fbfan64

I think it would work although I haven't specifically tried it. They have a trial version you can download to see if it works for you. It works for 30 days (IIRC) and puts a watermark on the screen.

Sorry I don't have any pictures handy but maybe my description is enough. Inside the motor, there is a groove that runs 315 degrees around. There is a small plastic peg that runs inside this groove. That is the only thing stopping it from rotating 360 degrees. With a small pair of cutters or hobby knife, carefully slice off the peg. Reassemble the case and it's good to go. Then you can use a small magnet attached to the pointer and a reed switch mounted on top of the motor case or just under the pointer to detect a reference position. Now you can rotate the motor full circle and use the reed switch to detect when it is at the reference position. (The reference position is just so that when you start up, you can get the pointer to a known position since you can't be sure where it was left the last time it powered off.) If you get to the point you are going to do this you can PM me if you need some more guidance.

It's a simple mod to make the x27 stepper run 360 degrees but you will have to implement your own switch to mark the reference position. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

I have the BRD pedals. I like them. The dampening makes a huge difference. IIRC the F number has to do with the style of the base. Before I bought them I also researched slaw. I didn't find any bad reviews for either. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

The Projectors are In! I bought my projectors so long ago, I was beginning to think they would never see a mount any more permanent than the top of a dresser. Well I finally got them mounted and got my first look at the screen with a wrap around image. :D The mount is a simple arrangement using scrap wood I had in the shop. Maybe I'll stain it or paint it later. The only modification I had to make to the room was to raise the fan about 6”. Luckily that mod was wife-approved. :thumbup: I spent about a day and a half using Immersive Display Pro warping software to get the image aligned. It's not as bad as it sounds. I aligned it about 3 or 4 times during that time. You learn things as you go like don't touch the projectors after you've started alignment! :doh: For me the key was finding a youtube video with step by step instructions. While the user manual seems complete, it's just not written to be an instruction set. Another thing I learned is that it's not about getting the single correct solution to your alignment. It's about making adjustments until everything balances. I'm happy enough with the software that I will probably buy it to get rid of the nag-ware message on the screen. I'm aware of the other big guys (Nthusim and Warpalizer). I'm sure they are good software but they cost about twice as much so I will probably stick with Immersive Display Pro since it looks like it will do what I want. I still have some more work to do as I don't have the edge blending as good as I want just yet. But my experience so far has been that if no one touches the projectors, it will keep the alignment OK. Even with the alignment not blended correctly, flying with this wrap around image makes a world of difference! I got those small waves of uneasiness if I banked too hard. It came quite natural to just look to the left instead of trying to click the top hat just the right amount. :pilotfly: You can just see my BRD rudder pedals in one of the pictures. My KG-13 grip is on the way from Russia. Next step will be to get the flight stick mounted.

Projector Screen Complete With the screen material attached, the screen is finally finished. I took Mr. Burns' advice and used velcro so I could use a single seamless piece of material. That was a good decision. I like it very much with no seams. I went with Pro White material from Carl's Place. It doesn't require stretching to a frame and it's just thick enough to handle. (More on handling later.) I have enough control of ambient light in the room that the white material looks good. I wanted to put some padding behind the screen material that was about the same thickness as the velcro to minimize the amount of flexing or movement of the screen surface. I found some craft foam sheets that are 2 mm thick. The velcro is about 3 mm thick when pressed together. Now that the screen material is up, I'm glad I did that. There is some movement that is minimized by the padding. It would be better if the pad was a bit thicker but it's OK the way it is. I attached the padding and the velcro to the backer board using 3M Super 77 spray glue. I was a little worried about how well the velcro would stick to the board and I needed to spray glue the foam anyway, so I glued it all. As it turns out, the industrial strength velcro would probably have stuck well enough without the spray glue, but as I said, I had to spray most of the surface anyway for the foam sheets. It's only been a day, but there is no sign of the velcro coming loose. While putting the screen material in place, I had to pull it off several times and the velcro never came loose so that's a win. The last thing worth mentioning is the application of the screen material. My idea was to attach the velcro to the back of the screen, roll it up, then unroll it onto the backer board. It is easier said than done. With my wife helping me it took several tries to get it up even, level, and with minimal wrinkles or sags. During the process you have to be extremely careful not to put any creases into the screen material. In the end, it came out what I would call “acceptable”. In the bright lights, looking at the bare screen, I can see some imperfections, but with the projector showing an image I can't see the imperfections. If I were designing again from scratch, I would think about how to unroll the material onto the backer board in a better way. Maybe find a way to let gravity help me rather than fight me. All-in-all I'm very pleased with how it came out. Next step is to mount the projectors so I can actually use the screen.:pilotfly:

