Started building & programming

[Toge]

Hello everyone!

 

I wanted to share this great experience with you guys, I just started to build my own cockpit.

 

Here's what I'm planning to do:

-Basic structure made from wood etc

-Three displays (one game view, one for shkval and abris and one for all the gauges and instruments)

I'm going to write a software that listens to lua export and then draws the instruments to a monitor. I don't have the skills, time, parts, money etc to make mechanic gauges etc. Had to compromise somewhere..

-All switches, buttons, lcd displays etc

And, of course, to keep things non-trivial:

-DIY FFB joystick & pedals + collective stick

(I have to admit, I don't have the skills or tools needed for this part, but apparently my friend has, so let's see what we can make out of this..)

 

Here's what I have accomplished so far:

-Talked about this to my girlfriend

First she was like "wtf o.O", but because she breeds mice and snakes, I asked her that "If you can have 50+ mice and 30 snakes, I can have 250 switches and pushbuttons, ok?". We didn't discuss it any further.

 

-Lots of researching, planning, calculating, drawing etc.

I have used a lot of Triggerhappy69's work here, very many thanks to him! I really look forward to seeing his pit finished..

 

-Wooden front panel almost ready

Again, thanks to triggerhappy

Picture of it being drawn http://users.tkk.fi/~tphirvon/Front.jpg

 

-Electronics for my own IO-boards, desings almost finished + one testboard assembled and operational

Picture: http://users.tkk.fi/~tphirvon/Testboard.jpg

Not too nice to look at, but I was just in a rush to get something working, not to spend too much time worrying about what it looks like.. Notice the usb connector, I managed to make the pin order mirrored, so of course I couldn't solder it to the board but had to use wires to connect it =D

 

-Software that listens to lua export script over a network socket and then talks to my testboard over usb connection.

 

So... something like that. I believe this might interest someone here and inspired by the hard work of all others here, I'll be more than happy to share any designs, drawings, source code etc that might help anyone here.

 

To be continued.

[JG14_Smil]

good luck! GF will figure out that having you in the next room building a cockpit is better than you being off getting into trouble. :)

[hannibal]

looks like a toolstick... are you going to have this connected to Xbox at some point

[Toge]

looks like a toolstick... are you going to have this connected to Xbox at some point

 

Indeed, that is a Silicon Labs toolstick, I use it only to program / debug the Silabs MCUs I use on those io boards. No plans to connect anything to xbox, didn't even know what you were talking about until I googled "toolstick xbox" =)

[Toge]

Update.

 

Did some quick drawing & code writing and here's the result:

 

I haven't finished all the graphics not to mention the code (HSI needs a bit work), but at least I got a few of them working. The program runs on a second computer at the moment and reads the game's udp output and then renders the gauges with direct3d.

 

It has a separate config file to position and rotate all the gauges, change resolution etc so someone else can use it for their purposes as well. I will upload it somewhere once it's finished. Probably the source code too, although it's a textbook example of how not to write code, but maybe it will be of some use to someone. Works for me at least.

[Migo]

Looks very good =)

[JG14_Smil]

very interested in what you are doing... keep up the good work! :)

[-Bazong-]

Sweet! Very interesting stuff there..

[hannibal]

interesting? you mean your going to use the tool stick to interpret lua data? i did not know that that was possible...

 

might give new life to my toolstick mod... which has sat around since it dosent work that good with xbox..

[Toge]

Thank you all, helps to know that someone likes what I'm doing =)

 

interesting? you mean your going to use the tool stick to interpret lua data? i did not know that that was possible...

 

might give new life to my toolstick mod... which has sat around since it dosent work that good with xbox..

 

I actually use the toolstick to program the MCUs on the circuit boards I have made for this project. But basically if you have some kind of demoboard with the toolstick adapter (as you apparently do, if you use it with xbox?), you can program the demoboard the same way I program my own boards. Make it into a simple io board for example.

 

I don't know if it's possible to use it directly with lua code (might be), but I use it with a separate program (written in c++), which gets its data from lua export over udp. I'll upload the program / code once I get it to do something useful.

 

I'll explain it better later...

[talisman]

I dont know how much feedback you have had - but i am very interested in this. Getting working gauges has been on my mind for a while now.

 

Watching with lots and lots of interest.

 

PS looks great so far. Keep us updated :)

[londo-cat]

I was thinking of going this route as well, sort of the same thing as F-16 Glass and using a LCD monitor for the gauges. Be cheaper in the long run because you'd need less servo's and either 1 monitor (or two) could be utilized and cut down on costs.

 

Update.

 

Did some quick drawing & code writing and here's the result:

 

I haven't finished all the graphics not to mention the code (HSI needs a bit work), but at least I got a few of them working. The program runs on a second computer at the moment and reads the game's udp output and then renders the gauges with direct3d.

 

It has a separate config file to position and rotate all the gauges, change resolution etc so someone else can use it for their purposes as well. I will upload it somewhere once it's finished. Probably the source code too, although it's a textbook example of how not to write code, but maybe it will be of some use to someone. Works for me at least.

