Gadroc

For G940 it's all of the above. I think it's been over a year since they promised new software was in the works.

Sorry. Sandcastle is a tool which generates the API documentation from my code comments. If you've ever looked at the MSDN documetation for the .net library, its the tool the generates that.

I'm working on it. I've sorted some of the new rendering engine issues. Next up is getting the network eventing system in place and then I'll start some sandcastle for the API docs.

A new maintenance release of Helios is available for download. You can download the latest from here. DCS All Interfaces Added ability to remove Helios config Added ability manually set game path DCS Black Shark Interface Added PUI-800 Station and Ammo displays Misc Changes Added Donate Now button in Control Center Added Donate Now menu item to Help menu in profile editor Added automatic version checking on startup of Control Center

It is the best FFB Stick I've tried, that being said it leaves ALOT to be desired in terms of ergonomics, buttons and feel. I've modded mine with a shaft extension and put a B8 grip on it and removed the twist and it was much better.

I have an X-52, G-940, MSFFFB2 and Warthog. I'll echo what others have said, if your budget allows skip the G-940. It's OK at best. Logitech has yet to release a fully functioning software nor give any kind of fix to the massive force feedback center slop aside from blame game developers. Sucks that it's your only option locally, but unless you get it really cheap it's just not worth it.

That data is not exported in DCS. The functions return null objects instead of the tables they do in LOCMAC if I recall correctly. It's been a few months since I dug into it.

Gauge Packs are all in the one install. There are various reasons for moving to this model both personal and community driven. It's still under active development and I've begun the work to refit the plug-in API and add full client / server network capabilities.

We have released a new version of Helios which now includes Black Shark flight gauges (there are still temp and pressure gauges which will be created as well). Helios is the most comprehensive flight simulation cockpit solution. Don't accept imitators when you can have all this. 49 Gauges across three different aircraft (A-10C, F-16, KA-50) Over 70 custom graphics for creating great cockpits 8+ Touchscreen Controls (Hat Switch, Toggles Switches, etc) all with many configuration possibilities Full WYSIWYG layout editor Full integration with 4 simulations (DCS BS, DCS A-10C, Falcon Allied Forces, Open Falcon) exporting hundreds of data items and controls Partial Integration with LockOn Flamming Cliffs 2 Helios is now donation ware and can be downloaded and used by all with out restriction. Download Helios 1.1.132 here. You can find the latest release information and community profile downloads at www.scsimulations.com.

In general what Peter says is true, but your results may vary. With Vista and Windows 7 the actual render path differences between full screen and windowed mode are not as different as they used to be and not all games react specifically as he's indicated. In addition Helios does use the touch api when available (aka when your touch screen is a native windows 7 digitizer and doesn't do it's own mouse emulation). This api interacts differently than mouse events and does result in different behaviors sometimes. Assuming you have the hardware both SoftTH and Helios are freely available give it a try and see how it works. I have set up SoftTH on my pit, but it offered zero performance improvement over windowed mode so it didn't get much testing.

I'd be interested in starting up a group project on this. The PHCC seems to have died out and I'd really really like a modular system where we only have to run a few wires between panels. PHCCC needed two or three levels of break out boards to work.

A couple pointers as I've been doing the same thing recently. The main problem is interfacing to the computer, getting a micro-controller to read and control these items is pretty easy. The ATMEGA chip you have has Serial IO, which can be brought to the computer via a USB->Serial controller but that get's unmanageable when you realize that you have approximately 25 panels which will need serial ports (actually you'll need more micro-controllers or a lot more circuitry as well since each ATMEGA only has approx. 16 IO pins per chip.) For reference it will take over 100 IO pins for the front panel alone to drive all the switches, LEDs, and stepper motors for a physical pit. You'll either have to switch to a USB chip or come up with a panel to panel bus structure with a master interface card. Unfortunately both those are a little troublesome with the ATMEGA chips. The only USB capable ATMEGA controllers are surface mount components. I hate the fact that PIC requires you to buy a compiler to program the chips your buying from them unless you want to write assembly. I'm also looking into VUSB which is a software implementation of low speed USB using a raw ATMEGA chip to bridge to a RS-485 bus between boards. Second you need to deal with power management. LEDs take up to 20ma each and you'll need ALOT of them especially if you are backlighting your panels. That can eat up power quick and you'll need to deal with expensive switching voltage regulators, or have a dedicated power source just for your LEDs. Regular linear voltage regulators get REALLY hot quickly if you are down stepping 100ma. I was planning on running a 12volt bus for everything for simplicity since my LCDs run off it, but I'm back tracking to dual regulator power supply 5v and 12v. Third figure out how to deal with IO expanders check out the MCP23017 chips. This will let you read many more inputs with one micro-controller. There are higher speed serial ones but they take more IO pins to drive. I have the circuit for a 32 input, 1 stepper out, 16 dimmable led out board I'll post in a bit.

