54 replies to this topic

[knight-of-ni]

That button panel sounds like a fun project, done for the sake of just doing a project to learn something along the way.

However, A Nostromo does the same thing with the software to program any button to do whatever you want. Since your hand rests on the keypad, pressing the right button can be done very quickly.

Not sure how the OP plans to use his homemade button panel. If you have to physically move your arm to the panel to press a button, the time it takes to do that can make a difference.

Edited by knnniggett, 10 September 2016 - 04:58 AM.

[Mudhutwarrior]

This is why the leaderboards and tiers are useless junk.

I play with a basic keyboard and 4 button mouse. I am near blind and have slow reaction times since my injury. I made it to tier two without any crap and all in solo.
[redacted]

[MischiefSC]

Full on props for making a very BT controller.

Seriously, it looks very 3025. "The flip switch is scavenged from a Catapult arm lock toggle and the red button from the ejection launch suite in an Archer but it only fails, generating an extra 2 heat, when I roll a 2-3!"

That's absolutely badass. I'm jealous.

Edited by MischiefSC, 10 September 2016 - 07:43 AM.

[Lootee]

This is awesome.

Not for what it does, as many posters pointed out there were already commercial products that did all this stuff. But actually designing and building it deserves mad props.

Edited by Lootee, 10 September 2016 - 07:47 AM.

[BadgerBeard]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 September 2016 - 05:59 AM, said:

This is why the leaderboards and tiers are useless junk.

I play with a basic keyboard and 4 button mouse. I am near blind and have slow reaction times since my injury. I made it to tier two without any crap and all in solo.

So when you clowns tell me how good you are I think I am justified in thinking your just another exploit warrior.

Shove you comp tryhard mouthbreathing bragging rights. Your all losers. Losers who need crutches.

While I get where you are coming from, I for one am envious of the OP's skill/ knowledge in being able to actually make something like this. I don't have the savvy, and probably never will.

I do wonder how many dedicated joystick users are looking at your post and trying hard not to comment on it though

Seriously, Joysticks are fun and I'm trying hard to get to grips with using them in MWO, but if you use a mouse then you should be a little careful about insulting people who use macros. Personally I'd love it if PGI banned mouse control ( or made mice users have to deal with Joystick emulation) and made this a Joystick/ keyboard ( and/ or pedal/throttle) only game...but that will unfortunately never happen.

Most of the macros I've seen to date are not hugely useful. They may make things slightly easier for less experienced players, but good players don't generally need them and would often find them detrimental.

[Appogee]

Yeah I too admire the OP for being able to do this stuff.

When I retire, high on my to do list will be to create an enclosed BattleTech cockpit with dedicated buttons and multiple monitors,

I think it will be relatively easy to do by taking an old keyboard and simply running wires from the keys to the buttons.

For aiming I will stick with the mouse concept, but it will operate more like a handprint mounted atop a joystick, with a dedicate firing group button under each finger.

For movement and torso twist I'll use a joystick, as I used to use quite successfully in MW:LL.

Edited by Appogee, 10 September 2016 - 08:20 AM.

[Idealsuspect]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 September 2016 - 05:59 AM, said:

I play with a basic keyboard and 4 button mouse. I am near blind and have slow reaction times since my injury. I made it to tier two without any crap and all in solo.

Man IMO the real challenge in this game isn't to be high tier 1 but more to be any other tier else than tier 1...

You say that you are injured and almost blind like you say also for me you are cheating the true MWO challenge explained above... you exploit/cheat !!!!

Well a mechanical keys keyboard + a 100 buttons mouse will not improve any skill of a potatoe and a elite pilot will still own 95% of playerbase with 2 button mouse also nice story but irrevelant.

[Mystere]

LordNothing, on 10 September 2016 - 12:38 AM, said:

Impressive.

