KSP hardware Mods

[Peter KG6LSE]

One catch . unless you emulate the keyboard with a micontroller . many keyboard chip guts like to see a full key stroke .

a normal E stop is a latching button . a normal mushroom with momentary contacts may be better off.( or taker apart the button part and some how mod the latching part ).

[Bobnova]

Yeah, the used units I have access to are all latching, if you estop a CNC router the last thing you want is for it to decide the estop is over. I'd be running a USB emulator/bitbang/whatever-you-want-to-call-it on a attiny85 and tell it to pretend it's a keyboard, so the MCU can straighten it out. I have a bunch of those and no spare USB keyboards

That said, some estops the latch is fairly easy to get to, or I bet a decently sized capacitor inline with it could get the momentary effect.

[Levelord]

SNACKS! Don't forget the snacks!

[Peter KG6LSE]

I am at 90% done ...... I need to find my Longgg VGA cable and I need to find a USB hub .

the screen I have is a ELO touchscreen ! so I am hoping I will not need a mouse But if I do I have a Glove rated trackpad I can put some where

I may use a trackball on the right as a the cam view .

I do need to fashion up a Foot rest .

Again the next step is to wire it up !

Peter D

[Ignamious]

I'm currently working on a cockpit for the DCS A-10C Game. it can also be used for Flight sims and space sims. I've build my CNC just trying to get it a bit more stable. I've got 1/4 of the Panels in G-Code already, and i have the cockpit ready to cut up as well. I've had a few different iterations of HID code programed onto so ATMEL chips so i can make the joysticks / buttons. I've sourced many of the switches and buttons. and have even designed the backlighting for the panels. (oddly enough, the way i designed my panel backlighting is the same as the USAF does for it's panels! only i'm using Dual Color red/green LEDS's and a clear acrylic instead of white incandescence and a green acrylic. Now if only KSP had support for my Warthog joystick's Dual Throttle.

[Peter KG6LSE]

OK so I got the VGA all done and the USB .....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterthethinker/11963459563/

Link to the Video of the Sim .

I declare this V 1.0

Edited January 15, 2014 by Peter KG6LSE

[Javster]

What I want to do is get a large, red button, wire it up with a USB keyboard (like you did), and use it as an abort button!

Ooh! And another thing, I want to see if I can get a custom keyboard/make one with all the KSP controls.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Javster

[Javster]

First thing I noticed: You stole my joystick (that I never use...)! I have an almost identical one that I got years ago. Very cool project though.

I have the same too. Suggested by members of this forum.

[LowOrbit]

Very cool!! If people need game controller boards or button boxes head over to http://www.derekspearedesigns.com/. I've purchased several products from him and he is excellent!!!

[Peter KG6LSE]

Looks VERY spendy .

As soon as I have some free time Ill publish my method to gut these controllers .

Its not very hard If you are good at following traces .

Edited January 13, 2014 by Peter KG6LSE

[spectrhz]

Ooh! This is a right fantastic project! I've wanted to build something like this for flight Sims etc, love the seat, perfect for the mk1 feel. By chance do you use the Eevblog forums? I think your project would be well suited over there

[Peter KG6LSE]

I dont . I use my own website for official publishing of things .

http://peterthethinker.com/

[spectrhz]

Awesome projects! A fellow coiler and ham ;P Do you plan on ever mechanizing the seat for IVA view? Like pulling back on the stick would lift your feet up for example? Then in could be used for many other Sims as well

[Peter KG6LSE]

You mean add motion . Not really .

I can tilt the whole works forward and make it like a Jet fighter Sim with ease tho . i just shove some pipe on the handles under the seat .

[Rowsdower]

That's a really cool setup. I feel like you're a step away from making some sort of hybrid exercise machine. The faster you pedal or push, the better your velocity - or something like that.

[Javster]

Does anyone know where to get cheap usb buttons?

[OptimumAmoeba]

You've made it on to the KSP Facebook page.

[Peter KG6LSE]

Oh boy.... I don't use FB . funny, some of the comments are "interesting" . ..

for the love of sputnik .. over 5000 views ... Shesh I should have not done such a sad and low quality video .

Looks like some folks on FB have never seen a WORK IN PROGRESS .....

I have the time . Ill just put up a real video . Ill have to use Vimio as flicker is not happy with long stuff .

Edited January 15, 2014 by Peter KG6LSE

[OptimumAmoeba]

Maybe tidy up your room a bit next time as well.

Not having a go I'm just as bad. Ask my Mrs.

[Peter KG6LSE]

OK here is the new control box .....

The red cover one is now abort. the silver is staging and the open push button is rocket shutdown.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterthethinker/11963459563/

[MajorThomas]

Here we go, I saw this kickstarter project, for USB buttons, sliders and dials connected modularly, and thought it might be useful to you:

http://www.palettegear.com/

[Peter KG6LSE]

OK so Iadded a trackball to make the in flight cam happy

I have also added the ALCOR mod and with a glass cockpit its looking Sweet . and I ca use the Touchscreen to press the hotkeys on the MFDs.

[ap0r]

Any progress on this?

[richfiles]

What I want to do is get a large, red button, wire it up with a USB keyboard (like you did), and use it as an abort button!

You mean like this?

And this (I didn't have a proper green filter then, but I do now... Pic might just get randomly replaced at some point, so if it looks "moar gooder", I probably reuploaded it!)

And then there's the throttle lever I plan to use...

... I have more of those buttons than I will ever know what to do with! Part of me wants to use that actual video effects unit AS my control module. It'd obviously have to get major panels changed out, but what's really cool, Is if you give a quarter twist to two large screws (which could be changed with knobs), the panel springs up and open like a car hood... If I flipped the panel, and then mounted a pair of restrictor chains or bars to keep it from opening ALL the way, and I mount it on heavy duty slides under my computer desk, I could literally slide it out, and then pop the panel up so it's angled to meet the bottom edge of my monitors!

It's even already a similar width, and the same depth as my keyboard/mouse drawer. I could mount the drawer to the bottom of it, and it'd only drop my desk space about an inch to an inch and a half, or I could work on a swing around drawer for my keyboard and mouse...

Edited April 7, 2015 by richfiles

[Rade Krman]

I'm not yet ready to get into soldiering, Arduinos and things, but I do have two joysticks. Last night I did a proof of concept and now I think I'm ready to print custom stickers on them

It's a bit annoying that whenever I change some mod or skin, KSP starts rejecting the .cfg file and I have to rebind both joysticks again and then start a game to test if all the directions are okay and then quit the game to re-bind anything that went wrong. But okay, as long as everything works

I'm also looking around for useful and easily modmodifiable telemachus programs and web pages to put on the second monitor. And possibly to put in an old graphics adapter and plug in an old miniature black&white monitor for some extra text only info

One thing I got from all this - it's a completely different playing experience when you have clumsy big keys to press and two joysticks to steer then the boring mouse&keyboard. Yes, it's a lot harder with joystick, but it's not like I'm playing a moba