Board index FlightGear Support Hardware

DIY cockpit

Joysticks, pedals, monitors.

DIY cockpit

Postby OO ZVY » Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:12 pm

Hello, using arduino, cheep electronics component, Fgpanel and Atlas :

Image

Image

Bgrs

OO ZVY
Last edited by OO ZVY on Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Flightgear 2020.4.0
User avatar
OO ZVY
 
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:13 pm
Callsign: OO-ZVY
Version: 2020.4.0
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby patstan » Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:16 pm

Thats one nice little cockpit. Roughly how much did it cost for all components if you dont mind me asking?
patstan
 
Posts: 117
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 2:27 pm
Callsign: patstan
Version: 3.0
OS: Windows 8

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby OO ZVY » Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:56 pm

good question :

- most expensive is the saitek controls. ( I buy second hand on EBAY for 150 Eur the control whell and both throttles + full price ( 110 Eur ) for the rudder )
- arduino uno, arduino mega, breadboard, cables, rotary encoder, push button, displays, led ( something like 200 Eur all components, maybe less.... )
- old LCD screen ( second hand screen if you need to buy one 50 Eur )
- old computer to run FGpanel and Atlas ( If you need to buy one, let's say 100 Eur )
- a little bit of wood to build a structure.

total : around 450 Eur for myself, considering I did'nt buy the screen and the computer or between 500 and 700 Eur if you buy all....
+ A lot of hours of arduino learning and programming...

Bgrs

OO ZVY
Last edited by OO ZVY on Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Flightgear 2020.4.0
User avatar
OO ZVY
 
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:13 pm
Callsign: OO-ZVY
Version: 2020.4.0
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby OO ZVY » Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:03 pm

Back side of the
-Gear
-Flaps
-Magnetos
- starters
-fuels pumps
-Landing, taxi, strobe, ... lights
- parking brake
panel :
Image
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Flightgear 2020.4.0
User avatar
OO ZVY
 
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:13 pm
Callsign: OO-ZVY
Version: 2020.4.0
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby Johan G » Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:22 pm

That is a rather nice build. Looks good enough to be useful. :D Is it primarily use with the Seneca?

A good writeup (for example on the wiki) could probably inspire others, and with one it would probably not be a bad idea to tip Hack a Day. ;)
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
Johan G
Moderator
 
Posts: 6629
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:33 pm
Location: Sweden
Callsign: SE-JG
IRC name: Johan_G
Version: 2020.3.4
OS: Windows 10, 64 bit

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby bishb25 » Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:55 am

Love it!

A detailed wirte up on electronics and interfacing would be great.
Callsign: cncman
"The only thing smart about me... I know where to find the answers." I think?
bishb25
 
Posts: 136
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:11 pm
Location: 10mi southwest of KLBE
Callsign: cncman
Version: GIT
OS: Linux

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby pommesschranke » Wed Oct 01, 2014 1:58 pm

pommesschranke
 
Posts: 1117
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:58 pm
Location: EDLM & LJCE
Callsign: d-laser
IRC name: laserman
Version: git
OS: Linux Kubuntu 22.04

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby bishb25 » Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:35 am

Awsome! Thank you for sharing. Really wish I had pushed harder to get that electronics course when I was younger.
Callsign: cncman
"The only thing smart about me... I know where to find the answers." I think?
bishb25
 
Posts: 136
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:11 pm
Location: 10mi southwest of KLBE
Callsign: cncman
Version: GIT
OS: Linux

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby Johan G » Thu Oct 02, 2014 8:41 pm

I f you have the time, I could recommend browsing through posts at hackaday.com. Some of them can link to quite good educational resources. If not else it might help getting that itch bad enough that you just have to scratch it... ;)
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
Johan G
Moderator
 
Posts: 6629
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:33 pm
Location: Sweden
Callsign: SE-JG
IRC name: Johan_G
Version: 2020.3.4
OS: Windows 10, 64 bit

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby lehol » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:28 pm

