DIY “Knobster”

[Twwhitey]

In need for an extra few dials to augment my VR setup for things like the F/A-18 Radar Alt setting or the A-10 & F-16C HSI CRS and HDG dials the internet seemingly pointed me to the perfect solution - a thing called the Knobster… looked perfect but wait… 95€??? And it only works with a 30€ plug-in that may or may not work with DCS?… so $130+ plus shipping from Europe? Good lord cut me a break.. No thanks… 

having dabbled in Arduino boards for a previous button box and finding the dual encoders necessary online with a slick mini-board w headers I figured I’d just make my own (as I’m sure many people have done as well).  

• (2) $13 encoders from Propwashsim.com
• (1) $24 arduino micro w headers
• $10 in short header wires 
• $10 in small plastic project box (Pack of 5 mind you)
• $6 6ft USB - micro USB cable from Amazon

and (with a leftover L bracket I had in the garage) voila a DIY version for < $60… and a deluxe edition with 2 dials instead of 1 LOL

the soldering of the encoders to the mini-circuit board was a bit fiddily (Pretty small pins to deal with) but otherwise it was pretty simple to assemble and fits pretty perfectly into the small project boxes I found on Amazon.  Shows up as a 10 button joystick in windows easily mapped in DCS so no 30€ plug-in required

I’ve got the simple arduino code and 4 project boxes left over happy to throw a box in the mail (USPS) for karma sake if anyone with basic soldering skills is interested in doing the same just DM me… cheers

 

[dradecki]

I have most of the hardware already.  Can you post the Arduino code?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Twwhitey]

21 hours ago, dradecki said:

I have most of the hardware already.  Can you post the Arduino code?

Sure thing - it's by no means super elegant by coding standards but here you go.  Note you'll need this custom rotary encoder library (ErriezRotaryEncoderHalfStep) which is brilliant as it allows for the capture of more than just CW/CCW rotation but also 3 levels of speed so you can adjust output speed (in this case button press duration) based on how quickly you spin the dials... helps with traversing the big dials like the HSI Course & Heading dials with bigger jumps quickly while still allowing for very fine tuning when turning at slow speed.  You obviously need to customize the pin assignments and may need to adjust the sensitivity variables, button press durations or even use his FullStep library based on type/model of your encoders and/or what flight systems you're most interested in controls but it's all easy to adjust & test if need be...

DIY_Knobster_V3.ino

[dradecki]

Thank you, much appreciated.