DCS-BIOS: Overview and Announcements

[v81]

On 6/2/2022 at 12:55 AM, BlackLibrary said:

@v81 this link is for profiles for DCSFlightpanel Software. Not for BIOS

 

So... I'm lost.

Is there a way to with Flight Panels then to connect physical I/O to DCS.

Can flightpanels profile make an LED on an arduino blink.

[No1sonuk]

6 hours ago, v81 said:

So... I'm lost.

Is there a way to with Flight Panels then to connect physical I/O to DCS.

Can flightpanels profile make an LED on an arduino blink.

You can do that with the DCS-BIOS and arduino library parts of the Flightpanels fork. 

[BlackLibrary]

vor 13 Stunden schrieb v81:

So... I'm lost.

Is there a way to with Flight Panels then to connect physical I/O to DCS.

Can flightpanels profile make an LED on an arduino blink.

No and yes.

DCSFlightpanels software is for driving the Saitek/Logitech Panels with DCS via DCS-BIOS

The Flightpanel profiles are profiles for DCSFlightpanels
 

the flightpanel DCS BIOS Fork is a "translator" program
if you want to "play" with arduinos you need the Flightpanel BIOS fork and the Arduino library

[v81]

On 6/21/2022 at 7:05 PM, No1sonuk said:

You can do that with the DCS-BIOS and arduino library parts of the Flightpanels fork. 

I've confused the Flightpanels profiles to be the same thing as DCS BIOS 'modules' that are installed separately over that side of the fence.

Have just installed DCS BIOS Flightpanels and found that all the aircraft are already inbuilt.
Didn't realize that's how the FP version works.

Now if only there were a way do do everything without Chrome I'd be fully happy.
Any way the ditch the Flightpanels imposed chrome app nonsense?
Kind of annoying to only need chrome for the one thing and not have full control over window size etc..

[BlackLibrary]

chrome only needed for life data. for programming just open the controlref.html in a browser of your joice.

But only with masterbranch the release version has a bug that you only see a blank page

Edited June 25, 2022 by BlackLibrary

[v81]

11 hours ago, BlackLibrary said:

chrome only needed for life data..

 

Bit of a shame.. just not a Chrome fan but it's a small price to pay.

My only previous experience is with BIOS is the original, it's great how it's browser agnostic.
I'd have the browser open and watch something happen on screen and mirror on the hardware.

[No1sonuk]

On 6/26/2022 at 11:35 AM, v81 said:

Bit of a shame.. just not a Chrome fan but it's a small price to pay.

My only previous experience is with BIOS is the original, it's great how it's browser agnostic.
I'd have the browser open and watch something happen on screen and mirror on the hardware.

Did you notice the Chrome thing doesn't work anymore?  You need "BORT" to get the live data now. 
There's a channel on the Flightpanels Discord.

[Диванный пилот]

В 29.01.2023 в 19:48, No1sonuk сказал:

Did you notice the Chrome thing doesn't work anymore?  You need "BORT" to get the live data now. 
There's a channel on the Flightpanels Discord.

Excuse me, but what do you mean by "Chrome thing doesn't work anymore"? Just checked my Flightpanel fork add-on and it works. Metadata counter is alive and add-on response to cabin toggles.

And what is BORT?

 

[No1sonuk]

22 minutes ago, Диванный пилот said:

Excuse me, but what do you mean by "Chrome thing doesn't work anymore"? Just checked my Flightpanel fork add-on and it works. Metadata counter is alive and add-on response to cabin toggles.

And what is BORT?

There was an app you could install in Chrome that showed the live data coming from DCS-BIOS while the game is running.
Chrome doesn't support those apps anymore. 
BORT is a standalone program that replaces the live data Chrome app.

[Диванный пилот]

23 часа назад, No1sonuk сказал:

There was an app you could install in Chrome that showed the live data coming from DCS-BIOS while the game is running.
Chrome doesn't support those apps anymore. 
BORT is a standalone program that replaces the live data Chrome app.

Do you mean "Dcs-bios control reference live preview" app? If so, yes, Chrome shows notification, that the app is not supported anymore, but... It (app) still works fine and shows all gauges, toggles, buttons etc. 

[No1sonuk]

That's exactly it.  Maybe it'll stop working soon.

[lesthegrngo]

Hi guys, I want to check that the DCS Bios control references I have are the latest ones, as it is a while since I checked. I installed the latest DSC Bios from here https://github.com/dcs-bios/dcs-bios/releases

When I open the DCS Bios web interface and click on the control reference tab, I get the Metatdataend and Metadatastart parts, but when I click on them I don't get any where as they seem to be empty.

I have a offline version but it is old, like maybe 5 years old so I suspect that it has been superseded. Can anyone point me to the correct location?

Thanks

Les

[crash test pilot]

Hi Lesthegrngo, the hub version has not seen updates in 4 years. Active Fork is the Flightpanels one:

https://github.com/DCSFlightpanels/dcs-bios

 

[lesthegrngo]

Got it, thanks - as it happens I must have downloaded it before and forgotten, as it was already there!

