YAKK Mk 1 - Yet Another KSP Kontroller

[Freshmeat]

I have not checked your thread for a while. Big congrats to you, and I am very impressed by your DSKY approach. I would like to add it to my own controller, but I am quite intimidated by the complexity - the simple switch approach is so straight forward compared to that.

[MrOnak]

"simple switch approach"? Not sure what you mean by that.

Honestly, If you'd buy ready made 7-segments with a MAX**** chip on board of those and you swap the button hardware debouncing with software debouncing the circuitry becomes much much simpler.

I chose this route mostly because I wanted to learn the electronics behind it since I don't have any electrical engineering background and I've only picked up microcontrollers as a hobby a little over a year ago. I'm good with software, so I'm not too afraid of the code complexity that this project involves.

Currently I'm waiting for my new soldering station to arrive (I actually managed to physically break mine - don't ask) so the project is stalled at the moment. The resistor ladder that handles the DSKY keyboard is faulty so I need to resolder a bit there but with the iron broken I'm dead in the water and I don't want to integrate all seperate code pieces into the "business logic" that I've prepared before I know that all components work individually.

[Freshmeat]

With simple switch, I mean that each switch or button has a single defined function. When you have a keypad, you need to have routines dedicated to collecting the key presses and take specific action based on a sequence of key presses, while the rest of the program is running. I am afraid it will take a better coder than me to get running smoothly.

[MrOnak]

Ah that . I understand what you mean but that is only a state machine and that's something I'm decent at doing . My hope is that this project may become generic enough (code wise) so that other people can adapt it to their own needs once I'm done building it.

[MrOnak]

New soldering station arrived! Muahahaha, back to the laaaaaaab!

[MrOnak]

Sweet, the DSKY keyboard circuit is fixed and that makes all circuitry DONE.

If my subconscience isn't supressing some major event this weekend I might actually have some time to build the case and put everything together. oh boy oh boy oh boy

[MrOnak]

Small update after a Saturday spent shopping for things and Sunday morning spent putting up shelves (I knew I had forgotten something when I thought the weekend was free of appointments!) I managed to cut all pieces for the box out of 16mm wood. No idea what you call those in english, its those sawchips-clued-together for cupboard shelves kind of stuff, easy to work with, cheap as hell and sturdy.

Putting them together will have to wait till next weekend though, I'm running out of daylight and I can't drill holes inside (stupid appartment).

I also got 4mm Acrylic sheets which seem sturdy enough for the front code plates even when I drill lots of holes into them. Haven't had a chance to cut them to size though.

More next week I'm afraid.

[stibbons]

I believe you're talking about particle board, commonly referred to as chipboard here in Australia.

Shame you didn't get much of the assembly done, I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks.

[MrOnak]

Chipboard sounds very likely

I wanted to get the case built and painted this weekend so that I have next weekend to solder a million wires to half a million switches and buttons .

Aaaaaaaaanyway... it'll happen eventually. Shame though that work means I'm home only on weekends.

[MrOnak]

Progress is still going slowly due to rarely being home :-/

However after being heavily inspired by Mulbins fantastic simpit panel I've begun to finalize my button layout for the YAKK Mk. I and I wanted to a) share this with you all and gather some feedback whether things are missing.

(click for a larger version)

On the left panel you find (top to bottom):

- ACTION GROUPS: 10 pushbuttons

- FLIGHT CTRL: 6 momentary switches for: SAS, RCS, brakes, gear, vehicle lights, and the EVA "grab" function

- 6 analogue inputs for pitch, yaw, roll and the engine throttle

- 1 pushbutton to toggle fine control

- 2 joystick buttons (as of now, unassigned)

- 1 pushbutton for staging

The middle panel contains the DSKY unit and the infolights. The keyboard will program various things but mostly control what is shown on the 7-segment LED panels and the bar graphs.

