DCS World - flight controls DIY

Built this months ago as an addition to the Saitek HOTAS System. I missed a valuable gear lever. Especially in VR you can´t see what to press on the keyboard. So I decided to take usage of my 3D Printer and mixed some things together, including hot glue. :)
I ended up with a bunch of switches and rotary knobs which can be freely bind with simulator functions. I agree that the usage of the warning display is not worth the effort, when you use a VR System :D
music: Stas Drive - Passage of Time (Silinder Remix)

[@matthiaseisenschwein]

Great build!

[@mikken7403]

👌

[@SimplePacman]

Nice work💪

[@TNT-tf9jd]

Neat

[@DJBaka]

a midi controller with a arudino ok... ezy work for me ... but how do you become the data from dcs for the displays? But very nice work!

[@mikken7403]

its not a midi controller. its an arduino based microcontroller. Shown data on the display is provided by "dcs-bios".

[@nomad943]

Like your project. Did you use White or transparent PLA for the tops of your boxes? Trying to determine which one would transmit light better.

[@mikken7403]

"I didn't try it with white PLA in the first sentence because I had transparent PLA available, so I used that instead. While white PLA might also work, I recommend using very bright green LEDs with over 15k mcd and a working voltage of around 3V." As you can see there are two layers with a thickness of 3 mm transparent PLA. The main cover and a top panel. With transparent PLA the shine-through effect is already good.

[@ABCBCACB]

Hi! Thank you for the awesome video. I have some questions: 1) Can you make a DIY arduino flight joystick by interacting with a DCS-bios? 2) How is your thrust adjustment working? Is it like 0 to 100 and a potentiometer detecting the position of a thrust? And communicate with DCS-bios?

[@mikken7403]

Hi, DCS-bios is a plugin which only gets information from the sim, not the other way into it. So you have to use a common joystick / HOTAS for inputs. You can use an Arduino as a serial input for extra buttons, knobs and rotary switches as I did. When you program it, you declare the arduino as a Joystick/Serial input device. And this is it. When you done that, you will see this device as an additional joystick in the keybinding menus in DCS, like your other input devices and you can now bind the switches with your aircraft functions to your arduino based buttons device. I use DCS-bios in this video for getting information about the landing gear status, Master-Caution, fire warnings and stuff. This is what dcs-bios gets from the sim and makes this available for third party devices like the Arduino. And the Arduino turns on the LEDs or does whatever you program it to do in a specific case according to what the sim puts out.

[@ABCBCACB]

@Mikken So, for now, there is no way other than using the actual joystick from stores.Thanks so much for the very detailed information!

[@No1sonuk]

@@mikken7403 Not quite true. You CAN use DCS-BIOS to input switches and analogue controls into DCS, but the primary flight controls (stick and throttle) aren't available.

[@Molevitch]

@@ABCBCACBYou can build your own joystick, no problem. You can use an Arduino Leonardo as a HID, or a Leo Bodnar board. I have made several. Also now force feedback DIY is possible with VPForce Rhino kit.

[@ABCBCACB]

@@Molevitch gotcha. Thanks!

[@foxtrottone]

nice !

[@mikken7403]

Thanks!

[@PEPcessna]

How do you make the rotary switches work as a button command when I wire it up like a switch and rotate it. I get two button presses simultaneously regardles of which way I rotate the knob.

[@mikken7403]

Hi Patrick, I only built in potientiometers for dimming internal lighting or radio comm volume adjustment. Your issue with rotary encoders is what is described as bouncing. Its strength depends on the quality of the encoder itself, the wiring and the programming into your usecase. So there is a variety of possible problems causing bounce on encoders. I never got completely rid of that bouncing problem, I only got it minimized. I remember to buy a very expensive one for a future project. It might help. I recommend using Google with some ideas, search for i.e. "encoder bounce"

[@No1sonuk]

"Encoder bounce" isn't the problem - You have to use code specifically designed to read an encoder and send out the button pulses. Without that, both lines pulse, with the order depending on which way you rotate the encoder. The proper code decodes that input and pulses just one of the output signals, depending on which way you rotate the encoder. That code can also account for encoders that have more than one pulse per mechanical click - the are VERY common.

