For clarity, each small board that housed a row of five buttons I call button boards and the board with the Pro Micro is the main board. Either way, make sure you can properly show cockpit displays at any place and at any size on a second monitor.Īlso plan out the circuit you will use, both for each board and the entire rig. This can also be done with third-party software. DCS (the simulator I use) has a way to do this natively that involves some relatively low-level file editing (discussed in Step 7). It is very important that you have some way to show the cockpit displays in the right place on a second monitor for this to work as intended. I was planning this project on and off for about six months. You can usually get a lower cost per unit if you buy more, especially the microcontoller and especially if you're buying online. 3D printed parts: you don't need any 3D printed parts for this to function, but I added faceplates and buttons to make it look nicer and be easier to use.Soldering carries some inherent dangers (burn/fire hazards, toxic fumes, etc.) that I am not responsible for.That said, the soldering part of this project is not that difficult if you have a little experience and the right tools. It would just be frustrating and discouraging. This is not a good first/second soldering project.Your choice of solder, soldering iron, etc. You will need many of the same height, so I would recommend against buying a kit of assorted sizes.I chose to use non-stripboard for my design. Using stripboard could make soldering easier, but at the cost of a larger board footprint. You could conceivably use stripboard, which has rows of holes already electrically connected.Perfboard (also called prototyping board or protoboard).Finding the right size and shape button is difficult, so I used small and cheap tactile buttons (tactile is important, no tactile = no clicky = sad) and 3D printed a plate and button faces to provide the right size and shape.I've previously used Teensy boards for similar projects but I wouldn't recommend it because they are generally more expensive. I used a Sparkfun Pro Micro but any ATMega32U4 Arduino will work.I recorded most of the step and put them on YouTube in this playlist. I will include advice where I think it's important, but just know that blindly following everything I do probably won't give you a good final product. Since my desk setup is pretty unique, most of this article will be explaining what I did and why, not telling you what to do. With these issues in mind, I elected to build my own. My second monitor can comfortably fit two larger displays side-by-side, which is important since the monitor sits at the back of my desk, and if the displays are too small I won't be able to read them. I have a second monitor that I could use, but mounting them would be a challenge. They cost about double the price of my estimated material costs to build it myself, and I'm a broke college student so it counts.I considered just buying those, but I had a few issues with them. Thrustmaster sells the Cougar MFD in a pack of two for around $100. In the Hornet particularly, the radar is controlled primarily through these buttons, and the radar also needs to be constantly adjusted in rapidly evolving combat environments, which means quick and accurate control is necessary. This means I have to either remove my hand from the stick for a few seconds and effectively lose control of the aircraft, or remove my hand from the throttle and use the mouse with my non-dominant hand. However, I also follow the usual configuration of the stick in my right hand and the throttle in my left. I am right-handed, so I'm used to using a mouse with my right hand.(I use a headtracker, which means in order for the viewpoint to be still, my head has to be completely still.) The buttons are relatively small and it's difficult to keep the viewpoint still enough to accurately click these buttons.This is usually fine, but there are three factors that make using the mouse to click these buttons a problem. In DCS (as with many other flight simulators), the mouse is used to click on cockpit buttons and switches. The Hornet includes three cockpit displays which use buttons around their perimeter for controls. I am a long-time flight simulation enthusiast and recently started flying the F/A-18C Hornet in DCS.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |