Building MikesFlightDeck Instruments???
Is anyone building instruments as described by Mike Powell, a sim genius, in his first book "Building Simulated Aircraft Instruments"? I have built three 3 at present; well at least through the mechanical stage. Now it is time to attack the electronics. Has anyone designed circuit boards to his designs? Anyone willing to share the designs. I would like to get some boards, perhaps using a service like ExpressPCB.
Tripacer
Re: Building MikesFlightDeck Instruments???
Hey All,
I am part way through building the Stepping Motor Gyro Compas from the book. I would be interested in going part cost with someone else to get some boards made up for this instrument. I am currently working on getting the heading data out of FSX so I can translate it to what the PIC understands, dunno how I am going to do it yet though. So far I have just got MS VS C++ to compile the sources in the SDK and my own server open / close connection program. Next is to print the heading data to the terminal as I am flying the plane around... Then I will worry about getting the data into a format the PIC can understand. If anyone has any pointers on this I would appreciate the help. If people are interested I could write a small tutorial on how I got MS VS C++ going with the FSX SDK. Let me know...
Cheers All,
Dave...
Re: Building MikesFlightDeck Instruments???
Dave,
I am also working on a stepping motor gyro compass. I am ordering parts and would be interested in a board in a 3.25" format. I will be using an RS 485/422 network as Mike has decribed on his website. I believe that his new book will go into further detail. It would also be very helpful to everyone if you can share how you got the data out of FSX (using Simconnect, I presume).
Are you using a PIC 16F648A mcu?
Thanks,
William, Tripacer builder.
Re: Building MikesFlightDeck Instruments???
The new book, Building Recreational Flight Simulators, includes an updated version of the stepping motor sim instrument designed to operate across RS-485. (RS-485 allows lots of devices to hang off a single serial port.) The book includes a serial port to RS-485 converter project, and sample C++ software that extracts data from FSX using SimConnect, formats the data, and transmits it through the serial port. Circuit board artwork is part of the project documentation. However, the stepping motor instrument project is configured as a 2" gauge rather than as the 3" DG in Building Simulated Aircraft Instrumentation.
I just approved the production proofs for the new book. Although I do not have a firm shipping date, my understanding is that I'll have the books in early August. When they are available, I will be announcing here on MyCockpit.