Still Here...

[OverDhill]

Well I plan on working on my pit this coming week and get back playing IL2. I see there has been some updates I will have to apply.

 

Hope to see you guys soon and relearn most of what I did last winter.

 

Been traveling a lot this year (two daughters in two different states in opposite directions).

 

Happy New Year to all

 

OverDhill

[FoolTrottel]

Hello there!

 

Looking forward to see you back in the virtual skies Odh!

 

Happy new year to you too!

[BadAim]

Welcome back mate!

[OverDhill]

Thanks guys

 

I do have one question. I am working on getting more out of my Thrustmaster Warthog. On the throttle I have Power and Prop Pitch assigned to the dual throttle control. I have the Slider Axis and wonder what would be the most needed adjustment best assigned to an axis?

 

I have a BU0836X 12-Bit Joystick Board and will get around to building a trim control box down the road.

 

Again thanks for any opinions you offer.

By the way UDP Speed seems to be working fine with 4.12 and HSFX7 for those that are looking to use it.

[DD_Arthur]

 

 

 I have the Slider Axis and wonder what would be the most needed adjustment best assigned to an axis?

 

 

 

Elevator trim.

[OverDhill]

I am looking to make something like this
 


Or a knob more like this (if I can find the right knobs)

 

 

[Painless]

Welcome back OverDhill sir !

Painless.

[Jabo]

This is my setup OverDhill;

 

http://dangerdogz.com/forums/topic/10929-switchbox-mk3/?p=112712

 

The three knobs you can see in the photos control the three trim axes, pitch, yaw and roll. Prop ptich, mixture and rad control have been assigned on my stick and throttle. The 9 pin connector is for my rudder pedals.

 

And here is the bodnar board I'm using;

 

http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67&products_id=180

 

Any questions, feel free to holler.

 

Jabo

[OverDhill]

Been finalizing my HOTAS binds and this is what I have so far for buttons and such. As you can see I have a lot of spares left.

 

[gec]

cockpit - no cockpit 

 

unexceptable! 

[OverDhill]

Well when you have a 24" touchscreen virtual cockpit in front of you then sometimes you don't need one on the big screen

 

 

 

This is not an up to date IL-2 Helios skin I am working on but its close

 

[OverDhill]

Hey Jabo did you use 1 or 10 turn pots in your trim box? If 1 turn how is the sensitivity on them? I saw some 3 turn ones on Amazon but they are out of stock.

[Jabo]

300deg turn with a centre detent - the bodnar board supports 1024 steps so in my case 512 either side of zero. works well for me

[OverDhill]

Those are the ones I have on order. So they will be here on Tuesday is the snow doesn't slow them down. We are getting hit pretty hard here in Michigan.  I also have some 100K linear slide pots with a center detent and LED light on order. Still have to decide which way to go.

 

Will probably place mixture and radiator on the panel as well as any other axis that will not fit on Warthog HOTAS.

[OverDhill]

Been busy with a hard drive failure (not on my game system) and some other real world stuff. Also pretty much done with my IL-2 Helios skin so hopefully I will get time to jump on

[Snacko]

Post a screenshot of it, I might want to borrow that..

[OverDhill]

Here is the final setup (is anything ever final?). It is using UPD Speed for the gauges and Helios for the controls and Pittools keysender and receiver for the key sends between the computers. Seeing as how IL-2 doesn't have discreet on/off functions for buttons some of the toggles can get out of sync. I am looking into creating a momentary toggle switch to handle those. I am sure as I use it some other needed changes will make themselves apparent.

 

One this I did for UDP Speed is to actually run a script that copies all them from one folder to another and then run it. The reason being is that UDP Speed will automatically save positions. This way they will always go back where I wanted them to be each time it is started.

 

[OverDhill]

I finally finished my trim control box. I have 8 new analog axes to play around with. For the newer sims like CLOD using them will be no problem. for Il2 1946 I decided to use PPJoy as IL-2 will only use 4 controllers and BU0836X card was not one of the top 4 on the device ID list. Well neither was PPJoy but after a little searching I came across this.

 

http://wiki.mechlivinglegends.net/index.php?title=PPJoy_for_using_multiple_joysticks#Joystick_ID_issues

 

That fixed it so now I can use a lot of those axes with no problems. I have some other knobs on order but they are taking forever to get here.

 

As a side note... I finally was able to get my Logitech WingMan Formula Force GP Wheel to work under Windows 7 64x by using a specific driver (persistence pays off). As a result I also got a fringe benefit for IL2 as it serves as my 'rumble' for IL-2 and CLOD. It sits off to the side and is clamped down to my pit when not being used for racing sims. When the force feedback is present it will shake the entire stand. LOL

 

[OverDhill]

Well I can't seem to catch a break. Although I was planning on spending some quality time learning IL-2 better this fall I decided to at least fire everything back up when I returned from a long trip away.

 

Well last year it was my hard drive that died in my second PC for my touchscreen used for Helios and UDPSpeed. I had to wait several weeks to get it back from warranty repair.

 

Now I find that the ELO touchscreen has a lot of horizontal lines on it. My educated guess would be that the capacitors are failing. Many electronics these days have this issue. So I guess I will be tearing the touchscreen apart and see what I can find. Not many other options as most new Touchscreens do not support XP which is what that secondary PC is running.

 

There is also the problem of trying to get the same type of pit setup for Cliffs of Dover. It does not support UDPSpeed so getting gauges exported on to a networked PC seems unfeasible. There is the VC application which works on a second monitor but that complicates matters greatly unless I run a second monitor just for the gauges off the main PC. I do have a 19" LCD sitting here but it sort of messes up the aesthetics a lot.

 

I also was looking at building a hard button panel as my BU0836X card used for the trim controls has 32 buttons sitting there unused. So worse case I could use the 19" for the gauges (UDPSpeed for IL-2 1946 might not like a local monitor without a lot of FPS loss) and real buttons for the controls coupled with my HOTAS buttons and switches should handle most functions.

 

If anyone has a switch box built please share a picture.

 

I also am building a Warthog extension. I have all the parts (<$20) and just need get it done. I will then make changes to the pit to handle the extra length. Still not sure if I will try and mount it to the side or the middle. If I do the middle I will have to come up with a way to move it out of the way when I use my Wheel for racing. Lucky for me the PVC pipe is easy to work with and cheap.

 

Again sorry for the long winded post but I am thinking out loud which helps me plan things out.

[FoolTrottel]

(...)

If anyone has a switch box built please share a picture.

(...)

 

 

[OverDhill]

I found some really nice push buttons pretty cheap on Ebay. They come in a range of colors.

 

 

 

As well as some Long Handle and Rotary on-off-on momentary switches

 

 

 

 

Got to have some safety switches

 

 

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2928/14761932602_16d79cc790_o.jpg