I'm interested in the answer to that question too. I am building a simpit with an out the window display. I fly the P-51. Alt+F1 turns off the cockpit but leaves on the projection of the gun sight. I'd like to turn it off but haven't figured out how yet. Even better, later I may want to send the gun sight projection to a separate display for my own simulated gun sight.

I like that idea. :thumbup: The seams have always worried me but I won't give up on making it come apart. I need to think it through to see how I could keep it smooth across the screen. I wouldn't want the Velcro strips to make lumps in the screen. Maybe some additional material between the rows of Velcro that take up the extra space... There are a lot of great ideas from people on this forum. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to offer one up.

Interesting. I never thought of that. Currently I have BenQ 1080 which I don't think supports 3D, but if I upgrade the projectors that might be a neat idea. Does DCS support 3D?

Projector Screen Assembled This weekend, I finished building the third section for the projection screen. I bolted all three sections together and did a little sanding to improve the fit around the seams. It's not perfect but I think it will do. The seams are going to be the weak point (visually) but I wanted to be able to disassemble it. Next I will order the screen material to be glued to the backer board. Almost time to try it out...:joystick:

Rudder Pedals My BRD rudder pedals arrived early from Baur so I took a break from the projection screen this weekend to assemble and test the new rudder pedals. Google translate butchered some of the assembly instructions but the detailed pictures saved the day. All-in-all a good experience. I am really happy with the pedals. I installed the damper to get a better feel than just the spring. I'm glad I did. It makes a pretty big difference. Using them without being attached to the floor is almost impossible because of the force it takes to move the pedals. I'll have to find some time to make a temporary floor for the pit so I can use them.

Hi Uli, Your screen looks nice. It's a bit bigger than mine I think. Mine is 8 feet diameter with just under 180 degrees wrap. I would rather go bigger, but it's the biggest I could fit into the room where my wife agreed to let me have the sim! I looked into some paint products. I saw some people have great results. After reading up on it, I was a little nervous if I have the skills necessary to make it come out right. :music_whistling: This is the main reason I decided to go with the material from Carl's place, but I haven't bought anything yet. I still have a sample piece of white and gray taped to my wall so when I fly I can compare the two. I only have one small window with a blackout shade so I am leaning towards getting a brighter picture from the white screen. The gray screen looks better/brighter in a room with some ambient light but if I close the shade the white screen really pops. Dave.

I have the same crap stick (for now anyway). I'm not having the problem you are experiencing but I did notice something for the first time not too long ago. In the DCS controls set up, there is a selection to make the settings for a specific module/plane or all modules/planes. Just a thought to double check that where you are checking the settings and axis inputs is for the plane you are flying. I hope you find the issue. I share your frustration being stuck on something that seems like it should be simple yet makes no sense.

Two Down, One to Go... I finished the second of three sections. They fit together pretty well. With two sections clamped together, the screen is becoming quite stable. The third section should make it nice and solid. Overall I'm happy with it. I think the seams will be small enough not to be noticeable. I added a couple of handles to each section. Each section is just heavy enough that one out of shape person can move it around relatively easily. In the pictures I have clamps holding the two sections together, but the final plan is to bolt them together. One more section to build, then I'll do final fitting between the sections, drill holes for the bolts and add the screen material. My rudder pedals have shipped about a week earlier than predicted by Baur. Of course I'm watching the tracking. They've left mother Russia but not shown up in the U.S. yet. I'm pretty excited about them. I think it will be a world of difference from my current set up which uses the twist grip of the stick as rudder control.

