Well I have the encoder working through the Leo Bondar but I only get 1 degree per detent and only 20 detects per whole revolution. With Mobiflight I can assign a fast right/left (I think) to make the large changes much easier. I’ll work on this tomorrow. Hope to finish the whole project tomorrow. Took a test flight today. Very awesome for sure.
I moved all my instrument encoders to the Arduino side of Mobiflight. They work better and I can setup fast turn options. But major disaster today 
. I took a lunch break after finishing up the LAST of the wiring and forgot to unplug my soldering iron. Somehow it fell into the back of the panel while hooked to my development computer. You guessed it. Melted through a bunch of wires on the second mega. Talk about upset…. I had to rip out the whole second mega and have to wire it up all over. Guess I need a check list for leaving my shop. Luckily no fire started but boy did it stink. A week plus setback but it is what it is.
Well the recover from yesterday’s disaster was better than expected. I used some wires from the C172 panel build to replace what was melted. Unfortunately since the sim was powered on during yesterday’s meltdown it looks like the mega mini got fried. Mobiflight nor the IDE software see it. At least they are cheap. Got a new one that will be here Monday. Guess I’ll be on the C172 stuff sooner. I took an inventory of the hardware I used for this PA-28 Arrow III VR panel. It is as follows:
17 - Single rotary encoders w/buttons
5 - Duel rotary encoders w/buttons
8 - Potentiometers
9 - Rocker switches
4 - SPDT switches
4 - SPST switches
2 - SP5T rotary switches
2 - Arduino Mega 2560
1 - Leo Bondar BBI32
LOTS of wire
All under the control of Mobiflight 9.2
Here is the front view with it sitting at the development station.
Not every control is exactly where it is in the actual PA-28 but the right side and under the yoke are.
Still debating staining it or just leaving it natural birch color.
I’ll install it in the sim next week.
I’ll show the back after I get the replacement 2560 installed.
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what’s the problem with the encoder on the bodnar and mobiflight? i assume MF sees the the encoder as two joystick buttons. What exactly is the limitation? the missing fastLeft/fastRight?
Yes. Missing fast option but, even setup as a 1:4 it’s to slow. Works perfect as an Arduino encoder.
Did you choose the correct encoder type in MobiFlight? There are 4 types to choose from. I think the Bodnar board has options as well.
Not sure of the type. They don’t have the 5vdc pin just the two for the button and three leads for the encoder and 20 detects per revolution. I ground one lead of the button and the center lead of the encoder. On the Arduino it works perfect. I tried the 1/1 all the way to the 1/4 on the Leo Bondar board. It just changed it from 1 degree per detent to 4 degrees per detent. But, if I turned to fast it skipped a lot. I bought most of the single encoder for about $15 for 10. I just bought a pack of the ones that have a 5vdc input and was going to put them in the C172 panel to see if they work better. Such a large amount of learning to be done still but, it keeps my brain active so it’s all worth it.
amazing
Mobiflight has a choice of types though. On the page where you assign the encoder to the pins, there’s a little drop-down box. I ended up try each one. Mine was the third one down. The others were either too slow or missed steps. I am using a MEGA2560 board. Not sure if that would be different.
Thanks for the tip. I will try that today. I did notice this when attached to an Arduino but you have no such option if connected to the Leo Bondar board since it only see them as two buttons.
You can see your hands in VR with ultraleap using the software being discussed at:
You just unbind all of the vr controller gestures, and your hands show up as a skeleton type thing.
Wow. I’ll give this a try in my Quest 2
Well bummer. Looks like it needs a hardware item.
Good job! That was quick! How many hours do you think it took you from start to finish?
My guess would be a solid week if I went straight at it. So 40 to 50 hours. It will be much faster next time since I don’t have to work so much with programming the Arduinos. All the bezels were made local and the wood work is pretty basic.
I am suspicious that one of my Arduino Mega 2560 is bad or acting up. Mobiflight locks up when ever I turn an encoder on the second Mega. These screw type interface to a Mega are a life saver. I swapped out the suspected Mega in 5 minutes. Now to see if that was the problem.
Well it wasn’t the Arduino’s. For some strange reason every so often when I adjust the VORs or HDG knobs Mobiflight loses the connection to the sim connect. If I stop Mobiflight and wait about 15 seconds it reconnects and all is well again. Still baffled by this. I wondered if the 1 meter length of cables could be causing this. But, it happened once when I toggled one of the light switches so most likely not the cable length. Since everything is digital state I never thought interference from a nearby cable would be an issue.
Found out it was the type of encoder I was using. The type that have a 5vdc and gnd pin with the s1,s2, key pins don’t cause the problem. I have ordered a bunch of these for the Piper and Cessna build. I think they are called a Ky-040 type but not sure.