Major Announcement: New software to to connect panels to DCS

[mblackham]

Ahh ok cheers.

[rcmodels]

So, I raided Radio Shack's still warm body and picked up a couple Arduinos to mess around with.

 

I've owned them in the past and have written sketches so I'm familiar with that aspect of this.

 

I'm just doing the little master caution light walk through and I've got my light lighting just fine, however my button isn't changing in the game. The Serial connector is registering my presses in the window, but it doesn't have any effect in the game.

 

Any idea what to trouble shoot? We're definitely getting exports from the game, but not sure it's writing back to it.

[mblackham]

Problem solve....

[FSFIan]

So, I raided Radio Shack's still warm body and picked up a couple Arduinos to mess around with.

 

I've owned them in the past and have written sketches so I'm familiar with that aspect of this.

 

I'm just doing the little master caution light walk through and I've got my light lighting just fine, however my button isn't changing in the game. The Serial connector is registering my presses in the window, but it doesn't have any effect in the game.

 

Any idea what to trouble shoot? We're definitely getting exports from the game, but not sure it's writing back to it.

 

That's strange. Any firewall that could interfere?

Does the

work? (That uses TCP instead of UDP).

 

Any errors in dcs.log?

 

You could also try a modified version of connect-to-serial-port.cmd that uses TCP instead of UDP:

REM Specify the number of the COM port your Arduino is connected to:

set COMPORT=5



set /A TTYNUM=%COMPORT%-1
mode COM%COMPORT% BAUD=500000 PARITY=N DATA=8 STOP=1 TO=off DTR=on
socat\socat -v TCP4:localhost:7778 /dev/ttyS%TTYNUM%

pause

[rcmodels]

I'm not overly familiar with this, so forgive me if I sound like an idiot :)

 

Aside from the comport, should I be editing anything in that example as written? Running it as listed gave me a connection refused message which terminated the script. Should I be supplying my internal IP or localhost?

[rcmodels]

Also, unable to get anything from the Interactive Control Reference Documentation.

[FSFIan]

rcmodels: it sounds to me like something is preventing DCS.exe from starting a network server (either TCP or UDP), so it cannot listen for commands via UDP or accept TCP connections. It can send data via UDP, so we know it is running.

 

Try to temporarily deactivate any firewalls and/or add a firewall exception for DCS.exe (port 7778, TCP and UDP).

[rcmodels]

I haven't had windows firewall enabled, but I did go into my router and add 7778 for udp and tcp. I also added new rules to windows firewall to accept connections to that port for UDP and TCP.

 

I do have a hardware VPN for work, but my home computer is on the DMZ port, so I don't think that should be affecting it.

[FSFIan]

Nothing outside of your computer is relevant for this, we are talking about connections to localhost here.

 

This is really strange -- the export works (but only via UDP), everything that requires connecting to DCS does not. Is there anything in dcs.log?

 

I think the only thing that can interfere here (beyond a seriously ****ed up windows install in general) is firewall or antivirus software. The DCS-BIOS code in question has been unchanged since v0.1.0.

[rcmodels]

I sent you a PM with a link to the logs. I don't see anything in there causing this.

[Thick8]

THIS IS SO COOL!!!

Did another raid on Radio Shack and cleaned them out of micro servos. Took about ten minutes to setup a flaps indicator. I was stumped about how I was going to make gauges work. I was going to set up multiple monitors for the MIP. Gotta make a run on another shack tomorrow to get enough servos to run all of my gauges.

Thanks for this wonderful tool.

[agrasyuk]

Servo makes adequate flap gauge . this has to do with the fact flap will hold either of 3 preset positions . fuel quantity gauge can also get by with servo perhaps. However all other instruments could use much smoother motion then the hobby servo can provide.

Try it, but be prepared to go with different solution

[Thick8]

As I only have 160 degree mini servos I can't get the full range of rotation of the fan speed but it looks smooth enough for me. Gonna pick up some 360 deg. ones to test.

[Gadroc]

360 degree servos don't allow positioning. They rotate contiously you can only vary speed. You'll need to use gears to add more rotation.

[Warhog]

As I only have 160 degree mini servos I can't get the full range of rotation of the fan speed but it looks smooth enough for me. Gonna pick up some 360 deg. ones to test.

 

As Gadroc has said you will need to incorporate gearing as I have done in the following pic. BTW, most small hobby servos have a swing of 180 degrees. If you use a 1:2 gear ratio you will get the 360 degree swing you need.

