Oakes

Hi Right now I use the SIOC KeyboardEmulator for inputs, which works kinda OK for simple commands. Hopefully the PCIP will allow us to send switch position directly to the sim i.e. "put switch 52 to position 4" or similar. Today with key-emulator since most keyboard commands only allow you to toggle switches you have to make sure that the physical switches are in the correct position when you start the sim or you will be out of sync. For outputs, I have no idea at this point how this is going to work, again well see what the PCIP contains I guess. For me the ideal solution would of course be if ED implemented the IOCP protocol into BS *Hint* *Hint* :music_whistling: And again, thank you all for the kind words of encouragement. /Oakes

Hi Cat I've been using this one: http://www.aqza37.dsl.pipex.com/joystick/DIView.zip From: http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/joystick/ /Oakes

Yep, I'm planning to use a Precision Joystick Controller BU0836 for this very purpose http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/joystick/. I made a quick test and I get Button 1 presses if i turn it clockwise and Button 2 presses if turned anti-clockwise so as long as you can map a joystick button to the Abris knobs this will work fine. /Oakes

Too bad, especially since an 8 inch screen would really look much better as the Shkval or abris than an 17 inch in any cockpit build.:( Maybe if we can run Shkval/Abris of a second computer => 800x600 times two => 1600x600 but that still doesn't fix the problem with the 90 deg tilt on the abris (unless you can ask the sim to tilt it 90 degrees on the display). /Oakes

Dang:huh: I was planing to use a 800x600 8 inch screen for the Shkval + possibly another 800x600 8 inch for the Abris and I was hoping that the sim would actually detect multiple monitors in the gui and allow you to assign (along with a resolution) the Shkval (or abris) to the second monitor without having to go the "Stretch Desktop" route. I.e. tell the sim to display the normal view on monitor 1 with a res of 1600x1200 and display the Shkval on monitor 2 with a res of 800x600 (and abris on monitor 3 with a res of 800x600) The 8 inch can take a res of 1024x768 (which it then scales to 800x600) which I guess means that a combined res of 2048x768 will work (kinda low though). I'm assuming here that the sim will display an image onto the extended screen that is split equally between the Shkval and normal camera....or? One problem here is of course that the sim has to render all those extra pixels which is then scaled away by the 800x600 monitor:( And what happens if you set it to display both the Shkval, normal camera and abris? Where are the splits then, since the abris has a different aspect ratio, something like 9:16 (it is tilted 90 deg compared to a normal monitor). Is the extended screen still dived into 3 equal parts or? btw, can you run the skval and abris on a second computer? /Oakes

Sorry leafer, all I got is a design sketch I made in 3dStudio (the only 3D program I've manged to learn:cry:) i.e. no real measured drawing is available. I can, if you like, post a bunch of measurements for the parts you see in the pictures to help you along. Just let me know. /Oakes

Nice informative video as usual Matt.:thumbup: A question: Regarding the realtime updated position of the wingmen on the Abris, is that "real" or a simulator cheat? i.e. do the KA50's in a wing constantly transmit their positions to each other? /Oakes

I'm definitively buying it for the helicopter...who wants to go high and fast when you can go low and fast?:smilewink: /Oakes

Right back at you:thumbup: It will be mounted on some kind of side platform to get the correct height, the platform will be freestanding (easy to remove, relocate etc). Similar to my joystick (picture below) which sits on the right side of the chair. The joystick uses hall effect sensors as well btw. I used the Plasma MM2 controller from Beta Innovation's, the collective shows up as a normal DirectX controller in Win XP. Simple as pie:music_whistling: The sensor is a hall-effect sensor, bought from conrad.se (or conrad.de), the senor was chosen based on availability (i.e the only one I could find with 90 deg travel available in small quantities) -> see http://www2.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/175000-199999/182865-da-01-en-HALLEFF_WINKELS_91680_1KAN_45GR.pdf for more info. Yes, from a purely technical standpoint I agree, a toothed belt would have been better and that was my starting idea as well. However, quality belts and toothed wheels are rather expensive if you just want to buy one or two pcs, and I needed to have the correct gear ratio for the sensor to work (i.e. hard to find in an inkjet printer), so after some searching I decided to use a design where I could manufacture all the parts myself + it is very easy to change the the travel of the collective handle if need to (just make two new wheels and its done, notice that the senor box and lower wheel can move up or down in the slots in the vertical bar for this very purpose). And it works, there is absolutely no backlash in this design. /Oakes

