230 replies to this topic

[kalabaddon]

well you can always fund it by selling that bimmer trad it in for a ford fiesta and you will have one heck of a PIT!

also, whats the 86 fiero project? you should make it a 91 mr2 project instead

Edited by kalabaddon, 31 August 2012 - 12:06 AM.

[Foust]

I love that bimmer. The fiero is going to be arduino/android powered. A few weeks ago it left the garage for the first time in 10 years under its own power. Pretty happy about that.

It has a bit of work yet.

[kalabaddon]

just radio n stuff or are you going to track full attitude info and performance monitoring? there are a lot of nifty stuff you can do. for example if you upgrade your engine to a more modern one ( hint hint v8 conversion ) you can track obdII info which is really nifty

[Foust]

"Ill take things I would do if I had a money tree out back for $1000 Alex"

I would love to do exactly that but I will settle for replacing some of the... lets call them poor engineering decisions with the arduino and the android platform for navi and entertainment.

[kalabaddon]

you seem knowledgeable, you can home build a nice 4 point gps attitude system for quite cheap, you just need 4 decent quality gps systems and set them at the 4 points of the car, then its all software from there. if you ever track it, it will add a ton of cool info for you to look over

you can also get really nice accelerometers and wire thoes up also for well under 100$ https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9269 heres a simple one for 24$

[Foust]

Whew alright so a lot has been going on in my house and sadly not all of it has been for my simulator. However I have made some progress and have some pictures to show for it. I did not get pictures of last nights efforts, due in large part because it will be much more impressive if I wait for the completed skin of the thing.

So here I have the door side mostly framed.


And the outside framed out. You can see my "helpers" tools as well. My helper is 4.


This is the frame for the base, I neglected to get a picture with the top on. So its topless.
Sorry that's the dayquil talking.


I do have the top on the base now. I also have the back stationary side skinned, and the back of the door side skinned. I would have had the door mounted, but I discovered that I had misplaced the hinges I thought I had.

I also received this in the mail from a very generous individual. Many many thanks and I will be amassing a ton of pictures for the rebuild of them.


The question to myself is, do I make it hall sensors or force sensors?

[CyBerkut]

Foust, on 06 September 2012 - 06:09 AM, said:

The question to myself is, do I make it hall sensors or force sensors?

A force sensor mod to the stick could be pretty cool, if you are confidant that you will adjust to that. Some people just don't like a non-moving stick. Plus, most postings on the subject that I've seen seem to indicate that a force sensing stick is better for some sims than others. How much of that is just 'A WW I or a WW II era plane ought to have a stick that moves!"... I dunno. I do remember seeing post or two from folks who were surprised how well the Saitek X65F worked for them in the DCS:BlackShark helicopter sim.

Do you plan to use it with just MWO, or other sims (like combat flight sims) as well?

Are you mounting it as a side stick, or a center stick? A side stick mount can really benefit from a force sensor mod, as it eliminates the potential problem of having to bend your wrist excessively for full authority in both directions in the Y axis. With a moving stick, some people have had to resort to tilting the stick base forward in order to be able to comfortably pull the stick all the way back. (Not a super big deal as long as you have plenty of centering force).

Also, there is another type of magnetic sensor (not a Hall effect sensor), that I've seen Sokol1 mention. IIRC, it can work a drop in replacement for at least some of the resistance potentiometers that are typically used in HOTAS controllers. It might save you some adaptation headaches, while still getting the non-contact benefits of magnetic sensing. Search for postings by Sokol over on the SimHQ, or even the Eagle Dynamics forums...

Edited by CyBerkut, 06 September 2012 - 04:44 PM.

[Foust]

Its going to be mainly for MWO, and side stick.

I'll look into those sensors, if they are what I'm thinking they are then they are still hall sensors just already neatly packaged in a standard potentiometer case.

Actually looking at the stick internals tonight, I might be attempting to rebuild the pots into hall pots. Or at least retain the pot shaft.

[Vilessence]

Well now I can see that this kind of idea is gonna get me into some hot water with the other half . I'm sitting here looking at my Iracing cockpit and about to tear it apart and rebuild it into a Mech cockpit. Got a few questions for you modders here first one is has anyone looked at the xkeys matrix boards? Think you have some great ideas that your putting togather there and hope too see more pics as the machine grows.

