[WIP] KSP Display (Physical Display) *Update 9-23-13*

[ChaseHQ]

KSP Display (Physical Display)

**Update** 9/23/2013

The Display Boards are 103.81x41.91 mm, The actual 7 Segment LED's come off the base of that board are 8mm in depth and 25x19.05mm per 2 LED's (They are in packages of 2 so a board with 8 LEDs it's 25mm in width * 4), the Actual Control board is 76.45x76.45 mm. The individual 6 analog displays are 64x56mm and need 57mm of clearance in depth.

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After lurking the forums for quite some time now, I've seen a number of posts of people who were looking to have a physical display (LED's, Analog Meters, etc...) for KSP. I thought it would be cool to put it all in a faux looking Apollo computer Enclosure. So without further ado I started the KSP Display.

The Video explains it all but until you watch, here is just some statistics of it's hardware capabilities thus far.

• Up to 64 7 Segment LED Displays
  
• Up to 6 Analog Displays
  
• Programmable Master Computer Alarm With Silencer Switch
  
• Runs all off USB
  

This is a very very very Early development of this, as I mention in the video the USB Drivers I created are only for Windows at the moment, but it's an extremely easy port to Mac & Linux. I'm putting this early dev out there because I want to see how much interest there is in the community if I should continue to invest time and money into developing it. The ultimate goal is to create a low cost Physical KSP Display device that anyone can have and use. Please respond with thoughts - additions - and other things you wish to see from KSP in a physical manner. And no, im sorry, im not going to Do the NavBall (Although I have a very good idea on how to), the cost of developing a physical NavBall is outside of the budget of the project.

But please let me know if this is something the community is interested in, as well as obtaining!

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**Update** 9/5/2013

The mainboard PCB's came in and are assembled, here is what they look like all soldered up!

The Main LED Display Boards went Out for Printing today, here are the Fab pic's!

Changes

• I changed the 7 Segment LED's to all Bright Green LED's (Looks more Apolloish and better)
  
• I've created custom inlays for each of the 6 Analog Displays
  

I'm Still looking for anyone in the community who can do Enclosure Fabrications - I Will send them a Prototype if they can help me out in this area!

Once the Display Board's come in I will post a Video with a fully assembled KSP Display

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**Update** 8/20/2013

The PCB's went to print today! Here is one of the main boards! - The first print is still an early alpha - But here is what it has -

• 6 Analog Displays (Currently Electricity, Liquid Oxygen, Liquid Fuel, Mono Propellent, Solid Fuel & Atmospheric Density)
  
• 5 Digital LED Displays (Radar Altimeter, Current Velocity, Apoapsis (GREEN), Periapsis (GREEN), Current Altitude)
  
• 1 Master Alarm- Programmable Master alarm Condition
  
• Customizable Plugin
  
• Can change any display into another resource or LED Display into another reading
  

Here is a look at the PCB Main Board that went to print -

PCB - TOP

PCB - BOTTOM

-- I Do need help with an enclosure, If anyone is decent with Fabrication skills if I can see some of your work, maybe I can ship one out to you to develop an enclosure for it. We'd need to talk. Thanks!

Later this week (Perhaps today if I can get around to it) I will upload another video with all the displays.

Edited September 24, 2013 by ChaseHQ

[David156]

This is awesome! I'm definetly interessted I would love to buy one when its finished! Do you have any plans for the aesthetics of it?

[ChaseHQ]

Yes, I want to put it in an enclosure mimicking that of the AGC from the Apollo Missions.

[aftokinito]

This is one of the most epic things I've seen for KSP.

I would pay up to $80 for a KSP dashboard and up to $120 for a dashboard with navball.

As for the navball, I see two "inexpensive" solutions:

1) A small flat LCD or LED screen that shows a navball graph

2) A semispherical light bulb like enclosure and a small projector inside that projects the navball on the semisphere (WARNING! A lot of mathemagical skills needed for this sorcery)

Edited August 11, 2013 by aftokinito

[ChaseHQ]

Well I have an idea for the NavBall, depending on the response I get it may motivate me to do a higher quality model with a NavBall, Next Friday I will post a video with 6 Analog Displays for all resource types.

[itsreallyreallytrue]

Awesome, were you thinking about adding any controls as well? Stage separation, sas on/off, rcs translation, etc. Also what microcontroller are you using here, Arduino?

[bigdad84]

This has so much potential!

[ChaseHQ]

Thanks, the positive feedback gives me more motivation to keep moving this forward. The main goal is it for it to become a completely purchasable item.

[shadowsutekh]

Will you have anything for atmospheric pressure?

[ChaseHQ]

Will you have anything for atmospheric pressure?

Yes, an analog display.

[dunz]

Nice looking. You just made me realize I need to put some analouge displays and seven segments on to my joystick project(no pictures yet, thread will be up as soon as I've got something more interesting to show).

Considered LCDs instead of seven segments? They're not as nice looking but they're more flexible and require less pins.

[Nuke]

look at all those chips, i did this with 3:

[ChaseHQ]

look at all those chips, i did this with 3:

USB control, PWM and multiplexing, I only use one chip per 8 7 SegLED

[David156]

Hey, if money is an issue, why dont you set up a small kickstarter campaign? I am sure a lot of people would like to help you

[Capt.Joseph Kerbertson]

That is amazing.

