PanelBuilder

I just wanted to add that there's nothing wrong with etching your own boards if it gives you satisfaction. I know I got a lot of satisfaction out of it when I was doing mine. I even printed multi-colored "silkscreens" on clear mailing labels. One other option is this board. I've used a lot of these: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102845 Cheers, Colin

Well I use a 16-input board, a 10-input board, and I'm working on a 4-input board. For panels with just a lot of momentaries, I think there's still a place for keyboard emulator boards -- that's what they're good at. For example, for that full keyboard panel I can see a certain elegance in sending the matching keystroke for each button. I have an old Hagstrom KE-USB36 that I would probably use for that. Cheers, Colin

PCB per panel. I've etched my own in the past. Life's too short. Now I use these guys: http://www.olimex.com/pcb/index.html I use this for layout: http://www.freepcb.com/ Cheers, Colin

Hi y2kiah, Of course you only ever need 1 pin for a 2-position switch. And 2 for a 3-position switch. But for more positions like an 8 position rotary switch you should wire them all. Reason is it's hard to tell the difference between all off and when you're just between pins. 3-way is a special case because the off position is between the 2 wired pins anyway. This is definitly the way to IMHO. With PICs at about $2 per, the micro is the cheapest part. The first time I did this I custom coded for the lua commands I wanted from that panel. The proved to be non optimal time-wise. Now I have a generalised PIC board that can be very quickly configured for any switch type without programming. I just timed it and it took all of 3 minutes and 45 seconds to set up a blank board for 1 each of: momentary switch toggle switch 3-position toggle switch 5-position rotary switch 2-bit incremental encoder 4-bit binary encoder potentiometer That's 16 inputs total. Not so bad really. Cheers, Colin

The knob turns whatever part of a revolution you send it. So if you send it 0.5 it will turn a half circle. If you send it 1 it will turn a fulll circle. Which is why I thought it wasn't moving :-) The encoder I'm testing this with is 16 ppr, so now, instead of dividing by 10, I'm dividing by 16. Cheers, Colin

Hi everybody, Looks like I solved the problem. For performClickableAction(switch,value) I was using a value of -1 or 1. I changed that to -0.1 or 0.1 and it works right. Cheers, Colin

HI gang, I've got an incremental encoder hooked up to to the cursor control of the Abris. Works well but there's a couple of small issues. 1. Although the cursor moves on the screen like its supposed to, the on-screen knob doesn't rotate. Not a big deal. 2. The cursor moves like its supposed to but the resolution on the map screen is more coarse than with the mouse wheel. I'm talking about how far it moves in response to one input from the encoder. Is there any way to modify this? I tried the gain parameter but it looks like that just affects how fast the on-screen knob turns in rsponse to the mouse wheel. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks everyone, Colin

Nice!

The difference between 2-bit and 4-bit is that the 2-bit (incremental) gives you a direction of rotation and the 4-bit gives you a value (0-15). The gray type is a special type of 4-bit where only 1 bit position can change a time. eg: binary 7 = 0111 8 = 1000 eg: gray 7 = 0100 8 = 1100 Cheers, Colin

That's exactly what I said after I wired up the displays for my BS WSC panel on perfboard. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. Cheers, Colin

Here's a nice breakout board I've used in the past: http://www.winfordeng.com/products/brk2x20.php Cheers, Colin

In another thread, Death-17 asks There's 2 options: !. Install them for operational realism but don't wire them up. To me this is the most realistic option. They're not wired to anything in the real cockpit so why would they be wired to anything in your cockpit. The lua implementation of this option is quite simple. If you send a position command to a switch with a closed cover -- even if the switch is already in that position -- the cover will open. So if what you want to do replace the simulated cockpit with a physical cockpit, your problem is solved. Other folks however want to see the simulated cockpit mimic their physical cockpit, which brings us to option 2: 2. Install the covers and connect them up using say micro switches. Bear in mind that these covers have 3 steady states: open, closed, and partially closed resting on the switch handle. The covers toggle through these positions, so it's quite easy to get a situation in the sim where the cover is totally closed and the switch handle is sticking right through it, and I don't mean through the little hole. You might have to read the the position of the cover in the sim before you attempt to move it. Cheers, Colin

Well, lua can be made to wait for an input, right? Usually we call this "hanging" :-) but might be put to use. Cheers, Colin

Holy crap, that's amazing!

Looks like an X-keys unit: http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkpro.php Cheers, Colin

Well I've got these incremental encoders working fine with the prototype of what I'm grandiosly calling my universal switch interface card. They say these things can read backwards if you turn them fast enough. So the next step is to test one with an electric drill :-) Gray code encoders are also working great. I really like these, even though they take 4 pins. Cheers, Colin

Hey Mano, Here's the key thing to know about interfacing to BS: there are two ways to go. One is the key press way you're thinking about; the other is with commands sent direct to the interface. The key press way is simpler, but limited. For example rotary (multiple position) switches in the sim do not have keys for each position. Some use a key to move right 1 position and another key to move left 1 position. Some just use 1 key to move round and round. The command interface way is more complex but more powerful. For example, you can set a rotary switch to whatever absolute position you want. You can use encoders and contunuously variabe (volume type)controls as well. This is also the way to go if you ever want output from the sim. If you find yourseft drawn to the second approach, first give your head a shake (just kidding). Then start reading past posts in this forum. The topic might seem daunting at first but, trust me, we've got it pretty much scoped out. Cheers, Colin PS Here's my example:

Hi, I don't think Alex is actually talking about the rotary switches in the cockpit; by rotaries I think he means the pots and encoders. Cheers, Colin

Are you guys familiar with this? http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/gidei/toc.htm Basically, it's a protocol for converting serial text into keystrokes and mouse actions. And here's a utility that implements it: http://www.aacinstitute.org/Resources/ProductsandServices/AACKeys/AACKeys.html Simple and it works. Cheers, Colin

Hi, The messages are text messages sent to lua socket in the usual way. I've got an interface board that does this. Whenever the value on the pot pin changes, it sends a message. So at 8 bits, 255 messages can get sent stop to stop, which I find is way too many. I can cut the number of messages in two ways: first is to reduce the resolution to say 7 or 6 or 5 bits. Second is to set a number by which the value has to change before a message is sent, like 2, 3, or 4 etc. With the second method, the range stays the same. Cheers, Colin

Way cool Oakes. Cheers, Colin

Hey Alex, I feel your pain :-) It's difficult even to figure out how many keystrokse one of these knobs needs, for one rotation. It would be very frustrating trying to use a keystroke encoder for these. It's nice that we don't have to. On the question of infinite rotation or not, some are and some aren't. One example: Abris cursor is, Abris brightnesss is not. Normally, the "infinite" ones want an incremental encoder and the "finite" want a pot. Right now I'm experimenting with an incremental encoder, a Gray code encoder, and a pot. Main thing with the pot is to throttle down the number of messages that get sent, stop to stop. I'm finding about 40 is enough so you get a message if you just nudge the knob. ymmv. Cheers, Colin

Also, I posted some basic lua code on page 15 of Oakes' thread. Should be enough to get you started. Cheers, Colin