amsirahc

Those are interesting.

Yeah, I've already watched several videos (including that one). Thanks for posting it though and confirming what I was thinking! :thumbup:

Kind of. I'm envisioning something small and simple along the lines of a rectangular box with multiple rows of switches and a couple of knobs (rotaries) at the end. Doesn't need to replicate any real aircraft panels, just functional. I might section the switches off in groups of 4 or 5, depending on how many I end up with. I'm thinking with the amount of components I want to go with, I'll probably end up having to build a shift register or get a board big enough for all the inputs.

Wow, that looks great! Mind sharing details on which arduino you went with?

While DCS-BIOS looks like it could be fun and really feature-rich for DCS in particular, I'm thinking that something along the lines of MMJoy2 might fit my project a little better. I fly sims outside of DCS as well, and probably want this to work with them too if possible. I don't mind mapping controls for each plane in DCS (already do that for the HOTAS). Does DCS-BIOS support the FC3 aircraft or just the hi-fidelity aircraft (A-10C, Ka-50, etc.)?

I'm actually one of those weird people who enjoys programming, but that might not be a bad idea for a first go. I'm also located in the USA... so... shipping. I probably should have mentioned that I'm trying to keep the whole project somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 USD.

Wow, thanks for the quick responses! A bit on the expensive side for what I was planning as a beginning project, but I'll definitely consider them.

I've seen a lot of posts on here about how people have created their own sim pits and panels. It has inspired me to the point of wanting to create a simple switch panel of my own. I haven't done much with electronics for over a decade, and wanted to get some advice on USB microcontrollers/control boards. This has sparked a couple of questions that I'm not 100% certain on, and I would appreciate any advice. What I'm looking at doing is a small footprint box containing toggle switches, buttons, and maybe some rotary encoders (with push buttons of course). It will be 16 electrical components, broken down as follows: 4x ON-OFF-ON switches 4x ON-OFF switches 4x MON-OFF switches 2x ON-OFF-MON switches 2x Rotary Encoders w/ MON-OFF Push Button If I'm thinking correctly, this would be 32 inputs. The question I have is: What microcontrollers should I be looking at? Arduino, Teensy, ye-ol'-Chineese-knockoff? Also, how many inputs can I get away with on one of those boards if I consider something like a shift register or matrix?