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Custom hardware / simpit repository. For people who take KSP a little too far.


Mulbin

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On 3/20/2018 at 4:56 PM, richfiles said:

Honestly, I'm all for keeping this thing goin' forever! :wink:
I like the massive repository of information, and I still trust that Mulbin isn't going to abandon this. He just gets busy.

Might I suggest simply offering to pre-format the updates, and simply private message them over to Mulbin for a good old copy/paste into the main post? Just a thought.

yeah - taht's still an option. I've PM's Mulbin the query and will wait until he resurfaces to do anything. Most people are fine with a new thread, but if the OP in this one was updated, I'm sure people would also fine that fine too.

I'll see if I can come up with some time this weekend to do a preformatted post for the OP for him to post. I'd have to do it anyway if I started a new thread so it's the same for me regardless.

PM me any specifics you'd want to see in the OP of a hardware thread and I'll try to incorporate the ideas for Mulbin to post.

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6 hours ago, wile1411 said:

yeah - taht's still an option. I've PM's Mulbin the query and will wait until he resurfaces to do anything. Most people are fine with a new thread, but if the OP in this one was updated, I'm sure people would also fine that fine too.

I'll see if I can come up with some time this weekend to do a preformatted post for the OP for him to post. I'd have to do it anyway if I started a new thread so it's the same for me regardless.

PM me any specifics you'd want to see in the OP of a hardware thread and I'll try to incorporate the ideas for Mulbin to post.

Make Richfiles the new operator (if he is fine with it) as he is here most often.

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OK - new example of OP table update in my previous post.

Contains a lot of new link and I've added pics to the links to help identify the projects.

Lastly - there is a project I remember that used an ikea hack of a drawer handle, nail/screw and a thumb controller to make a RCS joystick. I can't find the link to that project / can't remember if it was part of a project that I already added. If anyone knows of it, PM me the link and I'll add that too.

Found it and saw it is already on list.

Edited by wile1411
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Just got the notification about this thread a moment ago.

My PC decided not to work the day Making History was released, and I've only been able to get online now.
I really want to finish my control panel, but now that I'm not studying I don't have the motivation to do hobby electronics.

My old panel had an accident, so I'll need to start from scratch, but also scale down to bare minimum.
Just a couple of readouts for Altimeter, Apo and Peri and maybe fuel.

This will be the housing.
ogSphHl_ebrc2dNKnCIAgbrFm5pHqUlrznHo2u0k

 

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On ‎4‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 12:49 PM, KerBlitz Kerman said:

It doesn't really need to add that.

maybe lock this one and create a one.

It was suggested and most people agreed on a new thread. But the original OP is still active and pops in every now and then. Unless the thread gets abandoned, or the OP prefers to lock this thread, I'd rather not rip it away from the original author with posting a competing thread.

Any new thread would really just copy posts from this thread anyway with an updated OP summarising what had previously been posted - not adding much that's new. @Mulbin was already kind enough to originally collate the data and post the thread in the first place. As it's not really a time sensitive issue / subject, I see no harm in having patience and waiting for a response to my email to him. 

In the meantime there is this post I've pull together to act as a stop gap while the OP is out of date. I mainly did it as a personal list so I can keep track of what projects I regularly use as a reference while I working on my own controller. I posted it here as I figured it'll be a useful list for other people as well - It also shows projects from sites outside of KSP that might not be as well known as those on the current OP.  Yes it would be good to update the OP, but that doesn't change the matter of the content within this thread still being useful.

If I get time, I'd like to do some additional investigation on each project and update the table again. I'd like to add a quick reference to add info like;  type (Cockpit / consolse / controller), what MCU(s) it's running on (eg Tennsy / Arduino / Raspberry) as well as maybe adding a little detail on what software is in use (eg KSP SerialIO / Telemachus / kRPC / etc...). That way I can look at specific past projects to see what bit's I might want to use in my own design decisions.

Edited by wile1411
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7 hours ago, KerBlitz Kerman said:

Does anyone know what to use for 6 to 170 volts if I want to drive a nixie in12 of a 74HC595?

 

Yowzah! Nixies sound like an awesome idea for output. What info were you intending to display on them?

Unfortunately I'm unable to help with the power requirements. I'm still getting my hooks into segmented LED displays. Good luck with your investigations.

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/8/2018 at 12:50 PM, KerBlitz Kerman said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Attitude-Gyro/162986382208?hash=item25f2bed380:g:R2EAAOSwB1JayOr8&vxp=mtr

Looks to be 3 axis AI (Attitude Indicator) for under a hundred USD!

No, that's a 2 axis attitude indicator. The way you can tell is that it only rolls relative to the horizon, and only has linear graduation marks on one axis for pitch. There's no vertical marking to indicate yaw. Sorry. Internally, these are more like a donut than a ball, and if you're particularly unlucky, they are sometimes merely a mechanical gyroscope driven by either a vacuum driven motor or an electric motor... so those particular models are not even servo controlled. They literally are just a free spinning gyroscope behind glass. A single motor spins the gyro, then you have to move the whole unit relative, and the donut stays stationary, showing your relative attitude. It's rarer to find servo driven models that use an external gyroscope, but they do exist. They tend to be more expensive, but still won't give you a third axis for yaw.

You will find a LOT of 2 axis internal gyroscope driven Attitude Indicators on ebay for sub $200 prices.

ADI1.jpg

Most planes use a separate instrument called a heading Indicator to convey yaw, as it relates to the desired heading.

