Boltz

Thanks MacFevre, I will let you know if I need any help since soon I could do with some testers. All has been quiet here mainly due to a lot of electronics work especially with matrices. I completely reworked the entire electronics system in my pit over the last couple of weeks to use matrices and also to reduce some of the wiring only to discover that what worked on breadboard has a lot of flaws when used on a larger scale. To remedy this I ordered a lot of components from RS-Components which arrived this morning so I now have 300 diodes to solder into my pit :helpsmilie: I will also soon be able to start building some prototype gauges to allow servo and stepper control. So all is still going strong here I just keep adding new features and reworking sections. I am not sure when I will release the program as I don't want people to have to constantly download code or flash Arduinos and above all have to redo wiring. I am now moving onto my fourth version of that. Boltz

Looks amazing! Thank you so much for all the work you have put into these :thumbup:

Nice set-up! Which graphics card are you using to run it?

Deadman is writing one

I'm sure I read somewhere about a new version being printed soon but I don't know when that will be. I think it has been in the works for a couple of years now. I'd love to get my hands on that book also.

I'm just soldering up a batch of DB-15 VGA connectors as I'm typing this and they are not too bad if you just do a couple at a time and keep a steady hand. I'm redoing the wiring but keeping with DB-15 cables for the panels. IMO it's the best wiring solution.

Wow! Excellent work

Just a small update to say that this project is still going. PCBs arrived and are waiting to be soldered so I have been working on other aspects of the programming although I got a prototype of 74HC595s on breadboard working and lighting a caution panel. The code for them to drive 7 segment displays is also in place and just needs to be tested. Input matrices are now done and I have begun to redesign the wiring of my pit to take advantage of that idea. My UFC will remain as simple switches so you will have the possibility to do either where ever you want in your pit. Potentiometers have also been completed along with the mapping and adjustable curvatures for them to work. Due to the increase in functionality I am now reworking the communication format as well to add all these new features and more to come.

Hey Firehead. To export these indicators you need to change the init.lua of each one in your scripts folder for them to display. If you haven't already done so check out this link:http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=70716&highlight=export+indicators

They look great Deadman. 11.11mm will work fine for me :)

I haven't tried that but I am sure that the speech comes through all channels. I'd be interested to know how you get on though.

Looks very good! Does it show the flight in real time or can it only be opened as a kml file after the flight?

Sadly there isn't as I've been looking for this function as well. FSX has it but DCSW doesn't. Something that should be on the wishlist.

If the monitor setup isn't showing in the options then it means that there is an error in your lua file such as a missed bracket or semicolon. Does line 3 need a semicolon at the end? I can't remember.

For the aspect ratio in such a setup I tend to enter "screen.aspect" into the center viewport and then in the graphics options I select "16:9" meaning I don't need to perform any calculations.

Helios worked no problem for me with 1.2.7 and I didn't have to create any folders. Remember that when you add a new interface and click to set it up Helios will create the Scripts folder and export.lua in you Saved Games folder.

Hi guys! Warning panel wasn't a success there was something wrong in my circuit when I moved from breadboard to protoboard. I now have a batch of PCBs on the way and will solder them up when they arrive. Currently all my LEDs except Master Caution are running through shift registers so a caution panel of 48 LED outputs only takes 3 pins so output is sorted, it just needs to be tested with DCS World. For the input I will convert to using a matrix as it will mean less Arduinos and keep the setup cheaper. For LED brightness I will be using PWM as it's the only way to create decent results easily. Caution panel doesn't require them it would mainly be for backlighting for which I will probably use an external circuit connected to a pot. Thanks Silverfox for linking those items. An input matrix circuit is easy to setup but that LED matrix looks interesting as it would require less soldering to set up. I'm away at the moment and don't have code to post up but switches without matrices and LEDs are done and implemented perfectly in my cockpit.

No problems at all as most of the switches in my pit are toggles. The Arduino sketch only outputs state changes so toggles will act just like a momentary push switch would. Push switches require a push and a release command as well so actually DCS treats push switches like toggle switches. Having problems now with my prototype caution panel. On breadboard it works fine but when built on protoboard I'm just getting a display of lights! Could be nice if I was creating disco lights but if my caution panel was doing it in a plane then I would be ejecting quickly :)

I doubt your MOBO graphics would be able to run DCS World at all. They have a tiny amount of graphics power and are not designed for any sort of gaming so i suspect that is your problem.

Hi Aginor. At the moment I'm not using a matrix for the inputs but simply connecting a switch between a digital pin and a ground pin. It seems though that this will take up a lot of Arduinos in a pit (300 digital inputs) so I am already looking at changing to a matrix. Again that is from my FSX days when I saw other people's examples doing it this way and I've always done it like that but a matrix design will come soon :)

I tried Easy Monitor Configurator but in the end I found it much easier to just edit the lua file. It can't set RWR, CMSC, CDU etc viewports either

A2DCS works with v1.2.7! It worked first time without me having to change anything so that's another item ticked off prior to release.

Don't worry about asking anything not directly associated with this thread. It's here for the program and how it works. If you managed to get Helios to work with a working instrument or something then there is no need to follow my procedure. I just needed to know that the file would be run but it has to be for Helios to work. 1.2.7 just installed so I'm back to that and writing the instructions :)

Cheers Hans for the kind words. Currently trying to upgrade to v1.2.7 but my PC has messed up the Blu-Ray backup disk I was trying to use for a backup. I'll see what happens next with that. Extranajero, no questions are stupid. I don't know how BS1 exports info but I'd be interested to know. Good news is that the export.lua sounds like exactly what I was looking for but you would need to see if it is actually run. I believe Helios does work with BS1 so it should run but just to check, edit the export.lua to add the following line of code at the end. print("export.lua initialised.\n") Run a mission, un-pause and then exit the mission. Now you will have to find the dcs.log file. For me it's in User/Saved Games/DCS/Logs so I'm not sure where it will be for you. Try looking in your base directory for a Logs folder or if you have a Saved Games folder have a look in there. You are looking for a .log file with abut 3 columns. The first will be dates and times and the others will be what was written to the log. Try doing a search in the document for export.lua initialised. If it's there then that means that the export.lua was compiled, ran and reached the end without any problems. If that is successful then A2DCS will work fine with BS1. I see you deleted your post but for the outputs you will be looking for a file called clickabledata.lua. It looks like a lot but that is every thing that can be exported. Search through it and check if everything you want to export is there. If it is then you have all the numbers you require to export everything to Arduinos. You will simply have to search for the output number in clickabledata.lua and then define it in the config.xml file that all the A2DCS configuration is in. I will upload a spreadsheet with all these in that generates the code for you. It will work for BS1 as well :) Input may be more difficult because I don't have event or device IDs for the BS but I will tell you how t manually find them which is what I have had to do for the A-10C. For a time frame, I'm continuing with testing today and will be testing shift registers and potentiometers tomorrow. It looks like a release will be here tomorrow but I need to finish the instructions. It is now more user friendly to set-up so you will not have to do any lua modification. It will be added into the "3rd party scripts" section of Helios. Boltz

I do remember now that someone recommended to a few people that they should use the A-10C standalone with older hardware. I also had the choice of starting a pit or a new PC but I went with the pit and currently my PC can just cope with 1 screen but that's getting a bit rough. First I would recommend that you search the program directory and your Saved Games folder for "export.lua". If you don't find anything then you can try using Helios to create one. A part of the manual from A2DCS version 1 is attached below. It covers how to create an export.lua using Helios. Creating export lua.pdf