brydling

I already know about 20 indicators here in Sweden in various Draken and Viggen simulators on museums and on NovelAir that will be brought to life by it. Just one Viggen simulator will require about 10 of these boards to run all the synchro-indicators unmodified. It is the number of interested people outside of Sweden that is the big unknown for me. Time will tell, and I'm excited about it :)

You're welcome! :)

Hi, I wrote a long post as a reply to a question about my upcoming DTS-converter in my B256A13-thread. I had intended for it to be a short post and let it be in the B256A13-thread, but it grew so big that I decided to create my DTS-thread now and put it here. As the text was written as a reply to someone who already knew what the board is, it is not a good introduction! However, I do not have the time to re-write it now, so here it goes: I will solder the first unit tomorrow. When I have one ready, I will start adapting the firmware from the earlier prototypes to these new boards. And I will have to create a USB bootloader, because the prototypes I developed didn't have one. Then I will send this whole first batch to customers here in Sweden to let them test it out and help me improve things like documentation, PC-side software and so on. I believe I will have ordered the second batch in 4-5 weeks. Work isn't taking up all my spare time right now, so I really believe I will be able to stick to that timeframe. About interfacing with DCS. I have already developed an IOCP-client that makes the board compatible with SIOC. It should also be a simple task for someone to write an IOCP-server in Lua to be able to communicate with the boards without SIOC. I won't be that someone though, so that will only happen if any of the DCS customers feel creative. The other thing I will release is a C++ library to interface directly to the boards. Remember that the indicators that can be controlled by this board vary greatly in design. You will have to know how your particular indicator is interfaced to be able to decide if this board will do the trick. A lot of the synchro-servo indicators are not having internal amplifiers like the ARU-2B/A, and will need more than just this board to run. Also remember that you will need a 26 Vac, 400 Hz power supply to run this board and most of these indicators. The ARU-2B/A will need 115 Vac, 400 Hz, so you will need both 115 Vac for the ADI and 26 Vac for the board. And they need to come from the same power supply so they have the same phase. If you only have 115 Vac on your 400 Hz power supply, one resistor can be used to get 26 Vac to the board. More about that in the currently non-existent documentation. The power supply for the board should be somewhere between +/- 21 Vdc and +/- 28 Vdc. That is right, you will need both positive and negative voltage. I have written +/- 22 Vdc as a recommendation on the PCB. The higher voltage you use, the hotter the amplifiers on the board will get. You may also be able to use a lower voltage power supply, like +/- 18 Vdc, but that depends on the type of indicator and is for the advanced user to figure out. If a lower voltage power supply is used, a trimmer on the board will have to be adjusted to lower the voltage of the DTS-output to avoid the output amplifiers from clipping the waveform. As you see, this product is not for the complete electronics fool. Hooking up an indicator that someone else has already figured out how it should be wired to the board is not that hard. It is about 10 wires to hook up one board to one channel (pitch or roll) of the ARU-2B/A, and 8 more wires to hook up another board to the second channel. The hard part is figuring out how the indicator is to be wired to the board, and if the board will be able to run the indicator at all. For the ARU-2B/A, that job is already done. If you have another indicator, I may be able to help figuring out how to interface it if you can provide schematics or detailed photographs of the indicator internals. As a side note. This board can also be used to create two AC-voltages of equal frequency and vary their amplitude individually from software. I don't know how common that is worldwide, but the Draken has a lot of indicators that is controlled in this way. My IOCP-client and C++-library will be able to run the board in this mode too. Niclas

I have replied to your PM. I started a new thread for the project.

Haha, that was the most understandable reason! ;)

I have five of these boards remaining. Due to the slow rate at which I am selling these now, this may be my last batch until I need to order one for my own simpit.

I have five boards remaining now, and this may be my last batch. At least until I decide that I want a board of my own, at around 2020 when I have time to spend on my own simpit :P

Only to the US? Damn you! ;) But I understand, being military equipment and all :) But seriously, how are you other US guys around here thinking? Why aren't you all crazy to get your hands on it? ;) I wouldn't hesitate! As a side note, tomorrow I am fetching the PCB's that will control instruments like this!

For what knob?

Hello all! I have received some e-mails about the B256A13 in the last couple of weeks that I have not had the time to reply to! I am working a lot now on the JAS39 Gripen E project, so my spare time is very limited. Some of you have been asking me if I am still selling the board, and since I haven't responded I guess you think the answer is no. The reality is that I have material for around 10 boards remaining, but as I said, no time to sell them right now. That will change in the future, so they will be available in a month or two when I have my vacation. If you really want one, the best thing you can do is nag! I will not respond to all the old e-mails on my vacation, since I assume that all of you that haven't got a reply on your e-mail has gone with another solution. Good luck with the pit building! Regards, Niclas

If you'd like a fun electronics/programming project I could always help you make your own schematics. Doesn't match the "easy to use"-requirement though! Edit: Or buy a Raspberry Pi and make a python script that speaks with your lua-script over ethernet

But then it's not a fun schools project for an engineering student! :)

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding part 2! Electronics is fun! ;) Trevlig kväll!

I calculated it from a table that I found in one of the lua-files.

Maybe LoGetIndicatedAirSpeed returns nil for A-10C, and when that is passed to string.format the script stops. Test local airspeed = nil and see if it produces the same result. It may be wasted time however, the function does not seem to work for A-10C and I don't think there is anything we can do about it. The code that I posted works :)

I played around a little. One way of obtaining IAS in knots is this: local MainPanel = GetDevice(0) local airspeed_normalized = MainPanel:get_argument_value(48) local airspeed = 23334.24762*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,7) - 86517.40721*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,6) + 127203.45*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,5) - 94049.54588*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,4) + 36673.49185*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,3) - 7313.376274*math.pow(airspeed_normalized,2) + 1218.908732*airspeed_normalized + 2.953079734e-1 socket.try(c:send(string.format("201,%.2f\n", airspeed))) I don't know how the math.pow-function in Lua is implemented, but there is a risk that this code is pretty CPU-hungry. I tried executing it every frame and didn't notice any FPS-drops.

Maybe airspeed is an integer and you get an error because you are trying to print it as a float? I don't know Lua very well. Edit: Just tested with my lua interpreter and that shouldn't be a problem. When the code looks exactly as it does in your latest post, do you get the first send to work?

Yeah, unfortunately all this is extremely badly documented. I don't have the answer to your question, but I am sure someone does.

Are you sure that you have the local tNext=t, tNext=tNext+1.0 and return tNext?

Works for me in the lua interpreter with hardcoded values. Have you used LoGetIndicatedAirSpeed() before and are sure that it works?

Try to execute the lines in a standalone lua script. Of course you will have to substitute the LoGet*-functions for some hardcoded values. When you have more control of the execution it will be easier to locate the error :)

I believe so. I cannot answer that question, since I know nothing about what software you are using to read your switches and to send keystrokes to the DCS PC. If one keypress generates three presses on Num 1 I think you must have assigned something wrong somewhere. /Niclas

Looks like that is your problem. Try assigning with your regular keyboard to get only one Num 1.

Hi, I have a lot to do right now. If you have direct questions it will be easier to answer. You can post the contents of your config-files so that I can see what may be wrong. :) /Niclas

That will be nice! I will most certainly be jealous though! ;)