[dunz]

Hey, if money is an issue, why dont you set up a small kickstarter campaign? I am sure a lot of people would like to help you

I think it's way too early to do a kickstarter, a prototype that isn't on breadboard is probably recommended first

[dunz]

USB control, PWM and multiplexing, I only use one chip per 8 7 SegLED

That schematic image is so damn small, can't read out which chips you're using. It looks like 74HC595s, am I right?

[ChaseHQ]

That schematic image is so damn small, can't read out which chips you're using. It looks like 74HC595s, am I right?

Not shifting 74HCT138's for Bank Switching They are Time division multiplexed, allows me to basically be freely expandable and with 2 cycles I get to the 7SegLED instead of bit shifting bytes along.

[dunz]

Reading the datasheet now, looks really interesting. Might have to buy some of those for my joystick/controller thingamagig

Never heard of bank switching before, yay something new to learn about \o/

Love the project by the way, it's given me some great ideas for my build as well

[ChaseHQ]

Reading the datasheet now, looks really interesting. Might have to buy some of those for my joystick/controller thingamagig

Never heard of bank switching before, yay something new to learn about \o/

Love the project by the way, it's given me some great ideas for my build as well

Yup both the 138's and 238's are chip of choice if you have at least 3 gpio to spare, if you have 6 you can bank switch to 64 locations in 2 cycles.

[Nuke]

Hey, if money is an issue, why dont you set up a small kickstarter campaign? I am sure a lot of people would like to help you

i prefer to use parts found by the side of the road. i wonder where i picked up that habit. im also the type that doesn't like kickstarter. it goes against my inner redneck engineer.

I think it's way too early to do a kickstarter, a prototype that isn't on breadboard is probably recommended first

its only on the breadboard for 2 reasons, to make it stand up for the photo, and to provide power. its in test mode waiting for an i2c master to tell it what to do with itself. the board was etched with the toner transfer method, using the peroxide/vinegar/salt cocktail (it works but is not very fast). the things ready to be panel mounted, it would work with a hub board that provides a usb interface, switch mode supply, and would essentially be an i2c/spi hub for multiple devices (i haven't designed this yet).

That schematic image is so damn small, can't read out which chips you're using. It looks like 74HC595s, am I right?

74hc595, 74hc238 (active high, as opposed to the 138), and an attiny2313 runs the show. the mosfets are 2n7000, and i only used them because they were lying around, and would drive with enough juice to power a fully lit display. there is probibly a mux chip that has the drivers built in, im sure ive seen them before, just not in my parts heap.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Nuke

[NeoMorph]

This is one of the most epic things I've seen for KSP.

I would pay up to $80 for a KSP dashboard and up to $120 for a dashboard with navball.

As for the navball, I see two "inexpensive" solutions:

1) A small flat LCD or LED screen that shows a navball graph

2) A semispherical light bulb like enclosure and a small projector inside that projects the navball on the semisphere (WARNING! A lot of mathemagical skills needed for this sorcery)

You do realise how expensive the original nav balls cost don't you? Even a 2 axis aircraft ADI isn't cheap.

Once I finish my prototype (yeah, it's close now) I'll be posting the full plans on how to make your own. Same goes for the whole system including meters, DSKY etc. Basically it will have everything that will be needed to run the craft from a hardware point of view rather than an third person method. Learning how to do the various functions has been a lot of fun and many hours trawling the net to find the various secrets of Apollo.

Edited August 12, 2013 by NeoMorph

[NeoMorph]

KSP Display (Physical Display)

Oh yeah... one bit of advice (from someone who has got to grips with ratsnest circuits in the past)... USE RIBBON CABLE lol. It makes prototyping a LOT easier. Then again it is prototyping so you should only need to do it once.

The chips I use to make my 7Seg displays are the Max7219 series. You can daisy chain a LOT of them. and they interface nicely with Arduino boards and are what I am going to be using for my DSKY. I've got that prototyped out but got bitten by getting the Nav Ball beat... and yeah, I finally beat the sucker (with a little help lot of help from Telemachus Rich). I did find out recently that I had possibly got the scaling of the ball wrong though. Got some new test balls in the post.

Here are my specs... (in my blog).

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entry.php/552-KSP-Hardware-Project-Specification

Maybe will give you a few ideas, Chase. The more people making hardware mods the better imho. This game deserves it like the modding community took to Flight Simulator.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Rich

[ChaseHQ]

**Update** 8/20/2013

The PCB's went to print today! Here is one of the main boards! - The first print is still an early alpha - But here is what it has -

• 6 Analog Displays (Currently Electricity, Liquid Oxygen, Liquid Fuel, Mono Propellent, Solid Fuel & Atmospheric Density)
  
• 5 Digital LED Displays (Radar Altimeter, Current Velocity, Apoapsis (GREEN), Periapsis (GREEN), Current Altitude)
  
• 1 Master Alarm- Programmable Master alarm Condition
  
• Customizable Plugin
  
• Can change any display into another resource or LED Display into another reading
  

Here is a look at the PCB Main Board that went to print -

PCB - TOP

PCB - BOTTOM

-- I Do need help with an enclosure, If anyone is decent with Fabrication skills if I can see some of your work, maybe I can ship one out to you to develop an enclosure for it. We'd need to talk. Thanks!

Later this week (Perhaps today if I can get around to it) I will upload another video with all the displays.

[MrPrimeMinister]

This looks amazing. Quick question: how do you program the conditions for the master alarm? Is it an in-game UI, something in the VAB, or a config file somewhere? I love the look of the Apollo guidance computer and if you manage to replicate that it'll be amazing.