ClayM

After 2 years of trying to get CLP to work and i finally have it working perfectly thanks to you and you want me to change everything? at one point i had 7 7407's wired up. Thats 98 connections alone.plus dealing with pin to pin code. and 48 resistors. ok i trust you i'll do it Clay

i think current version i have is 0.2.0

Hope this works http://pastebin.com/n9yUkJFx Works great at 250000 or 115200! I have never used pastebin before!

Ian 2 things Id like to say. Sorry and Thank You!! 1: Sorry , new sketch you posted seems to do nothing. Here is what i did. Downloaded from github and changed the row map and mask map to much my own. Changed lc pin numbers to my own which i know are correct. also you have serial begin at 250000 ( i have been using 115200 with very good success ) so i changed .cmd file to match your sketch. Uploaded. this resulted in no led outputs at all. ran dcs did some test and got nothing. 2: Uploaded your new sketch but only changed pin numbers in LedControl. Just in case i did some mistakes with any changes. so worst case scenario the wrong indicator lights up but we know we still function in some way. same result. no output at all 3: Uploaded your previous version. CHANGED ONLY ONE ENTRY! . In class ( i think thats what its called ) updateCautionLights. changed row *16 to row* 4 like you mentioned above. WORKS GREAT. Running at 115200 i get very quick response. no noticable delays at all. to test i did a ramp start all the way to takeoff with no issues. with all indicators off and pressing Signal Lights lamp test i can not press it fast enough to see any delays. Caution flashing works perfectly with all tested indicators. Currently tested using only CLP arduino with DCS and using mouse in game to activate switches. Tonight I will start up the rest of the pit and report back. So it looks like Ian has solved this issue! Turns out DCS-BIOS + Arduino + MAX7219 does equal CLP! If anybody wants more detail on my setup or anything let me know. After 2 years of trying to get this to work I may be able to help others! (maybe) Ian please let me know if you think i messed up your new version in someway. Or if you want me to try any changes you make I would gladly do so. Thanks Clay

Warhog, Did you see the schematic that I posted earlier? I haven't had a real good look at your circuit (but I will at some point) and I may be missing something. I have a total of 14 wires between MAX7219 and arduino why do you need 3 14 pin plugs. Clay Sorry, 14 wires between max7219 and led panel!

Thanks Ian Give me a couple hours to get home from work and I will test. These are the kind of things that get me really confused with the code. Its not that I haven't tried. So 0x10d4 is just the position of the 2 bits in the 16 bit string?? Correct?? Thanks Again Clay

Found circuit diagram Thanks to Tigershark! pcb_routed.jpg

Okay guys Since warhog seems to be very curious I tried the sketch out to see the results! My setup seg dp seg b seg d seg f dig 0 dig 1 dig 2 dig 3 dig 4 dig 5 seg a seg c seg e seg g dig 0 dig 1 dig 2 dig 3 dig 4 dig 5 (Stole this setup from Tigershark I think) So changed LedControl pins to match my setup. changed row map for above setup. changed mask map for above setup. Seemed very simple and well laid out for easy changes to suit individual needs. Nice job Ian. Set to 115200. Ran DCS The top four rows seem to work very well ( so 16 leds total. hmmm? 16). They flash properly with the master caution and turn on and off with almost no delay. However the rest seem to not function at all. So I uploaded Ians original sketch just to see what would happen. Ran DCS and I did get some of the lower leds to turn on. Ian Any chance you may have time Saturday for a discussion? Time zones pose a bit of problem. Warhogs not too far from me so hopefully he can make it. Still farther then I have managed to get! I think its a good start. Clay

Ian Thanks , I'm glad to see I was on the right track with using the LedControl Library! Anyways I going to give it a shot and return with feedback. Warhog, Just to make it perfectly clear for others and not to confuse anyone you may want to change the reference to the ground traces GND on the LED Matrix PCB to be labeled to MAX7219 pin numbers (as these do not go to ground). Other than then that it is amazing work you have done! Don't think I'll be posting pics of mine anytime soon. Mine panel is still at proof of concept stage. Thanks Clay

Ian Thanks for jumping in on this. Looking forward to future discussions! WarHog I used a matrix example from the Arduino website to test for function and everything seems to work as it should. Did you manage to get that far previously? Maybe you could show me your circuit diagram if you have one. Although I have zero experience with the promini. Currently using 6 unos and 4 megas and a leonardo that is still using EOS Bus! Thanks Again Clay

