tekadept

Hi there, Apologies for the late reply, yes you could use it outside the box if you could find a way to mount it. Perhaps longer M3 screws would give you that capability. The size of the top plate to its extents is 100mm wide by 79.5mm high. Update: Whilst awaiting some parts I went back to the drawing board on my original design Firstly the Design has been modified so the USB Port is at the back. this presents a much cleaner option. Also based small change was added where the keys were rounded as seen here Also based small change was added where the keys were rounded as seen here Lastly I have made a change that no longer requires a Potentiometer to adjust the brightness. This is shown here by holding the WX Key and using the dobber up and down to change the brightness in stages. As you can see in the pictures, the positioning of the text is sometimes a little wonky, I do the best I can, but this stage I have not found a better way to get it aligned. Overall it still looks great, but one of the foibles I have yet to overcome.

Hi All, I am trying to do something with the Radar Pull/Emerg rotary switch, I have it working fine position 0 1 2, but when i send "3" it doesnt work, but obviously it needs to be pulled. Is there a way to send a "pull" to dcsbios before sending "3"?

Yes it will be the new version from here on, I am just awaiting a few parts which is why I have them as not available at the moment while I wait for them to arrive. It is something I have been thinking of and I am just now thinking how I can mount the USB on the back. I will get back to you once I have an idea on what I am thinking.

No build progress but I've been working on the software.. For the Next Iteration of this going forward, I have now done away with the potentiometer for the brightness, I am going for holding down the WX and the dobber up and down to adjust in 10 stages.. I am also going to make it switchable between a Joystick or a DCSBIOS bios device via pressing some keys. Not sure how stable DCSBIOS is going to be, the commands are there now and I have it working, but its unlikely they will change what are anybodies thoughts on that based on experience? IE if i setup X command for Y key, is it likely to change?

Cheers Thanks. No problems at all, I don't know how a Viperwing presents to windows, but I have mine presenting as a Joystick , and the potentiometers are an Axis. All I did is go to settings and "Axis commands" and map the ICP axis to the axis of my "Joystick" The fact as you say you see "keypresses" in Word, that means its not presenting as a Joystick device but rather a Keyboard which is a wierd way to do it. I don't know the viperwing product but does it have a way to configure it as a joystick? If however you keep it as is are you assigned to the up / increase & down / decrease options for each control under ICP settings? that should work ok I would think.

Cool that's a pretty nifty solution.

A bit of Aluminium tape down the sides helped to contain the light. Done some coding for DCSBIOS and HID and cranked it up in DCS Viper for the first time As with my other videos, for some reason there is a delay with the webcam so its not that delayed in real life. Not sure why it does that :/

Wow thats a steal! I use the 4 way + center push for mine, I keep thinking of a way to make my own style similar to the real one.

Had limited time at the moment, but managed to make more progress on the F16 ICP Controller First thing was to make some amendments to the buttons! correctiong the 5 “CRUS” button, and also making the ENTR key a bit higher to match the real world F16 ICP. Next I twas time to have a look at the thumb-wheels and see what I wanted to do there, I decided for the moment at least to go White Acrylic, and I went for a COG Design which will allow the thumb to easily get traction to turn the wheel. I am using DShaft potentiometers so this make it easier to mount. This is made to be 6mm thick. Then Looking at the DCS toggle I figured I’d go for 20mm High 5mm square and will align with the toggles (unsure on the real world, but this works for me) Putting the unit into its enclosure, after prototyping in MDF the final product shown is Matt Black Acrylic. Once we mount the plate in,I am not “Bolting” it in, I using a friction fit with the top plate, it holds it well enough while making it easier and less stress on any acrylic parts when physically screwing it. Most people may not want this just sitting flat on their desk like this, so I went for a keyhole mounting at the back plate so it can be affixed to any surface with 4 M4 screws and slotted onto them. The default mounting for me will be a MDF frame it sits in, and can use the 4 keyholes as well.. I worked on it sitting at 70 Degrees, this is what I found optimal. Now I get it all plugged in and lit up! I am going to be working on the light leakage to the sides of the wheels, (although it does look cool to me) with perhaps some thick reflective tape and next is some software coding.. Now that DCS Viper is released, I’ll look at HID as well as DCSBIOS.

Been going through the last of the Major F18 Panels, First up the Volume Panel The IR Control panel, the SPN is seperate so that way I can mount in the LED, and made it easier to increase the height. Then I figured out what I'm doing with the master Arm Panel, I went through and added some spacing between the AA AG buttons, and made the bottom layer cut out a little bigger, this makes it captive. Then I will look at mounting a small tactile button behind it later to capture the presses. For the Ext Button, I have sourced an Illuminated Rectangle button that I will be using. it will fit in the square hole, but also will allow me if I get around to it later perhaps making a custom button, Not sure yet. The only Major sized panel left is the Hud control panel which I hope to knock off over the weekend, then its all the smaller ones to knock off in between other projects.

Looks Damn good! I'll be working on my UFC soon, wondering what are you using for the LCD screens? I've been sourcing a few 16 segment LED's to use, but looking at dot matrix options as well.

Awesome work looks like it bent into shape pretty well

Cheers, Yep Spell check changed that on me it seems as I copied and pasted from word and remove the E and didn't notice :lol: Thanks for that, I have been looking for heights to see if any were higher, good to know.