Sorry littlejohn, these are handmade (no CNC) and I don't have any plans to manufacture these commercially. I've attached the panel file below so you can make your own. I've used InkScape (http://www.inkscape.org/) for the design. weapons_1_00.zip /Oakes

Some pictures of my collective mechanism. The collective is mainly made from aluminum and brass. The sensor is a hall-effect sensor (i.e. magnetic non-contact) with a 90 degree pickup range. The two wheels on the side has a ratio of 2.5 which means a 30 degree movement of the handle correlates to a 75 degree movement of the sensor. The belt is made from about 5 layers of common electricians tape. The sensor outputs 0 to 5 V based on the position and is connected to a Plasma MM2 card from Beta Innovation (which unfortunately seems to have closed down, sorry to hear that Leo). The red cylinder is a dampener made for mini-motos and is used to give the collective a mechanical feel + prevent gravity pulling (from the internal friction in the dampener) the handle down. There is also the possibility to add counterweights for this purpose (notice the slotted alu-bar attached to the main axle). A quick demo of the mechanism. Now off to learn russian :book: /Oakes

Thank you all for the kind words. Here are some more pictures with the all switches mounted + a new overlay. I'm not completely happy about the jettison safety covers, they are to long I think. Also two small demo vids can be found here: /Oakes

Ok, here is the first prototype of my weapons panel. The back is made from 6mm acrylic which will be painted black, the front overlay is printed on a laser printer and then laminated for durability. No backlighting as this point. The switches, displays and LED's are connected to an IOCard MasterCard + DisplayCardII. Todo: Make the final front overlay (note the mismatch between the holes and LEDs etc on the pictures below) and glue it to the acrylic. Paint the acrylic. Rewire the the displays for a neater look (notice the wires sticking out of the top). For the next panel I'll definitively make a custom PCB instead of the current spaghetti approach :) Make the round safety covers on a lathe(one red,one black) for the jettison switches. Connect all the switches. /Oakes Some pictures: The acrylic + the overlay. Testing the first display Testing the displays Testing the full panel.

Wow, it's starting to look really good now:thumbup: Anyway, found some switches on ebay that can be used for this sim I hope. Square pushbutton with led (version without led is also available). http://search.stores.ebay.com/PARTSPIPE_GLKD3_W0QQfciZQ2d1QQfclZ3QQfsnZPARTSPIPEQQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ171050829QQsofpZ0 Can probably be used as is (after some black paint) or perhaps one can do custom button tops in acrylic and glue on. Dont know the color of the led though...but I've ordered 8 pcs + some other assorted switches so well see in about a week or so. /Oakes

Hmm, I'm guessing that the gun is fired electrically or possibly by hydraulics => the cannon cycles as fast as it can due to gas pressure etc but the firing system simply delays the firing of the cannon to get the desired rate of fire. Only a guess though....

Hi all First post for me, been lurking around here since I saw the first preview on SimHQ a couple of weeks back. Since I don’t have a collective at home I thought Black Shark was a good reason to start building one. I’ve previously built this joystick http://www.lsn.se/mango/joy/IMG_3487_shrunk.JPG, based on a Cougar, a couple of years back, and now it needs a mate:) Anyway, I got a bunch of questions about the collective and it’s control box, that I despite of reading this thread haven’t been able to figure out (please forgive me if I missed it), so here we go: What type of buttons are used (on-off, push, collie hat etc) on the collective and what functions do they have? What is the purpose of the small motorcycle clutch look-a-like handle on the bottom of the collective rod? (I did see it mentioned as the rotorbrake, but I thought that the rotobrake was below the red fuel cut-off handles to the left) What is the length and travel (degrees) of the collective rod? What is the diameter of the grip?Hope you guys and gals can help. Other plans for this project includes the Autopilot panel, the Weapons panel, Abris panel (just the controls), INS panel, Gear lever, Fuel Cut-off Leavers, Ejection handle, Fire control panel and the CM panel + possibly some of the overhead panel (wipers etc) - i.e stuff you use a lot of the time. And Alex, glad to hear that your girl is OK, must be a relief. /Oakes