WhoMadeWho's A10C Cockpit build

I have all of the indicators on the ARU2B working with a simple arduino. Most can be controlled with just a resistor and two PWM pins. The only two things that can't be controlled like that are the ball itself and the power failure indicator. The power failure needs a relay two connect it to the 400hz AC lines and the ball needs 400hz synchro drivers.

 

I'll dig up my notes and post the required circuits if anyone is interested.

Hi, Gadroc! I'm interested too. Please share your notes and knowledge ;)

Whomadewho, your pit is shaping up excellent.

btw, your CMSC looks badass but I noticed the dimmensions and letter spacing were rearranged to fit the OLED screens (0,96" I suppose..).

Did you have to steer away too much from the real size?

CMSC

Whomadewho, your pit is shaping up excellent.

btw, your CMSC looks badass but I noticed the dimmensions and letter spacing were rearranged to fit the OLED screens (0,96" I suppose..).

Did you have to steer away too much from the real size?

The dimensions are a best guess based on what I have to work with, which are basically photos of a real A10C cockpit and the DCS A-10C module itself. I did have to base some sizes to work with the displays and buttons I had on hand. I'm also using a custom font on the CMSC OLED displays. It matches fairly close to the DCS A10C module. I had four major revisions before I was happy with it. Overall I think it's decent CMSC. If I were to do it again, I' think I'd try to recess the buttons. Knowing me, I'll probably make a 5th rev at some point. :music_whistling:

...Knowing me, I'll probably make a 5th rev at some point. :music_whistling:

:lol: if you knew how many times I have redesigned and rebuilt a panel or instrument because I thought I could do even better the next time. And I actually do turn out a better end result each time because, during the process, I have learned what NOT to do.:doh:

If I didn't have some self control I think I could probably redo every panel and make it so much more than the previous one... but then I would never get to fly in my cockpit :music_whistling: :pilotfly:

With the ADI, I tried to install a stepper motor in place of an existing syncro. That way I was able to use the exact same gear train. You'll have to make a little IR detection circuit to zero the sphere in pitch and roll. After that, calibration will be easy. The whole project is quite the interesting challenge. The HSI, though, scares me a little. I just hope it will be doable.

@Gadroc, I would be very interested in how you were able to integrate the existing indicators with DCS. BTW, how is your EMI coming along? Did you decide on using stepper motors or servos?

I was just looking over the MIP base you made. What thickness of plywood are you using. I was also wondering if you feel that wood is strong enough considering there are quite a few rather thin support or divider pieces between some of the panels. I'm still trying to decide what material is going to work best for the master instrument panel.

Hi Gadroc, I would be interested to see your notes/findings on your ADI. I'll be getting to that project this winter sometime. Nice work on Helios! :thumbup:

Hi Guys

On the Syncho side of things, Henkie from Viperpits has managed to put together a working solution

http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php/topic,9661.0.html

Cheers

Peter

Update

Hello, I thought I'd post some updates on my A10C cockpit work. Work has been progressing, although not as fast as I'd like.

Landing Gear panel

This is the landing gear handle. The wood filler is to hide the tunnel under the handle that contains two small wires to connect to a red LED in the handle wheel. Incidentally - this clear wheel is just that, an OFFICE CHAIR wheel. It works pretty well. It's attached with a long screw. The handle itself was cut out of Oak on my CNC.

Side of landing gear panel. The handle will lock into either the UP or DOWN position. To move it, the pilot must PULL on the handle and push it to either DOWN or UP - hence the springs. Not sure if the real A10 is like this, but many of the complex aircraft I've flown in real life are like this.

Back of panel.

Front of panel. Handle is lit with single red LED drilled into the wheel.

Flaps down, Gear handle down, three on the tree. The landing light switch is out of a Cessna 310. Anti-skid switch is a $5 Home Depot special. Other buttons were sourced via DigiKey. The yellow 'Downlock Override' stripes were cut out of sticky vinyl on a die cutter machine and placed carefully onto the panel after cutting. The flap indicator is a VID29 stepper motor. The needle was cut out of thick 'plastic like' paper on my die cutter machine.

Air Speed Indicator w/Mach

Back of the ASI. I'm using a VID28-05 two shaft stepper motor.

Engine Management Panel

I'm half down with this panel. It will have an Arduino Mini + stepper motor driver for each indicator.

Stepper motor drivers.

Just finished cutting these today. I'll need to get some gearing in the back created to drive them off a single stepper.

Thanks to several folks for pointing me at the VID stepper motors (Warhog - I'm looking at you - :smilewink:) All of the motors I was able to source via eBay or Amazon. I did try using Aliexpress.com - wow, what a bunch of fraudsters on that site! I had all three of my orders end in non-delivery with all sellers posting a tracking # that didn't actually go to my address. Luckily the site refunded my money on all three transactions but it took forever. Never will I use that site again! If anyone would like to share any reputable vendors for stepper motors, I'd be grateful!