I'm Back...visual system update Wow, I'm a bit shocked that it's been over a year since my last post. I decided to make a small business with the I/O system I have been developing and that has gobbled up all my time. I still have a lot of work to do on that front but I'm far enough along that I have started giving the weekends back to myself. I'm working on a few things in parallel, but the primary goal is to finish the visual system. I'm still designing a 180 degree, 8 foot diameter curved screen, but the design of the screen has changed a bit. This design is less complicated and takes up less floor space. The screen will be in three sections that bolt together. This weekend I made a prototype of the first section. It came out pretty good so next is to build two more just like it. I haven't attached the screen material yet so what you see in the pics is just the backer board. Oh yea, I finally broke down and ordered some nice rudder pedals. I ordered the Baur Brd pedals. I a lot of people here have recommended them and they look really nice. They should ship some time in July. I'm pretty excited about that. (I'm not sure I will admit to the wife how much they cost.)

That's great progress. You're taking the same path I'm planning. It's very helpful for me to see your experiences. Thanks and keep posting. I'm interested to see how it goes with engraving panels.

I'm thinking about getting the same machine. I will watch for feedback with interest. I will be interested to hear your experiences as you gain experience with the x carve.

Don't know if I would call it perfect but it is interesting. I wonder how good it is engraving small text like we use on aircraft control panels. Of course if the price is low enough it could be more interesting.

+1 what John said. My project tends to progress slowly because I jump around a lot and work on different things. That's also what helps keep it interesting. So far the drive always returns. Keep going. I've been quietly watching and enjoying your progress pics. Dave.

Hi Nails, Small world. I used to pop over to Doughnut city (Basingstoke) every once in a while for my last job. I like what you've done with your cockpit.:thumbup: Do you have a build thread? I'd love to see how it came together and continues on. I hadn't planned on releasing the apps yet partly because right now they only support COD and partly because they haven't been tested by anyone but me on my rig. You are flying COD so that's the first hurdle done.;) If you don't mind being my first external tester maybe we can help each other out. Since you have your own instruments driven by something, the best place to marry the two together might be the interface between the PC and the instrument controller. If I provide you the two apps that run on the PC (Cockpit Builder and Cockpit Interface) and publish to you the interface they use to talk to my instrument controller, then you could code your own instrument controller and drive your instruments using data you get from my apps. If you are interested in being my first guinea pig, PM me and we can exchange emails and work out the particulars. Cheers, Dave.

Hey agrasyuk, some good points. Thanks for that. What material did you use?

Hey Hannibal, The demo I posted of the instruments is taking the flight data from IL2 Cliffs of Dover. I still have to adapt the software to read from DCS. I just haven't gotten to that yet. The Cockpit Builder app is something I have developed and not released (yet...) so the only place for information is me. Cockpit Builder is not specific to an aircraft. You configure it to match the aircraft you are flying in the sim program and you also configure it to the setup you have in your physical cockpit. Then Cockpit Interface does the translation of data from the flight sim program to put it in the right units for your cockpit instruments. For example suppose your physical cockpit has an altimeter that displays in feet but you are flying a FW190 in the sim (which has altitude in meters IIRC). You tell Cockpit builder you are flying a FW190 but that you want the altitude in feet for your instrument. If you later fly a Hurricane (which already has altitude in feet) you switch to a different Cockpit Builder config file and off you go. Currently, Cockpit Builder supports the aircraft in IL2 COD and the simulated instruments I've prototyped so far. My next step for the application will be to make it talk to DCS (and eventually to other sims like FSX, P3D and Falcon BMS). My next step for the instruments is to complete the basic set of flight instruments. Then I'll move on to the less essential ones. I haven't done all the research yet on interfacing to DCS so I can't answer right now how Cockpit Builder will handle the different aircraft in DCS but I don't see any reason it can't support multiple aircraft types. - David.

