How To: Build a A-10 flight panel controller

does that work for CDU too? I'm thinking of a DIY CDU. Problem is, to be a display CDU (like MFCD's from gai-tek), or a true, functional CDU. Like if you disconnect it, and reconnect to a separate computer, CDU would function like a device on its own. I tried looking up the CDU as a completed stock product, but it's no go. All I found was the panel. Would be interesting if I pursue it to the end.

I was a bit confused regarding the .lua file configuration of "DCS World: A-10C" since it's different than the A-10C standalone. It no longer includes numeric values to represent actions (as in TigersharkBAS's video) but instead it uses code. Here is an example of how to utilize the "OFF" function of a flip switch so that when turned into the "OFF" position to produce the action of reverting a (in-game) switch to it's original position :

Original .lua line:

{combos = {{key = "JOY_BTN14"}, }, down = iCommandBatteryPower, name = "Battery power", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

Modified .lua line:

{combos = {{key = "JOY_BTN14"}, }, down = iCommandBatteryPower, up = iCommandBatteryPower, name = "Battery power", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

It's really simple but it took me some time to figure it out.

Scruffy,

Thanks forr this reply and for keeping the knowledge base alive and relevant.

Can you elaborate on this? How would a 3 position swtich like the Invertor work?

Hi there TigersharkBAS.

Thank you for your instructional videos and all the good advice.

For 3 position switches, like the inverter, i think that the addition of the "up = iCommand*********," line after each key binding -or "combos" as it's refered in the .lua- will do the trick:

Original:

Modified:

In the original file, after the "down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterTEST" command there is already the "up = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterOFF," phrase because by default when you release the mouse button after you pressed inverter test, the (in-game) switch returns to it's initial "OFF" position.

NOTE: I don't have a 3 position switch (the ones that have 2 contacts and 1 middle position off) so i can't test if this definitely works.

If somenone has a 3 pos switch and wants to confirm if this works, the location of the joystic/controler/groovy game gear board etc, .lua file is by default in C:\Users\User\Saved Games\DCS\Config\Input\A-10C\joystick

Hi everyone,

@ Scruffy :

Yes, I confirm that it definitely works and this is the trick for double throw switches. See my post in Outlaw's thread "My first panel" (post #10)

@ TigersharkBAS :

Your video inspired me very much and made me want to try myself at panel building one year ago and use the GP WIZ40. Thank you very much !! :thumbup:

But when it came to configure the .lua file I was also a bit confused since it had changed with respect to what is depicted in your video.

Fortunately, a post by Krebs20 (12-19-2011, #218.... sorry, can't give a link but I had made a screen capture of his post) put me on the track ! ;)

Anyway, this what I have in my .lua file for the inverter switch and it works nicely !

Great!

Glad it works.

Thank you Laurius,

Hopefully I'll be starting building a panel soon too. Got to do a lot of research first. This thread was really useful.

Cheers

Well, thanks in large part to this thread I've gone ahead and purchased the grovey game gear board and I just returned from Radio Shack with a bunch of switches.

I'm going to build something simple I'm calling my 'Fence In, Fence Out' board. Something with the Flaps, Gear and all the switches you need to turn on/off when going fence in. Most of the switches I'm going to use are pretty straight forward, either on/off SPDT or SPDT with a middle off state.

I'd like to put the 'Mode' dial for countermeasures on my panel. It has 5 states, Auto, Semi, Man, STBY, and Off. Is there a particular switch you can buy for that?

Also, is a push button SPST switch good enough for the 'Master Caution' button?

Thanks in advance, can't wait to get the gameboard and get things working. Although the lua stuff is going to be tricky.

About the CMS panel mode dial, google "5 Position Rotary Switches" you can find something like this or this.

Here are a couple of pics that I made up for my panel plan. After reading through this tread and others, and watching the vids, this is what I've come up with. Hopefully I've planned this out right. Not sure how to hook up the rotary just yet.

Any thoughts or ideas are more then welcome. Just waiting on the GGG board to arrive, probably by tomorrow and I'm going to start putting it together.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rfn95tk8pfpbmf/panel%20plan.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybfdc9o6d8jiyx9/panel%20pic.jpg

Hi everyone,

 

 

 

@ TigersharkBAS :

Your video inspired me very much and made me want to try myself at panel building one year ago and use the GP WIZ40. Thank you very much !! :thumbup:

But when it came to configure the .lua file I was also a bit confused since it had changed with respect to what is depicted in your video.

Fortunately, a post by Krebs20 (12-19-2011, #218.... sorry, can't give a link but I had made a screen capture of his post) put me on the track ! ;)

 

 

Anyway, this what I have in my .lua file for the inverter switch and it works nicely !

