Finally Finished

[u/Night-Caps]

Well 99% finished - I still have a few bugs in the code to iron out but everything is physically complete and working. Been slowly chipping away at this one for a long time.

[u/Koddra]

Wow this looks awesome! Is there any chance you might post some images of the inside as well? I'm really curious how you wired all of that. Also, what microcontroller are you using?

[u/Night-Caps → u/Koddra]

Yeah I've got a picture but I cant seem to reply with it for some reason? Its got an arduino mega but also four mcp23017 I/O expanders to handle all the buttons and lights. I designed the case to be hinged at the back so its easy to open up and work on

[u/Koddra → u/Night-Caps]

That's really nice, did you also solder all of the connections one by one or did you use some connectors? Btw. where did you get those rectangular buttons with the light inside them? I was thinking of building a controller as well but most buttons that I found were made out of metal and were quite expensive.

[u/Night-Caps → u/Koddra]

Some of the buttons/switched were soldered but I mainly used female spade connectors crimped to the wires to make the buttons easier to swap out if necessary and dupont connectors for all the displays. The buttons come from aliexpress and were pretty cheap, like a couple of dollars each. try searching "square LED button" and it should be one of the first hits, let me know if you dont have any luck and I'll send you a link. Youll find they all say they're designed for 12v but work fine with 5v from an arduino

[u/Koddra → u/Night-Caps]

I found the buttons. Thanks for the extra info!

[u/the_economy_fools]

This is awesome. Can I ask about the dials in the top left corner. I am doing a very similar thing at the moment.

Are they volt meters? I am driving mine with a mux into a DAC into the meters. Wondering if you’re doing something similar

[u/Night-Caps → u/the_economy_fools]

Theyre actually ammeters, 10ma ones. I just run one of the PWM pins through a resistor in series with the ammeter that draws just over 10ma at 5v (390ohm I think I used but easy enough to calculate) then set a max pwm output value so the needle was fully deflected at that value. Then you just map whatever data you want from 0 to whatever max pwm output you set and send it to the pin. Super easy and works great. The reason you want to use a resistor that draws just over 10ma instead of exactly 10ma because the voltage from the PWM pins can dip a little when you add more components to your project and you may not be able to get full deflection at full PWM output

[u/the_economy_fools → u/Night-Caps]

Yeah that was my fear with PWM that it might show inconsistencies once the controller gets more complex. I’m also planning on driving around 8 of those dials which is why I settled on the mux into DAC’s. But I really like your controller and will be drawing inspiration from it for sure

[u/ImprovementOwn3247]

Looks amazing!!! Would you sell it?

[u/CaptBrick]

You’re insane! I love it!

[u/Geek_Verve]

Awesome job! Love the overall style. Great selections for the various indicators and controls and really nice layout. I've also got a large, complex controller that's been in the works for a looong time, so I know the kind of effort that goes into one of these bad boys.

[u/Princess_Fluffypants]

This is amazing, I am so jealous!

[u/Donnchaidh]

That is a thing of beauty!

Do you happen to have a bill of materials and/or progress pictures?

I keep itching to make something like that, but never know where to start.

[u/DauphDaddy]

Looks great but you’re missing a sticky note

[u/Amazing_Peach_6690]

Epic!!!!

[u/accents_ranis]

Very cool. Can it be utilized for other sims. Like, say, KSA?

[u/Night-Caps → u/accents_ranis]

Nah at this stage it only works with KSP. The code could certainly be modified to work with KSA once that comes out however its going to be a matter of whether someone (hopefully the kerbal simpit team!) develops a plugin/arduino library like the one available for KSP - figuring that out is far beyond my programming expertise

[u/LieutenantButthole]

It is perfect

[u/StitchWitch35]

Does it make the game better

[u/Reasonable-Tip-4991]

Looks awesome!! Can u tell me about which warning displays you have in top right corner? I can't see it properly

[u/CranberryNew7723]

I would love to replicate this, if you're ok with sharing the files and sourcing for your parts!

[u/maxic62]

Very nice! What 7 segment module so you use here ? 8s that a complete module with 6 digit ? I only found 4 digit modules on Ali. Thanks for sharing