Raven Morpheus

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it (sorry, I haven't read all the thread) but you can build yourself a trim wheel device with 3 axis for less than the price of the 1 axis Saitek Cessna wheel. All you need is - 1 Leo Bodnar BU0836A joystick board (£25). 3 10k ohm 10 turn linear potentiometers (I bought mine on ebay for about £2 each). Some knobs/dials/wheels (~£2 each). Personally I searched for wheels and gave up and bought 3 knobs with a dial like edge to them. Some cables. I bought some properly made ones from Leo Bodnar with proper connectors (@ £1.50 each) but you could easily just use plain cable from an old USB cable and solder direct to the board. An ABS or metal project box. Mine is an ABS one, black, and was less than £5. A soldering iron and some minor soldering skills to solder one end of the cables to the legs on the pots. A "helping hands" tool may also be handy for this. I had never soldered in my life and I've managed to do it so don't be put off - watch a couple of youtube tutorials, I did. A drill and bits to drill a few holes (1 for the USB port, and 1 for each potentiometer shaft/screw thread to fit through). It really isn't difficult, especially if I can do it and you save yourself a ton of money, you basically get 1 device to control all 3 axis for less than (or equal if you go with really expensive parts) the price of 1 Saitek Cessna 1 axis wheel, and from what I've read around the web it's no less accurate than the Saitek device.

Hey all A month or so ago I bought a set of Saitek Rudder Pedals from Amazon. These ones - http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/pedals.html I have a wooden "sit on" rig that I've built kind of as a dual purpose rig, to hold my X52 pro and pedals still, and also to attach a sim racing wheel/pedals to (Logitech DFGT). After using the rudder pedals a few times I have come to the conclusion that they are just too big for me in general, I only have size 6 feet, I'm only 5'3" tall, and I seem to have to sit with my toes on the forward edge of the pedals with my legs bent as though I'm a woman giving birth just so that I can push them!! I've considered elevating the pedals to about a 45 degree angle to lessen my leg angle and/or allow me to put my whole foot on the pedal itself, but I don't think that would make much of a difference and I'm not sure they would still slide as I'd be pushing the slider more upwards. Basically I think no matter how I position them I'll always be sat in an uncomfortable position. Obviously I can't send them back stating "they're too big and not positioned correctly for me" and ask for a refund because that just won't, or is unlikely to, happen. So, what can I do with them? I'm not sure if it would make a difference but is it possible to take the pedals off and replace them with smaller pedals (like the Saitek combat version where the edge of the pedal starts at just about where the post that moves back and forth is and the pedal itself seems more upright)? If so where would I get hold of such smaller pedals without buying the Saitek Combat Rudder pedals set? Or should I just sell them on ebay and hope that someone (preferably in the UK to keep shipping costs down) buys them?

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @3.2ghz Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB 8GB 1333mhz RAM Gigabyte GA-880GM-USB3 motherboard Windows 7 64bit ATI CCC 10.2 (I can't run anything newer due to using 2 monitors).

Yeah I've tried all that. Thing is I see guys on youtube, who probably admittedly have rigs with 2gb GPU's and an i7, running at good fps with great looking graphics. Turning everything down does nothing significant, maybe a couple of fps, in fact on the FARP in Stray Eagle waiting to startup I get ~25fps no matter what my in-game settings are. As a general rule in an empty map or a mission like Stray Eagle when flying out in the open I get about 30-40fps on average, probably not much more as a max than 45fps and the game is playable. When it comes to approaching FARPs, especially where there are UH-1H's that drops to something like 10fps at times (I had a user made mission (I forget by whom) with a formation flight of 8 of them and I was getting ~10fps!!), and often a max of about 19fps - take the campaign mission 1 as an example when you reach about 10nm out from FARP Madrid, my fps drops from a a flyable 30 or so fps to 10 or 12 fps. This seems to have been narrowed down to the UH-1H and other newer object models being too high poly I believe by other people who have looked into the issue. But anyhow here's my specs - AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @3.2ghz Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB 8GB 1333mhz RAM Gigabyte GA-880GM-USB3 motherboard Windows 7 64bit ATI CCC 10.2 (I can't run anything newer due to using 2 monitors, I get flicker and instability causing crashes when resuming from sleep). 2 monitors - primary @ 1920x1080 landscape, secondary @ 1440x900 portrait (so actually 900x1440). Even when running 1 monitor I don't see any improvement in fps. To be honest I don't expect an improvement with EDGE, I am pretty certain I have to upgrade at least my CPU to an i5 and probably my GPU to a 2GB newer equivalent to the 5870. But obviously I need to get my hands on EDGE to know if that's the case... Oooh now that sounds interesting. I had no idea a BF109 and a Spit were in the pipeline. Would be great if DCS WWII modules could become something a bit like IL2 1946, and I'd hope for the addition of a flyable Vought F4U and a PTO map. IL2 1946 is my go to for fixed wing aircraft, and I love the PTO campaigns with the F4U, I seem to have played them the most.

