Pogo

Well, The reason that pit building fascinates me is that it combines so may of my past hobbies and interests, and I am old enough to have had quite a few.:smilewink: Building a stick is fairly straightforward I think. Adding force feedback to it is a whole other story. But for now I don't even know if FF will be supported in the DCS A-10 so I'm not worrying about it. The BS only supports FF for trimming purposes and doesn't use it for anything else, so my assumption, until I know different, is that there won't be any FF in the A-10. Also, since the stick is floor mounted underneath a cowling, I don't have to worry about building the smallest gimbal assembly possible. And finally, from what I've read, I have some time before the A-10 module is released. Cheers, Pogo

I'll be building both the rudder pedals and stick from scratch. The reason I was asking for the throw distance of the stick is that I am a bit worried that once you extend the rotation in degrees from center to gimbal lock the 20 or so inches from a floor mounted gimbal, it will be a bit far to reach. If this is the case then we'll have to use either gears or a belt and pulley system to reduce it. Cheers, Pogo

Hi, I am very new to this facet of simming and while I have been combing the other threads for info, I didn't want to hijack any of them in order to address some very basic questions from a novice. I've bought, and am reading, both of Mike Powell's excellent books on building flight sim instruments and recreational flight simulators, and I am scouring the Web for info. I am trying to understand the components and data flow used for interfacing DCS: Black Shark to a physical cockpit and its switches and instrumentation. I put together a high level architecture graphic to help me get it straight in my mind and I just want to make sure that I am on the right track. I understand that the Simulation Computer and the Cockpit Control Computer can be one and the same, but I do have a couple questions. 1. Does export.lua serve for both output from and input to Black Shark, or is there a separate lua script for importing data into BS? 2. Am I forgetting any obvious components or steps in the communications chain? My next step after this is to write a simple application that talks to BS and can display info (for example, airspeed) from BS, and send data from a switch simulated in the application (for example, DT/DH), to BS. Any and all input, thoughts, and ideas are more than welcome! Cheers, Pogo

It's been about 15 years since I did any networking stuff but from what I vaguely remember I don't think it really matters in this application. TCP establishes a virtual connection between the host ports and provides a higher guarantee of packet delivery. UDP is connectionless and offers no guarantee of delivery but it is better suited to stuff like multicasting. TCP probably has a higher overhead but again, we're talking about a local host or a host on the same subnet so I don't think that would have any impact on this application. Cheers, Pogo

As Joey45 says, keep your throttle on Auto and use the collective to control altitude. On the Autopilot panel there is a switch to control whether the Autopilot will use Barometric Altitude(above sea level) or Radar Altitude (above ground level). The switch is labeled BR (barometric) and RD (Radar). Keep in mind that the Autopilot only has 20% control authority. So if you are Radar mode and you come up on a hill that requires more than 20% collective increase to clear, then manual input will be required. Also the Altitude Autopilot channel must be engaged and the Altitude Autopilot is set when the Collective Brake is engaged (F key). The Collective must already be set relatively close to 0 on the VVI (vertical velocity indicator). I hope this helps. Cheers, Pogo

Brilliant! Thanks.

Cheers D. :thumbup:

Hi DT, I can't explain it either. All I can say is that it doesn't really seem to be the issue with a force feedback stick that it is with a regular stick or HOTAS. Granted, I can't seem to get the Logitech Force 3d Pro stick to work right in the game short of reducing the saturation to a point where there isn't enough control movement left to fly properly, but that is my impression. I've switched back to my X52 Pro and at least I am satisfied that I have enough tools ( Route AP, Trim, Turn to Target, tapping the keyboard rudder key) that allow me to fly the aircraft more painlessly than before. There are still inconsistencies that I can't explain, such as how the helicopter behaves in the Landing Pattern training mission, but I have so many other things to learn that I am not going to dwell on them. I figure I'll sort it out eventually . Cheers, Pogo

Does this mean that I can use a 2nd networked computer and have it dedicated to running my cockpit?

Hi, I'm looking to build an A-10C Flight Stick and Rudder Pedals and I was wondering if anyone has any detailed photos, drawings or info on them. What I am looking for is stuff like how far the stick moves on the x and y axis? How many degrees do the rudder pedals rotate? Any dimensioning or size info on either. Toe Brake details I know how the rudder pedal linkage system works from the A-10A manual but there is no visual reference to the toe brake setup. Cheers, Pogo

I can't say that rudder centering was ever a problem for me. My issue is more around things like flying a landing pattern or doing an approach into a target area. I'd have the helicopter nicely trimmed at the proper attitude and speed and then I'd have to risk re-trimming (and screwing up my current attitude and speed) just to get on the heading I wanted. I still need to test this properly, but now I think that I can maintain my current trim and just tap X or Z as I come out of a turn and the helicopter will maintain the new heading without trying to return to the previously trimmed heading. I agree that it might be considered a bit of a cheat, but the way I look at it is that it just reduces the penalty that the game imposes on those not flying with a FF stick. Cheers, Pogo

Hey Conuk, I just found this out. I'd love for someone to reproduce and verify it. To test it you can just tap the X or Z key on the keyboard and if that works for you, then maybe you can write a macro or script for it. Cheers, Pogo

Well, this is probably nowhere near accurate but I am running a standard clocked I7 920 and my G15 LCD tells me that I am running at about 20% CPU utilization in BS. From what I can tell, Vista 64 can run 8 threads on the I7, so even if BS is running multiple threads across the cores, it my still be CPU bound on a single thread. So everything is waiting on a single thread. I've seen this happen on enterprise applications on UNIX boxes running many virtual processors. One day I may actually get around to setting up some perfmons and testing this hypothesis, but for now the sim is very playable for me and it isn't an issue. ;) Cheers, Pogo

