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Posted

What exactly do you use the pots for? I know they can be used for volume control, but what about the pots for the Countermeasures panel knob or CDU knobs that twist but click in 3-5 places instead of the smooth motion of a regular pot?

- Ice

Posted

They will be used for any smooth motion rotators in the plane, ILS volume, lighting panel, Stall warning volume etc. For what you are talking about you will need rotary encoders.

 

On an unrelated note, here is a list of inputs required for each panel, and what type of switch you need. I have not specified if they are Momentary or not however, so you will need to research that first. I'm actually surprised how many switches are required, but a lot of them aren't even remotely vital to playing.

Toggle Switch Requirements.pdf

476th vFG Alumni

Posted (edited)

Nice guide. Thank you. I have a real IFF panel i am going to wire up to do other non flight related input for the sim. The IFF is not modeled so might as well us it for something.

Edited by TulsA-10

" I'm gonna have to be taking your car today. See I have some top secret clown business that supersedes any plans that you might have for this here vehicle."

Posted

Good idea! Lots of controllers there, most of which are DT so you have a lot of potential! Increase/Decrease time/views could be useful!

476th vFG Alumni

Posted
They will be used for any smooth motion rotators in the plane, ILS volume, lighting panel, Stall warning volume etc. For what you are talking about you will need rotary encoders.

 

On an unrelated note, here is a list of inputs required for each panel, and what type of switch you need. I have not specified if they are Momentary or not however, so you will need to research that first. I'm actually surprised how many switches are required, but a lot of them aren't even remotely vital to playing.

 

Thanks for this one Regtop !!!

 

small q - on on / on on on sw?

what is better for use?

can we use off as on using Helios?

 

Thanks

Posted

Thx for video!

 

I have filled up 3 GP-Wiz40 with switches!!! And I only connected those switches I think would be nice to have in flight!

I haven't use Helois yet, I use the lua files created by A10 for my interface!

And I am out of interface to my UFC!! Have to buy another 1 for that!

OMG.... its a expensive hobby....

Win 10 64. GTX1080 ti 11 Gb, Intel i-5, 16 Gb ram, SSD 1,5 Tb, 2 Terrabyte HD, Monitor ASUS XG32V 144Hz, Slaw Milans Rudder Pedals BF109F :thumbup:, Joystick - HOTAS Warthog, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, TrackIR V5. Pimax 5.

Posted

Avolga as I mentioned in my other thread, youd be much more efficient using ON/OFF and ON/OFF/ON switches.

 

The simplest way I can explain it is that everytime you see an ON in the title, that is an input required. So if you need 5 ON/OFF switches itll need 5 imputs. If you use 5 ON/ON switches youll need 10.

 

Helios allows you to use an OFF switch as an ON.

476th vFG Alumni

Posted

But I use ON/ON with only 1 input, that's no problem...

It has 3 connections, but u only use 2 of them. 1 for gnd and 1 for input! And gnd is the middle 1....

Win 10 64. GTX1080 ti 11 Gb, Intel i-5, 16 Gb ram, SSD 1,5 Tb, 2 Terrabyte HD, Monitor ASUS XG32V 144Hz, Slaw Milans Rudder Pedals BF109F :thumbup:, Joystick - HOTAS Warthog, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, TrackIR V5. Pimax 5.

Posted

Youre absolutely right, can't believe I neglected to think that! As Strix says, simply wire one of the terminals and the ground.

476th vFG Alumni

Posted
Youre absolutely right, can't believe I neglected to think that! As Strix says, simply wire one of the terminals and the ground.

 

U pulling my leg???

 

Or did I for once be smarter then u..:megalol:

Win 10 64. GTX1080 ti 11 Gb, Intel i-5, 16 Gb ram, SSD 1,5 Tb, 2 Terrabyte HD, Monitor ASUS XG32V 144Hz, Slaw Milans Rudder Pedals BF109F :thumbup:, Joystick - HOTAS Warthog, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, TrackIR V5. Pimax 5.

Posted

Thanks for that. Yep, while it would be cool to model the entire cockpit switches, most of them are barely used and would not warrant the cost of making it. Of course, if you had loads of cash and nothing better to do, then sure, but not for a hobbyist with life and a family.

 

So, like I said before, I'm only going to do the panels I use a lot, which is the AHCP, CDU (very essential!), UFC, and maybe the countermeasures panel. The electrical panel would be cool too, but as I only use it during startup, well... Thinking about it though, I would love to make a pitot switch; I usually turn it on as I take the active runway, being able to flick a toggle rather than grabbing the mouse and looking for it would be great. And maybe a lighting panel as well, for realistic lights during startup, taxi, approach, and night missions.

- Ice

Posted

So, like I said before, I'm only going to do the panels I use a lot, which is the AHCP, CDU (very essential!), UFC, and maybe the countermeasures panel...

 

Hello Ice, that was my first idea. What I did realize quickly,though:

The UFC together with the MFCD - CDU repeater function gives you access to almost all vital CDU functions.

So I did the UFC first and I'm very happy with that. As well as the UFC and MFCD don't require heads down, you got the peripheral vision advantage keeping an eye on the world outside :thumbup:

 

Once you trained the FUNC and LTR modes, you can quickly switch from FPLAN to MARK or MSN as well as switching from WP to OSET without messing with the CDU at all...

