Oh-man! I know how that goes. That realization that you just did everything...wrong :O
Community Event / Creation DIY Controller and Throttle
- Thread starter Cataclysm72
- Start date
Oh-man! I know how that goes. That realization that you just did everything...wrong :O
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.
Lol, yes no just the one, but *all of them*
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.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.
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
Can your keypad do this?
[video=youtube_share;UZaad_FhmsE]https://youtu.be/UZaad_FhmsE[/video]
[video=youtube_share;UZaad_FhmsE]https://youtu.be/UZaad_FhmsE[/video]
Oooooh. That's cool.
Wow, just Wow! Although yours doesn't have the smoke coming out like mine did.
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
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Wow, just Wow! Although yours doesn't have the smoke coming out like mine did.
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
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.
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.
Glueing on the little retainer plates so the keys don't fall out.
The result!
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.
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.
Glueing on the little retainer plates so the keys don't fall out.
The result!
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I also requested a forum name change so it is equal to my in game CMDR tag.
Thank you very much for all your creations, you were my inspiration on working on my own joystick, I'm using thrustmaster hotas X as a development platform, will switch it later on to my printed parts .)
I started documenting it in here, on forums: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=260161 If you'd have some feedback, Im eager to listen .)
I started documenting it in here, on forums: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=260161 If you'd have some feedback, Im eager to listen .)
Thanks and good luck! I've subscribed to your post, i will follow!
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.
- 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.
Preview, waiting on the 3.9” tft screen
[up] Looking sharp...
Not the best quality picture, my humble apologies...
Going to have to unsubscribe this thread. Having trouble reading through the green tinge in my eyes
I'm not a native speaker of the English tongue, could i perhaps persuade you to explain the meaning of the idiom 'green tinge' you just so eloquently used!Going to have to unsubscribe this thread. Having trouble reading through the green tinge in my eyes