Yeah I can just about see the AH-1 wobbling, but your UH-1 vid I can't see it in. The in-game UH-1H hops from side to side as though it's skids are hot as soon as the rotors spin up, on a hard standing FARP at least, I actually haven't checked on grass because you don't tend to start a mission from the grass. Definitely see it in the Mi-24 though. TooTalls reasoning makes sense I guess, I just thought having watched the videos I've seen of UH-1H starting up that it's slightly odd/unrealistic behaviour. Oh, well, c'est la vie.

Hello Not criticising the FM or anything, but I've just seen this video of a UH-1H starting up and taking off and it has me wondering something - Every time I startup my UH-1H (admittedly through the auto start cheat) I get a little chickendance where the UH-1H will rock side to side on the skids whilst the rotors start spinning up. So, why does the UH-1H do that little chickendance when in real life it doesn't appear to?

Thanks guys. I've ordered an Allegro 1302 hall sensor from Leo Bodnar and I have some neodymium magnets that I can try using so I'll have a play around with it when the hall sensor arrives. Will have to put the main build on hold for a week or two though as I've hit a bit of a stumbling block in my design due to lack of tools - I need a 40mm hole saw, and I don't have the funds to buy one for another week or two. Ho hum... I've got the plan for how the collective will be all ready in my head, just a matter of getting all the bits together and building it and hoping it works. Should work great though and be seriously inexpensive, I am only spending =< £50 on it!!

Yeah that's what inspired me. It doesn't really answer the specific questions I have though. It actually leaves me wanting to ask more questions... Although the brake idea seems a good one, but I can't quite work out how he implemented it. So I'll give the RC dampers idea a go first for friction to stop the pipe falling down by itself. From the measurements I've mapped out in a photoshop pic I only need a 95mm long damper arm for a 12" long collective stick pole... With regards to hall effect sensors I've seen this - http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php?r=88-Hall-Effects-Sensors-to-make-a-joystick So by my understanding of that, I could put a bolt through the end of the pipe I will use as the collective stick to act as the pivot, and on the end of that bolt I could attach a hall effect sensor and have it point directly at a stationery neodymium magnet, so that when the hall effect sensor rotates as I'm pulling the collective up or pushing it down it registers an axis. Would that be correct?

Hello I am considering building myself a small-sih collective controller, because I'm fed up with using my X52 Pro's throttle as one because it just doesn't seem right moving a slider forward/backwards, nor does it seem accurate enough. I have a Leo Bodnar BU0836A board, which is currently in a box and hooked up to 3 10k ohm 10 turn pots attached to knobs that I use for trimming air plane axis. Thus I am confident I can make a stick that connects to a pot that is in turn wired into the bodnar board, and probably wiring in buttons at the end of the stick. However I'm having a bit of a problem getting my head around a few things that seem vital in making a collective work as a collective... 1. What sort of pot would I use and how would I go about attaching the stick itself to the pot? Could I instead of using a pot use a Hall Effect sensor which I presume would make my next question redundant? 2. How would I accomodate in windows control panel or DCS for the relatively short travel in degrees of the collective - as I understand it from flat down to it's uppermost point it would only move something like 30-45� degrees up, thus in the game/windows a pot wouldn't be registering a full turn. So how would I go about resolving that? 3. I'm planning on using a piece of PVC pipe (probably 2" OD) but how would I go about adding friction so the stick doesn't move up/down unless I make it? I'm thinking that one solution would be to fit an RC suspension damper minus the spring and filled with oil (or a couple of them) to the back of the pipe (or somewhere to the front end) so they move up and down as the pipe moves up and down but stop the pipe falling, but I'm not sure about that? Thanks in advance.

Ah OK thanks.

Hello all Just been doing a little tweaking to gain some fps in DCS Huey (alas to no avail) and I decided to try to fly around using the keyboard as I was just quickly testing things, and something I noticed is that the keyboard control inputs tend to stay put rather than return to centre as they would if I were using my joystick, and this made it infinitely easier for me to take off in a more upwards fashion than it normally is with my joystick, usually I end up taking off in a more forward moving fashion. Now, as I understand it, the way the keyboard controls work is how a helicopter cyclic/rudder work in real life - am I correct? If so, how can I modify my joystick (a Saitek X52 Pro) to be like that? I'm thinking the old disable the centring springs and add RC shock dampers mod would be the way to go? Having controls like that would make flying helos, especially the UH-1H, so much easier I think.

