go crazy due to it being overwhelmed with data. Buttons rapidly flipping all over, displays turning on and off etc. I couldn't pin down what exactly was causing this so I started selectively removing components from play to see if any of them had an impact. As soon as I removed the pots from Helios everything settled down. I did some research on this to see if it could be fixed. There were several comments about how the pots are configured in Helios. I tried the fixes that were suggested but it made no difference. The problem always returned. As such I ditched the pots in favor of rotary encoders and life has been good ever since. I'm unsure whether you will encounter similar issues. However, on the off chance you do, I thought I should let you know what I had to deal with as it was an extremely frustrating time. Best of luck with this.

I finally got fed up with using crappy plastic rudder pedals. No precision, motion is rough and they are continually breaking. It is really unfortunate that the retail cost is so stupid considering what you actually get. So what options do I have. Well there are some beautiful pedals on the market made by some very talented craftsman but their production capabilities are somewhat "limited"? And they do charge a premium for their wares but I suspect it is definitely worth the money from what I have seen and read. If this little project of mine turns out to be less than satisfactory, I will be looking seriously at buying a set from one of these talented people. However before I get to that point, I present my "almost" finished pedals of my own design. They are a little rough in appearance but they are fitted with bearings everywhere and a good quality (chinese :music_whistling:) damper for creating that smooth action I have been craving for so long. I intended that the pedal design reflect the same motion found in a real A10C. The standard low ride pedals that use a parallelogram for rudder movement just didn't work for me. I didn't buy any aluminum for this project. It was all made from scrap I had in my shop. The goal was to make these pedals without having to do any large amount of milling. I tried to use what I had on hand so it actually became somewhat of a puzzle to make them by fitting what pieces I had to something that resembled what I wanted. Its a silly way to design and build something but it was fun and it saved me some time, effort and money. All and all, I was pleased with the end result. I think they will work very well once they are finished and finally installed in the cockpit. This is what some determination can do when options for good rudder pedals are limited. For your viewing pleasure... IMG_0869 by John Wall, on Flickr The toe breaks use A1302 hall sensors connected to a Pro Micro loaded with MMJOY. The axis is extremely smooth from tests I've done. IMG_0873 by John Wall, on Flickr IMG_0871 by John Wall, on Flickr IMG_0872 by John Wall, on Flickr The major axis for the rudder itself is to rely on the TLE 5011 sensor but I am having some issues with that sensor at the moment. I may have purchased fake IC's as every one I have tried generates no signal what so ever. But that's not an issue for this post. IMG_0874 by John Wall, on Flickr IMG_0875 by John Wall, on Flickr As soon as I get the TLE 5011 issue resolved I'll post a video of these in action. Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed them.

Well I seem to be stuck getting these TLE 5011 ICs to work. I flashed a Pro Micro and tested it with the A1302 hall sensors for my toe brakes (I'm building rudders pedals). They worked great. Then I copied the PCB from an early post in MMJOY2 on the SIM HQ forum and made a PCB for my application and soldered up the TLE 5011 including the resistors and caps. I started the configurator and flashed the board using B2 for the z axis and set 12 bit precision. Then tested it. I used the VKB joystick tester but there was nothing indicating the magnet was having any affect. It was a flatline. I tried several more TLE 5011's and none worked. I went to the protoboard and rebuilt the circuit and tried again. Same as before... Nada! The A1302's are working just fine but the TLE5011 seem dead. This is what I used for my pinouts: TLE5010/5011---------->Controller ProMicro(AtMega32u4) 1) 4Mhz clock----------->Pin B6 - Generator 4Mhz 2) SPI-SCK------------->Pin B1 - SPI-SCK 3) SPI-CS--------------->Any free pin 4) SPI-Data------------->Pin B3 - SPI-MISO 5) TST1----------------->To Ground 6) VDD------------------>To Power (VCC) 7) GND------------------>To Ground 8) TST2----------------->To Ground I read most of the MMJOY2 thread on the SimHQ forum so I was pretty confident I did everything correctly. Any ideas what might be causing this.

