After playing ED for a while and losing hours and hours of time in the process.
I totally fell in love with it to the point I think I need to build a cockpit now.
So the madness begins...
Searching all over the internet and reading everyone's sim-cockpit builds has inspired me to the point of actually doing it and not dreaming about it everytime I play. There are some really cool builds out there and I like what users are doing.
After pondering what I wanted and how I would go about it I did not want to copy or make
something someone has already done. I will be purchasing mostly off-the-shelf parts as I do not want to fabricate chairs, pedals and sticks etc.
I have limited space and I also want to be able to tear it down if I need to in an easy fashion.
This build will be in the middle range of designs. [not take a full room]
So I will be starting with the following items and strip them down to suit my needs.
I have already started to order items and should have some more progress pics up as I get to them.
X52 Pro Saitek [edit, was given a X45 to try out]
Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals [edit, picked up a set of Pro pedals since the Combats are on backorder]
EPagnian Next Level Next Level Flight Simulator Cockpit [Edit: was a Evolution Game Chair]
The guts & speakers from my current 52000 Pyramat Stereo chair. [Edit: bought a small surround sound system]
55" curved UHD4K LCD [Edit, chose a 34" curvered ISP monitor]
New dedicated Alienware PC [as my old workstation is old and busted]
Some other assorted hardware and fastners.
Custom built 7" LCD touch panels that send KB commands [until API is release] to EliteD program.
One aspect I really want is some awesome touch panels up front on my left and right that I can control some items in game. Maybe even some animated ones that toggle when you press them etc.
After searching around the net I didn't like what was out there panel wise and I don't want
to use an iphone or tablet. I came to the conclusion I will have to build my own if I want custom panels.
Roccat Power-Grid was about closet to what I wanted but is lacking in some areas and its not really customizable the way I want. [open-ened]
The goal of the panels will be 2 x 7" TFT touch screens with customizable images, button mapping
and a PC app for control. Once the ED API is released I will write my API to sync my panels with ED for a more seemless integration.
If they give us some feedback functions I can read that back to the panels for a more immersive effect. We'll just have to wait and see for that.
I have started dev on the panels and have a working mock up to share, what follows is the start of my cockpit build madness.
I am savvy in many programming languages and embeded systems so I dug out some old R&D stuff I had in the closet.
I used an old 320x240 TFT to demo the idea before building all the final parts and getting a custom PCB made. Me and my buddy dabble alot with micros, PIC processors and PCB designs and so I suckered him in as well to help out. That's what friends are for right?
[shout out to Ron]
He has his own wants and so he is going to use them for SolidWorks shortcuts on his desktop, pretty sweet idea.
Two days later "success".
A mock up/demo that actually works.
First we wrote some code to get a button grid on screen for some code tests.
Here is one example.
Then we wrote some code to get the XY from the touch pad. [what a pain that turned out to be]
This all worked grand and went pretty fast.
So next up was trying to load a graphic on screen since we want our own custom ones.
I chose one of Roccat's panels for a test, tada. [sorry for the crappy photo]
I emailed my nefew who is an awesome graphics artist and game designer and had him make me a few mock up panels for a test. I sent him a crappy one I made as a reference. [I really suck at it]
A few hours later this is what he sent back.
Awesome work and he just kept sending them. lol
So I picked one and loaded it up, mapped the keys and finished the communications code...
Here's a shot live on TFT ready to touch.
Here is one with custom text/font test.
The panel works and sends base commands to the PC via usb.
I tested this out with a Terminal program first for debugging before starting on the PC app.
Now for the PC app.
So I loaded up M$ VisualStudio and in about 4 hours I had something working.
I made a simple C app that connects to the panel and waits for commands to come in.
It's a form test window for now but later it will be a runtime .exe with API.
You would use this app to build the KB macros [or ED API commands] and load-store them to a local file. [work in progress]
Once a panel press comes in the PC program parses it and matches it to the user mapped KB command and sends that out to the current app or program with current focus.
The app is called TED for Touch Elite Dangerous. [needed some name]
Concept is done and functional so the only thing left was to go big!
We ordered the 7" screens and some other hardware so we can start on the "actual" large panels/pcb. I told my nef and he is working on some new more elaborate graphics panels for the 800x480 screens.
Can't wait to see what he makes up as whatever it is I know it will be cool.
I will be laying out my base designs over the next week for where things will go and how they
will get mounted up.
Once more of the parts come in and more work is completed I will post pics/progress as I go.