On the right panel you find (top to bottom):

- SAS CTRL: 10 pushbuttons and status LEDs for the SAS autopilot functions

- AUXILIARY: 12 pushbuttons for: toggle solar panels, arm parachutes (realchutes), perform science, toggle comms antenna (remotetech), camera view (hullcam), open terminal (kOS), screenshot, toggle UI, toggle flight statistics, toggle labels, quicksave, quickload

- SUPPORT: 6 (on) off (on) momentary switches for: EVA light & trim, zoom in&out, timewarp up&down, next&prev vessel, map view & change focus, IVA view & cycle camera view

- 1 pushbutton for ABORT

- 1 momentary rocker switch for RCS lateral fwd/aft

- 1 joystick button, unassigned

- 2 analogue axis for RCS lateral up/down, left/right

I do have a port for a single pushbutton left over, as well as 4 joystick buttons which are unassigned, so if you can think of anything that's missing, let me know

Edited January 24, 2015 by MrOnak

[Dunbaratu]

open terminal (kOS)

Just so you know, the thing I'm currently working on on-and-off for the kOS project is the ability to enable a telnet server inside kOS (probably just to localhost 127.0.0.1 for safety since it's unencrypted telnet - if you want it remoted you can ssh tunnel it from 127.0.0.1 to a local ssh port to cause it to be more secure.)

I actually already have it handling the thread fork that all tcp/ip servers need to work properly, and the telnet end of things follows most of the RFC's except for the one about terminal size (which I plan to add specifically for projects like this with hardware small displays). The part I'm in the middle of now is making the rest of kOS stop hardcoding the assumption that it's talking to a Unity GUI window.

Anyway the point is that part of the motivation for this is projects like this one. In principle it should be possible to get the kOS terminal to appear on hardware displays provided the hardware implements a basic telnet client.

[MrOnak]

Hey Steven Thanks for the info - but I'm watching your github Although I didn't have time to contribute actively to kOS in waaaaay too long I'm quite aware of all the neat things that have happened.

Can't wait to extend my DSKY logic to fetch the data I can't get from KSPSerialIO through kOS and run that launch profile in hardware. Hype train gallore

- - - Updated - - -

Oooooh crap. Just saw this... I really need to get the YAKK built and the coding finalized now

[MrOnak]

I just placed an order

To be printed on 3mm Aluminium Dibond (thanks Mulbin ), due to arrive on Friday. EXCITEMEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNT

[MrOnak]

HO-LY CRAP

It is beautiful.

@Mulbin: I owe you big time. Deciding to go for aliminium dibond is entirely your fault.

Plan for this weekend: Cut out the three individual panels, and drill all holes without screwing this up.

[MrOnak]

Things have been cut

The front will be covered with a 1mm aluminium sheet when everything is finished.

[MrOnak]

Holes are drilled and I did an initial fitting test. I really love how well the dibond can be worked with.

Unfortunatelly the only place I can do the drilling is outside and it is getting really cold now, rest will have to be done one of these days.

[Scoundrel]

This is awesome stuff, sir!

Though I do have a question: how do you access the radar altimeter display?

[MrOnak]

Thanks scoundrel!

In the middle console on the bottom half will be a keyboard (those round markings) which will allow me to program the microcontroller to display whatever metrics I want on the displays above that (the not-yet-cut-out squares above the keyboard). So depending on situation, I'll display the altimeter readout on one of those.

The display consists of 3x5-digit displays, 2x8-digit displays as well as 3 bargraphs.

[Scoundrel]

Nice! I look forward to seeing how this turns out. Too bad Neomorph hasn't been around for so long... I would have loved to see your project merged with his navball project to form the ultimate KSP control panel.

Anyhow, I shall return to the shadows, lurking ominously while looking strikingly dashing at the same time.

[MrOnak]

Yeah his navball is awesome! Well, I'll do without for now... there's always room for an extension

[AmeliaEatyaheart]

OMG that is beautiful <3

[MrOnak]

Thaaaanks

[Freshmeat]

That definitly looks nice - I share your sentiments about the temperature, my project is progressing very slowly for the same reason.

[Mulbin]

Hah, another dibond convert It's fantastic to work with isn't it! cuts with a knife and drill goes through like butter... but it's tough and durable for use!

[MrOnak]

Convert indeed. It's awesome.