 

 

{down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterOFF, name = "Inverter OFF", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

{combos = {{key = "JOY_BTN4"}, }, down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterSTBY, up = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterOFF, name = "Inverter STBY", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

{down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterSTBY, up = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterSTBY, name = "Inverter STBY", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

{down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterSTBY, name = "Inverter STBY", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

{combos = {{key = "JOY_BTN3"}, }, down = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterTEST, up = iCommandElectricalPowerInverterOFF, name = "Inverter TEST", category = "Electrical power control panel"},

Glad to be of inspiration! And thanks for keeping the thread alive by posting your experiences everyone.

Did it!!

Built my first panel yesterday and today. Did all the drilling and stuff yesterday, did all the soldering today. Hooked it up and it works!!! The thing I was worried about the most was the rotary switch but it was a ton easier then I thought. Only thing I have to do now is turn over a few toggles (they are upside down).

I thought I would use Helios to program the keys but I don't think I have to. Tried out the rotary and my flaps control toggle in A10 and they work like a charm. Now I'll just have to program the others and modify the Lua file. Hopefully I can manage that.

Cheers, I'll post some pics of the mess later once I download them from my phone.

Starts chant

*pics, pics, pics, pics*

pics and info on my build...

Ok, here are some things I learned while building my first panel. First off, I read every page of this thread and many others. Thanks to all the guys who've posted in the past, your thoughts and ideas have helped me a great deal with this build. Big thanks to Tigershark for posting those vids and starting this thread!

I bought most of my toggle's from Radio Shack, I have two of them pretty close to me so between both I was able to find what I needed. Only switch I needed to find elsewhere was the (on) off on switch for the flaps. I found that at Micro Center. The other big thing I found at Micro Center was the little plastic clips to mount the G40 Wiz board, they are called plastic Circuit Board Standoffs. I found them in the computer section where all the screws and what not are. The ones I bought are from StarTech.com and the part is called: Plastic Pop-in ATX MB Standoffs, Model Standoff3. Hope that helps someone it took me a long time to find these.

My biggest concern was the Rotary switch I wanted to use for the CMSP panel's Mode dial. I ended up buying a 6 position switch thinking I needed to have a switch divisible by 3. Well it turns out you don't. All you need to do is connect each poll to the G40 Wiz. Once you have all that done, just go into A10 Options and find the Mode dial commands in the CMSP section. What I did was have the rotary already in STBY, and then I just moved the rotary down one to Off when I added the command. Next I went to the STBY command in options and added that when I turned the rotary to STBY, then on to the next command, etc... No need to edit anything in the Lua file, it worked just fine.

The other Toggle's I was going to assign in Helios but after some experimentation and with the success of the Rotary I dug into the Lua file with much help from a couple of posts here. It was much easier then I thought it was going to be, especially once I figured out how to find the JOY_BTN commands I had added in the A10 Options in the Lua file. Most of you probably already know this, just type in JOY_BTH4 (or whatever number you are looking for) in the 'Find' tap in Wordpad, it will take you right to that line in the doc.

One file I didn't need to edit and I don't know why is my Light Switch Anit-Collision toggle. It is a SPST switch and once I added the on command it worked just fine. It's line in the Lua file looked like this:

{combos = {{key = "JOY_BTN14"}, }, down = 3010, up = 3011, cockpit_device_id = 49, value_down = 1, value_up = -1, name = "Anti-Collision Lights switch", category = "Lighting Panel"},

One other thing I learned was how to find the right command to add, if you don't like I did once, and you try it in your game, the game will not recognize any of your controllers. That was my 'only' panic attack of the whole project. Figured it out just fine though.

One other quick thing I figured out during the soldering process, was to tie together both wires in the daisy chain before trying to solder them to the ground on any toggle. I know, simple but I had never soldered anything before so it took me a few tries to figure out that trying to solder one wire on a pole while there was already one soldered there wasn't that easy...DOH!

Here are a few pics:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w585kdzmgtl9o3a/1%20640.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ty852gran0f7c5d/1%20642.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z3hbtgc0pq04ok1/1%20643.jpg

Now, I'm going to add two more switches to turn on/off the engines. I have a Cougar HOTAS and throttle so I don't use that to start them up. What I ordered online where a few (on) off (on) toggles for that.

Piece of cake!

Ok, the Anti-Collision light switch does not work that well. It appears I have to move it up twice to turn it on, and off. Moving it down again does nothing. Anyone have any idea how to edit the Lau?

EDIT: never mind, I just changed the 'Up' value to 3010 and that worked. Again, re-watched Tigershark's vid on editing the Lau, even though the Lau is different now, in that case it worked the same as far as the value's go.

