Hello, all!

I am wanting to construct a flight simulator usable for X-Plane, BMS, DCS and possibly P3D. Since I mainly use a Eurofighter MOD in X-Plane 11 and it is my favourite fast jet, I want to construct the pit in the style of the Eurofighter. However, I would also use this for other aircraft such as the F-16 and Rafale but I believe they are very similar in the functions they have.To begin with, it will have basic switches and buttons eg: APU, mfds engine starters etc. It will look something similar to this Simpit then I will add in a second projector and get a warping software. What do you guys think and how do I get the switches and buttons to function in game? What would be the most viable option for a joystick too?

Kind regards, Ellis.

Wow, that's a rather cool video! One question I have... while it's okay for aircraft where the pilot always faces forward, ie airliners, how does that work for fighter pilots when you have to check six?

As for your cockpit query, do you want an actual pit with physical switches? My simpit uses touchscreens and while not 100% accurate, I can switch between F-16, A-10, and hopefully, F-18 without worrying about building new switch panels and stuff.

Hello, -Ice!

I agree, it is a very cool video! You are correct about having needing to see more than just forwards, but to begin with, I will probably just do landings, taking off, the basics etc and leave the combat till I add in more projectors. As for the buttons and switches, I would like them to be functional but would it cheaper to have touch screens and which one should I use?

Kind regards, Ellis.

Here is a pic of my current setup:






The top three screens are used for sim display and the lower two screens are touchscreens for sim use. It's definitely cheaper than an actual pit replica and has the added bonus of being able to switch cockpits as needed....

Hello!

Awesome, maybe I will construct something very similar to this but with a projector instead of the three monitors. Do you know of any cheap touchscreen monitors? I am still considering switches and panels but I shall see which one is cheaper! Am I right in thinking the Arduino board and MMJoy software are the best for cockpit switched and dials?

Kind regards, Ellis.

Pass on the hardware for switches. There are so many choices out there!

As for touchscreen monitors, mine are iiyama touchscreens with the central one at 24" and the side one is 22".

Arduino board + MMjoy2 firmware is one of the most affordable option for switches/buttons input and up to 8 axis, but has no support for output (unless limited support for war Thunder, IL-2:46) so think don't fit for this "dials"(?).

In DCS forum you find DCS BIOS software for Arduinos with input/output support, but is specific for DCS LUA language.

Thing is, for output more sophisticated you plan your "cockpit" less universal became, as games may use different code for output.

Ok, thanks for your help I will go for a similar combo if this is what I decide is best!



Ok, thanks if you don't mind me asking what do you mean by no output?

Kind regards, Ellis.

This I/O = Input an Output, relative to control cards for games is, loosely:

"Input" - ability of control card to send information (code), based on state of their button/switches, encoder, axis movement... to games (like a conventional joystick, keyboard), to active controls in their planes.

"Output" - ability of control card to receive information (code) send by certain games that allow movement instrument needle, light monitoring LED's, display's... in your external cockpit.

Arduino+MMjoy2, Arduino+EasyJoy32, BU0836, DSD12... is "Input" only cards.

Arduino+DCS BIOS, PoKeys, OpenCockpit, some Saitek Panels... is I/O (Input/Output card)

Hello, Sokol1

Thank you very much for explaining this to me! I believe I will purchase an Arduino for few inputs to start with, engine starts, APU start, HUD start, electric systems start, landing gear and add in another Arduino with more switches. Would it be possible to mount three Thrustmaster Cougar MFDs on a sheet of card and have it double sided duty tape and stick it to a monitor/tv with holes where the MFDs? Would there be a way to align the monitor to the MFDs. I would like the MFDs to look similar to this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jLhYd0uk7mI/UmhyZynKZGI/AAAAAAAACFQ/BOC1FZtZW1o/s1600/Typhoon+Cockpit.jpg but don't want to buy three mini LCDs.

Kind regards, Ellis.

You'll have to have a really sturdy sheet of card otherwise any pressure on the central MFD or even the side ones and you risk pressing on your monitor. You could mount your MFDs onto thicker material or an aluminum sheet, but this just elevates the MFDs from the monitor and combine that with your monitor's bezels, it will be hard to "align" the MFD with the background image. This was primarily one of the reasons why I switched from having MFDs glued to my monitor bezels to just using touchscreens instead.

