Extranajero

I didn't know the throttle was fly by wire. Wow.

Wow, how did I miss that ?

If the A-10 uses the same slew control as the F-15 ( I believe they are related ) then that could be fun to interface because it's a little force sensing stick. I'd guess half an hour with a multimeter would take care of the rest though.

I'll take that on board Ian, thanks... Edit :- " board " is NOT a deliberate pun :D

Linky no worky ;)

Clark, I wouldn't call myself a hobbyist yet, I only wrote my first sketch a few weeks ago ;) I do have some experience programming with C but it was a long time ago.... Hey Akki - the biggest component cost is the Arduino Uno. You can buy a genuine one for EU 20, Chinese clones are cheaper but I don't trust Chinese electronics ( or anything else cheap and Chinese :) ) very much. The potentiometers and other electronics might cost EU 10 ? Probably you would be better using 3 rotary switches and resistors like Mike suggests, that will be a little more expensive. How you make your panel will also affect the cost. I have a machine shop and a lot of materials like acrylic, aluminium, steel, brass ( and titanium :D ) so you could say it costs me nothing. I love the Russian aircraft, but only the Blackshark and MiG-21 have clickable cockpits as far as I know. It seems that aircraft with non-clickable cockpits limit pit builders to the available key, axis and HOTAS assignments. Unless anyone knows better ? For my countermeasures panel this isn't too bad because I run my own program on the Arduino and then send the correct number and timing of keypresses to FC2. But stuff like the SU-25 weapon control panel is probably impossible to make realistic hardware for because functions like " ripple " and " interval " are single keypresses. So ripple goes 1, 2, 4, AUTO and the next keypress loops the setting back to 1. I can't think how to deal with that using a rotary switch. Autopilot panel is similar, it would be possible to have all the correct pattern of lights illuminated by the Arduino reading what has been pressed, but if the autopilot disengages itself or refuses to engage because of bank angle or pitch then the Arduino won't know this and the lights will be on when they should be off.

Apocalypse Now Not Top Gun - no, no, no - one of the worst movies ever made about military aviation, if not the very worst. Baytown Outlaws Dusk Till Dawn Leon:The Professional Strategic Air Command Hell Ride Battle of Britain Apollo 13 Team America Goodfellas The Odd Angry Shot Alien Lord Of War Battle:Los Angeles Zulu Dawn of the Dead

OK, thanks Ian. And well done for developing something to help the community :thumbup:

Will this work with the SU25 or FC3 aircraft ?

Great stuff !

The file I downloaded has a word doc as well as a pdf, so I think I must have it already ? It's a shame you live in Ferrol, I am on the Murcia\Alicante province border, so we couldn't be much further apart and still be in the same country :D I would like to meet some Spanish sim pilots and help them with cockpit building...

Thank you so much for the manual ! My Spanish isn't great ( I live in Spain, but I am English ) although I can read it fairly well if the subject is one I already know about - like guns, motorcycles or aircraft :D I was thinking about translating parts of your manual into English for the DCS community, do you think that is a good idea ?

Thanks Mike. The decision to use a pot rather than a rotary with resistors was down to the fact that I have a lot of pots and no rotaries...I'm trying to keep the cost to a minimum wherever I can. Plus I have a small machine shop so it's no big deal for me to make a couple of detent mechanisms. For someone who hasn't got machining facilities I think your idea is a lot better. Another small advantage of the pot with detent is that I can replicate the exact spacing of the positions on the intervalometer dial. Not that it matters too much of course in the grand scheme of things.

