My first analog gauge

[PanelBuilder]

Really, just a proof of concept. The graphics are from the Helios home page; but the sorry reproduction is all mine.

 

 

 

Gauge.bmp

 

Cheers,

Colin

[pitbldr]

Awesome work Colin! :)

 

I missed

vid... ;) How's that panel holding up?

[MudRat02]

Whoa nice! Don't suppose you're going to tell us how you made it? ;)

[HitchHikingFlatlander]

Thats awesome! Personally I'm not willing to go the extra mile for something like this but its awesome all the same!

[brydling]

Nice work! I am developing a servo board that is compatible with opencockpits usb servo board but with 13 10-bit outputs and 8 10-bit inputs that you might be interested in. We are using SIOC at NovelAir but really need to get away from their boards.

 

/Niclas

[hog_driver111th]

Panel, you should make a bunch of these (engine instruments/standby gauges) so we can all get our hands on them.

[PanelBuilder]

Whoa nice! Don't suppose you're going to tell us how you made it? ;)

Absolutley. It's driven by a servo, geared up from 180 deg. travel to 270 deg. travel.

 

I used 27 tooth and 18 tooth gears but other combinations are possible.

 

I'm experimenting right now with a smaller, cheaper servo. With 12 of them required, they're going to have to be under 10 bucks a shot.

 

Cheers,

Colin

[PanelBuilder]

Nice work! I am developing a servo board that is compatible with opencockpits usb servo board but with 13 10-bit outputs and 8 10-bit inputs that you might be interested in. We are using SIOC at NovelAir but really need to get away from their boards.

/Niclas

Thanks. For this one I just reprogrammed one of my input boards, but going forward I'm loooking at this:

 

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1352

 

I just have to make sure it will do 12 channels of 2400 us pulses.

 

 

Cheers,

Colin

[PanelBuilder]

Panel, you should make a bunch of these (engine instruments/standby gauges) so we can all get our hands on them.

Hi,

 

These are still very much in development phase.

Next up is a simpler design with a smaller servo.

After that I've got to do one of the gauges with the little inset dial. I need to find out if the smaller servo will drive that whole gear train.

 

Cheers,

Colin

[Rokmonkey]

Awesome looking gauge.

 

I'm making my own gauges to, only I'm using a Teensy++ 2.0:

 

http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/

 

So, that's another option too, it just requires a little more programming, which isn't too hard if you use Teensyduino. It's nice cause AVR's are quite easy to program and the Teensy has native USB support.

[PanelBuilder]

Awesome work Colin! :)

 

I missed

vid... ;) How's that panel holding up?

Thanks man. Your panel's holding up fine. Basically indestructable I think.

 

For the cutoffs, I decided to go with 4 latching pushbuttons untill I can get my hands on some push/pull switches.

 

Cheers,

Colin

[brydling]

Thanks. For this one I just reprogrammed one of my input boards, but going forward I'm loooking at this:

 

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1352

 

I just have to make sure it will do 12 channels of 2400 us pulses.

 

 

Cheers,

Colin

 

That was a pretty cheap controller with good specs! We want ours to be compatible with SIOC for a quick replace of the present boards. They have big problems with noise on the analog inputs and are expensive if you consider that they only have 6 outputs and 4 (8 bit) inputs. That's why I'm developing my own. Of course SIOC only has support for Opencockpits' USB servo board, so my board shows up in Windows as three USB servo boards to allow that number of I/O's.

 

/Niclas

Edited August 26, 2011 by brydling

[PanelBuilder]

Some pics of a new design:

 

MKII1.bmp

 

MKII2.bmp

 

MKII3.bmp

 

Cheers,

Colin