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Arduino boards pre-loaded with sketches


pitdesigner

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I have worked out the sketches for a few panels, and can perfect most of them (cant do servos yet...) so if your interested, I can sell the boards with sketches pre-loaded and ready to hook up and program with helios via EOS bus.

If you need additional information please PM me!

Im thinking $25 a board

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Thanks for the response!

Right now Im doing panels with low switch/output counts due to the limitations of my boards, which I'm working hard to overcome.

Im using the arduino uno board and I'm trying to work out a code for a switch matrix.

If i could work our a matrix for LEDs i could put together boards for the caution panel!

Thanks again for the response and sorry it took so long for me to respond.

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Yeah, if you can figure out a way to put more than a handful of switches I am definitely in. I'm just learning the Arduino board and it's going slow. I never liked C myself. I can go all day with VB and Access, but I never could get ahold of C.

Buttons aren't toys! :smilewink:

 

My new Version 2 Pit: MacFevre A-10C SimPit V2

My first pit thread: A-10C Simulator Pit "The TARDIS."

Dzus Fastener tutorial, on the inexpensive side: DIY Dzus Fastener

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j

Thanks for the response!

Right now Im doing panels with low switch/output counts due to the limitations of my boards, which I'm working hard to overcome.

Im using the arduino uno board and I'm trying to work out a code for a switch matrix.

If i could work our a matrix for LEDs i could put together boards for the caution panel!

Thanks again for the response and sorry it took so long for me to respond.

 

That's funny, I've been doing the same things for the last two weeks now. I'm building my own UFC. Arduinos are cool and easy to use. A key matrix is rather easy as long as you don't want to press more than a few keys at once. LED matrix is even easier.

Which Arduino are you using?

 

EDIT: I'm a moron.You said it.you are using an uno.

I got a mega 2560, next week I'll try and install a USB driver I found. You can use the Arduino like a joystick then. No need for other programs. Such a thing might exist for the uno as well. You would just have to integrate it.


Edited by Aginor
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Are you guys trying to avoid using shields, or would they be incompatible with EOS, or...?

 

Add 64 button inputs:

http://www.makershed.com/64_Button_Shield_for_Arduino_p/mkskl11.htm

 

Gain 13 additional digital outputs:

http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkntd1.htm

 

16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Shield:

http://www.makershed.com/16_Channel_12_bit_PWM_Servo_Shield_p/mkad63.htm

 

That's just checking one source real quick. There are other sources thast probably have other options that may be more appealing.

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There's no place like 127.0.0.1

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I don't use EOS I think. nor do I need additional hardware if I am not mistaken.

 

My plan is the following:

Build a key matrix. That means I can map x keys to sqrt(x)*2 pins (64 keys with 16 pins for example). My Arduino has lots of pins (of course it was a bit more expensive)

The next thing is to use an USB driver for that board to use it as a joystick. If more than a certain number of keys is needed I have to use another driver so the Arduino is seen as two devices in Windows.

Then you just assign your keys to any function in any game, that's it.

 

I guess I will know whether this will work next week. The boards you posted are interesting, too. Might be an alternative for smaller boards or weird extensions I might want to use. But I may also be able to build similar shields myself if I need them.

 

 

EDIT: I hereby apologize for this posting, I was half asleep it seems, and posting from my mobile phone. The quality of my last few postings was really bad. I corrected it and here is an addendum to it:

 

About EOS vs. USB HID:

The great advantage of using EOS is that it is two way. So if I really use the USB driver I might not be able to light the master caution button for example. If I want to add other panels (like pitdesigner wants to) I might have to use EOS.

Another advantage of EOS is the number of keys. For USB HID devices the maximum number of keys is 32 and two coolie hats and six axes or something like that. If you need more you have to make your board act as two USB HIDs. I found a driver for that somewhere, and I'm going to test that as well. With EOS you don't need that IIRC.

 

The disadvantage of EOS is EOS itself. It doesn't work with some boards, (IIRC including mine), configuring Helios and EOS to work with the games is... well, let's say it is not exactly user friendly at all times. The USB joystick will work with everything that can recognize a joystick.

 

As for the keys: Those expansion shields you posted have one really cool thing: They need only three pins, using shift registers. The downside is only the complexity. But they are definitely an alternative for people who use controllers that don't have many inputs. But they are quite expensive I think. Not the parts, but your time. Except you are really fast in soldering perhaps. So if you do it for yourself, no problem. If you think about selling it I guess it's not really worth it. (Not meaning to discourage anyone of course)


Edited by Aginor
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Another advantage of EOS is the number of keys. For USB HID devices the maximum number of keys is 32 and two coolie hats and six axes or something like that. If you need more you have to make your board act as two USB HIDs. I found a driver for that somewhere, and I'm going to test that as well. With EOS you don't need that IIRC.

 

That is incorrect. My joystick board has 248 switches, 13 axes and two coolie hats. I have split it across two HID's, but that's just because DCS can't handle more than 128 buttons per device. HID itself can handle a lot more.

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.