Hello EllisEF,

if you fly mostly with XPlane there is an interesting project for Arduino Cards called ArdSim - http://svglobe.com/ardsim/ - here.

With BMS and DCS and MSFS or XPlane all together, things are more complicated. I'm building an universal cockpit project. Some pics are here at the forum. But I can tell you, it's a real nightmare!

Every sim community uses it's own kind of software which is mostly specialized for a particular hardware, so if you go for Falcon BMS the Pokeys cards are the best choice, same with DCS at the moment as far as I know, but for XPlane and the MSFS Arduino is the better choice. A module, I've seen to late is the Arcaze modul, which seems to work with BMS, DCS and the MSFS. You must take a look in the forum, but it's predominantly in german language. I can help you if you have questions about it, cause I'm a german guy.

It doesn't matter that much as far as you only plan to use inputs, but believe me, after a while you like to have some funtionable MFD's and after that you like to have warning lights and 7-segment displays also. As I started my pit, I also wanted to have only a few buttons and switches working, but after the project grows and grows you begin to think "I have so much work done, invested so many hours, why not make it really complete "

This is the point where things become difficult. Inputs aren't a great deal. Most of the interface module cards are capable of doing keyboard emulation for the buttons, switches or encoder you connect, but outputs are a totally different thing cause here the compatibility of the hardware to the software the community has made to sent offsets from the simulator to the interface module is really important!

Sadly almost every community preferres it's own kind of hardware module and that is the reason it's diffcult to built a cockpit for different simulators, even if you want to fly the same aicraft in all of them.

I'm somewhere in the middle of my own project (exactly at the warning lights and display problem ) and can tell you I have cursed alot the last few weeks .

If you have any questions I will do my best to help you if I could. I also still have a lot to learn. There are so many things you never expect if you start with such a project and sometimes I was really near giving up, but hey if we want to fly fighter jets, we have to be fighters

Cheers Viper

Hello, Ice!

Thanks again, I definitely don't want to damage my monitor but I don't mind about the MFDs being elevated. The cheapest option I have is the card and MFDs but it doesn't seem like the best.



Hello, Viper!

Ardsim looks great thank you I'm sure this software will help me!

Fortunately, I like challenges, so I am looking forward to beginning, where's the fun in something easy! It sounds difficult in terms of getting the software and hardware compatible but I will ensure to do my research and maybe I will narrow it down to just DCS and X-Plane. It sounds very irratating that the flight sims all use different softwares.

Ahaha, I probably will end up adding in every switch and button like yourself! I am not bothered about outputs as long as information can be displayed on my MFDs.

I'm sure that you will get there with the warning lights and display problems!

Glad you are here to help me!

I will definitely be a fighter!

Kind regards, Ellis.

Hello Elis,

buttons, switches, rotary switches and encoders aren't any problem to get them working in different simulations. MFD's and even analog gauges are also not much problem for most of the simulators.

If there exists a way in the simulation itself, or someone has done a programm, which is able to extract the MFD's and the instruments to external windows, you could display them on extra TFT's. Sometimes it's also possible to extract the whole thing to another PC via LAN, which then uses its own graphicscard to display those windows. This way the machine, which is running the simulation, has less work to do and maybe this results in a better performance, but that's not always the truth. It's the kind of system I'm experimenting with at the moment.

In the end displaying MFD's and gauges is much more easy to be done, then LED's, 7-Segment-Displays, LCD's or OLED, cause of the fact that the hardware is always similar. Every program uses a graphicscard in conjunction with a TFT or a monitor to display those systems. It's a kind of standard here cause it's based on display drivers, LAN drivers (if you use it) and generic windows OS stuff.

With the warning lights, frequency displays and so on, there isn't such a basic standard for the hardware and that's what makes things difficult here.


