Gadroc

Can you post your bindings for that control? I just got my pit hooked all back up this week and I am not showing this problem on my setup.

No DCS hosts the match making pieces not the server themselves. You need to ask the server operator if they'll remove those checks. I wish they separated the export into two paths. One which would only give you access to data available in cockpit already and a second to do tacview type global data exports.

I'm still around albeit less frequently. The VHF/AM switches/frequency read outs where complicated to extract. I'll have to look at behavior changes in the DCS export in 1.2.6. May not be able to get it sorted for a few days.

I need to redo the BOM but it was in the $20-$30 per board range when buying components in a reasonable quantity. I'll be running BOM again once I finish the revision 3 version. I'm tied up for the next week, but hopefully next weekend I can finish that up and order the next round of prototype boards. Once I do that I'll see if a group purchase of components makes sense due to some components getting much cheaper when bought in bulk. I believe you need approximate 25 boards do to a full A-10 pit.

There are four primary things I worry about in choosing a display: Image Size Sounds obvious, but bigger can be worse when doing some things. At 27" and bigger you can only comfortably read half the screen at a time for text. If your going to be doing real work on it, you have to have a high enough pixel density to make half the screen look good at a time. Pixel Density Basically how small the pixels are on the screen. If screen size increases but resolution does not you don't get more usable real-estate just bigger pixels. This is usually bad for reading text. Response Time How fast the pixels on the screen can change between colors. Slow response time looks like blurry or bad colors during fast motion. Color Quality & Viewing Angle How many colors can the display actually display and how consistent is it. In addition how far off direct center can you view it with out drastic shift in color and contrast. For primary display of a flight sim a large 1920x1080 display (cheap large monitor or any 1080p TV) works well (although there are those who don't like the low pixel density). The larger displays create better immersion for a simulation and often don't suffer terribly in that use case for their low pixel density. For simulations the response time and color quality are not that big of an issue either. In addition you usually have a fixed head position so viewing angle is not important. For a primary display on a multi-use computer I would never go above 24" unless it had a resolution greater than 1920x1080. There are also two primary LCD panel types used in monitors TN and IPS. TN generally has better response times, but worse colors and viewing angles. Unless you are doing twitch type games (FPS, Real Time Strategy) I feel IPS is FAR superior and you'll be much happier with them. Also for general gaming 27" and above actually can be annoying for certain types of games, because you start to have to turn your head to read the edges of the screen where many critical elements are like health bars etc. My personal recommendations: Dedicated Simulation Display (Racing/Flight Sim Pit) - 46-55" 1080p TV Primary General Computer Monitor - 27-30" IPS Panel display at least 2560x1440 resolution The other thing to keep in mind is performance. Larger monitors don't take bigger graphics cards, but larger resolutions do. So if you are getting a good 27" or larger monitor that has a resolution greater than 2560x1440 it may challenge your graphics card.

Yes. You can share a common ground wire for all button inputs on the BBI-32. On a single board you can use any gnd connection on the board for any button input. Wire are necessary for your layout. Just to be clear. It would be a bad idea to share a common ground across two boards. This could create some interesting issues if you ended up running the boards off two different power supplies (aka two different powered hubs).

First what is your primary use for the monitor? Is it solely for flight sim, or do you primarily code on it. Is it for FPS or other twitch action gaming? Is color accuracy important (aka photo editing?) Those have a big impact on the recommendation.

It's possible that the multiplayer server disables data export all together. This would prevent all add-ins from getting data (TARs, TacView, etc...)

Actually the EOS Panel Board is pretty cheap per panel... I think the PCBs will end up being $3 each and you don't have to fully populate all the chips. I'll double check but total BOM for the full Panel Board was <$30 at low volume. You almost get up to that price when you add up cost for cables and connectors to home run that many switches.

This last batch of boards I got from iteadstudio.com the prototype boards where very reasonable. With the job they did I'll do my production run there as well. I used Eagle for the original LCD Board, but switched to Design Spark for the Panel Board. First is I didn't want to pay again for the upgrade from Eagle 5 to 6. In addition the Eagle board limitation even on the hobby license is to small. Lastly it means I couldn't sell them if I want to. I like to keep the options open.

That's a damn fine looking setup!

