metalnwood Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 I was thinking I need to get my A in to G and do some more work on my panels and finish my CDU. This got me to thinking about the electronics. There are nearly 70 buttons on this requiring a lot of inputs or a matrix set up with a controller. Then you need some way to integrate it all so it talks to DCS. A lot of smaller panels could have a simple joystick controller board to do all of the work of the switches. While I was thinking about the matrix wiring for the CDU I wondered why it could not be done with a single cheap joystick board and wiring it the same way? I think you could - unless I have missed something obvious and am about to be embarrassed :) Similar to a matrix a button is wired in to two inputs on the board. If you have a board like leo bodnars with 32 joystick button inputs you could use three inputs as modifiers and then use the others to go to the other buttons. By wiring each to a modifier and sharing the other inputs with the 69 buttons on the CDU you would come to an arrangement where each button when pressed would send a button press of one modifier and one other button at the same time to the computer. Each modifier needs to be configured in the input options and then it should just be a matter of setting each key which should take ten minutes. No doubt it's been though of before but for anyone who has not thought about it then there is a way to control your 69 button CDU off one controller mapped directly in dcs world.
agrasyuk Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 good idea, going to throw some darts at it however. basically pressing one button will be closing two inputs, right? then this will happen at the exact same time. but usually modifier key is held before the action key is pressed. so will it be recognized as modified keypress? some experimentation is needed with this - from my experience with autohotkey DCS is especially sensitive about this. Anton. My pit build thread . Simple and cheap UFC project
metalnwood Posted December 28, 2012 Author Posted December 28, 2012 You may be correct, the order would not be guaranteed. I can check on another controller I have. As none of the buttons would be mapped without the modifier then nothing would happen until both were pushed - assuming (ass) that once both are pressed together DCS would treat it how we want it to.
agrasyuk Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 i was thinking to use arduino mega - 54 digital IO + 16 analog that can be read as digital, thats the 70 required. i'm still not positive how i'm going to program the board. i see that there are solutions to flash it to be recognized as generic joystick by PC , but i'm not sure how will it go with Windows limitation of 32 buttons per joystick... and then there is pokeys which is also very inexpencive for what it is. software being developed for it here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=96014&highlight=pokeys Anton. My pit build thread . Simple and cheap UFC project
Mr_Burns Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 Just a thought, do you (will you) use all the buttons on the CDU? Will you not use the UFC for some of the operations. Could you say actually I only need these 36 buttons anyway and only wire them up (I know its a waste of a full operation CDU!). I can only speak from the way I play DCS (which isnt full on) that I have never used the CDU - I used a mini keyboard as a UFC and it does all the input I need (but I know heaps of folkswho use them) just putting out thoughts. The other thing is if you used your joystic pinky as a modifier and remembered which buttons require you to press the mod (perhaps letters mod, numbers no mod) you could get it to work and that would make sure you press the mod before the button. Same with agrasyuk on the autohotkey, I would recommend if you go the way you are thinking you test it with one joystick card thoroughly before comitting.
metalnwood Posted December 28, 2012 Author Posted December 28, 2012 I use the UFC on helios. I still plan to use helios for a number of things so the UFC I will keep on my touchscreen. I checked it out and it looks like dcs does want the modifier to be pushed before the other button so out of the box it will not work. Having said that, for a dollar and a few capacitors/resistors you could introduce a delay. So if the matrix was set up as 8 modifiers and 9 other pins for inputs you could use the capacitors with the 9 inputs and get those to trigger maybe 50ms later. Not as elegant as first thought but only a slight modification to make it work I think.
whartsell Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 If you start putting delays in with caps and stuff ghosting and other timing related issues will be a major problem. If you plan on using an arduino as a joystick,handle the DX buttons programatically may be a solution. For example if matrix C2 is "on" send DX(modifier) then DX action button. Remember you will need to handle cases where multiple buttons in the matrix are down Arduino,EOS and Helios Tutorial Static ATC menu mod
whartsell Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 One more thing. I will be adding arduino support in my HogKeys utility in the near future. If your interested in that I can speed up the timeline. You can build an arduino compatible board for about 10us in parts :). 1 Arduino,EOS and Helios Tutorial Static ATC menu mod
agrasyuk Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 One more thing. I will be adding arduino support in my HogKeys utility in the near future. If your interested in that I can speed up the timeline. You can build an arduino compatible board for about 10us in parts :). Yes, yes and yes! That would be awesome! :D I'm pucking around with Vis studio trying to make a middlware , but so far success is not here. I was actually about to approach you for this Anton. My pit build thread . Simple and cheap UFC project
metalnwood Posted December 29, 2012 Author Posted December 29, 2012 I was more thinking out loud how it might help other people out. I would have played around with it to prove the concept but for myself I will be using a scan matrix on a microcontroller with middleware which is sorted out. The joystick is so much easier - if it was to work than what I and others are attempting to do via other means.
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