Star Citizen and STILL MORE HARDWARE...

I'm a citizen in ... Star Citizen

I finally broke down and got myself pledged for Star Citizen, scoring a sweet Freelancer and all the fixin's.
The PLUS package included a bunch of real-world stuff that I thought would look great in the bathroom reading rack. (Isn't that where ALL the great thinkers get their inspirational moments?)

I also joined the IEC Organization, as the crew there seemed to be all about having fun and watching each others' backs. Seems until the snow clears out and the sun beats down and drives the penguins off the deck, I simply don't have the room to start cutting the panels and the "bucket". The PVC frame has been great for prototyping the the space I'll need, but it's not even close to the polished look I was going for.


So, what's a frustrated imaginative guy to do with all this spare time?

ORDER MORE STUFF!

I decided to grab a few USB arcade boards from a Chinese supplier, and at $10 a piece, I had to buy two. I should see them before my kids go off to college. The number of inputs, coupled with the Teensy, Mega, Uno and Micro should get me by. Actually, I'm being sarcastic - I simply don't have the time to program the interfaces I'm looking for, and can much more easily just connect all my switches to an arcade board and sort it out on the PC side.

The prototype for the controls is based on the aircraft panel I have, and I've decided to re-purpose that entire assembly to the fighter pod instead of the main sim pit. My son's been excited to fly with me, and building a fighter setup is simply a matter of building the bucket and installing the prototype panels. I can play and test and buy time for the carpentry necessary for the enclosure on the bigger pit.

But what about the lights? LED programming should be a lot easier than my research indicated. I can wire them, put proper resistors in line, even build a voltage regulator/driver - but how do I control them to flash and drive the displays?

Groovy game gear to the rescue. I picked up a USB input (with rotary support) and an LED driver with configurable software to enable the lights to flash in response to different conditions. Simple power indicators can be done off the switches themselves - I want power-up sequences, damage indicators, missile warnings... And I didn't feel like self-taught engineering and programming mastery. It's been well over a year - I'm itching to FLY THIS DAMN THING!

So, while I wait for the friendly delivery guy to arrive at my day job, I sketched out some rough panel layouts:

Well, I *WAS* in the middle of a Dexter marathon... And screw rulers. I just wanted to get ideas down. The controls are based on the Evochron controls that aren't mapped to the MFDs or joystick/throttle buttons, but I am expanding for Diaspora, Freelancer, and the X series so that all systems are within easy reach.

Once I tweak them and redesign them in Illustrator, the paper and cardboard mockups can begin! Photos to follow - this should be entertaining.

The computer system is now within reach - my local PC vendor did me a solid, and I've been paying it off in chunks. She's a custom build in a custom case (specs to follow), but it should be more than enough horsepower to run anything coming down the pike. And the case design fits in perfectly with the aesthetics of the pit environment - I may build it into the center console for easy access. Custom switches out to the sim environment means never having to reach for the case to power things on, and hard drive LED will be on the main system panel.

More to follow - we're nearing prototyping and construction within the month!

News of the project's demise are highly overrated...

Well, for those that even remembered this blog exists, I'll be updating a lot more frequently as the winter has set in. Real life intervened in good and bad ways, but I have been researching and designing more ways to spend money I don't have to build something I don't have space for...

After all, that's the whole point, right?

In the "I'm not reinventing the wheel" department, I managed to snag ANOTHER Teensy3, Arduino Micro, and enough LEDS, switches, and controls to pilot a REAL spacecraft. I started hoarding project boxes and old plastic containers with unusual shapes. 

My plans were laid.

And then, I was gifted with a "complete" aircraft control panel. Now, I don't know which particular aircraft, and it appears that it was a secondary panel, but the switches were intact, and I now have a working platform for the main control panel.

All those glorious old school aircraft switches are waiting in bags (after a few hours spent removing them and the wiring harness remains). I was hoping to use the wires already attached to them, but the insulation was cracked and I KNOW it will cause faults the minute I try to rely on them.

More design considerations, now that I have become a poseur fan and follower of Chris Robert's Star Citizen. Whatever my design philosophy, I need to be prepared first and foremost to integrate my design scheme with the potential that SC seems to be bringing to PC simulation. It's nearly impossible to design on speculation and rumor, so I am reinforcing the "modular" concepts in the hopes that I can swap modules in and out to take advantage of everything Star Citizen will have to offer. I'm saving my lunch money to pre-buy the Freelancer package, as that beautiful ship seems to be right in line with my original concepts. Glass cockpits be damned - I'm going to toggle switch that beast as much as I can.

Design concepts and build pics to follow, as this is just an update to let YOU, the EXTREMELY PATIENT follower of this blog, that there's a lot more information coming. I'll share what I have learned and keep you all in the loop as I begin the construction phase.

 It would be great if the 14" of snow (so far) would magically leave my deck so I can get on with it!