OO ZVY, nice project. If you would like a sturdier enclosure, my CNC router is at your disposal :)
lehol
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:38 am

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby vaipe » Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:59 pm

  • Over 10 years old CHProducts Flight Stick and pedals (gameport connectors)
  • Custom panel created for Pilatus Porter with Torsten's webpanel feature
  • Arduino Uno to read potentiometers from controls and serial protocol used to read them in FlightGear
  • FlightGear 3.3.0, Ubuntu 14.04

Just about to buy Arduino Mega and lots of switches... ...I just love that how cheap and easy this was to create with FlightGear! :D

Image
vaipe
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 1:15 pm
Location: Finland
Version: 2017.3.1
OS: Ubuntu 17.10

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby pommesschranke » Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:16 pm

nice!

just today I was thinking of building a thottle quadrant wit arduino so that i can use differential thrust.

In my PC I have a PCI Soundblaster card with gameport to use those old but very good paddles:

[img]http://www.wingsofhonour.com/hardware/hofmannsimpedvario/pic_pchardware_hofmannsimpedvario_0001_1007x802x24b.jpg
[/img]
pommesschranke
 
Posts: 1117
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:58 pm
Location: EDLM & LJCE
Callsign: d-laser
IRC name: laserman
Version: git
OS: Linux Kubuntu 22.04

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby vaipe » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:56 am

pommesschranke: Are building some bigger homecockpit or just radio/autopilot device?

I was thinking of building some sort of 'general' home cockpit for Flightgear with Arduino. It would consist of: larger screen for visual, smaller for gauges, flight controls and switches/buttons and lcd.

- larger screen could be old flat TV
- smaller for gauges could be 4:3 flat monitor
- for controls I have very old Thrustmaster's F-22 HOTAS stick and F-16 TQS
- lcd screen is for radio and/or autopilot and/or Arduino info
- buttons and switches...

Small gauge screen could be done with webpanel feature. It runs in browser and gauges are automatically changed when page is reloaded after plane change in Flightgear. When starting Flightgear you would have to remember to load correct protocol file. All controls and switches/buttons are wired through Arduino's serial and LCD is used to show what plane settings are selected from Arduinos code.

That way it could be possible to make homecockpit:
- for multiple planes
- what is rather inexpensive
- that is easy to expand by: drawing more svg gauges, writing more protocol files and expanding your Arduino's code

(btw: I have not seen much of homecockpit topic's in internet which are related to Flightgear)
vaipe
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 1:15 pm
Location: Finland
Version: 2017.3.1
OS: Ubuntu 17.10

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby lehol » Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:16 pm

I like the idea of a geneic arduino based system, with the code in github.
This x-plane projeckt is inispiring.
http://b58.svglobe.com/
lehol
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:38 am

Re: DIY cockpit

Postby pommesschranke » Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:22 pm

Hello vaipe,

I am not planning a bigger homecockpit at the moment. I sometimes use 2 android tablets as instrument display.

Waht is the current state of your project ?

vaipe wrote in Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:56 am:When starting Flightgear you would have to remember to load correct protocol file.


yes, that's the same with my panel at the moment.
it might be possible to make one protocol file for all supported planes, or use web sockets to read write properties ?

and LCD is used to show what plane settings are selected from Arduinos code.


with my panel that is not necessary. Value to property mapping is done in the protocol file.
I made protocol files for 5 planes so far:
https://gitorious.org/fg/lasermans-fgda ... b:Protocol

maybe you can use & improve them. It took me a long time to find out how different planes name their properties :-(

(btw: I have not seen much of homecockpit topic's in internet which are related to Flightgear)


The FSX community is a bit larger than ours. But if you find a open-source and open-hardware project of another sim it will be easy to adapt to flightgear.
pommesschranke
 
Posts: 1117
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:58 pm
Location: EDLM & LJCE
Callsign: d-laser
IRC name: laserman
Version: git
OS: Linux Kubuntu 22.04

Next

Return to Hardware

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: nerdjuice and 4 guests