DIY Custom Control Panel
Months ago, Telnets showed the main route.
Now, it was time for some hard work.
After months of tough negotiations, we finally got to agree: Faulcon deLacy, Core Dynamics, Zorgon Peterson, Lakon Spaceways, Saud Kruger, and even Gutamaya, decided to work together under a common goal, to provide all their ships with a new common Control Panel.
Because, even as I was using my own ROCCAT Power-Grid template for enhancing the control of my ships, ...
...it wasn’t enough: nothing can be compared to pushing real buttons!
It was decided. I signed an agreement for providing engineering support to a set of the six major airship providers of our Galaxy in order to build a Control Panel with 27 push buttons and one safety switch (ejecting cargo must, always, be under strict control!), around a central iPad screen. A simple sketch on paper was the starting point.
After two weeks of wood, glue and dust, finally a framework emerged from the craftwork.
Three coats of white primer, and a very light sanding, were needed to close pores in the wood.
The Control Panel color chose was black matte.
In order to access to the inside of the Control Panel and easily insert&remove the iPad, it has a practicable upper cover.
Finished the framework it was time for the electronics. A 12V power source was needed for the illuminated push buttons.
An Ultimarc IPAC2 is the selected USB control board: it's compatible for both, PC and Mac computers, and is really easy to program.
Believe me, 27+1 are a lot of controls when you discover how many cables you have to solder!
...specially when you have two deal with 4 connections per button. 2 connections for the 12V power source.,..
...common mass for all the switches,...
...and finally, the individual signal connection.
After finishing all the soldering work, the cables have to be minimally ordered...
...to improve the air flow inside the Control Panel. There are two ventialtion windows at the sides of the Control box, but no active ventilation right now (can be easily added, if needed).
Finally, the IPAC board has to be programmed in order to make the right correspondence of switch buttons with Elite Dangerous controls.
The connection with the computer (PC or Mac compatible) is via USB.
After only four weeks of hard work, the custom Elite Dangerous Control Panel is ready to check.
It’s a nice add-on to have an integrated iPad in the Control Panel: really useful to show CMDR Dubardo’s “Visual Guide to exploration”, for example.
For night operation, buttons are illuminated:
The Control Panel dimensions were guided by a very simple rule: big enough for an inserted iPad, small enough to not obstruct my screen view.
There are a lot of very useful tools available to help a spaceship commander during his daily journey, like route planners, commodity locators, fitting and shipyard utilities, etc.
And during those very long exploration journeys, there is always time for a good old science fiction read, like “Tales of Pirx the Pilot” by Stanislaw Lem.
And now it's time to flight: a lot of hard work (bounty hunting, rare's trading and deep space exploration) will be needed in order to pay for having the Control Panel installed in all my spaceships.
Months ago, Telnets showed the main route.
Now, it was time for some hard work.
After months of tough negotiations, we finally got to agree: Faulcon deLacy, Core Dynamics, Zorgon Peterson, Lakon Spaceways, Saud Kruger, and even Gutamaya, decided to work together under a common goal, to provide all their ships with a new common Control Panel.
Because, even as I was using my own ROCCAT Power-Grid template for enhancing the control of my ships, ...
...it wasn’t enough: nothing can be compared to pushing real buttons!
It was decided. I signed an agreement for providing engineering support to a set of the six major airship providers of our Galaxy in order to build a Control Panel with 27 push buttons and one safety switch (ejecting cargo must, always, be under strict control!), around a central iPad screen. A simple sketch on paper was the starting point.
After two weeks of wood, glue and dust, finally a framework emerged from the craftwork.
Three coats of white primer, and a very light sanding, were needed to close pores in the wood.
The Control Panel color chose was black matte.
In order to access to the inside of the Control Panel and easily insert&remove the iPad, it has a practicable upper cover.
Finished the framework it was time for the electronics. A 12V power source was needed for the illuminated push buttons.
An Ultimarc IPAC2 is the selected USB control board: it's compatible for both, PC and Mac computers, and is really easy to program.
Believe me, 27+1 are a lot of controls when you discover how many cables you have to solder!
...specially when you have two deal with 4 connections per button. 2 connections for the 12V power source.,..
...common mass for all the switches,...
...and finally, the individual signal connection.
After finishing all the soldering work, the cables have to be minimally ordered...
...to improve the air flow inside the Control Panel. There are two ventialtion windows at the sides of the Control box, but no active ventilation right now (can be easily added, if needed).
Finally, the IPAC board has to be programmed in order to make the right correspondence of switch buttons with Elite Dangerous controls.
The connection with the computer (PC or Mac compatible) is via USB.
After only four weeks of hard work, the custom Elite Dangerous Control Panel is ready to check.
It’s a nice add-on to have an integrated iPad in the Control Panel: really useful to show CMDR Dubardo’s “Visual Guide to exploration”, for example.
For night operation, buttons are illuminated:
The Control Panel dimensions were guided by a very simple rule: big enough for an inserted iPad, small enough to not obstruct my screen view.
There are a lot of very useful tools available to help a spaceship commander during his daily journey, like route planners, commodity locators, fitting and shipyard utilities, etc.
And during those very long exploration journeys, there is always time for a good old science fiction read, like “Tales of Pirx the Pilot” by Stanislaw Lem.
And now it's time to flight: a lot of hard work (bounty hunting, rare's trading and deep space exploration) will be needed in order to pay for having the Control Panel installed in all my spaceships.
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