[@mikken7403]

so encoder bounce is indeed the problem if I have to use special code and or wiring additions like resistors in parallel or series to minimize a non specific input reading value to a microcontroller using an encoder. Bouncing describes a problem when a button gets pressed once and the controller reads more than one input. You are right that specific code is needed to evaluate which rotation direction input is true to let the other go into the void

[@No1sonuk]

@@mikken7403 Signal noise can be a problem with encoders, but A LOT of them actually make 4 pulses per mechanical stop by design, not bouncing.

[@mikken7403]

@@No1sonuk I think in most cases it is a mix of noise and input errors caused by cheap materials and design. But yes, I agree with you. To my honest shame, I have to admit that I didn't delve deeply into it.

[@chunshengchan6802]

If i using dcsbios with arduino nano to make button and green led ,the button can bind with other game car racing, msfs2020 or xplane?

[@mikken7403]

Hello Chan, dcs-bios is a dcs data and gauge output program to make it available for third party devices. Its an output data only widget. The inputs have to be realized with a joystick. The arduino itself can be programmed to act as a joystick input device. Just connect via usb port to you machine, program it as a serial input device and wire some input buttons to it as I showed in the video. But you have to be into C++ programming

[@No1sonuk]

@@mikken7403 Not quite true. You CAN use DCS-BIOS to input switches and analogue controls into DCS, but the primary flight controls (stick and throttle) aren't available. HOWEVER, it is specific to DCS, and the code is mostly specific to one aircraft module. And, FYI, to make a "joystick", you need to use an Arduino with a 32u4 processor like a Pro Micro or Leonardo. A Nano or Uno can't do it.

[@mikken7403]

I did not test the input capabilities of dcs-bios. but I used a simple arduino nano compatible clone with an Atmega 328P as serial input device as you can see in the video and it is NOT quite true that a special controller is needed for a joystick. The roll and pitch inputs are simple potentiometers that can be read by the controller mentioned above. There may be some differences in reading accuracy between controller types, but these can be neglected for this application.

[@SweetyVoltyy]

Aaaaaaaaaaand files are? im wondering about that nokia screen lmao i have loads of those in hand

[@mikken7403]

Files are not public. Construction is so customized to the wooden plank that no one can use the files. What about your wondering to the Nokia display?

[@SweetyVoltyy]

@@mikken7403 now I'm seriously wondering more about it lol. Are we talking about a business or business thoughts kinda stuff or just it became so complicated looking it would induce headaches kinda thing? 😂😂 if its business i do respect but secondary shouldn't be a problem lol... i do have lots of disassembled phone screens but never bothered to wonder if i can use them wit arduino or etc stuff like this. but this was a boarded version i think and my ones have flexes so the bother of soldering those could overcome the results lol

[@SweetyVoltyy]

ah also some dogfighters do use flaps a lot while in combat so i would've put it more reachable position if i was making it to sell them. ;)

[@mikken7403]

​@@SweetyVoltyy it is not about business at all. I did it for fun as an experiment for an arduino project and as an extension to my stuff here to the flying hardware. The Nokia display can be bought directly with soldering pins where you can get arduino stuff. All I did to the display was to change the builtin white background LEDs to green ones for unification of backlight colors.

[@SweetyVoltyy]

​@@mikken7403 and than i don't understand why won't you share the hard work and elbow grease labor work with everyone that not for saving them the effort of designing but maybe help or inspire someone with design or code parts etc etc. while they are doing theirs. (and etc etc) I understand the trademark'ish things, but if its not i do share most of the time. My thoughts even trademark things preventing sharing those secret things, anyone could, and usually do, just look and could make the similar item as it's happens all the time so i just dont care and share most of the time lol sorry im a bit chatty atm; so i think it's time for me to engage a few bandits instead of talk your ear off so don't get me wrong if you're not sharing you must have your reasons. I just stated what was on my mind :) nokia thing yeah saw that but couldnt be sure if it was done by you or bought that way. but still im gonna look for if i can connect them to arduino just out of curiosity heheh

[@torides.]

im too lazy to do these stuff

[@mikken7403]

thats a valid statement 😊