Francois

I've been working on building one but I've put the project on pause to build a small controller during the lockdown. If you want future update, I post here: Sorry for highjacking your thread @richfiles

slow but steady progress. I tested my panel design on cardboard, then I 3d printed a 1mm thick panel to check that the holes were in the right place and the right size and now I'm testing the cutting and engraving on an acrylic sheet. I had to build an enclose to prevent the mess and to get a special bit to prevent acrylic from melting. A bit more testing to make sure it's all the right size and the right speed before trying to cut the real panel.

I probably will eventually, but I'm definitely learning under constraint weirdly, I managed to make this solution work with a 74hc165 instead of a 74HC595. I need to post the schematic so anyone can point out the flaw.

I'm making some progress on my controller. I was stuck on something that was looking so dumb that I started reading entire books about electronics to learn more on the basics and hoping that it would become clearer. But no clue. I'm controlling all the LEDs of the controller with a Max7219 (8x8 matrix controller). It was working flawlessly with regular LEDs, but it was totally not with those LED switches: I realized each had actually 2 LEDs mounted anti-parallel (I didn't know what it was before) which doesn't work with a max7219. Long story of the surgery here: https://imgur.com/gallery/Wtqx2Ai Now that it's fixed, I'm finishing to solder the board that controls the LEDs and I'll switch to wiring/coding the switches. Last will be a 7-segment display before it's functional. I will then have to do the panel using my mini CNC and I will probably rework the code because I'm not too happy with it. Right now, it's controlled by a single Arduino but I'm considering dedicating a Nano to the switches because it seems that the LCD Display updates are very slow which hinders detecting when a momentary switch is pressed.

I use KRPC to get the data and then I made up a not so great protocol to send the data over serial to the arduino. I'm realizing that I haven't pushed my code to Github in a while (also I haven't touched my project in a few weeks now). I'll push the latest next time I start my Windows PC https://github.com/fgaudin/protoconsole-python/blob/master/protoconsole.py. Oxygen and other LS are available the same way as LiquidFuel from what I remember.

II'm surprised to not see more activity here in these confined times. Just to let you know that my navball is not progressing though definitely not abandoned (got distracted by an apartment move, life and thinking that I should read a 1000 pages book about electronics first :p). But to get an easier milestone first, I started a small controller. Work in progress. The fuel/life support levels work, the LCD partially works, I still need to program the LEDs, wire and program the switches, wire and program the 7-segment display and finally, finish the design in Fusion 360 and the CAM path to cut and drill the sheet of acrylic to replace the cardboard.

wow, clever. This problem is at the bottom of my list for now, but I was thinking about learning how to modify the existing capsules to remove all the textures of the internal view and hope it becomes just a giant transparent capsule. Your solution may achieve the same thing in a way simpler way

Looks pretty cool! the gap between the two monitors is achieved through your OS/dual monitor settings or you have two cameras placed properly?

I always assume it's the same people reading, so I'm not sure where to post. I'll probably just post my finished project there. I should have some interesting milestone to show in a week or two if everything goes well And regarding that immersive cockpit, it's definitely inspiring. I hope to make something like that in the end, but with 10 times more panels this one, although not Kerbal, is also interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoCDYLanTA&list=PLAY3QA4kl1ESoRGRkgAYZOuiczjOa1WZ5&index=2&t=0s

End of vacation for me and not as much progress as I hoped (but a short trip into the mountains, so there is that). It's been more setback after setback last week. I was hoping to be done with the redesign of the inner plate to mill it on a PCB protoboard and layout the components and have everything turning to then work on a rewrite of the software. I redesigned that plate in Freecad in a better way, improved the locking mechanisms now that I have precise-ish milling capabilities and I wanted to get a good motor fitting test before milling a PCB. So I mounted the motors on a balsa prototype, wired them with my circuit that's on the breadboard and... smoke... I don't know what I've done, but I'm up for some troubleshooting and component replacement now. I ended up powering up the two internal motors with the small drivers that were provided with them and I realize that I had some clear wobbling on the axis that will hold the plastic hemispheres. I need to test more, but I'm pretty sure that the wobble doesn't come from my design but from the bearings. This will be harder to resolve than if it was my design obviously. One last thing, the slip ring that's in the ball is rated for 1.5A per channel. After having to get a new wire stripper for such tiny wires, I'm pretty sure it's 30 AWG wires, which means there's no way it will handle 1.5A. I'm thinking about different things here: - I may generate a 1.5A current and pass it through a wire of the slip ring (or a piece I've cut actually) and see if it melts (my noob level in electronics keeps my hope mid-level :p) - I may develop a more complex internal circuit to pass data over 2 wires and use 4 wires for power but, again, I'm still new to electronic and the current circuit is already fancy for me - I may add a second slip ring on the other side of the arm and have 4-6 wires for power The last one seems to be the easiest to implement since there's room for the second slip ring (right side on the picture). So, I suppose the biggest problem I have right now is the wobble. Here's some assembly I got to at some point:

haha, that doesn't fit in my apartment you mean for the mounts I'm building or the spoilboard? For the mounts, it's not even plywood, it's a pine board. The spoilboard is a 3mm plywood sheet. I guess I'm staying away from plastic to limit plastic waste and dust (I mill in my bedroom :-/). I'll use acrylic for the front panel though.