I myself have no time to wire up hardware from scratch, so instead I am just using something "off the shelf" ():



That collection of dual and triple-state switches and analog inputs allows for a whole lot of possibilities, like your modes 1, 2, and 3 -- plus a whole lot more. <maniacal >

BadgerBeard, on 10 September 2016 - 07:55 AM, said:

While I get where you are coming from, I for one am envious of the OP's skill/ knowledge in being able to actually make something like this. I don't have the savvy, and probably never will.

Go off-the-shelf and let your imagination and creativity run wild.

Edited by Mystere, 10 September 2016 - 10:00 AM.

[Mystere]

BadgerBeard, on 10 September 2016 - 07:55 AM, said:

I do wonder how many dedicated joystick users are looking at your post and trying hard not to comment on it though

Seriously, Joysticks are fun and I'm trying hard to get to grips with using them in MWO, but if you use a mouse then you should be a little careful about insulting people who use macros. Personally I'd love it if PGI banned mouse control ( or made mice users have to deal with Joystick emulation) and made this a Joystick/ keyboard ( and/ or pedal/throttle) only game...but that will unfortunately never happen.

If your software allows it, do the following:

• set the stick for mouse emulation
  
• for aiming
  
  • set 80% or so of the throw distance to be absolute position
    
  • set stick sensitivity to be equivalent to desired mouse DPI
• for torso twisting
  
  • set remaining throw to be relative position
    
  • set stick sensitivity to a different mouse DPI (if desired)
• optionally, create a dead zone between aiming and twisting (e.g. 0-80% aiming, 81-89% dead zone, 90-100% torso twisting)
  
• optionally, further reduce MWO mouse sensitivity as desired

Enjoy.

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 September 2016 - 05:59 AM, said:

This is why the leaderboards and tiers are useless junk.

I play with a basic keyboard and 4 button mouse. I am near blind and have slow reaction times since my injury. I made it to tier two without any crap and all in solo.

So when you clowns tell me how good you are I think I am justified in thinking your just another exploit warrior.

Shove you comp tryhard mouthbreathing bragging rights. Your all losers. Losers who need crutches.

You're a "glass half empty" person, aren't you? Instead of celebrating the OP's creativity, you instead want to disparage. <smh>

Lootee, on 10 September 2016 - 07:46 AM, said:

This is awesome.

Not for what it does, as many posters pointed out there were already commercial products that did all this stuff. But actually designing and building it deserves mad props.

Well, apparently to some, the OP is nothing but a loser.

[jss78]

So does the big red one fire all the missiles?

[Rock Roller]

I think it's cool as heck!! Great work.

[LordNothing]

Parmeggido, on 10 September 2016 - 01:49 AM, said:

I want a big red alpha button... with an oled screen that plays a short nuke explosion animation every time I push it... In all seriousness though, I think this is pretty cool, and something I wish I had the knowledge and cashflow to do. Tinkering is such a satisfying thing, especially if it works.

this is my bom:

arduino pro micro (atmega32u4) - $8 (these are currently lested at < $5)
rotory encoder - $1.98 (now listed < $1)
missile switch cover - $1.98 (you can get the complete switch + led + cover for < $3)
big red button - $2.31
set of 6 arcade buttons - $14.55 (there are cheaper sets though, i wanted a certain type that could be lit well)
small switch - 5 for a $1
signal diodes - 50 for $1
assorted resistors (values used 10k, 68, 47, 10) - $1
capacitors (10 nf ceramic) - salvaged from trash
large switch and bargraph display - salvage
3d pringed parts (knob, spacer for large button, arduino mounting bracket) - about 10 cents worth of filament
the box - saved from trash

its not terribly cheap, there are a couple places you can save money. the set of arcade buttons for example was because i preferred a special type. ones that are clear and can be backlit, you can get sets of 3 if you dont mind all one color for < $3 , get 2 sets of those and save about $9 bucks. having all one color led simplifies the led circuit.