Attempting to get CLP working with these components. Can someone tell me is this is possible? Seems like a good use for the MAX7219. Wired using matrix and with only one resistor makes wiring easy. i had previously used 7407 buffer/drivers with pin for pin input/output and an arduino mega2560. So i could just use standard DCS-BIOS code for each individual pin/led but it did not work very well. After a few minutes(or seconds) the CLP would display random LEDs turning on and off. So before i knew there were issues with running 500000 bps I tore it all apart. Which i now regret without trying 115200. Anyways, as others on this forum, i am not a programmer. I have been using the LedControl.h library to try and get this to work. NO LUCK. Does anybody think it is worth going back to the 7407's even though it requires ten times the connections and individual resistors? But eliminates trying to write the code to get it to work. Personally it would be quicker for me to make 100 solder connections then write 1 line of code!! Please tell me if I'm wrong but how much easier can you get then using MAX7219. Oh, except the code!! (which i think is the hardest part). Let me know if you think the 7407's could work or is there something I don't understand about that. Also, many thanks to Ian for the great software.It has encouraged me to keep going and not throw this big pile of mdf and gadgets in trash! (although the wife still thinks I'm nuts the kids really like to fly it). I think its educational for them in a way. Proves you can build whatever you want if you have the motivation. Clay

triise your correct 20 mA is 20 mA. But what if you only turned on one LED at a time but did it very quickly. What would your total current draw for the arduino be? Listen to Warhog. He would have saved you the hassle of all those resistors! I tried your way without much success. Warhog, maybe you could share a sketch that would work with DCS-BIOS and MAX7219 to clarify it for everybody!:smilewink:

Hello again Boltz! Glad to here your still working on the pit and your software. Looking forward to any future additions. When you have some time can please explain rotary encoders in a little more detail. Can't quite get them to work. Thanks

Hi Boltz My rotary switches are all break before make. What I did notice is that if I turn the switches very slowly so that A2DCS has time to see the off states then the switch works fine. Anyways, here is my config file. Hope it may be useful to somebody. claymconfig.txt Thanks Boltz claymconfig.txt

Hi Boltz Great news about the update! Looking forward to it. I also have another question. I can't seem to get rotary switches to work properly(eg CMSP Mode). I have tried using different states like just using input on or input on and off in A2DCS for each position of the switch but I still get strange results. I assume its something with the debounce??? Any suggestions or examples?(maybe I should just wait for the update!?!) Also I would like to post my config.xml somewhere to help others and save them the headache of digging thru files. Its not complete in any way but may be useful to somebody. I encourage others who have spent hours trying to figure this out to do the same. Is it okay if I post it here? Thanks Clay

Mr Doe I used these from Digi-key Omron SW452ND 9MM GREY ROUND KEYCAPS SW454ND 12MM GREY SQUARE KEYCAPS SW413ND TACTILE SWITCH Not really perfect but I chose them for function/price rather than looks. I can not guarantee those part numbers please confirm before ordering. The enter button on the UFC still is a problem for me. Currently just using a square keycap.

Hi Boltz! I have completed most of my rewiring and have all my inputs setup. I just wanted to let you know that everything is working perfectly. Very reliable and consistent. Whenever anything goes wrong its always something that I did and not your software! Thanks again for this great program! Regarding the WLP, can you tell me the hardware you where using that your original config and arduino.lua files functioned with. I was thinking maybe instead of changing the software side to meet my needs I will change the hardware side to work with your original files. I just cant figure out what you where using??? Thanks for your help

Boltz Can you please explain to me ( well all of us I guess?? ) in a little more detail the method you ( we ) use for outputs. In this case digital outputs for LEDs. I am trying to build a warning light panel using direct outputs. No matrix or shift registers just one pin for one LED. In your WLP example everything is declared in the arduino.lua file. As well as the UFC master caution. Which ,by the way, is working fantastic. So.... how would we declare individual outputs in the arduino.lua? Sorry if I'm missing something simple here but tried a few different ways and I either got no LEDs working or they did not function properly. I ended up confused with how to modify the function ArduinoOutput() which I thought was where the changes needed to be after I deleted your gWLP declarations and added individual declarations for each output. Or.... Am I going about this COMPLETLY WRONG?? Thanks AGAIN

Boltz Could you please clarify something for me. As we speak I am now putting the finishing touches on my fully functional UFC. I commented out the other controllers in the config file and the output for the Master Caution light would always show up in the third slot of the A2DCS screen. So I uncommented other controllers so my UFC arduino would end up in the third slot and everything works great. Does this come from the arduino.lua file or am I doing something wrong with the output string. I have not changed anything from your original config file expect the com port number? Thanks again for your help Clay

Boltz Looking forward to an update. At this stage I have not changed any wiring (yet). Do you think I should wait until further software development or start changing things now. I'm not trying to put pressure on you about this and I'm pretty happy with what you have done already just curious on your current thoughts. Although with no further EOS updates I need to change things anyways. Thanks again for your contribution to the madness of Pitbuilding.

Boltz IT WORKS I have managed to get the UFC working! I have been waiting for someone to come up with a program like this for a long time. Currently using Gadrocs EOS bus with multiple Arduinos using multiplexers. However, I have reached its limitations. Your software will finally enable me to move to the next step. The prospect of a working WLP is pretty exciting. Looking forward to anything more you could possibly add especially some kind of solution for the radios. That being said I now have to rewire/reconfigure my entire pit(and buy a batch of diodes). I would sure to like fly this thing one day! Thanks Boltz