Kerbal space Controler without programming skill

[REMD]

How I build Kerbal space Controler without programming skill.

byREMD

Well, all started when I saw these cool looking, custom, Kerbal controllers.  I want one of these, I said myself and opened the first book about Arduino programming..... and close it a few minutes after...

I don't want to say Arduino is bad .... it is amazing and I will do my next controller with it. (I'm actually already working on it.) But back then, I wanted to start working on controller soon as possible, so I went a different way.

By that time I moved into "large city" with my girl and there was one problem, I was used to working on larger projects in my parents' garage. Well, I was desperate to make something fun and grinding steel bars inside small flat was not the right way. So my girl gives me a gift. Soldering station. That day I started working on my controller.

Common, scrap that story and say about the project, RIGHT?

Well, how do you make a custom keyboard without programming skill? FROM ANOTHER KEYBOARD.

So, I disassembled keyboard I had to put away because it was too noisy for my girlfriend.
The target was to map keyboards membrane and solder keys on new locations to the panel. Easy. For someone who does not have any soldering skill at all. I destroyed that keyboard in the process of soldering.

Spoiler

Some soldering , this time with flux.

1

NOBODY TELL ME I NEED SOLDERING FLUX FOR THAT.
I learned hard way when I was googling why my soldering suck. By now I should point out new name of project "Kerbal space Controler without programming and soldering skill". Guys and girls, if you doing something you don't understand and "frak" for the first time without letting other people help you. Well, what did you expect? I should listen to my older brother. And learn before doing something. But no...  when I was young we were both building each, the same paper model. While he was in the middle of the process of building his model I was about to set on fire my own because I didn't put inside support structure. It was in manual... and that I didn't read. And even later when I learned how to read I dint read manuals. I learned all by trial and error. And to be honest it was fun, but it sucks at the same time.

Back to project from another flashback to justify this stupid thing I made

With soldering flux, I was able to connect cables with keyboard controller board. So next thing I needed was to decode membrane.

I scan each layer and color each connection with different color. Everything should work, but when I connected cables that should write "W", all I got was a different letter. Guess what ... I used keyboard controller board for few last days upside down. At last, I noticed it when testing multiple key connections and found a hint that things are mirrored.

Pic:

Spoiler

Top and bottom layer of membrane. Each key have one or more (spacebar) connection combination.

 

OK, simple keys are easy. Like put the key that will be turning RCS on and off for key "R". Easy .. but how about speed? I was unable to use a potentiometer for speed control. So, I put four keys on top of each other. On the bottom shut down the engine, other two was throttle up and down and key on top was "maximum power". Ok, that suck but I was not able to find anything better.

Next one. How do you make a key that needs "shift" to be pushed at the same time, when panel key has only two connections? Pushing two keys at the same time wasn't fun so I bought small lever switch.

If you switch it you actually pressing "shift" down. It is fun to switch lever and push button, then switch lever back. I was satisfied there.

Pic:

Spoiler

Lovely lever switch as Shift key.

One last thing was needed to be solved. How do I make joystick? Normal ones use a potentiometer. That was something I cant use...

WRONG
I disassemble old joystick, with the game port, I cannot use anyway and extract rotary potentiometer. Then I replace it with the stereo potentiometer. Each resistor track for each key. "W" and "S" for one axis and "A" and "D" for other. I had to cut resistor track exactly in the place where I wanted to joystick start "writing" right key.

In the end, it is kind of key stick :D.

Pic:

Spoiler

Old core of joystick with new stereo potentiometers.

Restive track from stereo potentiometer. You can notice black layer on track where joystick stay innactive.

Inside joystick. All keys were reconected same way like on keaboard.

So, I put it all together and here is the result.

Is it Good?
YES, but the key stick is sometimes hard to control. Good for RCS control, bad for planes.
Was it fun building it?
YES.
Do I use it?
NO. I'm looking forward to another one I'm working on with Arduino.

 

More pictures:

Spoiler

Back side of control panel.

Test.

Joystick test with right things to watch

Connection mess.

 

 

[REMD]

Post reserved for future updates.

[hms_warrior]

pretty cool

[Captain_Hair]

Very nice!   I think you've got a great end product there. Nice and simple, plug and play, uses default keys so no configuring, looks cool and all in a neat and tidy with a nice form factor. I like it.

 

Well done on completing it and good luck with your future progress with arduino stuff. Arduino coding really isn't as daunting as it first seems. My advice would be to just start simple, try out alot of the simpler examples to get experience under your belt. Use other people's code/examples and tweak it to suit your own needs.

I'd reccomend, if you do go the arduino route, of picking up a "32u4" board. 32u4 is the name of the chip on arduino Leonardo and Pro Micro boards, this chip includes native usb HID built into it, so all you have to do is "keyboard.press X" in the code for keyboard  buttons.

[Freshmeat]

Gratulations on your build. I use a keyboard circuit as part of my controller as well, and being able to solder those 1.27 mm pads is a serious challenge. I like the aesthetics of your controller, it looks very much to the point. You are not the only one who flipped his design, one controller maker even managed to get inverted lines on his custom made PCB's.

Should you decide to go serious on the Arduino route, I can say I knew nothing of microcontrollers when I first started out, but people around here are extremely helpful. Just ask around, and you will get an answer (granted, sometimes the answer is "I have no idea", but you still get an answer ). While good things can be said about native HID, make sure you get a 5 V board instead of a 3.3V, as most peripherals are 5 V. There are several plugins that allows communication through serial, going from quite straightforward to really advanced.

Good luck on your endeavor.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Freshmeat