Projector Screen Material Today I ran some tests with some different projection screen materials. First a mention to Carl's Place . For less than $5 you can order from Amazon with free shipping a sample pack with a variety of screen material types and see what you like. I have a projector and built in screen that I use for watching movies. So my test method was to compare these samples to what I see on my movie projection screen. I hopped into my P-51 in DCS and paused when another aircraft could be seen as a dot in the sky. Then I hung the different samples from Carl's Place in front of that spot on the screen to see how they compared. This is a crude test to be sure, but it gives me more information than I had before. Here are the results: This is my baseline. This is my movie projection screen It is an Elite Screens. I don't remember the exact material but it is a form of white. I have been using it for some flying and I like it. It has pretty good color and contrast. So I'm looking for something as good or better than this baseline. The room is darkened but it's mid-day so there is some light bleeding through the curtains. This is a likely scenario for the sim room so it should be a reasonable baseline. This is Pro White. I couldn't see any difference between this and the baseline. This is FlexiWhite. I couldn't see any difference between this and the baseline. This is Silver Screen. This was a little darker which made it harder to see the target aircraft. It also was a little sparkly. I think in a totally black room this might have been better. Interesting to note that in this picture, the right side of the sample looks brighter than the background screen but in real life it was darker. I think the camera picks up the light from the "sparkles" better than my eye. This is FlexiGray. This was a little darker which made it harder to see the target aircraft. Kind of like Silver Screen but without the sparkle. This is Ambient Light Rejecting. Viewing straight on, it looked pretty much like the baseline. When you looked at it from an angle it started to get darker like the gray screens. You can see this in the picture since the sample didn't hang flat. The left side of the screen is curled out a bit and looks darker since you see it at an angle. This is Pro Gray. This was a little darker which made it harder to see the target aircraft. So for me, the Pro White and the Flexi White are the best materials. The choice may come down to mounting. The Pro White is stiffer. The Flexi White is floppy and feels like it has a rubber backing on it. The Flexi White is a bit heavier too. It may come down to which material is easier to glue to a curved screen. That may be another test to run...

I have written my own C code that runs on a PIC18F2550. The micro processors are cheap enough that I can put one processor and one driver for each instrument. (Although I'm paying a bit more than $1.50 for the Pololu drivers so I need to check out the $1.50 knock-offs you mention.) That sounds pretty much like what I'm chasing down. I can't obsess over it forever, so at some point I'm going to have to make myself happy that I have the right combination between not spending too much money and getting good immersion. (I don't worry too much about my time since I don't charge myself by the hour!) With the Pololu drivers I can change stepping rate on the fly but haven't found the need to do that yet. You're right on the money about always watching pin count. By holding my step rate constant, I'm using only two pins per driver - increment and direction. It still bugs me that the same motor in my car dashboard drives the fuel gauge and tachometer with absolutely no discernable stepping. I know there is a special driver chip they use. I read the data sheet for it and didn't see any magic in it. I'm gonna keep digging into that one a bit longer.

John, that's some really good work in your photos. :thumbup: I'm quite impressed. Your instrument face plates look great. (The dial part with the numbers and tick marks on it.) Are those engraved? I'm using 200 step motors along with drivers from Pololu. The drivers can run up to 32x microstepping. I added a 4:1 gear box to smooth the motion even further. It looks really good for the most part. The only part I'm not completely happy with is very slow movement or very small movement. (Like in a fuel gauge that moves slowly over time.) If you stare at the gauge while it is at that slow movement, you can still see some stepping. Not sure if it's just my focusing on it or if it really should be smoother. (Also during flying you shouldn't be staring at the gauges :pilotfly: so I might be obsessing over this to no real immersion value.) At 200 x 32 x 4 = 25,600 steps per revolution I though I might not be able to detect any stepping but that didn't turn out to be true. So I'm still looking to see if I'm not doing something right or if I can smooth it with firmware somehow. I recently got a new smaller motor that looks a lot like the ones in your pictures. They are used in lots of cars for driving the speedo and other gauges. I think they are X25 or something like that. Is that what you are using? I found that when switching to those motors (without gear box because they aren't strong enough to drive it) that the stepping is noticeably worse. Do you have any visible stepping in your motion? The X25 motors are way smaller, use a lot less power and cost a lot less so it might be worth the trade-off to use them. I watched the gauges in my car quite closely and can't see any stepping at any rate of movement so I wonder a bit how they achieved that. (No, I wasn't driving at the same time...) One last note. I've only 'live' tested my instruments using COD to drive them. I found that COD doesn't update the data it outputs as often as it updates what goes on the screen. I think at best it's about 30 Hz. I'm not sure how much stepping this is introducing but I'm pretty sure it is contributing some amount. I am looking forward to when I update my software to interface with DCS to see how much that impacts the stepping. I've done a lot of electrical/mechanical work on the instruments since the last time I drove them offline with a test program so I may do that again soon too. That will be another indication of how much of the stepping is being introduced by COD.