fael097's a-10c CHEAP cockpit build

[fael097]

wow, thats about right stang!

thanks for being so helpful.

 

guess I missed the part saying that the distance between the bottom (or top) of the plate and the dzus hole was also standard, and .562''

 

btw, according to your math, you calculated 3 times the multiple of .375 for the distance between dzus holes, right? where did you find that it was 3 times? I was basing my measures from a pic of the dcs panel, and it looked about 2 times only (wich I admit, looks really small after i printed)

 

anyways, here's the images I used as reference:

 

cheers!

Edited May 24, 2011 by fael097

[TigersharkBAS]

Real Panel dimensions (excluding thickness) can be found here:

http://warthogpit.wikispaces.com/

 

As measured by an A-10 crewchief.

[fael097]

awesome, thank you tigershark!

 

btw, I was thinking how to connect the LED lights I'm gonna use, and decided to make a separate switch (that later I'll put into the lighting panel) so I was wondering, how to connect the leds to the ggg USB card, through a switch. do I need to connect any resistors to the leds? I'll probably wire all the leds from all panels to the same switch, and at the same time i want this switch to simply turn on/off the leds, I also want it to send a command to the usb interface to turn the lights on/off in game.

 

last thing, I have an USB interface from an old joystick, wich has 4 inputs for analog axis. is it possible to control the game light knob through a potentiometer? also is it possible to control the LEDs intensity through the same potentiometer? that would be amazing.

 

thanks

[fael097]

Hey stang!

thats a nice piece of software. I use 3ds max for modeling, so sometimes it can help with measures, but adjusting the camera to match a picture, can be painful, and sometimes you have to guess lenses size, until you get an angle that approaches the pic, to start measuring.

 

about the lenght, yeah i just saw it says 2 inches in there, but im not sure, i mean 2 inches isnt exact, it wont fit the standard dimensions.

 

so i tried calculating an approach. if you add .562 x2 (the distance from dzus holes to the top/bottom edges on the lenght) to the holes distance multiplier .375 x2, you'll have 1.874 inches ( .126'' difference from 2''). if you do the multiplier x3, you'll get your 2.249 inches, but thats 249'' different, so 1.874 is a little closer to the 2 inches, but lol, yeah, we can't base it on the statement that the laste panel is 2 inches long.

 

so you're right, more accurate dimensions could help a lot

 

cheers!

[fael097]

so I finally managed to put something together.

I'm gonna cut the acrylic plates tomorrow, but I couldn't wait any longer to have something working, so I decided to give it a try.

 

turns out that the old joystick helped more than I thought. besides it's usb interface, I used the cardboard box to put my switches into something, so they wouldn't be lying around lol. some pics:

 

 

 

obviously lame, but it works :P

I used xpadder to configure release actions, since I'm not going to keep it like this, and didn't want to mess with the lua thing just yet.

here's some vids:

 

 

 

now I'm messing with leds:

 

x4QlPsLoZAw

 

not hard to wire a switch and a potentiometer, but I wonder if there's some sort of potentiometer that "clicks" off when you spin it back. anyone knows?

 

also, I didn't wire it to the usb board, cuz im not sure if I'll need resistors. board says "led" in a pin, guess i'll try some old led later and see if it burns.

 

I have 2 roadblocks now.

first of all, is it possible to control a light knob from the game through an axis?

second, if it is possible, how would I wire physical leds AND game axis to the same potentiometer? wouldn't i need some sort of double pole? is there such thing for potentiometers?

 

thanks guys!

Rafael

Edited May 25, 2011 by fael097

[PanelBuilder]

I finally bought the acrylic plate, though I only found 3mm. guess I'll sand the base plate down until it's 1,5mm thick.

Why would you do this?

Just curious,

Colin

[PanelBuilder]

awesome, thank you tigershark!

 

last thing, I have an USB interface from an old joystick, wich has 4 inputs for analog axis. is it possible to control the game light knob through a potentiometer? also is it possible to control the LEDs intensity through the same potentiometer? that would be amazing.

It is possible to use pot inputs to control those types of knobs through lua.

It is not possible to assign an axis to these knobs.

We have been through this.

 

Cheers,

Colin

[PanelBuilder]

and at the same time i want this switch to simply turn on/off the leds, I also want it to send a command to the usb interface to turn the lights on/off in game.

If you're not already losing sleep over this, maybe I can fix that :-)

Consider also that when the power is turned off in the sim, you want the lights to go off in your pit.

 

Just here to help :-)

Colin

[fael097]

hey colin,

 

I was going to do that, because 3mm is the thinnest acrylic sheet they had, and standards say that the base plate should be about 1,57mm... and i don't have any tools to precisely cut it in half, so sanding seems to be the best option right now. or leaving it with 3mm, but idk, wanted it to look about right.

 

about the pots, sorry, never know when something has been discussed already, thought I was starting it, so I didn't search

 

and yeah I lost like an hour of sleep, but gave up when I realized I have no clue what to do :P

I appreciate any ideas you might come up with

 

cheers

Edited May 25, 2011 by fael097

[PanelBuilder]

hey colin,

 

I was going to do that, because 3mm is the thinnest acrylic sheet they had, and standards say that the base plate should be about 1,57mm... and i don't have any tools to precisely cut it in half, so sanding seems to be the best option right now. or leaving it with 3mm, but idk, wanted it to look about right.

The standards don't call for acrylic however. I would leave it at 3mm, 1/8", whatever. Acrylic might be too flimsy at 1/16". One material that might work at that thickness is FR4 circuit board. Aluminum would probably be easier to work though.

 

Cheers,

Colin

[KLaFaille]

Aluminum would probably be easier to work though.