I posted this picture in my thread about the SU-27 button and knob dimensions, but I thought I would explain exactly what I am doing in a separate thread if that's OK. All the FC2 planes dispense countermeasures with three key presses - chaff, flare and continuous release. Reading the SU-27 manual that someone ( can't remember your name, sorry - but thanks a lot ! ) translated into Spanish and posted here the real aircraft does it very differently - like you might expect. The real SU-27 pilot has two buttons he can press - start and stop. What happens then is determined by the settings on the panel. If I have translated from Spanish correctly they are :- Single release chaff Single release salvo of 1, 2 or 4 flares Single release both chaff and salvo of flares Continuous release chaff with an interval of 0.1, 0.5 or 1 seconds Continuous release salvo of 1, 2 or 4 flares with an interval of 3, 4, or 6 seconds I have the Arduino acting as a USB keyboard and according to the knob position it replicates the functions above by sending Ins and Del key presses to the sim. If you are wondering why I am using potentiometers instead of rotary switches it's because I am going to need almost all of the Arduino's digital pins to light the LED's which show the remaining quantities of countermeasures. I will make a mechanical detent for the potentiometer so it properly replicates a rotary switch. It might not be the best solution for everyone, but I think it is the best solution for me. Because I want the panel to work with all the Russian aircraft, each of which have different quantities of countermeasures I am not going to hard code the amount into the sketch, the amount will be read on startup\reset from a 5 position pot hidden under the emergency jettison switch cover. It would be possible to hard code some preset dispensing programs into the sketch, but I think I'll probably keep things as Sukhoi OKB intended.

A certain middle eastern country uses them to control centrifuges for enriching uranium, maybe there is something Simulatoregp isn't telling us ? :lol: Seriously though - what a fantastic cockpit :thumbup:

For all of you touched by cancer directly or by the cancer of a relative I would like to share something. My mother in law was diagnosed with an inoperable liver cancer two years ago. She chose to take chemo to extend her life a little longer and it turned out that the chemo shrank the cancer enough to make it operable. Her surgery was quite extensive, but today she is alive, and very well. Sometimes there is hope when it seems like there isn't any hope. Good luck, a Happy Christmas ( or whatever you celebrate ) and my very best wishes for you all in 2015

This is why I need to know ;)

Does anyone have any dimensions for the autopilot buttons and the knobs on the countermeasures panel ? 3D CAD model isn't necessary just something I can scale them from using photos etc

I'd tend to agree with you there... If you really must buy Chinese then the Sieg brand aren't too bad. I have an X2 mill, and although it needed rebuilding straight out of the box it has been OK so far, within it's limitations.

US pilots opinions of flying the early export MiG-29 with the German air force are interesting. They say it lacks a good BVR capability and has too short a range but is " unbeatable inside 10 miles combat range with the Archer " I haven't read any comment on the countermeasures though. Maybe they thought they wouldn't need them ? :D It is undoubtedly a great aircraft, I would like one for Christmas if Santa is reading this :D

I just got the Yefim Gordon book on the MiG-29 but I haven't got to the production models yet, I'm still reading about the prototypes. Amazing that they thought such a limited countermeasures system was OK, but then the early 29's had very short endurance anyway.

I didn't want to know what they are in the real world, I wanted to know what they are in the sim. The amount of chaff and flares a fighter aircraft carries isn't classified data, it's usually available in open literature, like Janes. Or to anyone who can look at the flare dispensing ports on the airframe and is able to count. Again, I wanted to know what is in the sim :doh:

Figured it out for myself by watching the planes in external view and counting button presses. Took ages as I kept losing count :D I only did the Russian aircraft because they are the ones I fly. I'm counting releases here, the flares are released doubly - the chaff I'm not sure about, but going by the numbers I think a release is a single bundle. So for anyone who cares.... MiG-29 - 15 flare 30 chaff Su-25 and Su-25T - 64 flare 128 chaff Su-27 - 48 flare 96 chaff Su-33 - 24 flare 48 chaff

I am pretty cynical about those cheap Ebay CNC machines. In the world of machine tools you only get what you pay for. My gut feeling is that there is a good chance you might end up with a £500 paperweight ( or doorstop, take your pick :) ) The Momus looks very interesting and if it comes with free tech support via other builders then that is a huge advantage.

I can't seem to find any information on the quantities of chaff and flares carried by the various FC2 aircraft. Does anyone know ?