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Making new button box


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Hi so I'm learning dcs in VR with a Logitech x56 (new version) and I'm getting a little frustrated with the lack of 3 position switches and not being able to easily use the switches under the throttle. So i was thinking of just repurposing my old saitek X52 into a button/dials box. I'd just need to replace the 2 way switches with latching 3 way switches right? Any thoughts/suggestions?

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I don't see what the problem would be, just mapping two momentary inputs to either end of on-off-on switch. And the x52 has i think 4 axis plus the 2 stick axis but I don't think I'll use the stick axis. I'm more trying to figure out how to organize it all before hand. Like how many 3 pos switches, what to build it out of, how many on offs etc...

 

EDIT: Umm... Anyone know where to find a wiring diagram for the X-52? I took it apart and it's a hot mess of spaghetti wires breaking off everywhere


Edited by Pitufo
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  • 4 weeks later...
So I scrapped the X52 idea I kept frying one of the upper stick boards. I've decided to just build my own panel. I've got a 64 button board from Derek Speare in the mail. Here it is so far.

 

 

Hi Pitufo - Interested in your button board. I have built a basic toggle switch panel with Arduino Uno, but have not been able to get Helios to recognise it.

Anyway, keep us all posted on your Speare board project.

Cheers,

Mich.

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I buy most of my buttons and switches from all electronics.com the pc board and iirc rotary encoders from leobednor.com

BlackeyCole 20years usaf

XP-11. Dcs 2.5OB

Acer predator laptop/ i7 7720, 2.4ghz, 32 gb ddr4 ram, 500gb ssd,1tb hdd,nvidia 1080 8gb vram

 

 

New FlightSim Blog at https://blackeysblog.wordpress.com. Go visit it and leave me feedback and or comments so I can make it better. A new post every Friday.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I've got one 64 button derek speare board working and set up... It's basically everything on the left side. I have a 32 button board in the mail but then i realized i should have gotten another 64 so that's on order too. Im going to use the 32 board for another smaller separate MFD setup on the left. That'll free up the 2 spots on the left and right where the white latching buttons are. The idea is that i was going to set the white buttons up as modifiers (they're latching) for left right and down MFD and the UP one will let me use the surrounding buttons as a sort of UFC interface. With the top left blue being "1" the middle red "2" or North/Up etc and the top 3 rotary encoders push buttons being "clear" "0" and "ENT". The positioning of the red buttons is for tactile reference in VR. So far so good but I'm learning what a pain in the ass the different modules are for not having different options for input types.

20200125_214457.thumb.jpg.3813d39565faa261057005c41ec0cb78.jpg


Edited by Pitufo
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  • 3 weeks later...

PLEASE HELP!!!

 

Okay so I've got it all wired up and everything works.... until it doesn't. I've got 2 derek spears 64 button boards in the big panel and a 32 button board in each of the side panels. Thing is, after I program everything in DCS it scrambles everything the next time I load it up. This is extremely frustrating I've been working on this for like 3 months. I tried renaming the boards in regedit (not sure I should be messing with that, but I did it individually for the 4 boards, RIGHT MFD, LEFT MFD, SWITCH PANEL and UFC PANEL. When I plug everything in, DCS reads 2 (different letter-and-number code gibberish things) UFC PANELs and 2 RIGHT MFD panels. I have no idea what to do from here.

 

Also as you can see I changed the idea of the latching white buttons for different DDI's and UFC functions because it was too hard to keep track of what was latched or not in VR. Now the white rocker switch serves as a modifier if I want to operate the lower AMPCD.

20200214_233334.thumb.jpg.b04a8a8a5f9bb6259b6b64cd3dd1967a.jpg

20200214_191013.thumb.jpg.6dbbb0a935d6e0251d8b8cefd74a4f17.jpg


Edited by Pitufo
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Does each board have a unique hardware address programmed into the chip? I've read that some people make boards identical to one another and that causes issues like you are describing. I think Leo's are addressable through his software.

Just a thought.

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Yeah, windows and dcs recognize them as separate boards with different long alpha numerical strings after them. Derek Spears says to not use a usb hub, which I am, and so far I'm finding that if i keep them plugged in to the same ports it all seems to work. I color coded the cables and ports. I wish i could change the display names of the boards to make it easier to program in dcs but I don't know how.

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