The next thing I am working on is a self contained F16 ICP. This is something that is obviously a key input device when flying the F16 and (to me) is more important than making panels so I am working on this first. The goal is a fully functional backlit model with working potentiometers. I am planning on trying to make it expandable so this unit can take 2 inputs for some future MFD bezels so that this USB controls those and they don't require a seperate usb driver. Also there is a "slim" future possibility of me incorporating an Output functionality for a DED. So far I’ve worked out the buttons, they are 1.6mm engraved ABS that I have glued to 4.5mm Opal acrylic, then glued to 3mm acrylic for the lip to hold in place. This gives me the height I am looking for in my unit for the keys These keys will be going into a Middle plate, made of Opal Acrylic that will be used to diffuse the light evenly. On top of that plate we of course need some engraved text! this is where the holes are a tad smaller on this which “captures” the keys with their “lip” I have made up a PCB for the unit, and a self contained enclosure, currently MDF whilst Prototyping More pics of this to come soon.

So after a bit of playing around I got my PCB's for the 8 way rotary switches in, no way did I want to deal with 8 Inputs just for a rotary switch. The PCB is setup with 7 Resistors bridging the pins of the switch with VCC GND input, and a single Analog out. from the centre pin. I have a new solder rework station now, so instead of the frypan I used previously for SMD soldering, I am using the heatgun which is much more useful :) Once soldering on we are left with the below. One thing I will incorporate on a future PCB build will be some onboard LED's to avoid any shadows caused by the PCB. It took a little noodling to get my Arduino code right for the Resistor Ladder, but now I have it sorted these work a treat using just a single analog port. Now they are in, I have got the Box fully assembled and tested and working a treat with DCSBIOS. There is a little lag with the webcam recording so the delay is quite minimal from when the switches are flicked.

I am using NATOPS as the base of the designs, and have also extracted DCS texture files to help (they are different scale but help fill some gaps, For a few plates I also have some old PDF's which aren't to scale that I put in the mix as well to help come up with So its a bit of a franken effort for the final result. Glad it arrived nice and quick and you like it!

If your not planning on painting that much overall, maybe the old rattle can is a better option as you can get some pretty good ones now in the rustoleom range thats great for painting PLA / ABS If you do want the full kit, I personally am a Bigger fan of gravity fed model, The gravity dual action is similar to the ebay model I got and I find it works a treat hooked up to the compressor., In the end I went for a small compressor from supercheap as I figured that way I can use for other things, and I can paint in silence so long as I fill with air first for at least 10 minutes which lets me pump out a few mini's in that time. With airbursh still gonna need a primer and Rustoleum 2x is perfect for this https://www.bunnings.com.au/rust-oleum-340g-ultra-cover-2x-spray-paint-grey-primer_p1580683

This is just a breakout for the shift In registers (74HC165) that makes the wiring easier to an arduino. Once you have them connected to an arduino you can do what you want with them. I am going to be using for DCSBIOS and HID as well. A good library on using shift registers is https://github.com/InfectedBytes/ArduinoShiftIn it simplifies the coding quite a bit.

Looks good, what are those bulbs you are using?

Whilst still working on finalising the F18 panels, I've got the annoying little ones in. I got somebody requested 2 A10 panels, so I thought this was an interesting distraction. First up I did the Right Lighting Panel Then Followed up with the Yaw / SAS Panel I will eventually do more A10 panels and other fighters as well , but now I must get this F18 Master panel done!

So after a little break I got back to working on the Larger F18 Hornet DCS Toggle box. First up the box with base plate lit up with all the switches in place., just want to check the light is evenly distributed which to the eye it pretty much is perfect. (The camera is a little less forgiving) Next We place the middle plate to hold the Toggle switch and Potentiometer Locking nuts along with the engraved top plate. Flick the lights on and we can see that in bright daylight the green backlighting shows through quite well. There is a little patch on the bottom corner that isn’t lit, but in the darker environment it shows up fine. I will still look at LED placement to fix this if I can. Now we look at the problem, it is a bit of a spaghetti with the wiring The reason for this is I was trying to adapt a Control board from my F16 ICP Project. This really won’t do as the placement is not ideal. The solution is of course a custom PCB for the Toggle Box. Now I don’t want to get stuck in the same boat here so my logic is to make a generic shift register breakout board that I can use in pretty much any project. I figure 2 shift registers per board gives me 16 inputs which is more than enough, and we have the capability to daisy chain these together. Another Feature to add in is a few extra jumpers to draw off VCC and GND, that can be used for potentiometer inputs, rotary encoders etc, reducing the cables to just being the Inputs to the arduino. After a bit of designing and Manufacture we get the below beauty in the mail today. hese look and work pretty great so I will look at selling this populated for those interested in Shift Register Breakout boards for their Flight Simulator Projects. This will allow you to hookup a great deal of Digital inputs with just 3 Arduino pins plus VCC & VDD. While I was at it, I was looking at the Rotary Switches, this box had 3 rotary switches, totalling up to 15 inputs required. I thought I would get a little smarter and decided to use a Digital to Analog converter using a resistor ladder, this way each switch only requires a single Analog input. I thought I would make a PCB as well for that to mount to the Rotary switch to make things cleaner. I will post up that progress next along with some of the Shiftin Breakout boards populated.

here you go attached the version with a 5.9mm round hole which is just a bit snug for the 6mm Shaft... MultiSelector Gear Round Hole.zip

Awesome cheers printing now :)

In My particular case now I am using Arduino with DCSBIOS with some custom code on top. Although I also have the ability to present an arduino as a HID Joystick for use outside DCS use. Once I remember more of the C I have forgotten over the years I'll look at making a completely custom board instead of an arduino so I just have what is required.

I have gone through and worked on the lighting for this larger unit. I have gone for 5050SMD LED's to ensure enough light gets through, it will have a Potentiometer on it to turn on and off, so if it does turn out to bright, it can just be dialed back. Using the support rails as the mount points, One row is missing will be added later as my soldering iron died, piece of %$^$# Let there be Light! And finally with the mounting plates on. Going to mount the electronics next and tidy up those LED cables, then we are close to mounting in the hardware.