Scruffy - thanks a bunch for specifying that the off command for a switch can just be a repeat of the on command. I was wracking my brains trying OFF and OFFRESET and OFF/RESET and all sorts before I saw that.

Question: Can anyone think of a good solution for the canopy open/close switch? I'm using a DPDT switch for it, but at present all I can do is flip it to "open" to both close and open the canopy. Is it possible to apply two "buttons" from the same controller to a single function?

Scruffy - thanks a bunch for specifying that the off command for a switch can just be a repeat of the on command. I was wracking my brains trying OFF and OFFRESET and OFF/RESET and all sorts before I saw that.

 

Question: Can anyone think of a good solution for the canopy open/close switch? I'm using a DPDT switch for it, but at present all I can do is flip it to "open" to both close and open the canopy. Is it possible to apply two "buttons" from the same controller to a single function?

If you can (and for realism) I would try and source a double throw momentary switch for this. From what I understand, both the canopy and the seat elevation switches are momentary (ie..you hold them for the motor to work).

However only the seat elevation is modeled this way :-( Now I think about it the canopy just works as a throw switch in the game. I wonder if it is like that in the real jet or you have to hold the switch for the canopy to close.

Yeah, I wanted to get a double throw momentary for it, but I'm having trouble sourcing them right now. I am glad at least that the canopy can be opened AND closed with a switch... for a moment I was worried it wouldn't be possible without a left click/right click mouse command.

Anyway, my electrical power panel with conjoined canopy switch and non-realistic "eject button" is now complete, except for leds. Waiting on delivery of some resistors.

Question 2: (although this is something I should just take the time to check myself) Say you want SAS switches, but consider it a waste of four inputs to devote four real switches to them. Is it possible to make a single "SAS switch" and have it flip all four switches in-game?

You could wire up a single switch to 4 inputs on your board but each of these inputs needs to be mapped to a single SAS switch. This should work in theory. Worth a try.

Just read your question again. re: use of four inputs. No real way around this without macro porgramming. Joysticks have their own software for this but these boards typically don't. I don't see how it is possible without some kind of macro programming. Or perhaps some Lua programming?

Thanks TigerShark - I'll try a few things when I get around to planning that panel in earnest. For now I'm taking a break since this is finished:

:D

See my build thread here:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3773478/XRay_s_Pit#Post3773478

Nice build Xray...and even more impressive knowing what trying circumstances you were building it under.

I lived in Tokyo for 6 years :-)

PS: Can't find an electronic parts store in Akihabara that sells DT momentary switches?

Well, I use two places for buying switches, and the better one was closed last time I went :D

I had the "gotta get it done now" bug and settled on the throw switch.

However, I also spotted some locking switches in the less great place... pricey but very tempting...

(And hey, if you ever find yourself back in Tokyo, I owe you a drink for the youtube tutorials and everything :D )

deleted

Scruffy - thanks a bunch for specifying that the off command for a switch can just be a repeat of the on command. I was wracking my brains trying OFF and OFFRESET and OFF/RESET and all sorts before I saw that.

 

Question: Can anyone think of a good solution for the canopy open/close switch? I'm using a DPDT switch for it, but at present all I can do is flip it to "open" to both close and open the canopy. Is it possible to apply two "buttons" from the same controller to a single function?

Concerning the Canopy Switch:

Because the sim options do not offer a ON & OFF key binding you can't get it to work as the real one does using the options menu (at least that I'm aware of). The key binding in the sim is a toggle, UP/DOWN.

The sim has a switch which is a MOMENTARY ON-OFF-ON switch (a single pole switch will work), I assume that's how the real one works. So, going down the switch is held down, let go and it moves to the HOLD position. Going UP the switch is pushed up and stays there if you let go.

What I did was to wire both sides of the switch to the same joy button on my USB controller board. Then if it is out of sink, let's say Switch UP actually closes the Canopy, just switch UP again and it works correctly for Up & Down. What will not work is the HOLD position, the Canopy will go all the way up or all the way down, you can't stop it in between the max positions. So, although it isn't 100% accurate, you can open & close the canopy. If DCS adds the up/hold/down key bindings to the Options Menu in the future, then all you need to do is change one wire from the switch to a second joy button on your USB board & then bind them properly in the Options Menu & edit the LUA file for the HOLD (OFF) position.

There is another way to get it to work as it should using Helios, for me it isn't that important so I'm not doing it that way.

I also have the seat switch on my panel, comes in handy if part of the heads up display isn't visible, moving the seat UP or Down works wonders. By the way, the seat switch is a MOM ON-OFF-MOM ON switch.

:pilotfly:

Ah, now that's a simple and effective solution - wiring the two sides of the switch to the same input. Thanks! I think a small change is going to be made next time I get the soldering iron out :D