 

And sturdier, more durable, and correct to how real panels are constructed. :beer:

[PanelBuilder]

Yeah, that too.

[fael097]

that's an idea!

 

I decided to use acrylic after reading some suggestions, and spending some time trying to figure out how to do the back lighting.

 

guess I never thought of using a different material for the base plate, so yeah, appreciate the heads up! gonna search how much would it cost me some aluminium sheets.

 

I guess the material used for the light plate on the real hog isnt acrylic, or is it?

 

cheers!

Edited May 25, 2011 by fael097

[PanelBuilder]

not hard to wire a switch and a potentiometer, but I wonder if there's some sort of potentiometer that "clicks" off when you spin it back. anyone knows?

Rafael

Yes. It's called "Potentiometer With Switch". Sometimes just "pot w/switch".

 

No trouble, really.

Happy to help.

Cheers,

Colin

[PanelBuilder]

second, if it is possible, how would I wire physical leds AND game axis to the same potentiometer? wouldn't i need some sort of double pole? is there such thing for potentiometers?

 

Just look for "dual pot". Not "dual shaft pot".

 

Cheers,

Colin

[fael097]

Just look for "dual pot". Not "dual shaft pot".

 

Cheers,

Colin

 

got it, thanks

 

btw, in case I don't find dual pots with switch, would it cause any damage to hook up the leds to the same terminals that i hooked up the usb board?

 

gonna go try that lua code mojo posted asap

Edited May 26, 2011 by fael097

[fael097]

so I still didn't manage to test pots with that code, cuz my board has poor support to my pots, only it's own. will have to reattach those black tiny pots in order to test them, but will do it another day.

 

but the good thing is that i finally drilled all holes in my plates, now it's almost complete: (no, top light plate has no holes, those are led holes from the plates under it)

 

 

still some work to do though, like sanding the sides to make them fit, sanding the surfaces, painting fasteners and the plates, etc.

fortunately my adhesive letters just arrived:

 

(the black card under the white is still untouched)

 

and after that, I'll have to wire all leds and glue them to the plate holes with silicon.

 

 

cheers!

[PanelBuilder]

hey colin,

 

I was going to do that, because 3mm is the thinnest acrylic sheet they had, and standards say that the base plate should be about 1,57mm... and i don't have any tools to precisely cut it in half, so sanding seems to be the best option right now. or leaving it with 3mm, but idk, wanted it to look about right.

 

about the pots, sorry, never know when something has been discussed already, thought I was starting it, so I didn't search

 

and yeah I lost like an hour of sleep, but gave up when I realized I have no clue what to do :P

I appreciate any ideas you might come up with

 

cheers

Ususally we make the switches in the sim mimic the switches in the physical pit; and we make the dispalys in the physical pit mimic those in the sim.

 

So if we can stretch the definition of "display" to include backlighting we use the brightness in the sim to set the brightness in the phys pit. But I don't know if we can extract that value.

 

One other thing: we don't need to vary the voltage to vary the brightness of the LEDs; we can use pwm.

[fael097]

yep, I read about PWM, but I don't think I need that, leds hooked up to a pot w/ switch sounds about fine. my only doubt is if I can use the same terminals (same pole) to wire 2 different things, like the pot to the usb interface controller, and to the 5v thing. I know a double pole would do it, but I didn't find any double pole pots with switches here.

[fael097]

alright, so I was taking a break of the laste panel, and decided to make a throttle. did one model made of a sheet of compressed wood, easy to cut, flexible, but It ended up too big, so I went for more accurate measures, thanks to sokoi and andy, and did a papercraft model first. now I just have to find a material better than wood, wich I can easily manipulate and model. any ideas?

 

anyways, here's some pics:

3d model:

 

papercraft plans:

 

model crafted:

 

cheers!

[fael097]

so, it's done!

 

my LASTE panel is finally complete.

here are some pics:

 

with white coat of paint, and adhesive letters:

 

after painting black

 

with the USB interface:

 

backlighting: (woot)

 

and my interface on xpadder:

 

of course the letters are all wierd, leaning to a side or the other, but I'm human, can't do much better than that.

 

only thing i was expecting to be better is the light scattering. it should spread more evenly on the surface. perhaps painting a white coat on the backface would help? positioning the leds differently? Idk, if anyone has any suggestions for my next projects, feel free to tell.

 

cheers!

[fael097]

about what to do next, I have a few things in mind:

 

-rudders, with metal bars, but that would require an usb interface with better axis support, such as leo bodnars', so not sure.

-wooden structure for side consoles, I have the project, just need to buy and cut some wood, but I don't have plenty of room in my apartment

-throttles and throttle quadrant panel, I also have the model, but need to figure out what material to use to make the throttles, and make a project on where to put rotation axis for throttles, how to make them, position potentiometers, etc etc.... (need usb with axis too)

-hotas stick, but that I don't know, I'll probably have to use the plastic of an old joystick, and put buttons an switches on it, so... (need usb with axis also)

-or another panel. my list of panels to do right now: sas, aap, electrical, fscp, lights panel, or the UFC. for the lights panel, I'd need axis again, and also to try lua scripts for controlling knobs on virtual cockpit with pots.

 

so yeah, I'm leaning to the wooden pit. just have to find where to put it in my room :P

[fael097]

almost forgot. for the backlighting on my laste panel, I've put a simple on/off rocker switch. nothing fancy, and it doesn't control the lights in game. I was planning on using a dual pot w/ switch, so I could put that into the illumination panel later, but I didn't find any.

 

I was wondering if it's possible to use a single pole switch to control a button, and also hook a 5v supply to it at the same time, same pole. is it? will it damage my board?

[fael097]

wow, thanks for the comments!

[KLaFaille]