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It's not HID that is limiting, but rather DirectX. You can still use additional keys on a controller, but it won't have a DX button assignment. I think this explains it better than I ever could: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=81222

 

I also read a rant about TARGET merging all controllers it is used on into one giant virtual controller with potentially many more than 32 buttons/8 axis essentially 'breaking' the DX 'plug and play' style buttons. But that has little to do with what people are looking to do here, except to illustrate the point that you can have a lot more than 32 buttons on a controller.


Edited by xaoslaad
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It's not HID that is limiting, but rather DirectX. You can still use additional keys on a controller, but it won't have a DX button assignment.

 

DirectX is not limiting either. I have written DirectX applications that can use all the buttons on my joystick controller. The applications that are only able to use 32 buttons have this limit in the application itself. FSX is a good example of a poorly designed simulator that can only handle 32 buttons per device. The Windows "Game Devices" on the Control Panel are another example that can only show 32 buttons, but the extra buttons work just fine with applications that support them.

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.

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Interesting if it's not true. I ran across the page while researching in anticipation of a warthog christmas so I can't speak from experience, but it seemed reasonable. Again, it didn't say you couldn't use them, just that they wouldn't have DX assignments. If not true, it's not true, but then it seems to be a very common misconception.

 

"Before going any further, it is important to understand the limitations of using a controller in pure DirectX mode. When DirectX sees a controller that you've plugged in, it will recognize a maximum of 32 buttons and 8 axes on that controller. These can be 'directly' used in-game and are often automatically set to perform certain default functions, e.g. Button1 = DX1 = fire guns. You can also manually assign them in-game in the controller properties page, e.g. click on "Fire guns" and then press Button1 on your controller.

 

But what happens if you have more than 32 buttons or 8 axes on a single controller? In that case, those 'extra' buttons/axes are not assigned DirectX names, and so from DirectX's perspective, they're not even there. However, you CAN pass keyboard assignments through those buttons/axes, provided you have some programming utility outside of the game (TARGET, Foxy, etc.) that can handle that. So, let's say you have a 33rd button on your joystick. By default, pressing this button in-game will do nothing, because DirectX doesn't see anything beyond 32 buttons. But if you've programmed that button from outside the game to represent, for example, 'G' for landing gear, now when you press that button in-game, the game simply sees 'G' and doesn't care where it came from."

 

See also: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3593984/TARGET_vs_DirectX.html

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It is a pretty common misconception, yes. I've seen it in several places too, but it's not true. DirectX recognizes more than 32 buttons, but FSX does not. I use all my 124 buttons per device directly in DCS, and all my customers can confirm that :)

 

Edit: Just to clarify where it comes from. In DirectX you can specify exactly how many buttons and axes you are interested in from a device. Instead of specifying it manually, there are some pre-defined options. One of these options are for 128 buttons, 8 axes and 4 POV hats. This option is called c_dfDIJoystick2 and is likely what DCS is using. Earlier versions of DirectX (before DirectInput5) did only have c_dfDIJoystick, which has 32 buttons, 8 axes and 4 POV hats. There were newer versions of DirectX around when FSX was created, they just didn't care enough about this :)


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.

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Wow, your boards are really really cool!

If I wasn't that eager to build my device myself (and learn something about microcontrollers in the process) I would buy one.

 

Now I wonder if I can build a device that works two ways. A HID and EOS-device in one board so I can make the master caution light on the UFC work...

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It is a pretty common misconception, yes. I've seen it in several places too, but it's not true. DirectX recognizes more than 32 buttons, but FSX does not. I use all my 124 buttons per device directly in DCS, and all my customers can confirm that :)

 

Edit: Just to clarify where it comes from. In DirectX you can specify exactly how many buttons and axes you are interested in from a device. Instead of specifying it manually, there are some pre-defined options. One of these options are for 128 buttons, 8 axes and 4 POV hats. This option is called c_dfDIJoystick2 and is likely what DCS is using. Earlier versions of DirectX (before DirectInput5) did only have c_dfDIJoystick, which has 32 buttons, 8 axes and 4 POV hats. There were newer versions of DirectX around when FSX was created, they just didn't care enough about this :)

 

Cool. Thanks for the explanation. It makes a lot of sense as to where all the confusion comes from.

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That's good stuff, thanks Cyber. Like I said, I'm just learning so I didn't realize there was a shield out there for more inputs. Good to know.

 

You're most welcome. The arduino / maker scene has all sorts of stuff out there. If you can think of something you wish you could add / connect to an Arduino, odds are very good that other people have also, and that at least one of them designed a shield to accommodate the need. The trick becomes a matter of what to put into the search engine so that you can find it. :)

 

I just saw recently, that there are some new model Arduino's coming out. Basically, combining Arduino with popular microprocessor (Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone) type capabilities. Those are overkill for something like making a switch panel to talk to EOS, I suspect... but maybe suitable for something ambitious that includes graphic display(s).

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

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Wow, your boards are really really cool!

If I wasn't that eager to build my device myself (and learn something about microcontrollers in the process) I would buy one.

 

Now I wonder if I can build a device that works two ways. A HID and EOS-device in one board so I can make the master caution light on the UFC work...

 

I'm pretty sure that with an Arduino, if you do the things necessary to use it as an HID, that those things will preclude it simultaneously being used for non-HID stuff. I am not 100% certain of that, but that is what I remember for the 'Arduino as HID' solution that I saw.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

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