 

 

This is the rear of the Fuel Panel So you have 2 pointers that move in opposite directions and then the hydraulic gauge indicators above. They have 360 degree swing so I have used the same type of gearing for those servos as well. This is a high res image so click on it and see the detailing of the gears. If you choose a ratio of 3:1 or better then you have lots of maneuvering room and you can adjust the amount of swing in the sketch. I just did that last night to do the final calibration of the Flaps Gauge. The overall swing was way to much and I just set the swing to a lower amount to compensate.

 

Since I had to show off the messy side of the panel I guess you should see what it looks like finished (almost finished that is):doh:

 

 

I'm using stepper motors for the EMI and they only provide for 316 degrees which is insufficient for that fan gauge. So I will need to use gearing to bring that up to the necessary rotation that is required for the fan.

 

I hope this helps as its virtually the only way you can do this without over complicating the project.

[Thick8]

Wow you do nice work. Where did you get your gears and axle shafts?

Did you lase or router your panels?

[Warhog]

Thank you. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist which can be a bad thing at times.:music_whistling:

 

This place has a great assortment of parts http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-50-styles-Plastic-Gears-All-The-Module-0-5-Robot-Parts-for-DIY-Necessary-/150977314960 but any of the robotics stores will have a good inventory of gears and axles. I bought a rather large assortment so I could do almost anything I needed to without constantly ordering different sets of gears. Also get a supply of 2mm dia axles at the same time.

 

 

BTW, the panels were cut on a TAIG CNC mill.

[Thick8]

Thanks for the link. I did find 18 and 8 tooth gears (and shafts) on Amazon. So that will give me just a little over a 2:1 ratio. All with free shipping. Will go ahead and get a few more servos as well. I'm going to draw up the engines/apu gauge panel as one unit and try to laser it out next week at school. I'll have to wait for the gears to draw up the gearbox/backplate. I have those strip LEDs as well so I'm going to steal your backlight idea.

[rocketeer]

I finally received my mega. Installed IDE and dcs bios etc. complied code in the sketch and it ran fine. Ran the serial port exe and it says warning: couldn't compute FAST_CWD pointer.

 

I suppose I can ignore this warning?

[rocketeer]

I wired a 2 pos toggle switch. As I flicked it, I can see on the serial port dos window it says AAP_CDUPWR 1, then AAP_CDUPWR 0 etc. So it senses the toggle switch and its change of state. But when I start A10C game nothing happens. I don't see any switch moving in the game.

 

What am I doing wrong? Anything to do with the FAST_CWD warning?

[FSFIan]

I finally received my mega. Installed IDE and dcs bios etc. complied code in the sketch and it ran fine. Ran the serial port exe and it says warning: couldn't compute FAST_CWD pointer.

 

I suppose I can ignore this warning?

 

I have never seen that before. It appears to be related to using applications based on an older version of cygwin (like the version of socat distributed with DCS-BIOS) on Windows 8.1. I have no idea what that message means and I don't know if it prevents socat from doing its job.

 

Things you can try:

• make sure that any local firewall or antivirus that might interfere is temporarily disabled
  
• make sure that DCS is unpaused when testing (DCS-BIOS does not work in active pause mode)
  
• try ArturDCS's ComHandler program instead of connect-serial-port.cmd
  
• check if the
  works
  

[Warhog]

I wired a 2 pos toggle switch. As I flicked it, I can see on the serial port dos window it says AAP_CDUPWR 1, then AAP_CDUPWR 0 etc. So it senses the toggle switch and its change of state. But when I start A10C game nothing happens. I don't see any switch moving in the game.

 

What am I doing wrong? Anything to do with the FAST_CWD warning?

 

Found this for you...

 

I resolved this issue installing the latest version of cygwin, downloaded from http://www.cygwin.com. Then I replaced files and folder in project-open folder with the newest installed. The everything works fine again.

 

Found it here...

 

http://sourceforge.net/p/project-open/support-requests/39/

 

Hope it helps.

[rocketeer]

i downloaded the latest cygwin. didn't help. Rebooted. The warning still exists.

 

I turned off firewall AND antivirus.

DCS is unpaused

Tried ArturDCS's ComHandler program

Tried the interactive control reference documentation

Tried different pins.

Tried different toggles.

 

Nothing worked so far.

[Puma]

I get that warning but it works regardless. Flip a switch, do you see text that matches? Start dcs, do you see a spew of text? Mine works 100% despite it.

[FSFIan]

I get the impression that something is not right with your Export.lua setup.

Do you get the spew of text Puma mentioned (seen at 03:10 in

)?

Are there any errors in dcs.log?

Are you using another piece of software that relies on Export.lua (Helios and TacView are known to work)?

What is the content of your Export.lua file?