Community Event / Creation DIY Controller and Throttle

I just had to resolder all 59 switches because i made all the leds common anode instead of common cathode. Sigh.

Ah....I well remember following a "simple" guide on youtube to create a hand wired switch matrix to add to my Hotas kit and realising I had 100% wired in the diodes back to front. So, no point crying about it, just had to get stuck in and order a Leo Bodenar 0386X USB interface board and throw my disaster in the bin! Should probably have done that in the first place. :rolleyes:
 
Oh-man! I know how that goes. That realization that you just did everything...wrong :O
Lol, yes no just the one, but *all of them* :D :D

Ah....I well remember following a "simple" guide on youtube to create a hand wired switch matrix to add to my Hotas kit and realising I had 100% wired in the diodes back to front. So, no point crying about it, just had to get stuck in and order a Leo Bodenar 0386X USB interface board and throw my disaster in the bin! Should probably have done that in the first place. :rolleyes:
I may have said it once or twice already, but doing it myself is still kind of the part of the passion. I know there are boards available but nothing I can buy does exactly what i had in my mind.

And the votes are in, here are the results. I think I fixed it pretty cleanly. There are 5 rows of switches, 10 columns. Every switch has 4 connection, 2 for the switch and 2 for the led. Each row has two horizontal 'bars' (some are bent to avoid the shorts), and 10 vertical bridges to complete the matrix.

- 30 wires for a double 10x5 matrix.
- 46 switches with 46 leds
- 46x4 = 184 solder joints
- 30 crimped connectors pins







jg5HsR4l.jpg
 

Wow, just Wow! Although yours doesn't have the smoke coming out like mine did.:p

Edit:

I was just thinking looking at the video, do you ever go back to the start of this thread and the blog and wonder at how far this has come? I did just the other day and when you think it started out as just a custom HOTAS, it's a whole other animal now and how amazing it all looks.

Possibly a mad idea....
Once you call time on this and say "It's done!" I think all your friends here should meet up somewhere in game so you can give it a real shake out. Maybe all buy a throwaway sidey and duke it out with Cat:D
 
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Wow, just Wow! Although yours doesn't have the smoke coming out like mine did.:p

Edit:

I was just thinking looking at the video, do you ever go back to the start of this thread and the blog and wonder at how far this has come? I did just the other day and when you think it started out as just a custom HOTAS, it's a whole other animal now and how amazing it all looks.

Possibly a mad idea....
Once you call time on this and say "It's done!" I think all your friends here should meet up somewhere in game so you can give it a real shake out. Maybe all buy a throwaway sidey and duke it out with Cat:D

That sounds like a great idea, simpit owner to simpit owner combat challenge. heh

I challenge you to a 1:1 duel someday in the near future Cat! [i'll totally lose]
 
Wasn't there a special mode in the game for player-to-player combat?

Nah, what fun would that be?
Lets travel to some system and meet next to a sun, size up each other for a few visually, set comms so we can talk, agree and duel it out mono-E-mono, loss of ship and millions! heh

Sounds like fun to me... [and hours upon hours of game time real world and probably some hiccups along the way]

Or we can just hook up and practice our RPC ramming skills.

Nice work on the button panel, btw...
 
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Keypad finished!!


Next job is to work on the firmware and make it work like a keypad. Then when my LCD arrives I can continue on the partner panel which should be trivial as I've already made all the buttons.


First trial button didn't look good.. The engraving of the 'R' was a bit off. But on the whole i was pretty pleased.
HPIu65o.jpg



So after a few adjustments I was able to cut out all the keys. 64 in total. I made a few extra because I wasn't sure what descriptions to put of the computer side so I just winged it and made a few like 'AUTO', 'SHIFT' 'POWER' and such.
QHpwKJ8.jpg


Glueing on the little retainer plates so the keys don't fall out.
jP7D6jq.jpg


The result!
HXZTD90.jpg
 
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Keypad finished!!


Next job is to work on the firmware and make it work like a keypad. Then when my LCD arrives I can continue on the partner panel which should be trivial as I've already made all the buttons.


First trial button didn't look good.. The engraving of the 'R' was a bit off. But on the whole i was pretty pleased.
http://i.imgur.com/HPIu65o.jpg


So after a few adjustments I was able to cut out all the keys. 64 in total. I made a few extra because I wasn't sure what descriptions to put of the computer side so I just winged it and made a few like 'AUTO', 'SHIFT' 'POWER' and such.
http://i.imgur.com/QHpwKJ8.jpg

Glueing on the little retainer plates so the keys don't fall out.
http://i.imgur.com/jP7D6jq.jpg

The result!
http://i.imgur.com/HXZTD90.jpg

B-E-A utiful...
 
Today i took the final hurdle:
- button matrix check
- led matrix check
- keycaps check
- backlight check
- black countersunk screws check
- panel dimensions check
- button alignment using retainer plates check
- power handling check
- led animations check
- sending key pressed to the pc check
- sending system events (sleep wake mute) to the pc check
- acting as a usb control surface check
- driving a tft display check

now that i've got all the concepts working, it is time to fabricate it all and connect these together to create my Elite Flight computer.
 
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