Cheers

Les

[lesthegrngo]

All, I bought and installed the A10CII mod today, just to see if the behaviour of the switches that don't seem to work with the A10C mod work differently.

The answer is a big 'YES' but not in the way I hoped. DCS Bios does not seem to work at all with the A10CII mod, I can't get anything to work. If I switch back to the A10C without disconnecting the Arduino it instantly is recognised by DCS, and the RX light flashes and I can move switches in game. If I then exit the A10C and go back to the A10CII, no RX light, nothing.

I have installed the latest DCS Bios, and when I open the plugins and check for updates, only the A10C shows up, there is no A10CII, although maybe that's correct

The DCS Bios should work with the A10CII, right? is there a separate control reference for it, or something I have failed to install? 

 

Les

[No1sonuk]

No. As I said in your oxy switch thread, I tried A-10C and A-10CII.  Both worked perfectly as expected.
The control reference is the same for both.

Edited June 22, 2023 by No1sonuk

[lesthegrngo]

I followed the instructions on the installation video here

and reinstalled DCS Bios to make sure that it was all correct, but it still didn't work

However as part of the installation it says to copy the line from the DCS Master export.lua file into the one in the saved games -scripts folder. I noticed that the master version was this line

"dofile(lfs.writedir()..[[Scripts\DCS-BIOS\BIOS.lua]])",

but in my scripts export.lua was the line

"dofile(lfs.writedir()..[[Scripts\DCS-ExportScript\ExportScript.lua]])",

and right below it was

"BIOS = {}; BIOS.LuaScriptDir = [[C:\Program Files\DCS-BIOS\dcs-lua\]]; BIOS.PluginDir = [[C:\Users\Les\AppData\Roaming/DCS-BIOS/Plugins\]]; if lfs.attributes(BIOS.LuaScriptDir..[[BIOS.lua]]) ~= nil then dofile(BIOS.LuaScriptDir..[[BIOS.lua]]) end --[[DCS-BIOS Automatic Setup]]

On the DCS install on my desktop where I try stuff out, I looked at the export.lua file, and neither of those lines were there. Just to see if it made a difference, I backed it up, then deleted those two lines, just inserting the "dofile(lfs.writedir()..[[Scripts\DCS-BIOS\BIOS.lua]])", version from the BIOS Master folder.

And I'm happy to say that not only does it now work with the A10CII mod, it also now allows the Oxy test switch and the Inverter Test switch positions to be recognised, so those sketches work perfectly now. I don't know where those lines came from, but they obviously were causing issues.

I'd got to the point where I was going to uninstall everything and do a clean install but looks like for the time being at least that won't be necessary 

Les

 

[Bucic]

On 3/22/2015 at 12:51 AM, FSFIan said:

For anything else, you can use the DCS-BIOS Discussion Thread.

This link is dead. It returns 404 error.

[Msiipola]

All information about DCS-BIOS are available at https://github.com/DCS-Skunkworks

 

[Bucic]

@Msiipola Yes, I discovered it yesterday by accident. Neither this forum OP nor the original DCS-BIOS github mention Skunksworks.

Are there any resources for DCS BIOS setup with shift registers? Like this resource for example (that one is for FreeJoy) https://github.com/FreeJoy-Team/FreeJoyWiki/blob/master/eng/Connecting-buttons-to-shift-registers.md

I'm preparing to wire my first ever panels and I'm kind of in the dark.

[Msiipola]

There is no special with shift registers connected to DCS-BIOS. First you should buy or build the shift register HW The number of circuits depends on how many Dig-OUT you need. With one 74HC165 you have 8 outputs. I assume you use a Arduino board you need to write and test a stand-alone program first, before connection to DCS-BIOS. Writing the program from scratch is easy or hard depending on your skills.

Examples of programs/sketches:

https://www.best-microcontroller-projects.com/74hc595.html

Edited December 4, 2023 by Msiipola

[No1sonuk]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:56 PM, Bucic said:

This link is dead. It returns 404 error.

It's now here:

HOWEVER, the original "Hub" version of DCS-BIOS is no longer supported.
The Skunkworks Fork (Formerly called "Flight Panels Fork") is regularly updated and maintained.
https://github.com/DCS-Skunkworks

There's a setup guide here:

 

[Simpit]

Since I updatedto latest update of 2.9 DCS-BIOS doesn´t work athough it´s connected!

Anyone who has solved the problem?

[Vinc_Vega]

Confirmed!

 

One cannot longer send commands via DcsBios. Nevertheless, BORT is still able to readout data from the simulation, so the server seems to be alive.

 

Regards, Vinc

[Simpit]

Thanks for the fast reply! That´s sad bcause cockpit-builders has spend much time in getting DCS-BIOS worked.

Cannot understand why DCS has changed the engine in this point.

p.s.: Ok, BORT-activation  seems to easy. I understand the readme in this way that it´s an addional tool to DCS-BIOS!? Will try it and report!

Edited June 2, 2024 by Simpit