You guys may already know this, but here is something interesting that I've just found. If you are flying with rudder pedals or a twist stick, you can tap either the X or Z keys (the default keyboard mapping for rudder) and it will do two things. 1. It will re-center your rudder input independently of trim. So if you rudder is trimmed off center and you want quickly center it just tap Z or X. I am still pondering this but I am thinking that you can use this in a macro or script to de-couple rudder from the trim. 2. It sets the Heading Autopilot to your current heading, again, independently of trim. What this means is that if you are using a non-FF stick you don't have to trim just to change heading, just tap the Z or X key and the Autopilot will hold that heading. This is actually quite a revelation for me. I wonder why using the keyboard rudder sets the Heading Autopilot to the new heading while using an Axis doesn't? This is a pretty significant difference in functionality between the two. Cheers, Pogo

Hi, I have the D2D version of BS and I have used the standard download of the 1.01a patch from ED and it runs fine. Cheers, Pogo

I'm not sure what if this fits the bill, but I've found some interesting stuff here. http://www.smallparts.com/ Cheers, Pogo

Nice! I have an X45 tucked away somewhere that I was contemplating using as a testbed for this type of mod. It's good to know that the extension does give positive results. Cheers, Pogo

What Sinelnic said. Make sure to force it or use enhance application setting. I don't bother with application settings, I just set it globally. I m using the same card and OS as you and it works fine. Cheers, Pogo

Actually, if I remember correctly, the X45 isn't a twist stick. It has rudder paddles on the backside of the throttle grip. I have one packed away somewhere. I prefer the paddle arrangement to the twist stick. Cheers, Pogo

I've also noticed that any altitude below 4 meters will send the Auto Hover system into convulsions AND turn off all of the Autopilot channels. Cheers, Pogo

Thank you Frazer. Can I ask if you use a force feedback stick? I have an X52 Pro with Saitek Pro Pedals setup, but this was bugging me so much that I just went out and bought a Logitech Force 3D Force Feedback Stick so I could try out flying with a force feedback stick. After couple of quick flights I've found that the AP Heading Authority is not the issue with a FF stick that it is with a non FF stick. Even if you don't trim, I find that flying with the FF stick off center in both axis comes much more naturally than it does with a non FF stick. Now I don't know that I would recommend the Logitech stick, I probably don't have it set up right but it is very sensitive and there is quite a bit of center slop in it, but at least it set my mind at ease that the aircraft is reacting as designed. :thumbup: I am planning to build an A-10 cockpit so I'll probably be able to hack apart the Logitech for the force feedback circuitry and use it with stronger motors and a more precise gimbal setup for a custom A-10 stick. Cheers, Pogo (Witty signature to follow.....)

I agree that it is certainly possible that there could be differences between how things actually work in the different code versions. I seem to be seeing discrepancies between the manual and the current version of the code, but I need to do more testing. Now that is interesting. I've only seen the video, is the track available for download somewhere? Maybe it is just me, but I do find that there is a loss of yaw stability with the Heading AP channel switched off. Well this was my working theory but now I am not so sure. I had the same thing happen again with no extreme cyclic excursions or rotor RPM drops. I now think that if Auto Hover can't properly compensate it just turns off the Autopilot. That's good to know. I agree, the Training Missions do not use the Game Mode flight model. I appreciate all of your answers and advice, I am sure it prove useful to me. The question still remains, why does the helicopter behave differently in the Landing Pattern Training Mission? Cheers, Pogo (Witty signature to follow.....)

Hi, One work-around that I've found is to play the training mission tracks rather than the missions themselves. This allows you to control the cockpit camera and zoom out so that you can see what the instructor is doing on the various panels. I hope this helps. Cheers, Pogo Edit: Ah I now see that you found another work-around.

In watching the Demo Tracks I've discovered that an alternative method of changing heading in combat is to engage the Turn to Target mode and slew the Shkval target gate to the desired heading and the helicopter will turn to follow the gate. I have yet to try this technique myself but I suspect that it would work quite well. Cheers, Pogo (Witty signature to follow.....)

On any other flight sim I would chalk it up as peculiarity, shrug and say "That's life!", and move on. But I have found that in Black Shark, the fidelity is such that everything happens for a reason. I'll give you an example. As I was first learning how to fly, I was practicing transitioning from forward flight into a hover and then engaging Auto Hover. Every once in a while as soon as I engaged Auto Hover, the helicopter would turn into a bucking bronco that was, for the most part, uncontrollable. I finally figured out that this happened when I tried to engage Auto Hover with the aircraft outside of the recommended parameters for speed, height, attitude or trim. The reason that it was happening is that the Hover Autopilot, in an effort to correct , was issuing extreme pitch commands to the cyclic controls and this was causing the rotor RPMs to drop, which would in turn cause an under-volt condition that would cause all of the Autopilot settings to recycle and the Autopilot would turn off. I'd look down and all of the Autopilot lights would be off. As soon as I re-engaged them the helicopter would become much easier to control again. It is also on these boards that I read through a multi-page thread discussing why the pilot has to compensate for what seems to be torque on an aircraft with counter-rotating rotors and no tail rotor. Perhaps ED did "dumb down" the Autopilot system for that training lesson, but that would go against everything I've experienced or read about this sim so far. Maybe it is a bug in that training lesson? Sinelnic, I am glad you've been able to corroborate what happens in the Pattern Lesson. At least I know that it isn't just me. I guess the mystery continues.... Cheers, Pogo (Witty signature to follow.....)