I totally fell in love with it to the point I think I need to build a cockpit now.
So the madness begins...
Searching all over the internet and reading everyone's sim-cockpit builds has inspired me to the point of actually doing it and not dreaming about it everytime I play. There are some really cool builds out there and I like what users are doing.
After pondering what I wanted and how I would go about it I did not want to copy or make
something someone has already done. I will be purchasing mostly off-the-shelf parts as I do not want to fabricate chairs, pedals and sticks etc.
I have limited space and I also want to be able to tear it down if I need to in an easy fashion.
This build will be in the middle range of designs. [not take a full room]
So I will be starting with the following items and strip them down to suit my needs.
I have already started to order items and should have some more progress pics up as I get to them.
X52 Pro Saitek [edit, was given a X45 to try out]
Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals [edit, picked up a set of Pro pedals since the Combats are on backorder]
EPagnian Next Level Next Level Flight Simulator Cockpit [Edit: was a Evolution Game Chair]
The guts & speakers from my current 52000 Pyramat Stereo chair. [Edit: bought a small surround sound system]
55" curved UHD4K LCD [Edit, chose a 34" curvered ISP monitor]
New dedicated Alienware PC [as my old workstation is old and busted]
Some other assorted hardware and fastners.
Custom built 7" LCD touch panels that send KB commands [until API is release] to EliteD program.
One aspect I really want is some awesome touch panels up front on my left and right that I can control some items in game. Maybe even some animated ones that toggle when you press them etc.
After searching around the net I didn't like what was out there panel wise and I don't want
to use an iphone or tablet. I came to the conclusion I will have to build my own if I want custom panels.
Roccat Power-Grid was about closet to what I wanted but is lacking in some areas and its not really customizable the way I want. [open-ened]
The goal of the panels will be 2 x 7" TFT touch screens with customizable images, button mapping
and a PC app for control. Once the ED API is released I will write my API to sync my panels with ED for a more seemless integration.
If they give us some feedback functions I can read that back to the panels for a more immersive effect. We'll just have to wait and see for that.
I have started dev on the panels and have a working mock up to share, what follows is the start of my cockpit build madness.
I am savvy in many programming languages and embeded systems so I dug out some old R&D stuff I had in the closet.
I used an old 320x240 TFT to demo the idea before building all the final parts and getting a custom PCB made. Me and my buddy dabble alot with micros, PIC processors and PCB designs and so I suckered him in as well to help out. That's what friends are for right?
[shout out to Ron]He has his own wants and so he is going to use them for SolidWorks shortcuts on his desktop, pretty sweet idea.
Two days later "success".
A mock up/demo that actually works.
First we wrote some code to get a button grid on screen for some code tests.
Here is one example.
Then we wrote some code to get the XY from the touch pad. [what a pain that turned out to be]
This all worked grand and went pretty fast.
So next up was trying to load a graphic on screen since we want our own custom ones.
I chose one of Roccat's panels for a test, tada. [sorry for the crappy photo]
I emailed my nefew who is an awesome graphics artist and game designer and had him make me a few mock up panels for a test. I sent him a crappy one I made as a reference. [I really suck at it]
A few hours later this is what he sent back.
Awesome work and he just kept sending them. lol
So I picked one and loaded it up, mapped the keys and finished the communications code...
Here's a shot live on TFT ready to touch.
Here is one with custom text/font test.
The panel works and sends base commands to the PC via usb.
I tested this out with a Terminal program first for debugging before starting on the PC app.
Now for the PC app.
So I loaded up M$ VisualStudio and in about 4 hours I had something working.
I made a simple C app that connects to the panel and waits for commands to come in.
It's a form test window for now but later it will be a runtime .exe with API.
You would use this app to build the KB macros [or ED API commands] and load-store them to a local file. [work in progress]
Once a panel press comes in the PC program parses it and matches it to the user mapped KB command and sends that out to the current app or program with current focus.
The app is called TED for Touch Elite Dangerous. [needed some name]
Concept is done and functional so the only thing left was to go big!
We ordered the 7" screens and some other hardware so we can start on the "actual" large panels/pcb. I told my nef and he is working on some new more elaborate graphics panels for the 800x480 screens.
Can't wait to see what he makes up as whatever it is I know it will be cool.
I will be laying out my base designs over the next week for where things will go and how they
will get mounted up.
Once more of the parts come in and more work is completed I will post pics/progress as I go.
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