From reading stuff here I was under the impression the next update for DCS World would be the long awaited v2.0, but today I've gone to run DCS World and it's applied a v1.2.10.30996.495 patch. I'm assuming this is FW 190 release related as it's only a small ~217mb patch. So, no chance of this making any difference to me (especially in terms of FPS), as I don't have the FW 190 Dora. But I'm curious, how many more of these "micro patches" for newly released addons are we going to see before v2.0 is finally released? I'm eager to get my hands on v2.0 because I'm hoping (probably falsely) that my FPS will significantly improve... Oh and also, is there a changelog for this patch?

That's not an ideal solution though. It's a take it or leave it solution. What I meant is that you should be able to enable/disable the hardpoint meshes in the same way you can the weapon meshes on the model. So you add/remove the hardpoints the same as you do the weapons, or each hardpoint is enabled/disabled when a weapon is added/removed. That way not only can you have a "proper" civilian Huey (not that it would be proper because you'd also have to remove the flex/pilot sights as well) but you could also have it so that you only have the hardpoints for the door gunner M60's, thus being able to have a true "slick". The current "External Hardpoints" tick box is just a fudge, it removes all hardpoints or leaves them all on regardless of the weapon loadout.

Thanks, I came across the list of frequencies last night. Very handy. As for the rest, well I tried VOR again last night after watching the video tutorial again for about the nth time and I did it exactly where the guy who made the video did it, off the coast of Batumi, and it kind of worked for me. ADF and FM I'm clear on . I guess it's just Nav-comm (I presume the UHF is for communicating with the ATC and other units then?). It seems to me that the NAV comm is not so much a homing device as the FM or ADF is and that to get anywhere close so that I can use VOR I need to locate the general area of the NDB via ADF. I also swear that some NDB frequencies do not point you in the right direction because last night I was doing mission 4 of the UH-1H campaign, the one where you have to pick up the wounded guy then fly half way across Georgia rather than take the shorter route back to base!! After you drop the guy off the co-pilot says to RTB and put in an ADF frequency of 477. So I did that, or thought I did that given that it's not easy to distinguish increments between the marks on the ADF dial. However, all the time on the way back the frequency of 477 was leading me totally off course, in a north westerly bearing rather than towards Kutaisi airport and FARP Madrid. I tried adjusting the ADF several times and no matter where I tuned to around what I assumed is the 460 mark the compass still kept me going away from where the NDB is at a slight north westerly angle. It was lucky that I was keeping an eye on my direction via the kneeboard otherwise I'd have flown up north west away from Kutaisi and run out of fuel!!

I'd like to be able to remove the weapon hardpoints, the actual parts on the model, so that unarmed UH-1H don't still have them on. Civilian skins such as a NASA skin would look much better then. Perhaps make it an option when editing payloads the same as the rockets and M134's are an option and if left out of the payload they don't appear on the model (and weight is reduced accordingly of course). I'm fed up with seeing NASA UH-1H with weapon hardpoints when they don't have them and I'm fed up with seeing US skins with the RAAF Bushrangers weapons system on the UH-1H - they just don't look right nor accurate!!

Yes this is why I'm trying to get away from using the kneeboard. Just need to work out how to use the relevant radios. As stated I can use ADF fine, that's an easy one, FM I can use for frequencies it will accept, like 40.50, and again that's a fairy easy one to set and look at the corresponding output on the dash, but I am lost when it comes to using Nav-comm, VHF, and UHF!?

Hello Just recently I've been learning to use the ADF and other nav instruments in the UH-1H, usually I navigate via the kneeboard, using the mark position function. However I'm a little lost when it comes to setting the navigation instruments up in the game. I'll use the Stray Eagle mission as an example. Stray Eagle is given as 40.50, Colt1 is listed as 116, and FARP Dallas is 116, and there is an NDB on 353. I can set the 40.50 for Stray Eagle on the ADF dial and the FM dials, no problems there. I'm clear on setting both 116mhz and 353mhz on the ADF dial, although setting 116mhz on the ADF points to Colt1, not FARP Dallas. I don't however have any idea of how to set home plate using either the FM, VHF or Nav-Comm panels. So, please could someone clarify what I should do using the Stray Eagle mission as an example to set the navigation instruments (apart from ADF which is the simplest instrument it seems) to point to home plate? Thanks in advance.