 

Just my 2 cent :smilewink:

Shagrat

 

- Flying Sims since 1984 -:pilotfly:

Win 10 | i5 10600K@4.1GHz | 64GB | GeForce RTX 3090 - Asus VG34VQL1B  | TrackIR5 | Simshaker & Jetseat | VPForce Rhino Base & VIRPIL T50 CM2 Stick on 200mm curved extension | VIRPIL T50 CM2 Throttle | VPC Rotor TCS Plus/Apache64 Grip | MFG Crosswind Rudder Pedals | WW Top Gun MIP | a hand made AHCP | 2x Elgato StreamDeck (Buttons galore)

Posted

Strix, I'm not so smart! I do what I can to help but remember I'm learning all this too :P

 

I agree with shagrat, building the CDU is a very big undertaking and I think youd be happier with the UFC and MFD with displays.

476th vFG Alumni

Posted

Been looking at that recently, looks VERY tempting! The Bodnar boards are terrific quality but bang for buck there, can't argue!

476th vFG Alumni

Posted (edited)

Make sure you factor in the cost of the breakout boards you'll end up needing to actually wire the matrix.

 

Edit: Not to take away from brydling's excellent board as it does look excellent. But true cost is not reflected in the comparison. Other things like needing fewer USB ports and hubs may even it out though.

Edited by Gadroc
Posted

A lot of people seem to make that misunderstanding. You won't need any breakout boards :)

Digital-to-Synchro converter for interfacing real aircraft instruments - Thread

 

Check out my High Input Count Joystick Controller for cockpit builders, with support for 248 switches, 2 POV hats and 13 analog axes. Over 60 units sold. - B256A13

 

www.novelair.com - The world's most realistic flight simulators of the J35J Draken and the AJS37 Viggen.

Posted

True, you don't have to but it I think it becomes very unwieldy very fast since I have to connect several wires to the same common pins on the header or rig up a wiring harness breakout. You also have solder diodes inline with the cables which can be fun as well.

 

This is the same problem PHCC suffers from, but you've done much better on yours at least having the commons on the same header as the matrix pins.

Posted

In most cases you won't need more than one wire to one pin. Let's say you have a panel with 10 pushbuttons. Just run 10 wires for inputs and one wire for common to it and then you solder the common jumping from button to button. Using 10 wires for inputs and multiply the common to 10 wires running 20 wires to the panel would just be madness :) I can't think of any scenario where you would do it in any other way, but I'm sure some exists :)

  • Like 1

Digital-to-Synchro converter for interfacing real aircraft instruments - Thread

 

Check out my High Input Count Joystick Controller for cockpit builders, with support for 248 switches, 2 POV hats and 13 analog axes. Over 60 units sold. - B256A13

 

www.novelair.com - The world's most realistic flight simulators of the J35J Draken and the AJS37 Viggen.

Posted (edited)

I do use only 1 common from my interface to my inputs! I split it apart when it is close to the inputs using a connector with 5 connections and then I twist the gnd together in pair of 4-5 gnd in every port!

I use very thin cables!! So I have to twist them together or the will pop out from connector, it is self-locking!

Edited by Strix

Win 10 64. GTX1080 ti 11 Gb, Intel i-5, 16 Gb ram, SSD 1,5 Tb, 2 Terrabyte HD, Monitor ASUS XG32V 144Hz, Slaw Milans Rudder Pedals BF109F :thumbup:, Joystick - HOTAS Warthog, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, TrackIR V5. Pimax 5.

Posted
In most cases you won't need more than one wire to one pin. Let's say you have a panel with 10 pushbuttons. Just run 10 wires for inputs and one wire for common to it and then you solder the common jumping from button to button. Using 10 wires for inputs and multiply the common to 10 wires running 20 wires to the panel would just be madness :) I can't think of any scenario where you would do it in any other way, but I'm sure some exists :)

 

This is very true assuming that my panels all use one matrix on your board. As soon as my panels start spanning / splitting matrixes it gets challenging. Now I have to run the ground wire between panels and the rest home run to the controller or run two wires back to the controller. This can also make things brittle when I start enhancing / moving things around.

 

I'm not trying to take away from your great board, just saying that there is additional work that needs to be done and planned for with a matrix board vs a non matrix one. There is good reason that people bought CAT_101s break out board and people ended up making breakout boards for the PHCC.

Posted (edited)

Absolutely no offense taken :) I'm just trying to help clarify things.

 

Personally I feel very convinced that a matrix is better than a dedicated input for each button when you do a whole cockpit because you can save a LOT of wires to large panels. Regarding the sharing of ground it's the same for any board, you either have to run the ground between panels or run one ground wire from the board for each panel. I don't see the difference there. Maybe I didn't understand what you meant.

 

If you have a breakout board with diodes on it you also kind of destroy the flexibility of a matrix, since you then have to run one wire from the board for each input (not counting the commons).

Edited by brydling

Digital-to-Synchro converter for interfacing real aircraft instruments - Thread

 

Check out my High Input Count Joystick Controller for cockpit builders, with support for 248 switches, 2 POV hats and 13 analog axes. Over 60 units sold. - B256A13

 

www.novelair.com - The world's most realistic flight simulators of the J35J Draken and the AJS37 Viggen.

Posted

Excuse my ignorance, for I'm about to pickle 2000lbs of dumb question!

 

What is the difference between matrix/non matrix wiring? Thanks!

476th vFG Alumni

Posted

It all depends on the scenario. If you end up needing the entire matrix per panel I agree with your synopisis, but if I only need three switches on one on another planning out how to split my matrix is a pain and very brittle to changes. Add another switch and I have to redo both panels wiring. If I don't split matrix between panels I'm wasting a lot of potential inputs.

 

That being said I'm not a big fan of either approach. I'm leaning towards a micro controller per panel using a daisy chain serial bus to communicate between them instead of one big I/O controller and running a bazillion wires to each panel.

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