Extranajero

How much of a performance boost do you guys get from an SSD ?

:D Yes, it does.... I did think about that, but I want to have a cockpit ready before I am too old to fly ;) Russian ergonomics are crazy. They give the pilot an adjustable palm rest but to change radar modes he has to reach for a switch under the ejection seat or behind his shoulder. I have real world experience of some Russian military weapons and when you mount a night vision sight on them you need a neck like a Giraffe to be able to look through it :lol: I am exaggerating of course, just for fun...I have a LOT of respect for Russian technology ;)

I did look at the price and thought similarly to you :- " If that is well made and reliable, it's good value " I don't think I'll take up train simming anytime soon though...

Allow me to present the ExtranaHOTAS project. It is made from MDF, plywood, ingenuity and poverty. I'll be using it with A10C mostly I think, but I decided to use Russian styling just to be different. Russian cockpits are cool. I'll have all the A10C functions covered except the CMS hat, which will be going on the throttle instead. I have to cram 21 wires inside the stick as it is - I don't need another 5 to mess around with. The basic shape is finished but there is a lot of filler and sanding in my future if it's going to look good.

Where do you shovel the coal in ? :D

:thumbup: Thanks Boltz, I'll wait for the next version then. Good luck with your build !

Is there an idiots guide to Arduino2DCS Boltz ? I can't make head or tail of it beyond basic installation ?

Porsche 908 I made in Solidworks. I was going to build it as a one off replica with the help of a friend who could make fibreglass vehicle bodies. I reverse engineered the tubular chassis and suspension too, based on photos and some factory blueprints of the later 917 sports prototype. I was going to power it with a quad cam 4.3 litre Lexus V-8 because an original Porsche V-8 would cost several times more than my house did :D Solidworks is very difficult when it comes to modelling swooping compound curves like the Porsche body, it drove me crazy at times, but I needed something I could produce blueprints and templates from. Then the project was abandoned because we decided to leave everything behind and go and live halfway up a mountain in another country :D

This thread is another good place to start. Dimebug builds a cockpit and shares his drawings for the structure :- http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=76032&highlight=dimebug Good luck ! I am only at the stage of building a joystick so far...

Here is a picture

I'll take some pics later. I remember the encoder was a forward\back jog control for video, if that helps.

Searching through my pile of parts I have stripped from dead electronic equipment I have found a really nice Alps encoder, a ring type about 50mm diameter which came from a first gen DVD player. It doesn't have a product number on it, and it doesn't match up with anything listed on the Alps site. It has 6 pins, what type of encoder will it be ? can I interface it somehow, using an Arduino maybe ? if so how do I figure out which pin is which ?

Cheers Mike !

Thank you so much Sokol, everything I need is there in the zip files :thumbup:

Does anyone have a set of blueprints\drawings or a dimensioned 3d model of a modern control grip that they would share with me for a one off project ? They don't have to be comprehensive, just something to help me get the shape right. Even a side on photo with a couple of dimensions would be better than what I have right now ( which is nothing :D )

Thanks guys, keep 'em coming !

I just checked and of course it is available as a download from DCS without purchasing A10C ( which I haven't yet ) I am an idiot :D Thanks Bill ;)

While waiting for the parts to build a new PC which can run DCS A10C properly I am doing 'ground school' like a good cadet pilot :) There are plenty of tutorials about startup, landing and weapon\sensor employment but I haven't found anything on malfunctions or abnormal flight procedures yet. I have the A-10A real world manual, but I don't want to overheat my limited brain capacity studying for things which don't happen in the sim or learn procedures for systems that aren't modelled. So, what should I be learning about ? Edit :- I'm an experienced sim pilot, from back when cutting edge graphics were 16 colour VGA :) - it's just A10C specific stuff I need to know

Based on the action of the 8 position, 4 pinout switches I think they would still need constraining to 4 position to get a reliable selection " in the heat of battle " ;) I have a source for ALPS switches at good prices and in small quantities, but that model isn't available from them anyway. Apologies if I have moved this thread a little off topic, obviously it is about your amazing grip designs rather than my opinion of hat switches ;) :thumbup:

I can't access that link, the site doesn't seem to work for me, but are those switches 8 way ? I am messing around with hat switches right now for a one off HOTAS project and have hit on a problem. Most of the good quality affordable switches ( I am using an ALPS automotive type after trying several others ) seem to be 8 way, but they operate with only five contacts - A, B, C, D and common The diagonal positions are A + B + common, rather than having an E, F, G, H ( I hope that makes sense :smilewink: ) This means that they aren't suitable for stuff like DMS, TMS, CMS functions because it is too easy to command a selection you didn't want by accidentally selecting a diagonal position. For a slew control they are great however. I have found it is possible to machine a 'gate' which constrains the switch to only 4 way operation but it is quite a lot of work to do this. It isn't too much of a problem for my one off build, but would be a production level nightmare. Good luck with your project ! :thumbup:

Thanks At the moment I am working on the electronics and some different interface options for the buttons\hat switches. There isn't anything to show yet apart from a whole lot of wires connected to things like an Arduino and a keyboard encoder I removed from a cheap USB keyboard. My previous grip project, which I have temporarily stopped work on is here :- http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=132033 I was actually building that for IL2 1946 as my computer is too crappy for any DCS sim except LOMAC. However a friend of mine is upgrading his computer over the holidays and he is going to give me his old motherboard, memory and video card which will allow me to run A10C I don't think I am going to try to make a replica of the A10C grip and throttle, like I did with the FW190. It's a lot of extra work and I don't have any reference material anyway. It'll just be 'generic HOTAS'

Thanks for the reply Overpro. I don't know enough about coding to make a functional sketch. I will buy a 2560...

The hat switches I am using have a centre push function, so that is good :)

Will this work with an Arduino Uno R3 ? ( with less inputs, obviously )

OK then, another hat switch is necessary...thanks for the advice guys