Hello Just recently started going through the process of learning the weapons systems on the UH-1H and whilst doing the training missions I noticed that when you're setting up the rockets the guy tells you to press M, and that you should see an aiming "pipper" in front of you. However that isn't displaying for me. The flexible sight works fine, but there is no aiming "pipper" in the pilots position for aiming rockets. I know it should look like a red bullseye as I've seen it on youtube videos of earlier builds, but it's not there in v1.2.9 for me. Anyone have any ideas what's wrong? TIA? EDIT - never mind, I found it. The bullseye has been replaced by a proper pilots sight and I hadn't realised it was activated using right ctrl +M/right shift + M.

Hello I recently made myself a controller with 3 knobs on it by using a Leo Bodnar BU0836A joystick board and although I primarily made it so that I can use it for trim controls in IL2 1946 (it has 3 axis each on a 10 turn 10k ohm pot) I'm wondering if I can set the knobs on the ADF panel to use it (or any other knobs in the Huey)? I had a go last night but wasn't successful, although I was tired so I may be missing something, but I'm thinking the only way I can do it is to use a program such as joy2key because the in-game controls setting didn't respond to the axis when I tried to set them? Thanks in advance

Yeah I think all the UH-1H campaign missions will need editing at the airbase (assuming you take off/land at the same one for the entire campaign). I just did mission 2 and at the end I was getting 19 fps and the controls seemed to lag for me, causing me to crash the helo!! Funny thing is though that on take off I'm getting "playable" fps (about 25-30, or even as much as 40) from that airbase on mission 2!?!

Well I'm getting there... I seem to have landings nailed now, at least I've just done 3 reasonable ones in a row. Here's a vid of one on an edited version of the 1st campaign mission (edited to remove some object to improve framerate) - It could have gone better at the end as I ended up backing myself up but that didn't end up being too much of a problem. I'm not using my pedals in that vid, just the twist rudder on my Saitek X52 Pro. I can only assume I would be better with my pedals... Still not happy with the "level flight" of the UH-1H, no matter what I do it rolls/leans/tilts to one side or the other, and I keep up and down all the time - meanwhile the "co-pilot" can maintain altitude and level horizontal attitude all the time! But yeah, one of my biggest issues was landing (I have the same problem in IL2 1946), and providing I remember what I've learnt tonight I should be good for that. Take off and "level" flight from a to b is fairly easy. Please feel free to comment on what I'm doing wrong in the video.

Thanks Godzila. That works fine for me, well as fine as any other parts of the game work for me in terms of framerates. I'm now getting 20-30 fps over the airfield. Not great obviously but no worse than I get elsewhere, and certainly not as low as 9 fps. EDIT - I opened the mission and went a little further than Godzila to see if removing some of the misc. structures, the Hmmv's, and IFV's would help and I also removed the UH-60's, presumably what were the UH-1H's, prior to Godzila's edits. It seems to have given me a couple of fps, but nothing I'd call significant. Anyway I put the mission into the Campaign, as a shortened version with me starting just a little way from the airport as I am sick of doing the transit route as it's easy, and I finally managed to land a Huey! Woo! Also one thing I noticed when I looked in the mission editor is that the mission options are set to enforce Scenes and Civ traffic as High. I set them to Low but I don't think that made a difference, I don't really know what that options panel does to be honest.

Hmm interesting. I need an X marks the spot type of marker then because I didn't spot them last night, or the night before, and I pretty much circled the entire airport, albeit at about 1000ft and upwards. That really should have been made clearer in the brief, the in-flight dialogue, or maybe even on a page on the kneeboard. But I suppose that's why the guy says to let the Hinds go first. If I could get down low enough and get into a hover I guess I could try to watch where they go... :thumbup:

Yeah that's pretty much what I'm doing, coming down from a height. I did manage earlier to work out that I need to be coming down whilst still moving forward, like a glide slope in a fixed wing plane on landing, but I couldn't get it right and just ended up in one of those vortex ring situations and dropped like a stone. No such problems with the Ka-50 though, that's a dream to fly, probably because of the autopilot settings - I use all 4 (but could probably just get away without the altitude hold), although I did somehow manage to turn them all off once today in a mission and noticed the difference is staggering. I'll have a go at that instant action mission though. Interesting, I thought it might be something like that, for that mission at least. I'll see if I can have a dig around in the ME but I doubt I'll have any luck as I've never used it before. Might just be worth getting rid of them altogether... BTW where are you supposed to land on that mission, it's not very clear in the brief or in-flight scripted "chat", I assumed on the runway?

OK thanks. I must admit I have not yet read the Ka-50 manual... I'll look in the controls to set the PVI panel to my keyboard then (assuming it's not be default). That will be very helpful as clicking on the PVI for waypoints seems to be the only time I look down in the cockpit once I'm airborne, at the moment at least. And thanks for the tip on the call sign, as usual the answer was right in front of me and I couldn't see it. Doh!