im using a technique called charlieplexing this lets me controll all 12 leds with just 4 io pins. if all my leds were the same, then i could have just used 4 reisistors for the whole thing, each one being 1/2 the value needed for the led, instead of giving each led its own value (different colors have different specs). in retrospect i think i should have just used all white leds, for their brightness and to simplify things. live and learn. i actually bought a stand alone led driver ic but turns out i didnt need it.

buttons are configured in 2x5 matrix, which takes 7 i/o pins (i could have got 12 buttons with the same number of pins if i did 3x4, but i only needed 10). each switch has a signal diode. so i can scan the whole thing without ghost buttons (pgi needs to use more diodes). all the button, switches and the select switch on the rotory encoder are all tied in. debounce is done in software.

the only other thing i did was an r/c filter on the outputs of the rotory encoder (i used 10nf caps and 10k resistors). i opted to debounce this in hardware because debouncing rotory encoders in software tends to suck. there are libraries out there for this but i hate solving problems with the include statement.

Mystere, on 10 September 2016 - 09:56 AM, said:

Impressive.

I myself have no time to wire up hardware from scratch, so instead I am just using something "off the shelf" ():



That collection of dual and triple-state switches and analog inputs allows for a whole lot of possibilities, like your modes 1, 2, and 3 -- plus a whole lot more. <maniacal >




Go off-the-shelf and let your imagination and creativity run wild.

been wanting to get a warthog myself, but my ch throttle, stick and pedals refuse to break.

[Johnny Z]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 September 2016 - 05:59 AM, said:

This is why the leaderboards and tiers are useless junk.

I play with a basic keyboard and 4 button mouse. I am near blind and have slow reaction times since my injury. I made it to tier two without any crap and all in solo.

So when you clowns tell me how good you are I think I am justified in thinking your just another exploit warrior.

Shove you comp tryhard mouthbreathing bragging rights. Your all losers. Losers who need crutches.

Mudhutwarrior made me laugh again. A bit over the top but in a funny way. I also agree a little bit.

[LordNothing]

Yosharian, on 10 September 2016 - 02:01 AM, said:

Bypassing the gauss charge mechanic is really lame.

so are cheap interface screws that game devs use because it was the best mechanic that they could think of. but yea it is kind of lame.

El Bandito, on 10 September 2016 - 02:45 AM, said:

It's not really that effective, since he can snap off only one Gauss shot, while having to carry three.

agree, using this thing is more than likely gonna get me killed than make me a super mechwarrior. thats why i said it was a crutch in my op. also the point is kind of moot if pgi decides to keep the mechanic out post ed.

Edited by LordNothing, 10 September 2016 - 11:46 AM.

[Requiemking]

Honestly, if I wanted to go all out, I'd just find a Steel Battalion controller and use that.

[LordNothing]

Teer5, on 10 September 2016 - 03:15 AM, said:

The mode 3 sounds very cool. What's the max how many Gauss a mech can carry?

its currently hardcoded for 4. i just got it to where it works, it doesnt compensate for things like cd quirks. in theory it can work with 2 or 3, but i haven't tested it yet. i dont think you can get more than 4 gauss rifles on a mech, dire and kodiak 3 can bot quad guass just fine. on the is side i think the best you can get is 3 on a ctf-im, but this is going to be slow, armor stripped, and have very little ammo. i run 3 ac10s on mine and it barely works out. you are looking at something like this.

you can break the gauss cycle into a simple square wave. 750 ms to charge, 1500 ms where you can fire. since you can only have 2 guns charging or ready to fire at any given time, you have to stagger the charging. you add up the charge time and the ready time you get 2250ms. since you can have 2 guns charging/ready at the same time, you can cut that time in half, and start charging the next gun every 1125ms. this is short enough to keep 1 of 2 guns charged at all times.

now things get complected after that. every time you fire you have to flag that gun as being out of the loop for the next 5000ms. i wrote a class in c++ to handle button timings. a button is held until a timestamp expires, then it is released and then waits for another timestamp to expire before it can accept a new command. it can also do timed multi-taps which is good for firing a double tap with just one button press. i can check the status of all the time stamps so i know exactly how many ms ago a weapon started charging or how long its been since its fired. if i press the big button somewhere between 750 and 2250ms after the gun started charging, it terminates the keypress event (releasing the key) and sets a new idle period to 5000ms, the time it take to charge a gauss. then it just takes one function call to determine if the gauss is ready to fire again.