Edited by Vilessence, 09 September 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[Propnut]

I looked into Xkeys a couple of times, but even their newest board (59.99) requires you to create your own matrix and lacks analog joystick inputs, etc. It is pretty much just a button device (up to 128 in an 8x8 matrix, but you can also wire it for encoders, rotories, etc).

The Teensy on the other hand can 128+ buttons, 8 joystick inputs, push LED displays, rotory controls, digital encoders, 8 way hat switches, etc. All for about 25.00 (27.00 with pins installed for breadboarding).

Just my .02

[Foust]

Ok, skinned.


Mostly. I keep running out of fasteners. I do not have it all attached to itself, or trimmed out yet but you can guess where I got my inspiration.
Thanks Choowy, your pit is awesome.

So once I get to the local hardware store and pick up various parts to proceed, Ill start laying out the interior.

Now I also started in on the F-22 stick rebuild. Of course I have several pictures of it for reference.

The base opened up, before I removed anything.


The stick right after I split it.


Why yes indeedy, that is a two stage trigger.



This is the matrix board in the handle, I really wish I knew what they were doing with this cause they are only taking 5 wires through the handle. My current plan is 23ish. Ill have to consult the book.



I originally was going to use a small matrix board of my own in the handle and only pass 11 wires through to the base, but something kept bothering me. It was the fact that the matrix and simultaneous button press don't get along. Well ****.

So I redesigned the Teensy config to be all 32 pushbuttons. For some reason I couldnt get it to let me add the Hat switch, so 32 buttons and 8 axis.

Which is exactly what that F-22 stick, F-16 Throttle and rudders uses up. Looks like Ill have to use a generic keyboard hack or get a second teensy.

[Propnut]

Hi Foust, that pod is looking great!

Your matrix is working ok but it needs a unique ground for each button, you cannot use a common ground otherwise you will feed information back into the controller on other buttons. Because of the number of wires needed I too went with the 32 button option. The cool thing about the Teensy is that you can indeed do 32 buttons without a matrix, most other controllers will only do 12 without a matrix unless you buy their high end cards with a pre-made matrix (BU0836X).

[Foust]

Did you use the Hat switch through the teensy or all standard pushbuttons? When I tried the hat it kept telling me that I needed to define the number of switches (after I had defined the number).

[Propnut]

I made my buttons all standard, I never use the extra directions on a hat switch anyway. Is there a specific set of inputs that are supposed to be used for the 8-way hat? An 8-way only uses 4 button inputs, but you do need to specify which are in what order around the switch (hat switch)

[Ducks Guts]

Ethenyl, on 26 July 2012 - 07:30 AM, said:

Can't wait for your next batch of pictures !

I wish I had the same electronics skills... Bah... you can't be awesome in every field.

Ha! I agree. Was just tellin the wife that "some of these guys are geniuses" right when I read this. I envy your skill at this, but, can you rebuild an old maytag washing machine? lol

[Ducks Guts]

Urban UK, on 23 August 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

Dual ac20?

AHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Yessssssss (regarding the Comicon pic)

Edited by Ducks Guts, 08 September 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[Turbo Corvair]

Glad to see you are making good progress! My Mark II pod is coming along nicely, hopefully you guys will be seeing pictures around the end of September =)

Turbo

[ORIGINAL SteelWolf]

Pictures now Turbo, or it didn't happen LOL

[Foust]

Yesterdays progress, as of yet not photographed.

Hinged the door, and much to my surprise, it actually opens and closes. Has a bit of drag on it but nothing that cant be adjusted out. I started skinning the interior of the pit, added the over head interior lights and did a lot of what if planning for the panel locations.

We taught our kids to share, and so they have given me a wonderful (terrible) cold so I'm working through a medicated fog. Hopefully I don't find that I need to rework anything once the fog clears.

This is also the reason I haven't done much work on the HOTAS, I don't want to let the magic smoke out of anything.

With any luck I will get some more work done on the interior tonight and get some pics with the door open.

Or I'll just pass out on the couch. So a win either way.

[CyBerkut]

Go pass out on the couch. Otherwise you may wake up to find yourself in an ER...