Tag: software

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Strengthened gimbal first flight impressions

I have finally managed to build the gimbal, and even tried flying with it on Aerobatics Online Caucasus sever in DCS =)

I can say it’s great! For now, I’ve used rubber bands for stick centering, and they work pretty well. I noticed that I haven’t been using the software force trim function much during this flight. A lot of heli pilots were online, so I’ve had a great opportunity to put both the gimbal and pneumatic mod for the collective to a good test 😀

I am waiting for 50mm MAL16-50 pneumatic cylinders to arrive, hopefully with them installed the stick will feel perfect.  The collective pneumatic mod still holds together, I am beginning to think it’s really safe to use. A couple more weeks will show if I am wrong =) The new gimbal will be released tomorrow, if time permits, I will also be making a couple of videos about the new stuff soon.

Stay tuned!

Me leading a humble formation 😀
And following another ship, the gimbal has been performing great!
Feels fine when maneuvering in ground effect as well =)
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Thoughts on MLX90333

After finally getting some long enough sleep I thought again on my failed attempts with a Melexis sensor. The sensor itself is quite precise and has some DSP onboard, so I tried it again with a spherical gimbal and noticed that depending on how close a magnet is to the sensor, it outputs not a circle, but a square, inclined to 45 degrees. I thought, “- what if I simply cut excess values and make it a square?”, and did just that. The idea behind it was that jitter of the point in a joystick tester sketch seemed minimal,  so the physical precision of the sensor looked like being enough to work well. As long as we have a 15 bit external ADC that powers our gimbal, we should still have something like 4096 points per axis even with this reduced range, which is plenty.

Now, if we use a disk magnet instead of a square one, unarrested twist axis is not an issue anymore, it doesn’t affect X and Y positions in a big way. So this design seems to be perfectly fine for vertical sticks, or sidesticks, and I think with a pneumatic mod it can be as good for everything else. Its beauty lies in its mechanical simplicity, only a few parts are needed, it can be quite small in size.

I think I will make, test and publish both versions so everyone will be able to choose something for himself =) There’s also a third version, the 608 and MLX based one, its fate will depend on a degree of success of the spherical bearing based one =)

 

Meanwhile, some progress on the 608 and SS495A based version:

Reinforced 608 and SS495A based gimbal
The gimbal itself is quite strong, it should be able to handle the load!)
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Past-idle stop detent mark operation improvement for collective levers

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve made a few adjustments to collective levers building process recently, and after some testing, I think they are good enough to be used =)

When you attach throttle grips, turn resistors fully to the left and then just a bit to the right to avoid its physical deadzones (before it was “fully to the right”, so not much of an axis was left for past idle stop detent movement). In theory, this will allow for more precise throttle movements below idle-stop detent in DCS. In practice, it’s not that important right now, but may be useful for future updates.

I have adjusted master controller firmware for a larger axis range and added a new parameter to make it configurable:

#define COLL_HEAD_DCS_HUEY_COMPAT_MODE_BUTTON_HOLD 50 // how long to hold throttle up/down buttons, adjusted depending on idle stop axis range (smaller range- bigger hold time and vice versa)

I’ve also changed the default Huey head switch modes configuration so you will be able to assign DCS Huey switches in a scale way without reconfiguring them.

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AB412 collective head switch configuration tutorial

I have fixed some switch operation related bugs today and decided to make a video to show how to configure a collective head to suit your needs. Different sims can require different switch setups, for example, DCS Huey uses 3 of 4 modes for its collective head.

There are 4 switch modes, to assign a switch or a button to one of them look its joystick button number in joy.cpl and add it to one of the following  arrays:

    • ab412_sw_mode_button_switches – push button mode – joystick button is pressed when you hold the switch, supports mode switch
    • ab412_sw_mode_toggle_switches – toggle switch mode – when the switch goes up, joystick button is pressed and released, when it goes back to the middle position – the button is pressed and released again (example : gear lever), ignores mode switch setting
    • ab412_sw_mode_selector_button_switches – maps a 3-way switch to 3 joystick buttons, one for “up” position, one for “down”, one for “middle”. Buttons are pressed when the switch is being held pressed. Example: landing light switch – up-hold-down.
    • ab412_sw_mode_selector_switches – same as the previous one, but joystick buttons are pressed and released. This is there in case someone needs it for something.