Ahhh. Ok I'll give it a try.

I use backlight intensity, it should not crash Helios. I think it's an intermittent problem where Helios tries to send a command to the bus when the bus is busy. I've hit it periodically and need to put the right defensive action there. Good catch on the ability to remove a device from the bus in Helios. I'll add that asap. Also any recommendation on how to detect updated addresses? Since there is not one manufacturer there is not really the concept of a serial number. Can prompt on matching name / input counts with different addresses after a scan.

There are not equivalent cheaper locking switches. NKK only makes two mode of locking switch (On-On and On-Off-On) which lock in each position available. If I really wanted switches to mimic functionality of the real pit you have to get the real ones. The only panel that really has those NK&K mode switches is the AHCP. The CMSP using On-Off-(Mom) which I use cheaper non-locking versions. Avionics Power Panel, CMSP Jetison and a few other are On-On but they only lock on one side. There are about 10 different locking plates that combine with switch action to have momentary, locking constant and non-locking constant on any of the positions. You can not get cheap switches that actually match those combinations. The non-locking version of the honeywell switches I paid <$10 each for them (with most being $5 each), which is roughly the same price as a quality other switches of equivalent size. So there was no real reason not to get them. You just have to look and order in batch so you get the lower price. For my stand point I wanted a highly accurate (not perfect) replica pit. I already had a VERY functional touch screen pit which was WAY cheaper than any switches in the quantity you need them for a pit. My goal was not cheaper, but more accurate. Lastly I'll tell you if I find a decent price version of the Honeywell to replace the NKK, I'd do it in a heart beat. The NKK lockings switches just feel cheap. Even some of the eaton mil-spec switches don't have near the same positive click feel of the honeywells that are the same mil-spec.

I have nearly all of the real locking toggles and I got them all for <$25 each but finding on e-bay or surplus shops. The ones I do not have are the AHCP and CMSP ones which are the honeywell 12tw series (mushroom top instead of the ball tops). They rarely come up for sale and retail for >$100 each.

The limitation is only with Microsoft's built in "control panel". DirectX supports many more, as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure brydling had a test firmware which showed up as 256 inputs on one controller in Helios. 32 is a legacy number which is not real anymore, it's just stuck around as older games may have that limitation built in.

Those look interesting... only problem is finding a distributor for them. Looks like a lot of them require an order of 5000. Have to see about getting some samples and if they work I'd do a group buy with folks.

If you hover over the trigger in helios for the action you are binding from it should tell you the value range. It's often times the values on the gauge have a multiplier... aka 0 = 0 and 4 = 40 or 400.

It's worth a try but I'd definitely do a more extensive test before committing to a lot of material. Most LED's have a narrow view angle... mean most of their light goes straight up. This means you don't want to place LED's directly behind text, or your will get "bright spots". In my experience about 3/16th air is the best spacing between LED and diffusion plate. I've switched to using 3/16 clear acrylic for that purpose to get more rigidity to the panel. I would recommend actually doing a panel with the technique your want. Do a full layout of switches, text and backlights. Make sure the backlighting is even enough for you and the number of led is not to much. Half of making panels is making sure everything behind the panel fits. Just using the real layout with out thought will lead to problems unless you've committed to buying the exact same switches used in the real ones. That is darned pricy as many panels use very expensive switches which have large bats with tiny switch bodies (some of the locking ones are >$100 each). You can find my latest panel design technique described in this post along with this diagram.

Ok.. APU Temp for BS2 has a value range of 0-900. Change the -6000 to 0 and the 6000 to 900 and tweak the output rotations as necessary. Add additional steps in the middle as necessary if the gauge faceplate is non-linear.

There are a couple settings you need to turn off for it to work right. Check here for instructions.

Nope. Should be able to map input value to servo rotation in the input calibration. Just bind sim output value to input value (not target position) and use trigger value in the bindings.

Helios can also render gauges onto the screen. Helios is a little more work to get started than HawgTouch, but can do more as well.

Loz's profile already has A-10C in it so you can't add it a second time. Can you send me profile that's crashing? I'll send you a PM with the e-mail address.

I've posted up my EOS library and brief notes on it. I'll be adding more samples and documentation over the next week. You can find the library here and the docs here.