Project: The Dog Box

[Sloan]

Starting a new thread for this project:

Hehe as if we needed another project around here. Lets begin with some basics. In my mind the box should primarily take care of things that a standard joystick doesn't (i.e. we don't need a view hat on it). It should contain things that would naturally be a switch in a real cockpit. It should be something that can sit comfortably to the side of your existing setup and provide hardware versions of keyboard inputs. I've got experience with a few interfaces that convert button and switches to keyboard signals. They are available as USB and generally run about $50. I'm thinking the overall cost for the project should be a comfortable ~$100.

Things that would be great to have:

3 trim tabs/wheels

Landing gear

Flaps up/down

Eject button (with prevantative cover)

Cockpit lights/Nav Lights/Strobes

Supercharger Next/Prev

Magneto Next/Prev

Airbrake

WEP

Mixture

Prop Pitch

Engine selectors

Engine start

Now naturally, we don't need all those on the thing. People could customize it to their own preferences. But it would also be easy enough to install every one of the items if the box was about a foot wide by two feet in length.

Most of the multifunction items can be done with one switch. So we don't need a seperate one for up *and* down. This could all be cased in a metal project box if we could find one online somewhere. Wood would suffice if we wanted to do a custom shape of some sort.

Basically construction would go like this:

Drill appropriate holes in project box.

Install switches.

Run ground wire from switch to switch.

Run wire to keyboard encoder.

Plug keyboard encoder into PC.

Progam to IL-2 keyboard functions.

If we had things planned out, total construction time wouldn't exceed more than two hours.

[Sloan]

Muahaha mockup.

[Waldo.Pepper]

Feast your eyes...

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/joystick/index.html

[Sloan]

This is what I used when I built my arcade machine: http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

The upside is that it has easy to use screw-terminals. The downside is that its a bit more expensive than what you posted there. My concern is that I'm just no good at soldering. :oops:

Does anyone have an idea where to get project boxes? (metal, plastic or otherwise?)

I've got a ton of good catalogues for switches but I'll have to call them and ask if they'll sell them non-bulk. There's all sorts of fancy switches, lights and toggles possible.

[delta7]

I like this setup

http://www.simhq.com/_technology2/technology_076a.html

if you could mod one of these

http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer. ... 000SPROGCU

by adding 3 roteries that would be ideal

but a good HOTAS setup should cover all these anyway- you can get the CH throttle as standalone and add to existing joystick. Of couse you might prefer to customise your own setup and get exactly what you want so good luck with the project- I look forward to seeing the finished results

[Sloan]

Yeah I'm sort of in the build-it-yourself mood, especially because I'm pretty happy with my saitek x52 already and I think I could do all this for cheaper than buying something and modding it. I'll keep you guys posted.

[B16Enk]

I was looking for information like this not so long back, I ended up buying a Throttle Quad :oops:

I think there is a need for this, and as it's such a relatively cheap project it is well worth doing.

Documented well here and with Photos of the stages it will be popular I think.

Waldo's link would be the equivalent of the I-PAC2 board, 8 Axis and your design above uses 5.

It would be fairly simple to add a throttle lever and a zoom rotary to this wouldn't it?

As I am also a lapsed Mechanical Engineer (hence CAD/CAM) I can easily visualise and draw this for us.

[Cold_Gambler]

I've just taken apart an old Logitech FF USB stick which I junked ages ago (it was the fourth one that crapped out on me within a couple of weeks of purchase) so I am also going to try my hand at creating a button bay.

I'm thinking 4 sliders:

3 trim + flaps

6 buttons:

engine start

radiator

airbrakes

eject

supercharger next

supercharger previous

8-way hat-switch:

not sure... shame really, as there are 8 "buttons" available with it. Perhaps if I attach a stick to it and cut an 8-branched asterix that would work.

In any case, this will have to wait until after I've moved into the house we've just bought (minimum two months away), so I look forward to seeing your efforts.

Between that, the MS FF stick and CH throttle I shouldn't need the keyboard. I'll post an MS paint diagram later this evening.

[Sloan]

sounds good. make sure to take lots of pictures as you make the thing, whenever you get time to fiddle with it.