Next challenge is to get a working Altitude indicator created. I've sourced a VID69 'clock' stepper motor for this. These have full 360 travel, but the problem is I need to 'zero' the indicator somehow. Another option I thought of is to allow the pilot to manually calibrate the indicator using a digital knob somehow - this would need some coding obviously.

That's all for now.

--WhoMadeWho--

Excellent work and your making great progress. Keep posting those pics.:thumbup:

I never included the VID69 motor in my list for the very reason you mentioned...how do I zero it. That's a real problem and I don't know the answer to it. I did try sourcing the VID60 motors on AliExpress but with little success. I recently placed a large order from their site. I hope I don,t see the same problems. This past spring I ordered some TLE 5051...twice. Neither showed up and I did ultimately get refunds. No idea what's going on there.

Your EMI looks great. What Driver board are you using. Have you written code for the motors yet.

You might look at a different stepper motor for the altimeter. I'll post some pics of what I ended up doing in place of the VID 60 motor.

Keep up the great work.

Beautiful craftmanship there WhoMadeWho :thumbup: I really like the landing gear crystal solution. Quite brilliant idea Sir.

Keep 'em comming

Cheers

Hans

Excellent work and your making great progress. Keep posting those pics.:thumbup:

 

I never included the VID69 motor in my list for the very reason you mentioned...how do I zero it. That's a real problem and I don't know the answer to it. I did try sourcing the VID60 motors on AliExpress but with little success. I recently placed a large order from their site. I hope I don,t see the same problems. This past spring I ordered some TLE 5051...twice. Neither showed up and I did ultimately get refunds. No idea what's going on there.

 

Your EMI looks great. What Driver board are you using. Have you written code for the motors yet.

 

You might look at a different stepper motor for the altimeter. I'll post some pics of what I ended up doing in place of the VID 60 motor.

 

Keep up the great work.

Thanks Warhog! Hopefully you get your order. Seems like there are a lot of Chinese scammers on AliExpress.

For driver boards, I'm using multiple Adafruit TB6612 1.2A DC/Stepper Motor Driver Breakout Boards (see https://www.adafruit.com/products/2448). They work great with the Arduino/DCS BIOS and are fairly inexpensive. They have the added advantage of being breadboard friendly so prototyping is much faster.

Here is the code I'm using for the steppers - I found this on a forum post on here. I did have to modify the MaxSpeed & Acceleration prams. If they are too high the steppers will drop steps and give inaccurate readings.

#define DCSBIOS_IRQ_SERIAL

#include <AccelStepper.h>
#include "DcsBios.h"

struct StepperConfig {
 unsigned int maxSteps;
 unsigned int acceleration;
 unsigned int maxSpeed;
};


class Vid29Stepper : public DcsBios::Int16Buffer {
 private:
   AccelStepper& stepper;
   StepperConfig& stepperConfig;
   unsigned int (*map_function)(unsigned int);
   unsigned char initState;
 public:
   Vid29Stepper(unsigned int address, AccelStepper& stepper, StepperConfig& stepperConfig, unsigned int (*map_function)(unsigned int))
   : Int16Buffer(address), stepper(stepper), stepperConfig(stepperConfig), map_function(map_function), initState(0) {
   }

   virtual void loop() {
     if (initState == 0) { // not initialized yet
       stepper.setMaxSpeed(stepperConfig.maxSpeed);
       stepper.setAcceleration(stepperConfig.acceleration);
       stepper.moveTo(-((long)stepperConfig.maxSteps));
       initState = 1;
     }
     if (initState == 1) { // zeroing
       stepper.run();
       if (stepper.currentPosition() <= -((long)stepperConfig.maxSteps)) {
         stepper.setCurrentPosition(0);
         initState = 2;
         stepper.moveTo(stepperConfig.maxSteps/2);
       }
     }
     if (initState == 2) { // running normally
       if (hasUpdatedData()) {
         unsigned int newPosition = map_function(getData());
         newPosition = constrain(newPosition, 0, stepperConfig.maxSteps);
         stepper.moveTo(newPosition);
       }
       stepper.run();
     }
   }
};

/* modify below this line */

/* define stepper parameters
  multiple Vid29Stepper instances can share the same StepperConfig object */
struct StepperConfig stepperConfig = {
 475,  // maxSteps
 100, // maxSpeed
 100 // acceleration
 };


// define AccelStepper instance
AccelStepper stepper;
// define Vid29Stepper class that uses the AccelStepper instance defined in the line above
//           +-- arbitrary name
//           |   +-- Address of stepper data (from control reference)
//           |   |       +-- name of AccelStepper instance
//           v   v       v        v-- StepperConfig struct instance
Vid29Stepper apu(0x106e, stepper, stepperConfig, [](unsigned int newValue) -> unsigned int {
 /* this function needs to map newValue to the correct number of steps */
 return map(newValue, 0, 65535, 0, stepperConfig.maxSteps);
}); 


void setup() {
 DcsBios::setup();
}

void loop() {
 DcsBios::loop();
}

Keep us posted of what you end up doing for the Altimeter!