Nice work Calum. It looks almost identical to mine. The only real difference is that I use an Easy Drive board to run the motor. The ED board only needs 2 pins, one for step and one for direction instead of 4 pins and it costs almost nothing ($1.80 I think). The code below is what I am using for mine and it works very well indeed. You may notice that the scale on the gauge face is not exactly linear. We needed to adjust the mapping of the export values to account of the differences in the scale. I would like to give credit to Ian for this work. He was mostly the author of this sketch which, for the most part, is still somewhat over my head. But I am learning more every day. Thank you Ian!:thumbup: As to the code below, you are more than welcome to give it a try Calum. I hope it will save you some time. #define DCSBIOS_DEFAULT_SERIAL //#define DCSBIOS_RS485_SLAVE 13 //#define TXENABLE_PIN A2 #include <AccelStepper.h> #include "DcsBios.h" AccelStepper vviMotor(AccelStepper::DRIVER, 11, 10); struct StepperConfig { unsigned int maxSteps; unsigned int acceleration; unsigned int maxSpeed; }; class Vid29Stepper : public DcsBios::Int16Buffer { private: AccelStepper& stepper; StepperConfig& stepperConfig; unsigned int (*map_function)(unsigned int); unsigned char initState; public: Vid29Stepper(unsigned int address, AccelStepper& stepper, StepperConfig& stepperConfig, unsigned int (*map_function)(unsigned int)) : Int16Buffer(address), stepper(stepper), stepperConfig(stepperConfig), map_function(map_function), initState(0) { } virtual void loop() { if (initState == 0) { // not initialized yet stepper.setMaxSpeed(stepperConfig.maxSpeed); stepper.setAcceleration(stepperConfig.acceleration); stepper.moveTo(-((long)stepperConfig.maxSteps)); initState = 1; } if (initState == 1) { // zeroing stepper.run(); if (stepper.currentPosition() <= -((long)stepperConfig.maxSteps)) { stepper.setCurrentPosition(0); initState = 2; stepper.moveTo(stepperConfig.maxSteps/2); } } if (initState == 2) { // running normally if (hasUpdatedData()) { unsigned int newPosition = map_function(getData()); newPosition = constrain(newPosition, 0, stepperConfig.maxSteps); stepper.moveTo(newPosition); } stepper.run(); } } }; struct StepperConfig emiStepperConfig = { 1360, // maxSteps 1200, // maxSpeed 10000 // acceleration }; Vid29Stepper vvi(0x106e, vviMotor, emiStepperConfig, [](unsigned int newValue) -> unsigned int { unsigned int absValue; if (newValue >= 32768) { absValue = newValue - 32768; } else { absValue = 32768 - newValue; } /* * 315 deg / 1360 steps * 0.29 9502 1000 fpm 50 deg 201 steps 0.50 16384 2000 fpm 84 deg 338 steps 1.00 32768 6000 fpm 169 deg 680 steps */ unsigned int newSetpoint = 0; if (absValue < 9502) { newSetpoint = map(absValue, 0, 9502, 0, 201); } else if (absValue < 16384) { newSetpoint = map(absValue, 9502, 16384, 201, 338); } else { newSetpoint = map(absValue, 16384, 32768, 338, 680); } newSetpoint = constrain(newSetpoint, 0, 680); if (newValue < 32768) { // negative fpm return newSetpoint + 680; } else { // positive fpm return 680 - newSetpoint; } }); void setup() { DcsBios::setup(); } void loop() { DcsBios::loop(); }

Yes indeed. And that has been my overall philosophy when designing the panels for my cockpit. With a few exceptions, I have always tried to maintained the concept of providing individual modules for each of the consoles. To that end, each module has its own RS-485 "IN/OUT" breakout board. This provides me with an easy way to confirm that each module is functioning properly before it actually gets installed into the console. My ILS, Tacan, AAP, CLP, CMSP and CDU are all designed as individual modules. Each module is removable and totally independent from the others. And as I previously mentioned I included into the design of each PCB a MAX-487 IC with IN/OUT connectors. I did however treat the radio stack as one complete module. As much as they visually appear as three separate panels, I built them as one. There were several reasons for doing this but the main reason was their similarity of purpose. I set it up so that all of the 7 seg displays run from one Arduino board. All of the switching runs from a second board. It was just easier this way. Had I been smart, I would have daisy chained all of the MAX7219 ICs for even more simplicity. But I forgot that you could do that. As to stepper motors, I have pretty much adopted the Easy Driver (ED) board for virtually all of my stepper motors. The ED board only requires a step and direction pin to drive the motors instead of four pins which are typical of bipolar stepper motors. However, that said, you may find that you cannot drive more than maybe 2 to 3 motors from one Arduino board because of the boards speed. 16Mhz is rather limiting as I have discovered. But there is nothing wrong with using one Pro Mini, one MAX-487 and one ED board for one gauge. Pro Minis are around $1.80 each, ED Boards about the same. Say $4.00 per gauge plus $3.50 for the motor. Thats fine. Thats not exorbitant at all. I'll have more pics to update my photo library soon so you can see how I handled a few things. I'll post when I have them in place.

