OC Attitude Indicator Success!

[stevem]

For my Lockheed T-33 project, I have successfully reworked one of its attitude indicator to work with the OC Servo Motors Card. I have to say, the OC Servo Motors Card works beautifully! Not bad for one's first instrument. Now to the others...

[gspannelljr]

would you be willing to share your command structure with me? I am having a hard time writing the correct command for my gauges.

[stevem]

Be glad to! It's modified from Manuel Velez' code:

// *****************************************************************************
// * Config_SIOC ver 4.5 - By Manuel Velez - www.opencockpits.com
// *****************************************************************************
// * FileName : test_servo_pitch.txt
// * Date : 9/13/2015



Var 0005, Value 0
{
&ServoBank = 493
}
Var 0000, Value 0
{
&ServoPitch = 611
}
Var 0006, name ServoBank, Link USB_SERVOS, Output 1, PosL 1, PosC 511, PosR 1023, Type 1 // Bank
Var 0001, name ServoPitch, Link USB_SERVOS, Output 2, PosL 1, PosC 511, PosR 1023, Type 1 // Pitch
Var 0020, Link FSUIPC_IN, Offset $057C, Length 4 // FSUIPC Bank, *360/(66536*66536)
{
L0 = V0020 * 8.38E-008 // Convert to degrees (neg is right)
IF L0 > 60
{
L0 = 60
}
IF L0 < -60
{
L0 = -60
}
L1 = L0 * 5 // Calc degrees for servo
&ServoBank = 493 - L1
}
Var 0010, Link FSUIPC_IN, Offset $0578, Length 4 // FSUIPC Pitch, *360/(65536*65536)
{
L0 = V0010 * 8.38E-008 // Convert to degrees (neg is up
IF L0 > 25 // Limit 25 deg max
{
L0 = 25
}
IF L0 < -25 // Limit -25 deg max
{
L0 = -25
}
L1 = L0 * 5 // Calc degrees for servo
&ServoPitch = 611 - L1
}

[hyamesto]

Great job.
Regards.
Horacio.

[stevem]

Thanks! Believe it or not, I think I'm more concerned with getting the T-33 fuselage sectioned-off (to put in my basement) than I am rebuilding the instruments. That's really the big scary part of all this.

[SimSupervisor]

Nice work there.
I have an attitude indicator that I am looking at interfacing soon. although I will plug it into an arduino, the servos will do pretty much the same thing.

I hope to post results soon.

Is there anything I should concern myself with when opening the physical attitude indicator the first time?

[stevem]

Hi SimSupervisor,

Thanks. Nothing to concern yourself over… nothing is spring-loaded or hazardous. There are many small parts, some of which can be a little sharp, but nothing dangerous.

For mine, I gutted the entire contents of the attitude indicator (i.e., got rid of the gyros, motors, mounts, etc.). But, I kept the instrument-face parts. I built wooden mounting parts to house the two servo motors, controlled by the OC servo motors card.

I drew exact-scale pieces of the exact attitude indicator using Corel Draw!, and I designed the wooden mounting parts based on what I needed. This method enabled me to build the wooden mounting parts with a fair degree of precision. The brown pieces in the drawing are the wooden parts.

[SimSupervisor]

I am hoping to be able to reuse some of the original guts instead of making my own cages, but if I have to, it will likely be very similar to yours: wood seems like a suitable solution

Why is block #2 longer, and not squared? to help with positionning?

[stevem]

Block 2 is a bearing for the blue rod. So, the blue rod rotates in the roll direction through Block 2, but the blue rod is fastened (glued) in-place to Blocks 1 and 3. The entire assembly is mounted into the original attitude indicator case at Blocks 2 and 5 (I drilled holes in the attitude indicator case and then screwed Blocks 2 and 5 into the case). Looking at the SIDE view, the bottoms of Blocks 2 and 5 are aligned with each other.

The green pieces are the plastic servo motor gear things that came with the servo motors.

[hyamesto]

Block 2 is a bearing for the blue rod. So, the blue rod rotates in the roll direction through Block 2, but the blue rod is fastened (glued) in-place to Blocks 1 and 3. The entire assembly is mounted into the original attitude indicator case at Blocks 2 and 5 (I drilled holes in the attitude indicator case and then screwed Blocks 2 and 5 into the case). Looking at the SIDE view, the bottoms of Blocks 2 and 5 are aligned with each other.

The green pieces are the plastic servo motor gear things that came with the servo motors.

The Block 2 is really a good idea to properly align of mobile pieces.
Every day i learn something new.
Congratulations, and good luck with the T-33 fuselage. (Luckily you're not building a B-36 Peacemaker....)

Regards.
Horacio.