220px-C172_heading_indicator.jpg

The style Attitude Indicator you need for a space capsule instrument panel should have three axes, and will have markings that form either a connected or an unconnected grid made up of both horizontal and vertical graduations. They typically look something like mine below, or like some of the alternate styles shown further below.

vjCVgGv.jpg
Mine! :D

Dtc22bs.jpg
Looking at photos, this style is very reminiscent of the Gemini style navball. It had no red "gimbal lock" regions. The particular one shown is actually the same model as mine, but a different year of manufacture and with a different ball pattern.

ap15_fdai_2_600.jpg
Here's an actual NASA navball. Apollo capsules had the red spot to warn the astronauts where the gimbal lock region is. The space shuttle had a four axis gimbal, so it didn't suffer that problem. It's early instrument panel (before the glass cockpit refit) used the same style navball, but it didn't have the red gimbal lock region.

Edited by richfiles
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On 5/14/2018 at 12:15 AM, wile1411 said:

For the curious or those researching past projects, I've stumbled over and added three additional projects ( @REMD @Hebel & @Captain_Hair)  to table of projects

Also update photo for KONPAN MkII ( @mr. engino project)

 

Cheers for adding mine to the table :) And for in general keeping track of them with said table, it's been a very handy resource to have them all in one place.

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On 3/15/2018 at 5:19 PM, wile1411 said:

Hardware Project Links (updated 25-Mar-2018)

--<table of 53 epic builds trimmed for your sanity>--

Fifty Three Projects...
53...
A Five followed by a Three...
00110101 :o
Good gravy, that's a lot of simpits! :confused:

I find it absolutely incredible that so many projects are being developed or have been completed!

Edited by richfiles
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well its been a while but...

On 4/3/2017 at 3:34 PM, Pvt. KASA said:

How does it work at your school that you get money for Projects? I once participated in a competition with my school and I had to pay for the parts myself :/.

There is (was) a STEM club that got funding from a government grant. 

Anyways what actually happened is that I completely lost motivation for my project, even though I had half the parts already bought. Now that its summer and I have plenty of free time that was previously occupied by school stuff, I want to resume building my panel. The problem is that now that school ended, I don't have access to a CNC machine anymore and cutting holes and rectangles with a hand drill is way to imprecise/inaccurate :/

 

(As for me saying I might try to build a navball, I built a z80 computer instead :V That being said, the z80 would be a cool chip to use for a guidance computer, and I have previously considered using a TI-8x calculator (they use z80 CPUs) as a guidance computer.)

Edited by c4ooo
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  • 4 weeks later...

Will be taking pics of the  Apollo 7 cm tomorrow  at our local  museum and videos  with of Skylab button sounds tomorrow plus sr71 training simulator pics and p40 trainer when at our local flight museum tomorrow. Any photo requests of a specific component of those?

Edited by KerBlitz Kerman
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/7/2018 at 6:22 PM, KerBlitz Kerman said:

 

On 3/22/2018 at 5:42 PM, KerBlitz Kerman said:

 

Hi guys, I'm involved with that DSKY project as well as some new and unreleased related projects.  If you have any questions feel free to PM me.  We're really interested in the KSP simpit community and will be introducing more (and more affordable) items in the future.  I'm a big KSP fan myself so this stuff is way fun for me!

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  • 4 weeks later...

We've built some replica Apolla knobs if you'd like to put some on your custom simpits!  Dimensions and shape captured from original photos and re-created on Stratasys Dimension 3D printers.  Customization based on this design is available.  The photos will soon be updated to reflect a newer iteration which results in a smoother initial part and requires less effort to prep for paint - otherwise you can install as-is.  Have fun!  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apollo-11-Replica-Knob-NOT-PAINTED-/263835272020

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey All, 

I have been following this thread for some time now and am confident enough to start my own panel, but am struggling.  I have gathered most of the necessary parts to start out with (arduino MEGA 2560 R3 and a Leonardo, some buttons, LCD screen, and a slider pot for throttle.  more to come as well) and want to crawl before I walk.  I have a little background knowledge with programming that i learned at university while studying mech engineering (but that was close to 7 years ago and i havent been coding since, also basic knowledge and experience with circuits).  I have downloaded the KSP SerialIO mod.  Right now i am jumping between a book i picked up called The Kerbal Player's Guide (Jon Manning, Tim Nugent, etc. published 2016) which has a couple chapters dedicated to adding hardware to the game, and a couple threads on this website trying to learn my way through it.  I am having a hard time though, especially with the coding piece as i cant get it to compile correctly in the Arduino IDE (most common error i face is - "xxxxx" not declared in this scope).  I have been stuck trying to build simple LED Warning/Status Light(s) to detect launch, stage, and fuel below a certain % (again im trying to crawl before i walk and eventually run).  Where i am stuck is the coding part, cant get everything to compile correctly.  I have been copying the code directly from the book mentioned above as it has written there (chapters 14 pages 358-366 if you want a reference) but it wont work because of error relating to things not being declared in scope.  I was heavily relying on this tutorial to teach me the basics and to be a good intro into adding hardware to KSP, but it is rapidly killing my confidence because i cant even get this simple task to work.  Can anyone help me out with suggestions on how to tackle the challenge of learning how to do all of this?  i am looking for tutorials/ways i can learn the basics of connecting with KSP using Arduino and am very motivated.  Any suggestions or advice would be greatly welcome!  also more than happy to share more details about my plans if you need them or are curious.  

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