[Toge]

Argh, I've been too busy at work, but finally today I had some time to work on this..

 

Did some sawing and drilling: (nothing much to see here, but at least it's standing on its own)

 

I got tired of fixing the buggy c++ code, so I rewrote pretty much the whole thing. Now all the gauges are 3d models made with Blender and then read to the program with simple direct3d routines. Here's a screenshot:

 

Of course, they don't look any different, but the program is much simpler and the gauges are now easier to make, modify etc.. Pay no attention to the graphics, I didn't want to waste any time in drawing at this point.

 

As you can see, I got the HSI working =) (at least in part)

 

Here's what it looks like in Blender:

[C6_Hellfrog]

fantastic

 

continue the good work :thumbup:

 

if you make a fully functionnal software to emulate gauges on second panels, you maybe will have as much celebrity as utilities for LO which made the same thing

 

because many simmers don't have time or knowledge to achieve such a software...

 

it will be very appreciated by the community I think !!!

 

/Hellfrog

[talisman]

just to reiterate - this rawks - still watching and still interested.!!!

[159th_Falcon]

Nice project you got going on there. Im very interested in how the end result will be.

It all looks very promising, and oh a lil bit offtopic

 

-Talked about this to my girlfriend

First she was like "wtf o.O", but because she breeds mice and snakes, I asked her that "If you can have 50+ mice and 30 snakes, I can have 250 switches and pushbuttons, ok?". We didn't discuss it any further.

I found the above quote just hilarious:megalol::megalol:

Kept me laughing for a good while, but what im curious about.

Where the heck you keep all those animals? Must take up a lot of room.

[C6_Hellfrog]

Where the heck you keep all those animals? Must take up a lot of room.

 

no pb : mouses just dig holes in CP to make the pit ! :lol:

[C6_Hellfrog]

any news ?

[-Bazong-]

continue the good work :thumbup:

 

if you make a fully functionnal software to emulate gauges on second panels, you maybe will have as much celebrity as utilities for LO which made the same thing

 

because many simmers don't have time or knowledge to achieve such a software...

 

it will be very appreciated by the community I think !!!

 

/Hellfrog

 

I agree!! Awesome stuff!

If you make it to a public release, the fact that one can draw instruments in blender will be a very strong point I thinks.. That way others can relatively easily contribute by making instruments for the A-10C for instance :D

[Toge]

any news ?

 

I wish. I haven't had time to work on this almost at all. I've only spent some frustrating moments with the MCUs and other electronics, still got a few things to figure out.....

 

Maybe I'll get some gauges done this week, maybe.

[memento10]

Hi Toge, great work! This is a great option to real gauges which would be really challenging to make from scratch.

 

I watched a couple tutorials on Blender on youtube to get an idea of what's involved. I was hoping you could share a bit about your experience and how you accomplished this.

 

1) Realistically, is making these gauges in Blender an option if we had to learn Blender from scratch? How much experience do you have with it?

 

2) How do you interface the dials to the lua export?

 

3) To run the gauges with the sim going, does Blender just run on an additional monitor in a Window that can be easily repositioned?

[JG14_Smil]

keep up the great work :)

[Toge]

1) Realistically, is making these gauges in Blender an option if we had to learn Blender from scratch? How much experience do you have with it?

 

It should be. I'm a complete newbie with blender, although I have (very) little experience with 3dsmax and some other 3d programs. But the steps to make a gauge are very basic. All you need is a few polygons, starting from simple cubes and circles and then editing them to a proper shape. Extruding cubes and then some freeform vertex editing will get you objects in pretty much any shape you want. Then just draw some textures with any software you like (I used gimp) and apply them to the objects with blender. This is very simple too and there are easy tutorials for this also. And when you're done, save the work as an .x file (direct3d mesh file).

 

2) How do you interface the dials to the lua export?

3) To run the gauges with the sim going, does Blender just run on an additional monitor in a Window that can be easily repositioned?

 

These are a bit trickier. You can't do the interfacing and actually running the gauges with blender. I wrote a c++ program that uses direct3d to display the gauges (it loads the .x files) and rotate the needles etc. It uses some basic upd networking routines to get all the game data from lua export. I made it so that it reads the basic settings, like screen size and gauge positions, from a separate config text file, so everything can be resized and repositioned etc.

 

I will upload the program (and probably the source code too) when it's somewhat ready. I think tomorrow I will have some time to work on it again.

 

And thanks for the support & encouragement to all of you. This would never be ready if someone wasn't waiting for me to finish this... =)

[C6_Hellfrog]

@ toge : look this one

 

just new from today :

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=46579

 

:music_whistling::(:doh::mad::thumbup::megalol::helpsmilie::lol::huh: select the good item...

[Toge]

Wow, that's just great, saves me so many hours of work!

 

Ok, so one problem is solved. Now I can focus on the electronics. Maybe if I wait long enough, someone will have all that ready too in some downloadable package...