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Ian's History of Pit Building Experiments


FSFIan

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It all started in May 2012.

I could not afford a touchscreen (those were starting at 600 EUR back then), but still wanted a better user experience than clicking switches with my mouse (which required taking my hand off the stick).

 

With a budget of about 30 EUR, I built this:

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The ATMega168 microcontroller was programmed to appear as several USB joysticks (composite device) using the V-USB library. The lower rotary encoder switched the panel that was to be controlled.

This construction has since fallen apart and its rotary encoders have been re-used in another project.

 

A bit more than a month later, I found Helios and the EOS bus specification and built this:

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Not knowing that $3 Arduino boards are a thing, I saw the future of my low-cost user experience improvements in the TI Launchpad boards. (I also grabbed those during the initial launch promotion when they were $4.30 each.)

 

 

In October 2012, I added a UFC built mostly out of paper, foamboard and scotch tape.

20121026_002.jpg

 

Three months later, I redid my MFCD buttons and added a second set of them.

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Doing the MFCD buttons myself was not a good idea. After a few months of use, some buttons stopped working because there are too much wires in a cramped space directly under the push buttons, where they are pushed around every time you press a button.

 

In the time it took me to wire up both MFCD panels, I could also have earned enough money to buy the TM Cougar MFD Pack...

 

That UFC however works to this day (although I no longer use it).

 

What I did discover at that point was that when I connected all three panels (UFC, left MFCD, right MFCD) to Helios using EOS, the latency started to get very noticeable. Helios asked for device updates a fixed number of times a second (I think it was 10), so for three devices it would mean that a single device would only be asked 3 or 4 times a second.

 

After Windows 8 came out, touchscreens became affordable. I got a 23 inch full HD touch screen for about 250 EUR and have used Helios with that.

 

On a Sunday in January 2014, I quickly put together this Autopilot panel for the Majestic Software Q400 in FSX:

20140113_001.jpg

 

20140113_002.jpg

 

This one uses an Arduino Pro Mini and a Lua script that is run by FSUIPC.

This was the last physical panel that I built. In my current situation (dorm room, no permanent dedicated space for a flight sim setup), a touchscreen is more convenient compared to setting up and stowing away extra panels whenever I want to fly.

 

 

In April 2014, I started talking with WarHog about Arduino boards because he wanted to get the radio frequencies to a display. For a while, I started to read everything I could find about Lua scripting in DCS.

 

In June 2014, I put a web server into a DCS mission just because I could. This evolved into DCS Witchcraft, which provided me with an interactive Lua console.

 

In mid-July 2014, on a whim I built an Export.lua file that connected to the DCS Witchcraft Lua console. I discovered that the text of most cockpit displays (CMSP, CMSC, UHF Repeater) is available and also got a much better understanding of device IDs, argument numbers and the performClickableAction function.

 

Around that time, the idea for DCS-BIOS was born. Starting from a rough idea of what I wanted the communication protocol to look like, over the next five months it grew into what I released three days ago.

 

Now that that's done, I am playing with the idea of doing a few more of those foamboard panels again, in an easy-to-stow-away form factor. They are just so cheap and easy to make, and DCS-BIOS eliminates the hassle of setting up a Helios profile.

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Hi Ian,

 

Quite a journey you have made. I seem to recall seeing the MFCD setup at some point but my limited ability wasn't able to make heads and tails on it.

 

I am really looking forward to the prospects of the new version of your software. Especially the ethernet solutions looks very appealing to me.

 

Will be wathing your progress :thumbup:

 

Cheers

Hans

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