Edited by LordNothing, 10 September 2016 - 12:37 PM.

[Mystere]

Johnny Z, on 10 September 2016 - 11:42 AM, said:

I also agree a little bit.

You agree with his grumpy "glass half empty" attitude?

Edited by Mystere, 10 September 2016 - 01:23 PM.

[LordNothing]

MischiefSC, on 10 September 2016 - 07:42 AM, said:

Full on props for making a very BT controller.

Seriously, it looks very 3025. "The flip switch is scavenged from a Catapult arm lock toggle and the red button from the ejection launch suite in an Archer but it only fails, generating an extra 2 heat, when I roll a 2-3!"

That's absolutely badass. I'm jealous.

thats nothing, look at this wiring job.



its so 3025. i usually dont solder things this messily. i can attach a tqfp microcontroller to a pcb, though i still cant handle bgas yet. of course i usually have a pcb to tack things to. initially i thought it would be artistic to deadbug everything. i beautifully matrixed the buttons with enamel wire (though some is bare). by the time i got to wiring leds i was swearing a lot and ripping out my hair. mostly because i didnt have a way to mount them. while these buttons are translucent, they do not actually have any places to install leds (in retrospect i should have got my drill and a 3mm bit and made holes for leds in the button housings. then just super-glue them in place). so there are wire loops there just for structural support. those filters on the rotory encoder are some kind of 3d sculpture. i didnt feel like wasting heat shrink on a prototype. it actually looks a lot like a 50s radio.

[InspectorG]

LordNothing, on 10 September 2016 - 12:38 AM, said:

i dropped in a match using the latter 2 modes, and each kind of made me feel guilty afterwards. i cant say i did exceptionally well. i always said macros were a crutch, but in my case its somewhat of an impedement. especially since i need to remove a hand from my throttle to hit the big red button of doom. im sure its only a matter of time before i come up with a way to pass the mouse commands to the device, and use them to trigger events, i can send serial commands up the cdc port and trigger an event on the device, but i need to figure out the pc side of harvesting mouse events. but still i dont want to get banned. so i probibly wont use it for anything but mode 1. in fact im seriously concerned i might get banned for such shenanigans. il just consider my hellbox another lesson in control systems (and blinkenlights).

Where is your Marco for LuRMS????

[Pjwned]

Yosharian, on 10 September 2016 - 02:01 AM, said:

Bypassing the gauss charge mechanic is really lame.

I knew this was going to come up.

Quote

mode 3 is a super evil way to bipass gauss charge, by making sure a gun is always ready to fire. the catch is it needs at least 3 of them to do it. its the least developed mode that is kind of buggy. you flip the toggle switch and it goes through the charge of each gun in sequence, of course it holds it slightly longer than the amount of time the gun will stay charged, so the guns dont fire. if i hit the red button, all armed gauss rifles will be unleashed in evil fury. this can be repeated until all guns are in cd. its great for those occasional pop shots, like when a light darts across your screen. its nice to be able to tap off a round or two on a moments notice.

That isn't bypassing anything and is an absolutely horrible firing mechanism, not to mention it says you need 3 gauss rifles equipped which puts a huge limit on what builds you can use (pretty much only dire whales or a KDK-3 with a STD engine, maybe something else too) and you can only fire 2 gauss rifles at once so you're never going to be able to alpha those 3 gauss rifles ever; even for the worst of scrubs you're better off managing the gauss rifle trigger yourself than you are taking 3 gauss rifles for any reason.