3D Printed Flight Simulator Panel V2

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41

I don’t know if this is the place to ask, but… I’m using an encoder knob to change autopilot altitude setting. At times it will increment by 100s until so many consecutive turns then increment by 1000s. If I stop turning then start again this pattern repeats. HOWEVER, at other times it will ONLY increment by 1000s no matter what I do. I must close and reopen the game to get the first behavior, and even then it’s no guarantee. If no one has experienced this I’d love someone else to try same setup to tell me If I’m crazy.

I should note I’ve tried two completely different sketches that treat the encoders differently but both behave the same.

42

Whoa, you’re doing a fantastic job! We really need more printable DIY projects like these in the sim community.

43

Thanks @Krutan! If you have ideas for other 3d printed projects, I’m all ears!

@soupy3712111, I know if you have any constant-on buttons (see honeycomb alpha yoke issue as a perfect example), both the heading and altitude knobs will increment by Microsoft’s fast rates of 10 per for heading and 1,000 per for altitude.

For my encoders, I treat rotating the knob as a button click… I have a longer than necessary delay between presses to prevent jumping to quickly and activating Microsoft’s fast rates.

A solution could be to set a range from 0-359 and set a value that changes as we rotate the encoder… We could then send the value to the soon using the SET command… It’s an idea I’m not versed enough in programming to write out, but perhaps between us all we can figure out if it’d work.

44

Love the xcub panel! Had been running designs in my head since launch. Was either think two small ones to match the cockpit set around one of my touch screens. Paired with the auto pilot! Amazing work! Would love to be able to buy all built and done lol. Don’t have the stuff to make or the time! Keep up the amazing work.

45

@bdub11886, I’ve had enough people ask that in trying to find ways to do this without having to charge an arm or a leg. My personal method of soldering every connection takes a while, but I think I have an idea using jst connectors to the board and just soldering to the buttons only.

Other hard part still is knowing what price range would make them a go or no-go for people.

46

That sounds awesome! I’d for sure buy the cub panel and autopilot. It’s always hard to figure out prices for stuff like that when there isn’t much to go on. Specially putting a price on what it takes to develop and make!

47

Excellent info! Makes sense as I did indeed mod your code for all the toggles to be constant on to use the “set” command in MSFS.

When it got the “slow” increment I must have had all the switches at off?

So do you used on/on switches and wire both sides and use the ON and OFF commands in the game?

48

Most likely @soupy3712111.

So what I am experimenting with is using a button like a shift key.

Example, say we have master battery for switch/joystick button 1… When flipped on, it presses joystick button 1 for 50-ms. This is mapped to toggle master battery (I have found using the on keybind isn’t reliable, especially for lights… It works in some planes but not others… Really bizzare)… When I flip the switch to off, it presses button 32, THEN presses button 1 and holds both for 50-ms. I map this to Set Master battery (again, same as why I don’t use on).

All my switches are now set up this way and it seems to be working well for me now… No issues using the heading or altitude rotaries other than spinning them too fast/long and activating Microsoft’s fast method.

49

Wonder why you need the “shift” function? I’ll go back to the button press method and see how it goes. Just trying to conserve joystick buttons as much as possible.

50

Well, Testing will have to wait. Running the update for the latest patch crashed my computer. When I restarted and attempted to launch the game again it’s now stuck on “Checking For Updates”

Guess I’ll have to uninstall/reinstall…

51

You don’t “need” the shift button, but I’ve personally found it to work very well… Especially instead of the constant on methods using the set command. In fact, my original idea was to use only momentary switches and use the toggle command to keep things simple and as compatible as possible.

With the teensy and MSFS, using a button (or in my case, actually a hat direction) like you would the shift or control button on your keyboard allows you to have more keybinds mapped. Example, if you’re limited to 32 buttons, you could have 32 keybinds mapped. Or, you could have 31 keybinds and another 31 with what I think of as the “shift” key. I can post up the code too if that’d help. So long as you don’t need to press 2 sets of keybinds within milliseconds of each other simultaneously, shouldn’t be an issue.