The dimensions are a best guess based on what I have to work with, which are basically photos of a real A10C cockpit and the DCS A-10C module itself. I did have to base some sizes to work with the displays and buttons I had on hand. I'm also using a custom font on the CMSC OLED displays. It matches fairly close to the DCS A10C module. I had four major revisions before I was happy with it. Overall I think it's decent CMSC. If I were to do it again, I' think I'd try to recess the buttons. Knowing me, I'll probably make a 5th rev at some point. :music_whistling:

 

If you get ready to do a 5th rev I may be able to help you with some photos an measurements.

Great sim btw I will be taking the plunge soon but on a smaller scale. I have ordered some x29's and controllers. If I can get a simple gauge to work then I will go all in:smilewink:.

June update

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd post a few updates on my cockpit build. I've begun making the cockpit shell out of MDF and Pine. Things are going together well despite my CNC machine giving me some inaccurate cuts and also my CNC design software making decisions by itself on the difference between outside and inside cuts. (Note to self - close / join your vector drawings!)

My goal is to make the cockpit shell somewhat modular so it can be moved around and also adjusted so 'larger' pilots can fit in the cockpit. :pilotfly:

=WhoMadeWho=

Hi folks,

 

Just thought I'd post a few updates on my cockpit build. I've begun making the cockpit shell out of MDF and Pine. Things are going together well despite my CNC machine giving me some inaccurate cuts and also my CNC design software making decisions by itself on the difference between outside and inside cuts. (Note to self - close / join your vector drawings!)

 

 

 

My goal is to make the cockpit shell somewhat modular so it can be moved around and also adjusted so 'larger' pilots can fit in the cockpit. :pilotfly:

 

=WhoMadeWho=

keep the good work :)

Hi Guys

Very nice work WHOMADEWHO

It really encourages me to dive into the arduino world.

Ive made panels before with the gp-wiz40 for the A10 but switches and buttons only.

So ill take babysteps and will beginn with the csmc panel. This time no wood or premade Plastic-panels- i try to 3D print everythinghow many arduinos do i need for the 3 displays, 3 LED and the 5 switches as im leaving the brt and audio potis/knobs away.

Perhaps i could take a glance at your wiring of the csmc panel.

Also im trying to build the NAV panel, now the next problem is those knob/rotary switches.

but one after one.

Thank you all for helping in any way

Greetings

Don't know how I missed this one, but fantastic job! Looking forward to updates!

Updates

Hello! I thought I'd post some updates as it's been awhile. I'm currently working on the left hand side of the cockpit. Below are my latest creations. All will run based off DCS-BIOS.

IFF Panel. The Reply and Test indicators are the real thing. Picture taken with the LEDs connected and powered by an Arduino. The knobs on the Code and Master are... wait for it... guitar amplifier knobs painted black. The text on the knobs was cutout on sticky vinyl and carefully put onto the knobs. To make them stick better I took possession of my wife's clear nail polish and painted over the vinyl. This works well.

SAS panel. I'm using a 10K pot for the yaw trim.

Left fuel panel. 10K pot again on the knob. I'm still figuring out a solution for the RCVR knob. Not sure what I could use but hopefully I'd find something close to the real thing.

Aux lighting panel. 10K pots for both of the knobs.

Seat position. Not sure how I'll use this. Will also need to build a box around the panel.

Hoping to create more panels soon. Wish I had more time!

=WhoMadeWho=

Very nice!

Great job on panels. Hope to see more soon

Man I look away for a few seconds and all sorts of good stuff pops up. Nicely done WhoMadeWho. Keep it comming Sir

Cheers

Hans

Small update

Hi all,

Not sure what happened to all the images I posted previously in this thread. Looks like my image host is no longer serving up the images!

Here's a small update - I just completed the RWR for my cockpit. Here's a few photos.

The RWR gives a visual representation of radar emitters, detected missile launches, and laser illumination around your aircraft.

3.5 inch composite display in a custom CNC made case.

CNC engraved target reticle using neon acrylic plastic.

CNC engraving the faceplate.

Nicely done. :thumbup:

Could you post a link to the display you used. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to handle the RWR for my cockpit.

Nicely done. :thumbup:

 

Could you post a link to the display you used. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to handle the RWR for my cockpit.

Sure - I got it from Adafruit. Good selection of parts and decent service. Abit high on the prices compared with the direct from China stuff via ebay, but I like to support a USA business. For this display you'll need a PC video converter (VGA to Composite is what I'm doing).

Link to display -

https://www.adafruit.com/product/913

Link to converter -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BZA2U7K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Really nice solution WhoMadeWho. I will definitly check out that link. Thanks a lot Sir.

Cheers

Hans

I really like you style of work. Nicely done...:thumbup:

That is so awesome. I like the engraving touch that adds to the authenticity. I’m hoping to build something similar. I’m hoping it works with a vga to USB adapter as I’m trying to do video over usb using display link.