Hi Tekkx Good to see your progressing with the RS-485 bus. Since you are looking at various possibilities for running your pit from the bus I thought I thought I might throw my ideas into the works. I had first considered running everything from a single MEGA as a master but I had some reservations as to how many slaves I would end up having and what if there were performance issues or wiring problems or whatever. Then there was the actual building of the bus and how I wanted to have the cockpit assembled. Did you ever see that video Tacno made about how his pit breaks into 3 pieces and how he pulls it out and assembles it in just a few minutes. Thats what inspired me to build in three sections as he did. Not that I will be pulling it apart all the time to store it, but it made sense to build it that way for ease of physically working with it, testing it and trouble shooting it. Considering how much money have have already spent on my pit, the cost of a few more MEGA's was insignificant. I also figured that this was the spinal cord of all communications within the cockpit so to speak, so lets not skimp on anything related to this part of the pit. To that end I am planning on using 3 separate MEGA's. Each as a master. One for the right console, one for the left and one for the MIP. The EMI is a separate component entirely. It will be running off of a Chipkit 32 board and will not be part of the bus. The Arduino Pro Mini, Mega and Nano, at 16 Mhz just won't handle ALL of the gauges in the EMI. Hence the use of an 84Mhz board. MEGA's sell for under $12.00 a piece so why not use three masters for the entire pit. It reduces any possible strain on the bus as the number of slaves are cut into thirds. Also, it makes it much easier to troubleshoot the cockpit if its divided into three separate sections. More importantly it keeps it SIMPLE. A very important concept I have learned to appreciate. So that's how I am building my RS-485 bus...correction... that's how I'm building three RS-485 buses. And I can run any of the three sections independent of the other two. The plan is, when I finish the first console, I'll run it for a few days of trials and testing. Then I'll add the second console (when its finished that is:music_whistling:) and do the same. Then I can see how they perform together. Finally I'll introduce the MIP into the works (again when its finished) and hopefully I'll have a fully functional, problem free (:music_whistling:) finished cockpit.

DCSBIOS is not able to drive real instruments in its present form. Mostly because real instruments and their internal mechanical systems rely on the actual movement and/or location or attitude of the aircraft to actually register information. I'm referring to gauges such as the altimeter, the speed indicator, AOA, VVI, etc. If you want to simulate the gauges without tearing apart the real gauges you can duplicate their faceplates and pointers and use a stepper motor or servo to move the pointer. DCSBIOS is more than capable of making that happen. I've torn apart a real ADI and added stepper motors to it. The ADI will be capable of moving in sync with the DCS A10 ADI all because of Ian's fabulous DCSBIOS. Since you have the real gauges already, I would use those. Open them up, remove the parts you don't need and place stepper motors or servos inside them. I know it seems like sacrolidge to ruin real instruments, but this isn't a real plane, although after seeing your rig I wasn't so sure. :smilewink:

I wonder if this is related to the bootloader on the MEGA. We had with my setup? I had to remove the bootloader on the MEGA for the RS485 bus to work properly. It worked fine at startup but if I paused the program and then restarted it, nothing would work. I suspect Ian can verify if this is the problem.

Tigershark I've included some Neopixels in my Intercom panel. Rather than use push-pull switches, I used rotary encoders with the built in push buttons. Problem was I could not tell when a switch was in the mute position. So I added a Neopixel behind each switch label that shows green as normal backlighting and it shows red when I mute a switch. Simple if statement in the code to make it happen. They are great for all kinds of indicators and effects as you've probably already seen. I'm planning on using some Neopixel strips to simulate an engine fire. When I have just the HUD turned on, I can't turn around to see an engine on fire. With a couple of strips placed behind my seat and integrate with DCS-BIOS, i will actually see a fire in my peripheral vision as apposed to turning and seeing it on the screen. I expect to use them for simulating a number of different effects that occur outside of the cockpit such as the flash of an explosion from being hit by a sam or maybe even lightening when flying in a storm. The possibilities are rather exciting and I intend to exploit these little buggers to their full capabilities.:thumbup:

I suggest you start with a bunch of reading. The DCS-BIOS Users Guide as well as other related info can be found here: http://dcs-bios.a10c.de/docs/v0.5.0/userguide.html and here: http://dcs-bios.a10c.de/ After that you should cruise through this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141096 There are some examples of how people are using DCS-BIOS although some examples use an older version of DCS-BIOS. Just make sure you use the most recent version including the most recent version of the DCS-BIOS Arduino library. Have fun.:thumbup:

There is one positive feature to the exorbitant unrealistic prices they are offering... They won't stay in business very long. Cockpit builders might be a little wacky but we aren't idiots by any means.

Gotta make those yourself... or pay for custom engraving.:(

You need to search using "tactile switch" or "mom push button" try this link for a good assortment :thumbup: http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=20+x+4+Pin+Tactile+Push+Button+Switch+With+Light+for+Digital+Camera+12+x+12mm&_id=181390250058&&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2658

That is a brilliant way to display the clock face. Well done. I look forward to seeing the completed unit. Keep up the excellent work Jarkko.:thumbup: John

Why don't you have a read through this thread. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141096 It will open you up to the many possibilities available for adding real switches, displays, LEDs, volume controls etc. Best of all the users guide will show you how to program it with simple cut and paste coding depending on what you want to do with it. Btw, for low budget situations, i recommend buying Chinese arduino clones. I just purchased 10 Pro Minis for $1.65 each on eBay.