Here are some software I have found during my endless internet research (some are payware and some are for free)

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR:

- MS Flight Simulator itself (MFD and gauges on an external display)
- SimPlugins (MFD and gauges on a second PC)
- FSDisplays (MFD and gauges on a second PC)
- MobiFlight (superb Arduino Mega project similar to ArdSim but for MSFS)
- Link2FS (another very good Arduino project for interfacing)
- FSUIPC (interface most external software uses to get information out of the MSFS)
- FSRadioPanel 2.0 (radio panel and more on an Android tablet)

XPLANE:

- ArdSim (you already know it )
- XPUIPC (a clone of the FSUIPC but for Xplane)
- XConnect (like XPUIPC but free)
- SimPlugins (MFD and gauges on a second PC / extra version for Xplane also exists)
- XHSI (like SimPlugins but free)

DCS WORLD:

- DCS itself (https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=60815)
- UltraMFC (Displays as external windows)
- Helios (MFD's with touchscreen, buttons and more)
- HogKeys (warning lights etc. with Pokeys module card)

Falcon BMS:

- Falcon BMS itself (MFD etc. external windows)
- YAME32/64 Extractor 1.1.0 (MFD and gauges on a second window/PC)
- Lightnings MFD Extractor 0.6.2.0 (MFD and gauges on a second window/PC)
- Helios (MFD's with touchscreen, buttons and more)
- F4ToPokeys 2.5.6 (warning and 7-segment displays etc. for use with Pokeys module card)
- BMSCockpit 3.0.0 Alpha (warning and 7-segment displays etc. for use with Pokeys module card)
- FalconMFDServer 3.5.0.0 (MFD's on an Android tablet)
- BMS ICP-DED Pro & BMS DEVICE Pro - 1.1 (MFD's and more on an Android tablet)
- DEDuino - (DED project with use of Arduino cards in conjunction with OLED displays)

The list isn't complete at all, it's just what came up to my mind at the moment.

Hope it is a bit usefull for you or anyone else. Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to search the web for cockpit stuff. Google isn't the same it was some years ago

Thank you, sorry for my late reply! I recently dug out a Raspberry Pi from my drawers, can that be used to control any switches? I think I will be focusing my sim on Falcon BMS and DCS as they are much easier to run than X-Plane!

DCSBios
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=136570

Thank you!

Hello EllisEF,

yes Sokol is right, DCS Bios, sorry I missed that totally in my list!

There is also some software existing for the Arcaze module which is able to control all warning lights for nearly all DCS modules, but the Simple Solution (Arcaze) forum is down since 2 weeks. There was the link to this software. I don't know what happend and why the forum is down. I hope it will come back again, because there was also the link to the last version of BMSCockpit 3.0 which also runs with Arcaze modules.

As far as I know the Arcaze module is the only one which is compatible with both DCS and BMS. Otherwise you have to use different hardware for both simulations. For BMS in term of costs and performance the best solution in my opinion is the Pokeys57U module which runs with BMSCockpit and F4ToPokeys, but it's totally useless for DCS at the moment (only HogKeys --> A-10C module only --> very old)

On the other hand for DCS the DCS Bios which Sokol mentioned is really the best solution with exception of the forecited software for the Arcaze module. DCS Bios runs with Arduino, which is cheap and good, but useless for Falcon BMS, cause of the lack of interface software for it. There only exists two Arduino projects for BMS. One is for analog gauges with the use of servo motors and the other is DEDuino which is only for the F-16 DED.

That's all related to 7-segment displays or leds (warning and indicator lights) in the cockpit. For MFD's and gauges (with the use of a TFT) things are different, because they are graphic card and/or LAN related. Same for inputs (keyboard emulation) of switches, rotaries, encoders etc. Here you can use the Pokeys57U for example or any other module which is able to emulate keystrokes or DirectX buttons for all simulations. Also MobiFlight could now be interesting for other simulations than FSX or X-Plane, because they have changed to work there software for keyboard emulation with the use of an Arduino Mega with any simulator since the newest release 7.4.0. Mobiflight even supports the Arcaze Module. So theoretical it should be possible to use DCS, BMS, FSX and even X-Plane with one type of interface I/O card.

I tried to find out if the Arcaze modul is able to manage it all, because I also searched for a simple hardware solution, but as said before the forum is down now.