Gadroc

Awesome. is that using the included software / controller or did he immediately replace the controller board? As if I wasn't impatient enough already this morning.

Excellent. Mine is sitting at FedEx waiting for delivery on Monday. I'll be going over it with a fine tooth comb and aligning it on Monday. Then trying some test cuts with paper / cardboard till my acrylic gets here on Wednesday.

My current plan is to use the CNC to route out 1/16" aluminum backplates. Then create a "sandwich" light panel on top of that. I will have a 1/16" black acrylic LED holder. Then a 1/16" white reflector layer (with holes for the white 7000mcd less). The led's will then shine through an 1/8" green transparent NVIS/filter/diffuser and on top of that will be 1/16" engravable black/white plastic. Engraver and LEDs get here monday, acrylic get's here wednesday. Hopefully I'll be able to get a test panel don't end of next weekend. Switched gears to work on the electronics while I wait for that. Writing up the firmware for the EOS protocol between boards now and I'll get a Helios interface to bind the inputs and led outputs.

Here is the model I ordered: http://www.ebay.com/itm/40W-CO2-LASER-ENGRAVING-CUTTING-MACHINE-ENGRAVER-m7-/180709569590?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a13213436#ht_12951wt_1057 Be careful though. You will find a lot of negative feedback on this model. It's very cheap but you will have to tweak with it. A couple things I've gleaned from reading up on them. 1) Software SUCKS. Make sure you get one that either has direct print or next best thing is later version of MoshiDraw which has a CorelDraw plug-in. This can be mitigated by replacing the driver board with one that is Mach3 compatible. 2) You may need to add an air assist for cutting 1/4" material. You'll find some examples of doing this cheaply with aquarium pumps and tubing. 3) Expect to have to tweak / repair and realign this guy. It is bare bones and expect it to reflect the price tag. I'm dreading the laser alignment process but we'll see. I would much rather get a machine that I can just use... but finances are not such that I could spend the $4000 to have that. The engraver should get here Monday and I'll keep posted my experiences so others can benefit. PS: I am in no way advocating that seller. I just found the one of the same model not even sure if that's the seller I used. There are several who all ship the same machine.

Ok. I think I've finished the updates on the CP. I have now put in a 10.4" for the engine gauges to start. I'll swap it out later once I can get them all built as steam gauges. I've also put in an 1/8" sheet which I'll either CNC out of aluminum or hardboard. This covers up the monitors but keeps them close to the bezels. Last step is to finish the lower center cp, which I'll finish this weekend then upload the sketch up files. With Cover Cover Off I've also gone through the CP and put in 1x2s for screwing together the MDF. I also broke down and ordered a laser engraver to do panels with, which should be here on Monday and my first load of acrylic will be here next Wednesday.

Depends on what you mean by fly. It worked with out problem. I had a hell of a time trying to fly helicopters with a force sensing stick, but Flim swore by it. Like I said though I never quite got the hang of it in fixed wing either.

Looks great spike. Nothing ghetto about a functioning sim rig!

It was replaced with the Phidget Advanced LED64, which is supported by Helios.

That should be correct. As a quick test just create the binding for as "a" so it types just a plane a. Then open notepad in the foreground and click your button. That is the easiest to test if Helios is sending keys. A possible problem is if you are running DCS as admin but not Helios. In that case DCS will ignore keyboard input from Helios. Try running Helios as an admin.

Helios should also have no problem seeing all the inputs. It can be used to bind them to key presses as well.

Pro: It's force sensing Con: It's force sensing Either you like force sensing or you don't. It can be incredibly accurate once you get used to it, but you have to completely retrain yourself. I could never get used to mine, but I know others who can't fly with out it now. It's a good piece of kit and I didn't have problems with mine while I had it.

Nice. Nothing wrong with that setup. Very flexible and still a lot of fun.

Here is a good intro into key matrix. http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/How_Key_Matrices_Works/ Basically it's a way to take a small number of I/O pins on a micro-controller and read a much larger number of inputs. Most I/O boards use them at a low level, but can either mask them by including the diodes on board, or other ICs which handle it for you. You're Bodnar X boards do not expose a matrix to you at all. You only have to ground out the inputs and not worry about diodes or which ground. The other Bodnar boards do have matrix exposed to you as well as the PHCC key matrix daughter cards, X-Keys key matrix and Brydling's board. Either way works, but make sure you understand how the matrix works and plan out your wiring accordingly.

It all depends on the scenario. If you end up needing the entire matrix per panel I agree with your synopisis, but if I only need three switches on one on another planning out how to split my matrix is a pain and very brittle to changes. Add another switch and I have to redo both panels wiring. If I don't split matrix between panels I'm wasting a lot of potential inputs. That being said I'm not a big fan of either approach. I'm leaning towards a micro controller per panel using a daisy chain serial bus to communicate between them instead of one big I/O controller and running a bazillion wires to each panel.

This is very true assuming that my panels all use one matrix on your board. As soon as my panels start spanning / splitting matrixes it gets challenging. Now I have to run the ground wire between panels and the rest home run to the controller or run two wires back to the controller. This can also make things brittle when I start enhancing / moving things around. I'm not trying to take away from your great board, just saying that there is additional work that needs to be done and planned for with a matrix board vs a non matrix one. There is good reason that people bought CAT_101s break out board and people ended up making breakout boards for the PHCC.

True, you don't have to but it I think it becomes very unwieldy very fast since I have to connect several wires to the same common pins on the header or rig up a wiring harness breakout. You also have solder diodes inline with the cables which can be fun as well. This is the same problem PHCC suffers from, but you've done much better on yours at least having the commons on the same header as the matrix pins.

Make sure you factor in the cost of the breakout boards you'll end up needing to actually wire the matrix. Edit: Not to take away from brydling's excellent board as it does look excellent. But true cost is not reflected in the comparison. Other things like needing fewer USB ports and hubs may even it out though.

Nicely done, and thanks for detail pictures on the back lighting.

Well I've been working in Sketch up to design my console based of Dimebugs excellent work. I've changed up the CP to use several LCD panels I already have. I'm going to use 3 8" and 1 5" LCDs for the CP. Both MFCDs will be thrust master MFCDs to start possibly giving way to 5" later each will get a 8" LCD behind them. I'll use a 3rd 8" LCD to run an EHSI/EADI CPD type display with 3 rotary encoders and 5 push buttons under it. Lastly I'll use a 5" LCD for the RWR. I will be doing steam gauges for the rest... although I may use a 10.4 I have here to run the engine gauges at first as it's a perfect fit for them. I also have a 5" LCD I'll be using for the CDU. I'll be using my ACES seat from my UMC setup. I'm almost ready to flatten out the parts and see about generating the g-code. Once I get it all worked out I'll up load my sketch up models. Sketch Up files can be found here.

Looking good Ice. I can't wait to get mine started. I'm working on lining up time on a CNC to get mine panels cut out. I know better than to think I can do as good a job as you cutting it by hand.

Not yet Hitch. I have downloaded their SDK and I'll be working on support for it.

Nice job Ragtop. If you don't mind I'd like to reformat theses and put them up over on SCSimulations.com Helios support pages.

If you're just going to run LEDs the advanced LED board is a much better choice. It's $30 more but will control 64 LEDs instead of 4. http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?product_id=1031

It doesn't today, but I could add it. What are you planning on doing with it?

Looks good. Using the pots with the bodnar board is easy. The pot will show up as an axis on the joystick and you can map them directly in DCS. As a quick note you can use a common ground with the bodnar board buttons. That means you can run one ground wire from the board and just run the ground from switch to switch. This can help with wire management since it cuts the number of wires running from the panel by nearly half.