Gadroc

I'm looking at the API for it today. I just won't have a board to test with, but it should be pretty simple.

I will be placing orders this week to pick up x-keys matrix and polou servo boards to add support for Helios.

Hey JG, DCS A-10C and BS are VERY similar and this technique should work.... except Black Shark does not clear it's backing buffer outside the main camera viewports. This means the text just draws over itself and is unreadable after a few frames. Hopefully this will be resolved when the BS / A-10 compatibility patch is released.

It works just fine. That's the way I have my UFC mapped to the same type bodnar board.

Just use the hat switch connections for not commonly used buttons. The only problem using them is pressing two at the same time will not generate the results you expect (sends diagonal to computer instead). But for the UFC that's not really and issue. Who the hell is flying the plane if your using two hands on the UFC.

Ryyy, He's talking about the inside corners. A CNC machine cuts using a round milling bit and can not make a 90 degree inside corner. It will have a curved inside corner the same radius as the cutting bit. Try to picture a round drill bit drilled into each corner of a square and then connect the outside edge of each circle. With out a straight cutting edge you can't make the actual corners square. You would have to use a handsaw / jig saw to finish cut the inside corners to square if you need them that way. A CNC machine can make a 90 outside corner by just extending the cut past the corner in both directions.

I already have the phidgets SDK working in Helios, but i did not develop the UI to configure the servo boards.

Where are you getting the gears? Also have you looking into dual shafts at all? I have several gauges I want to make which require two needles (or three... yikes). I'm having a hard time finding some place that sells inner and outer shafts for use like this. I'm thinking of just buying coax helicopter shafts and cutting them up.

I couldn't remember where I had saw that before. Thanks for the link. Those look much better price wise. I'm debating on steppers vs servos with gearing to get to 360 travel for things that don't need continuous rotation.

No it probably won't. I would keep the extension to 6" total. Any longer and you'll have problems with centering. Also you will not be able to get full throw either because of your legs. I tried an extension that long earlier as well, but have moved back to 6" tops.

Only so many hours in each day. I have a PHCC motherboard sitting here along with several key matrix and lighting boards. I don't think I have any of the servo or stepper daughter boards though. I actually abandoned it because it gets expensive fast making it only marginally better than something much easier for some one who doesn't want to solder up that much. The way the PHCC motherboard is designed you almost out of necessity need two levels of break out boards. You have the PHCC Motherboard.... to a 64key matrix board.... to a break out board... then you have a separate board from PHCC to lighting board. Custom designing and having breakout boards etched made it no less expensive than other options. I may well still sit down and get a Helios plug in for PHCC done, but there is significant UI work to make it "useable" in the general case. *EDIT* - Those Phidget single servo controllers are overpriced in my opinion. It looks like a design trade-off as it's bus powered so it can't run very many servos. I'd much rather have a power supply on it and have it control 4-6 servos.

Pit... it still works, but takes a little more fiddling. Check back a few pages on the new method to add. I just got mine setup last night again and I'll post up what I did tonight when I get home.

Nice. I have a set as well in great condition... but damn are they uncomfortable. I'd did try replacing the existing material and overstuffing with furniture foam from the craft store but it still hurt after an hour or so. I'll have to go look at the yoga mats.

I have a pair of those 3.5" sitting down stairs waiting for this and the RWR. They work pretty well. Same guys sells 8" 800x600 panels which are perfect for the MFCDs as well.

Hey, Are you using eyefinity bezel correction? If so do you have a fix for the missing radio menu text?

Most games wouldn't have a copy of d3d9.dll in their directory. It should be loaded from the windows system folders. If an application does not specify a directory where a dll is it will look in the same directory as the exe file first then look in the window system path. SoftTH takes advantage of this and should be put in the same directory as the .exe files for Black Shark and makes DCS load it instead of the real D3D.

WOW. Those are looking great!

Here's my current pit setup. Just finished building the stands for the 10.4" touchscreens. Left hand side has a home built collective (parts from an old X45), Warthog throttle and a 10.4" touchscreen. Center console is a 23" touchscreen. Right hand side has a 21" touch screen and a 10.4 touchscreen. External screens are 46" Sony LCDs. Everything runs off a single intel 2500k with 8GB ram and 64GB SSD. I have a 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 card driving the Sony's and the front console, while a second 5850 drives the side console displays. Running Helios of course to do all gauges and switches. Working on designing a front shroud to replace the articulating arm for the front console touchscreen. Hopefully I'll be able to fit in my two 8" LCDs to also mount my cougar MFDs. Planning on incorporating a physical landing gear switch, a half dozen rotary encoders into the front console shroud. Toying with building some generic radio panels to fill out the left console. Also going to convert to stationary side consoles to hold the right hand touchscreen and have a place to put my keyboard on the left of the collective.

I'm not sure there is a limit on the buttons now. I know of at least one person who built a custom joystick board and tested it with 128 buttons via helios and it worked fine.

X-Keys also has an SDK which looks like it could be run in Software mode. I'm exploring possibly supporting it in Helios. This would let you bind with out keyboard emulation at all.

You could also use Helios to map DirectX controllers bypassing the need for mapping keyboard commands.

Also for the PCB check out Batch PCB. Reasonable prices for single boards if you're willing to wait.

Several of them do. Pitbldr does sell some of his panels. It's a rarity for a couple of reasons though. First there just isn't enough demand to mass produce them. It takes a lot of effort and time to make things like that this keeps prices high usually which keeps demand low. Second usually the folks who make them made them in the first place because the want to use them. This combined with the first point means they'll have a real job as well. So if you become moderately successful you will no longer have free time to enjoy what you make.

Helios has direct support for Phidgets... No external software required.

Have you looked at upgrading your video card to a 5xxx or 6xxx series which can drive 3 monitors?