Disabling Aero actually stops windows from using the GPU to accelerate some things in the UI. It made sense when Vista first came out and some graphics cards didn't actually make it faster, but with today's graphics cards I'd never recommend turning it off.

I'm using an Arduino based system as well. I've got working prototype breadboard versions of a few different models to run steppers, digital inputs and led outputs. I've got the protocol over RS-485 between boards done, but need to finalize the RS-485 to usb bridge setup.

Every switch and indicator available in DCS is exported in Helios. Some items are not available like data for RWR or UHF displays.

Believe me Feed that has weighed heavily on my mind the last few weeks. I will continue to develop Helios, but I feel the best way to drive value to existing customers is to drive forward a larger community. The only way to do that is to remove barrier to entry, which is price. Hardware integration is coming and will be easy for third parties add as well now.

Helios supports any hardware interface that exposes itself as directs controller today. It will expand to support more as time goes on. I have a PHCC setup and need to order a open cockpits card.

We are reevaluating how we approach this hobby. Which is triggering some changes around SCSimulations. Personally I have switched roles at my company and I'm enjoying my day job again, which means my hours are naturally increasing. In addition we have some other community projects which are recreating the work we have already done here. This in all honesty does not make sense for our community, which is small already and I don't want to see fragment. In light of these current conditions I am changing Helios license model. Helios will move to donation ware where Helios is free to use for all. This means I'll be setting up a way for people to donate money for the work I do, which is used solely for development tools for Helios and to further my cockpit. I will be exposing the API to write Helios plugins where the community can write new control types, simulation interfaces and gauges. My hope is that the community will take up and extend Helios to things like TeamSpeak plugins, new and better looking gauges and new control types and enhanced interfaces in the simulation. I will focus my time on enhancing the core engine with better more efficient rendering, full network support, better templating / theme support and better easier binding. I will post an unlocked development build sometime today. I will finish my Black Shark gauges over the next week and then begin the work to remove some of the licensing code, separate and release the source code for the gauge packs and simulation interfaces. This will take a few weeks to accomplish. For those who already purchased Helios, I will support you in exactly the same way I do today. Your existing donations are why everyone else has the tools they have and I hope you will feel good about your donations and what you have contributed to the community. I would never have launched on the several hundreds of hours to make a WYSIWYG editor just to build my pit, it would have stuck like TouchPal and Hawg touch with hand edited XML files. For those who think it was pricey and I was racking in the dough, think again. I've made less than $5 per hour of time spent on this project after buying some of the hardware (I needed a clean development workstation outside my pit for clean testing) and software tools I use to make Helios (I use NO pirated software). All of my net profits went into either my cockpit (extra external visuals, electronics, etc…) or toward running SCSimulations (materials for prototypes for Sheldon and I, web site, credit card processing fees, etc…).

ClearDark I'm very glad you wrote that down. Everyone gets passionate about the tools they use. I'm glad we could avoid a big flame ware here.

There is no need to turn this into any kind of fight. The software has extreme overlap and more power to ClearDark to give away his time. I've done the same in the past. Competition is always good and I'm evaluating pricing options. Tyger - And if you execute Helios in a restricted mode over the network these is no FPS hit either. Technically Helios and Hawg touch are restricted by all the same technology and will have very similar limitations.

Unfortunately I've run into several little quirks like that which required specific code in Helios. A lot of tinkering, but fun especially once you get things working.

You should be able to. Check out Mike's excellent books. He has instructions on how to make real instruments work. It will take work though.

Yea. I doubt it's that nefarious. If you look at what this awesome "hack" does it would not be usable right out of the box for many people, and if directly published would result in many more support questions. They don't draw bezels, it's tough to align where you need it, etc... ED has done an amazing job of making their recent sims VERY cockpit friendly. There is always a few more things we would like, but all in all it's amazing what we can accomplish already.

Somewhere in the system you'll have to compare current value against what you are trying to set. You can get the current value using the get argument value function on the main panel passing in the argument id for that switch. If the values are equal then don't call perform clickable action.

Leavu used the export to create radar views and other functions that where not available in the real aircraft. I also believe some modes of it gave target next type abilities instead of having to slew radar cursor etc... but I've never really used it.