As the title says, this thread will be used to show pics, methods, and build pictures of my long project i am starting this weekend of my A10c cockpit.

to show proof of concept i will be starting by building a UFC and Electronic panel and after that is done, there is a company in town, that will help me with building the physical left and right consoles. i am getting a great deal because they are friends of the family.


Plan Outline:

Electronics Panel:

Materials used:
5 Single Pole, Single Throw toggles AKA On/Off
1 Double pole, Double throw AKA On/Off/On
Powered by Ardruino


UFC (Up Front Controller) Located under your HUD.

Materials Used:
6x6x4mm tactile buttons.
Perfboard / protoboard cut to dimensions.
Powered by Ardruino



Pictures top come of the build, maybe even streams / Videos of it being done. i want this sourced as best as possible for future builds so its easier for others. Will have pictures of the consoles as they are made. That will be a week or two away.

Thanks for flying!

sweet, look forward to seeing them, im getting more ideas for my future cockpit project

Protoboard and tactile buttons for the UFC are in and functional, now i just have to take my time, solder a few at a time and test them as i go. arduino is up and running and working too. Ill have a video of thee project to show it working when im all done.
Soldering these tiny switches is very tedious so i just do]a few at a time so i dont mess any of it up.

Nice work!

BTW, you've got exactly the same breadboard I have, LOL!

Looks really good Naro.
(Tip: write on the back what each button is. Turning it back and fourth constantly can sometimes get confusing since when looking at the back it's backwards)

No need to write on the perfboard the ardruino firmware auto assigns the buttons to what they need to be via the software. So as long as the arduino is running the "UFC" software, its all done software side. i just plug it in and it works.

**UPDATE**


Solderd the UFC, will score and snap it tonight. not bad for my first soldering job. next task is to mount it to some thing and start running wires.





Using a box for the electronics panel, going to use it as a text bench for wiring and such.




So far its fun and tedious, but coming along nicely, ill be having firedawg send me a custom UFC panel with labels and such soon. slowly but surely!!

Tac switches i used


Ardruino board


All DCS Bios and software needed AKA programming the arduino is all written and documented in detail Here

Here is my A-10C Front Panel. It is as accurate as I could get based on info from a friend who is an A-10C Pilot.
The PDF file is in the mission builders TS browser. you can print it out in adobe to scale using the poster function.

You've all got my permission to use it. Hopefully some of you will so that if you ever want panels from me, they will fit

Easiest thing to do is get someone to cut this out on wood,plastic, aluminum. Then place a 28"TV or Monitor(remove stock bezel 1st) behind this console and use helios and the .lua adjustments to display each item. I will soon have my Helios profile and .lua files ready to copy and send out with this PDF.

Best thing to do is learn how to create servo gauges and make this thing digital/analog hybrid, but that goes beyond my yearly income.

Thread updated with links, and DCS bios information for the arduino. basically copy and paste the already written code for what panel you are running on the arduino, and it recognizes it and works automatically in game without any needing to assign keys.
Sorry for the confusion

Scored the Per board, and all the soldering is near perfect, just have to find out what post on the tac switches are positive and negative, and then start soldering one at a time, and hooking it to the ardruino.

then mount it to something sturdy, (or that before i start soldering( and then get a cover plate for it and she will be DONE

im taking my time on this as i dont want to break it, and i get frustrated easily because of my tiny stubby fingers.