52

Ahhh… I totally get it now. I’m more of a visual person, so I had to read it a couple times to understand. I’ll give it a try. So far no other methods have reliably gotten the finer changes to work… Of course autopilot seems to be so sketchy right now it’s probably more work than its worth! :slight_smile:

53

Have you considered printing the panel in white filament then painting black. This way you can lightly sand the extruded lettering faces back to white.

Paint with smoothen out the panel texture and you could also backlight it then too…

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54

@WamBam8035, Someone from these forums that reached out to me actually did just that! From what I saw, it turned out great. I also plan to try another poster’s suggestion and attempt 2-color printing by changing out from black to white for the lettering.I may also attempt this with the buttons, but haven’t decided for those with inset text whether to do the button leading up to the front face of the text as all white, or to do 2 filament changes so that there’s only like 0.6mm of white in the layers where the text is.

1 Like
55

Was thinking of making a simply button layout for the xcub. What kind of board would I need to be able to use rocker switches. Never done it before and the research I was doing made me think the usb board I was looking at wouldn’t work with them. Thanks.

56

@bdub11886, I have enjoyed using the Teensy USB Development boards available here. For my Autopilot panel build, I used the Teensy LC since I did not need over 27 inputs. If you need more, you can go with the Teensy 4.1.

EDIT: Forgot to mention WHY I liked these… you can program them to be a joystick so they readily show up in MSFS and X-Plane and can be easily programmed in-game to whatever keybind you want.

I do have an X-Cub panel layout using mini rockers available to download if you want to go that route.

As for programming, the following is some sample code for 3 toggle switches illustrating 3 different methods (constant on/off, momentary push button with each flip, and a momentary using another button like a shift-press on your keyboard.

#include <Bounce2.h>
Bounce button0 = Bounce(0, 20);
Bounce button1 = Bounce(1, 20);
Bounce button3 = Bounce(2, 20);

void setup() {
Joystick.Z(512);
Joystick.X(512);
Joystick.Y(512);
Joystick.Zrotate(512);
Joystick.sliderLeft(512);
Joystick.sliderRight(512);
Joystick.hat(-1);

pinMode (0, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode (1, INPUT_PULLUP);

void loop() {
button0.update();
button1.update();
button2.update();

if (button0.fallingEdge()) {Joystick.button(1, 1);}
if (button0.risingEdge()) {Joystick.button(1, 0);}

if (button1.fallingEdge()) {Joystick.button(2, 1);delay(50);Joystick.button(2, 0);}
if (button1.risingEdge()) {Joystick.button(2, 1);delay(50);Joystick.button(2, 0);}

if (button2.fallingEdge()) {Joystick.button(3, 1);delay(50);Joystick.button(3, 0);}
if (button2.risingEdge()) {Joystick.button(32, 1);delay(10);Joystick.button(3, 1);delay(50);Joystick.button(3, 0);Joystick.button(32, 0);}

}

Wiring button 1 to pin 0 and ground, button 2 to 1 and ground, and button 3 to 2 and ground… This is a decent way to test how you want to program your toggles. Currently, I am using the shift setup to avoid the issue with constant-on switches (see Honeycomb yoke issue basically).

I can walk through this code if you’d like; just say the word!

2 Likes
57

Amazingly awesome!!! Thanks so much! I’ve never done anything with button boxes or anything like this. Def let ya know if I need any help if I do it!
I actually like your panel design a lot. Just don’t have the means of building it.

58

Do you guys really have access to a $5000 3D printer, or is there a cheaper version out there?

59

:smiley: a 200€ one is sufficient

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60

@DA40CGDFQ, as @ExpertBog216000 mentioned, you can use a MUCH cheaper 3D printer. I am using an Ender 3 Pro, which runs between $210-$240 USD depending on where you buy it from. Filament runs about $25/kg USD. And the big fortunate thing? There’s a TON of us out there willing to help people get into the hobby!

If you think you want to entertain the idea of getting your own 3D printer, just say so and I’ll unleash the Kraken of Knowledge!

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