For first two types, you put buttons one by one to the array (one switch is 2 joystick buttons, so if the switch shows as buttons 3 and 4 in joy.cpl, you write both 3 and 4 to the corresponding array), for last two types you only write the lesser of two switch buttons (lets say a switch shows as buttons 14 and 15 in joy.cpl, then you only have to write 14). Do not forget to remove switch and button numbers from their previous mode array when you assign them to another mode.

If something needs more detailed explanation, or if you want some other interesting switch mode, please ask in comments!

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Twin trottle collective improvements

While building the twin lever, I’ve decided to change the design of the throttle 1 frame p2 part to make throttle grips tension equal. The part now has a detent in it, that can also add some rigidness to the lever. If you’re building the twin lever, definitely use the new part! All updates are already on GitHub! I will be adding a similar part for the single throttle collective shortly.

Also made some fixes to AB412 head mods and software (added support for an extra mode switch)

Here’s how the latest version of the lever looks:

The new frame connector allows for backlash-free operation and easy mounting
This AB412 head version features two rotary side pots and a mode switch
Software idle stop positions are colored in black
The lever feels quite rigid, I like it!
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B8 stick build impressions

Have just finished assembling the B8 stick grip. I can say that the manual here is perfectly correct, have soldered everything as it says and it worked immediately after flashing. No setup required, just flash it. The only thing that needs tweaking is the size of nut sockets – they are too tight, will make them a bit bigger.  Quite perfect otherwise!

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Attitude trim with B8 stick hat switch option added

You can now move cyclic around while trimmed with a hat switch of a B8 stick.  This is how it works in a real 407. You can do it in X-Plane with key assignments as well, but Simchair handles this in a better way with its adaptive force trim option. This option will not release trim until cyclic would be in a vicinity of an initial trim position with a given deviation. You can disable this feature when it’s not needed by setting B8_HAT_SWITCH_MODE to “HAT”.

Please update your master controller firmware!

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X-Trident AB412 idle stop switch compatibility mode

Many of us sim pilots love flying the great AB412 by X-Trident, and some probably noticed that there are no keybindings for an idle stop switch on the collective head. That kinda surprised me, given that the 412 collective head is very close to release now =) Thankfully, guys on X-Plane forums (including the 412 developer) were very kind to point me in the right direction, and I’ve been able to write a very simple script to fix that.

What it does, is it simply assigns PgUp and PgDown buttons to the idle switch. I will then be able to send these key presses from the Simchair firmware, in a similar way to the DCS Huey compat mode.

For the script to work you’ll need the FlyWithLua plugin, extract it to your XPlane11\Resources\plugins folder. After that, put the script to XPlane11\Resources\plugins\FlyWithLua\Scripts folder (remove the “please read the manual.lua” file). If you want to change keys for the switch, you have to find out their numbers with a sniffer. Put it to the same folder, reload all Lua files from the plugin options menu in X-Plane, and it will show you the numbers you can put to the script instead of PgUp and PgDown.

Cheers!

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AB412 collective head showcase!

Have you ever dreamed of starting the engine of DCS Huey without touching your mouse or keyboard? Now you can, with this open source Simchair MKIII collective lever. I’ve been working hard on software for the last couple of days. The head now supports 4 different switch operation modes to cover all your needs, 3-way  mode selector switch option (which will triple your buttons or spring-loaded switches number), IDLE CUTOFF compatibility mode for DCS Huey. Because of the latter, the realistic startup procedure can be performed, with one exception.

In a real heli, the idle stop button controls a solenoid valve. if the battery will die in the wrong moment during startup  (that happens sometimes), this valve may not open and you won’t be able to shut down, resulting in a burned engine. That’s why you want to position throttle just a little bit off the idle stop position on the decrease side, but you can’t, due to how DCS handles throttle operation past the idle cutoff switch. This is really a minor issue, still, if you want the procedure to be as realistic as possible, connect an external power prior to startup. Note that when flying in multiplayer, chat window has to be closed when using idle stop related operations with the collective.

The fresh software snapshot with all the goodies included is available on GitHub

Cheers!