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Analog gauges and ground tracks


keb

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I have been working for the past couple of years on a project to create analog gauges that could display some of the game information.

Finally, I also developed a program to display the ground tracks and flight profile.

Both rely on the mod telemachus and its http server to get the necessary data.

 

Here is the final result. I didn't spend much time on the board itself, as I wanted it to work properly first.

 pGrw95W.jpg

The gauges display most ressources of the game (liquid fuel, oxidizer, monopropellant, etc...) and three other parameters: Gs, vertical speed and atmospheric density.

I also used two 8 digits 7-segments display for altitude and speed since both these values can vary a lot in the game, it didn't seem appropiate to use the analogue gauges.

I recuperated the screen from an old laptop to diplay ground tracks or flight profile.

 

1) Gauges

The core of the gauges is a micro stepper motor X27-168. They are sold as automotive spare parts, mostly for US brands, and quite easy to find.

There are quite a lot information about them, especially on Guy Carpenter blog http://guy.carpenter.id.au/gaugette/

The plastic support is 3D printed

qG0mQHg.jpg

 

In order to control the motor, I am using an arduino Uno and the motor driver vid6606. Through my various trials these came to be the best solution.

It gives smooth needle movement and is a very flexible solution to add/remove gauges.

FLtyh0l.jpg

Each one of those can control 4 motors.

The arduino itself is connected by USB to a raspberry pi that sends the http request and calculate the required position for each motor.

I had initially tried to control all motors directly via the raspberry pi, but the result wasn't as good: when all values were updated simultaneously, some lag and stutter could appear on the gauges.

 

2) Ground tracks and flight profile

I thought it could be cool to have be able to visualize the ground tracks of a vessel in orbit.

Again this is using data pulled from telemachus.

WekfIRN.jpg

Some settings available:

Ix580pO.jpg

However, this is only good in orbit, so I was also inspired by the mod Houston and made a mode to display the flight profile when not in orbit:

lLxOuqF.jpg

I initially wanted this to be also diplayed by the rapberry pi, but it wasn't as smooth as when using my laptop, so I finally gave up on that.

It was the first time for me to code and I'm sure it could be made much lighter to work well with the rapberry pi though.

 

I had a great time creating all this (more maybe than using it...), I hope you like it too.

Let me know what you think!

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Thanks for the comment!

I have created a small video showing the gauges in action.

It shows only G-forces and vertical speed as they are the parameters that require the most reactivity.

You can compare the result with the gauges in the game.

 

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Thanks for the comments, I'm glad you like it.

The gauges are making the readings very easy indeed, that is also why I didn't make them too small. They are 60mm in diam.

 

I could share the current version of the ground tracks display. There are still a few bugs at the moment but they can be solved by refreshing the web page. 

I would need to put together some quick installation instructions. It's quite heavy though due to the maps (~100Mo). I could resize them but the quality won't be as good.

Not sure what's the best way to share the files...

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Ok, 

Not working, yet.

 There is the 'main' dir ground_control which under plugin has dir groundcontrol

where does ground_control go and

where does groundcontrol go.  sorry but a little confusing to me ...

next where do i  put the font, or does it stay where it is?

my 'current' setup is E:\Kerbal_Space_Program\ksp_win64_130\01a_KSP_win64 -minKopernicus\GameData\Telemachus\Plugins\PluginData\Telemachus

for telemachus...

I also have the new leafletksp.js with the new temporary site for the maps, but if your version uses maps from scansat i like that better.

sorry for being a pain, and i do appreciate your help.

Cheer,

Ted.

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Sorry for the confusion.

1. you need to copy the dir groundcontrol that is under plugin into your existing directory ...\PluginData\Telemachus. 

2. The font you simply copy the .ttf file in your font management folder in control panel

For the maps you don't have to worry since they are all part of the release.

I hope it is more clear

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Keb,

Do you think that you will be working on this so that it will be able to work with other planet systems some time in the future?

Things like RSS, New Horizons, etc??

Just wondering,   and of course hoping.

Cheers

 

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Making the ground tracks compatible isn't a problem. The biggest difficulty is to have reliable maps to use for the background.

I have made a quick release that should work, but will see that the vessel location on map isn't quite right.

https://github.com/Keb72/GroundControl/releases/tag/0.11

I used the texture from RSS and New horizon to create quick maps but they are not correctly centered.

For many planets, it's not very not very noticeable, however when there are very specific features (like earth) it's quite obvious.

Maps from SCANsat could work for some types like heights, but it will requires time to create them. Not sure what's the best way to make nice, colorful maps...

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