Black and White Nav Ball and User Selctable Icons (For Colour Blind Players)

[NeoMorph]

I noticed that the colour blind thread has vanished and don't want it to be forgotten. As one of the many male players who suffer from the common red-green colour blindness I have to speak out.

One thing that NASA learned was that the black and white 8-Ball was better than colour versions for quickly picking up the attitude of the craft so it makes sense for KSC to include it too (hint hint).

Oh yeah, and trying to spot the purple icon on the orange background is next to impossible for me. It's like the icon merges into the background. It would be nice if we could select the colour of the icons as not everyone has the same colour perception. There are also many variations of colour blindness as well.

Edit: Oops... I meant the Pink icon... Still can't see the darned thing lol.

Edited July 20, 2013 by NeoMorph

[Tw1]

I'm pretty sure it's purple, (I'm non-colour blind..)

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

Raises hand, i too am colour-blind, i'm red/brown, blue/purple and green/yellow, the weird thing is i can tell you what all those colours are accurately but only if they are placed next to each other, i must be using shade to differentiate.

Black and white nav-ball gets a thumbs up from me.

[astropapi1]

Maybe make it toggleable? +1 for me.

[Matt56]

You're saying it's hard to see the Target Indicator when it's in the half of the nav ball that points towards the ground?

[NovaSilisko]

You're saying it's hard to see the Target Indicator when it's in the half of the nav ball that points towards the ground?

Color blindness can manifest itself in many forms.

[Dunbaratu]

You're saying it's hard to see the Target Indicator when it's in the half of the nav ball that points towards the ground?

I think that was what was meant by "orange". For most of us, it looks brown but maybe for someone with color vision problems it might look more orange. I assume it was meant as "the color of the ground on the ball".

[Nebula]

It would be nice to have an option to select for colour blind people, I support this

[Whirligig Girl]

It is currently orange/blue

[DannySwish]

I'm not even color blind and I think a black and white NavBall would look nicer, anyway. Plus, the white-on-black and black-on-white markings would be way easier to read for me, due to my astigmatism.

[NeoMorph]

The various indicators on the Apollo Nav ball are pretty darn easy to read...

The outer indicator arrows (starting from top) are Roll Rate, Pitch Rate, Yaw Rate and the yellow indicators starting from the top are Roll Error (ie from flight path), Pitch Error and Yaw Error. Simple eh wot?

I'm also beginning to think the sphere is actually black and light grey rather than white.

[Tw1]

It isn't a pure white on my screen either. Pure whites aren't always easy on the eyes.

[Matt56]

I see no problem with a black and white navball, and if it helps some people see better thats a plus.

[dazhat]

Excellent idea. Can't be that hard to implement.

[NeoMorph]

You should see the insides of the thing. Mind blowing tbh. I still can't figure out how they manage to have the ball rotate 360 degrees in both directions.

[gsuberland]

You should see the insides of the thing. Mind blowing tbh. I still can't figure out how they manage to have the ball rotate 360 degrees in both directions.

There are two stepper motors (left and top) that drive wheels which are pressed against the ball. On each side of the device there are brackets containing small ball bearings that hold it in place, while allowing for complete freedom of movement. Think of it like the old mechanical mice, except the wheels turn the ball instead of the ball turning the wheel.

You could quite easily build something like this with an Arduino, some lego, and a couple of cheap stepper motors.

[Scoundrel]

I too would really, really like this as it not only helps those who have difficulty using the essential bit of instrumentation needed to enjoy the game, but it looks cool too.

You should see the insides of the thing. Mind blowing tbh. I still can't figure out how they manage to have the ball rotate 360 degrees in both directions.

Oh. Oh no. No no no. See, the reason you can't figure it out is because you killed it. Yeah... see, you let all the smoke out, and the smoke is what allows it to do that. With the smoke gone, it's just a ball in a metal thing with lots of wires and nurnies and greebles. Sorry... you'll have to get a new one, and maybe then you'll discover the secret to making the ball rotate (which it does in 3 directions, not two, but Shhhhh, it's a secret!)

[Matt56]

It probably works similar to the old ball-style mouse. Except that instead of sensors, the little rolling pins inside are motors. Sorry to ruin the magic...

[leopardenthusiast]

Oh. Oh no. No no no. See, the reason you can't figure it out is because you killed it. Yeah... see, you let all the smoke out, and the smoke is what allows it to do that. With the smoke gone, it's just a ball in a metal thing with lots of wires and nurnies and greebles. Sorry... you'll have to get a new one, and maybe then you'll discover the secret to making the ball rotate (which it does in 3 directions, not two, but Shhhhh, it's a secret!)

What he REALLY needs to do is buy a smokeless navball and open that up. They're much simpler.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

It looks like that ball has a track that the first gyro connection runs along, that connection is a pivot which allows rotation, and the second gyro is the casing itself. That also means that if the track were ever in-line with the second gyros axis they would get locked together, as mentioned in another thread.

[NeoMorph]

The gyros are held in a separate unit... What I don't understand is how they manage to read the attitude of the ball is what I meant (sorry for being unclear guys).

This is the gyro unit...

... which is a bit big to fit in such a tiny ball.

[NeoMorph]

There are two stepper motors (left and top) that drive wheels which are pressed against the ball. On each side of the device there are brackets containing small ball bearings that hold it in place, while allowing for complete freedom of movement. Think of it like the old mechanical mice, except the wheels turn the ball instead of the ball turning the wheel.

You could quite easily build something like this with an Arduino, some lego, and a couple of cheap stepper motors.

I've got the rates and error needles working fine. The problem I would have with the ball itself is due to reading the exact alignment of the thing. The way you would have to do it is have a magnetic systems that reads the three variables, Pitch, Roll and Yaw, and I have no idea how I would go about that at present. The Roll rate and error needles are simplicity itself. Oh and once you figure out how to read the ball you also have to have it either engraved or printed. Looks like the Apollo version was engraved and painted.

[Yourself]

I've got the rates and error needles working fine. The problem I would have with the ball itself is due to reading the exact alignment of the thing. The way you would have to do it is have a magnetic systems that reads the three variables, Pitch, Roll and Yaw, and I have no idea how I would go about that at present. The Roll rate and error needles are simplicity itself. Oh and once you figure out how to read the ball you also have to have it either engraved or printed. Looks like the Apollo version was engraved and painted.

Pitch, roll, and yaw relative to what? I imagine that it was probably possible for the astronauts to set the orientation reference to any orientation they wanted, so the Apollo navball probably didn't have to orient itself with anything specific at all.

[NeoMorph]

In the real apollo the Pitch Roll and Yaw would be relative to the gyros alignment. In KSP they would have to be relative to the attitude of the spacecraft in the sim. Simple as that.

If the ball wasn't locked to the gyros it would be a meaningless instrument because the gyros are locked to the fixed solar system plane. That way, the astronauts will know the attitude of the spaceship without having to take numerous time wasting star sightings which they had to do whenever they got into a gimbal lock situation.

[squeaky024]

I'm not color blind but I still support this because it looks cool