Yesterday progress: added that spoilboard to my tiny CNC, definitely makes life easier, thanks @tsaven. I just have to be careful where I put the tape because the machine chokes bad when it hits the double-sided tape glue. And so far, it fits surprisingly well together. The slip ring is perfectly aligned with bearing and the motor More updates to come, I'm off the whole week

I think I've started making real progress when I gave up on making it happen cheaply. But I agree, my Kerbal thinking for this: if it doesn't burst into flames, that's a good first step :p I already put a thing piece of balsa under the piece, but I should switch to tape indeed. I've run a few times the machine into a clamp. Thanks for the advice. Good luck on your project! looks like a good start! What's the final plan?

Quite a while since my last post. I've been down a great rabbit hole I was wondering how to achieve precision with my terrible tools, my Dremel and my Swiss army knife. I don't really want to get into 3D printing even though I'm thinking more and more about it, but after discovering that guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe5ZPXFmhf00k4sB8cGMVOA I realized that a CNC would help for the navball parts and for panels later. So I bought a cheap Chinese CNC machine (3018 Pro on Amazon) and went deeper into the rabbit hole to learning about it and upgrading it with an emergency button, some limit switches and a z-probe. Weeks later and a bit wiser, after a lot of design and redesign, I made progress on the outer case of the navball to the point that it's taking shape. Here's the model: The process and the current state: I'm taking a week of staycation next week so I should make a lot more progress hopefully. Oh, and I visited the Air and Space museum in DC and Kennedy Space Center in Florida (and saw STP-2 launch and land \o/)

A bit of progress tonight: both motors are screwed on the plate and it fits in the 100mm ball. Next, I will make the mount to hold the axle properly, something like this:

Ha thank you for this advice, I didn't realize but it makes sense. For the same reason, I'm happy with cutting in balsa wood with a hobby knife, but when I have to do a shape in plywood with a dremel and a drill bit, it's another story... Good to know as well, so far, my CAD design can be improved on this side. As I'm making progress, I'm understanding better what doesn't work between the theory of a CAD program and the reality of my fat fingers and poor tooling. I think I'll keep prototyping and maybe replace parts as I go. I could see a working prototype with wood and protoboard evolving to manufactured PCB to replace the main board + 3d printed parts like my new bearing mount for easily reproducibility by the community. Here's the progress I made yesterday: It spins, sort of... (Also let me know if I should give fewer updates or start my own thread)

but you're talking about CF vs PCB, right? I may go the PCB route indeed, what you're saying makes complete sense. I was talking about prototyping PCB where I have to add wiring and cut (I have this https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B074X2GDH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) vs designing one in kicad and ordering it as your saying. My worry on this is that I'm so new to it that I may have to order 5 times before getting it right, but at the same time, needing precise cutting and alignment, they may do a better job if my design is right. Yesterday, I started a prototype with balsa wood, and I already have the center axle not aligned because the two bearings aren't :p I have a lot too learn

and for this, it's to save the weight/inertia of the wires and make it neater but I'll see how it runs once I have the prototype, that may be fine.

I considered it at some point, I forgot why I stopped and bought a piece of carbon fiber. It's not excluded though. Everything is still on breadboards for now and I'm trying to build that 1st prototype with balsa wood and prototyping PCB. From there, I could indeed make one big PCB or carbon fiber plus smaller boards as I'm thinking now. I think I'm trying to break it down into small components so I can fail small at every step :p

I've made a bit of progress on my navball and it looks like it fits in 100mm. I couldn't find a simple way to arrange the motor with the bevel gears I have so I flipped it. The design is simpler and I may balance the weight by drilling holes in all the unused space. Next step is drilling the main board and see how I'll make all the small pieces (I'll try wood and shaping/milling epoxy). I haven't planned yet where I'll attach the electronics, but it shouldn't be the hardest part.

I've given up on milling/3d printing. I think I can achieve it without that. The only thing I may have to order is a custom PCB for the circuit inside, but I'll see after putting a prototype board inside. If it works that way, then I may even skip the PCB part. I still have hope it will fit, I've been sloppy on my measures since I started drilling and eyeballing. I'll try to make progress this weekend and will report But I agree, I'll consider 120 mm if it ends up being impossible

Here's an early design when I was thinking of sending a cad file to mill a piece of aluminium or 3d print it: https://imgur.com/a/OcbRLRd I picked the motors based on torque, size and rough calculation of the moment of inertia of the whole thing, which led me to those single shaft ones. Also, since there are two, it will more balanced. Right now, I'm trying to fit the second one with the beveled gears withing that 100mm space, it's quite challenging, especially considering that I'm new to the DIY world and that I don't have many tools. Checking the torque will mostly be seeing how I can play with the rate of acceleration I think. I first want to see if the whole things moves once assembled, and then at what speed.

I made some progress on my navball. I have the 3 motors wired. Even though my code is not correct, it reacts to KSP. I will rewrite the code once the hardware is assembled. At least, I got a proof of concept that I can connect the inner part of the ball with 6 wires (it seems that it's possible to do with less, but it's beyond my skills at the moment): 2 motors and 2 photointerrupters for calibration Now I'm working on how to assemble the hardware together and checking that there's enough torque. It's getting real

Hi everyone, I've started working on my own simpit and I'm starting with some hard stuff: the navball (so if that succeeds, I'll be confident that I can build an entire spaceship ) I'm waiting to get further into it to start my own thread but so far, I've managed to control a stepper that indicates the heading (or roll/yaw) with 4 or 2 pins. I'm a software engineer, so programming is the easy part, electronics and hardware are more challenging at this point. I was wondering if @Pvt. KASA had made any progress since his/her last post or if there was another well advanced navball project.

Thanks so much! Now let's work on my first cinematic.