Bagged #RebelGalaxyOutlaw on GoG today and had a blast. Needed some fiddling to get my X52 Pro up and running since the game only supports _one_ Gamepad but that’s nothing that would stop my #LinuxGaming 😂
Update: I found _way later_ that there is a switch in the launcher to enable joystick support (which brings up my X52 just fiine). What a strange design decision.
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Lötprojekt: Digitale LED UhrMeine Tochter hat mir schon in der Vergangenheit mit Begeisterung beim Löten geholfen. Sie hat auch schon ein paar Thru-Hole Bausätze gemacht. Ich wollte die Latte nun etwas höher legen und habe einen SMD Lötbausatz bei AliExpress gekauft, damit wir den gemeinsam zusammenbauen können. Bunt und (wenigstens etwas) sinnvoll solltle es sei [...]
It’s legitimate salvage now.
A button box waiting to be refurbished for PC gaming.
A lot happened since my last update on the simpit – under it’s hood. Function wise it changed not so much so the older demonstration video is still better for a quick demo. I still assembled a new video from clips of the first evening with the new hardware:
So what changed? I got rid of the CY-822A USB joystick controller that, while good, was also limiting. Especially in inputs and how they would react. The Raspberry Pi, that I used to drive the status indicators, is also gone. This is all replaced by one single Arduino Mega that is connected via serial over USB.
A custom joystick daemon written in Rust is listening for data from the #Arduino and feeds back the flags of Elite Dangerous to drive the blinken lights. I also extended the source to add me some rotary encoders (with push button function) and I’m very happy with the result of this. That makes a whopping amount of 48 buttons and 6 axis (where 2 axis make one hat). And it feels _so good_ to have e.g. self destruct or eject cargo save under a protective cover now 😀
The panel also got an external PSU with enough ampere to drive as many LED as I may imagine so I no longer abuse a phone charger for that or risk frying of the PCB / USB.
With all that in place I streamlined my pre-flight check-list quite a lot because way less hardware is involved and most of this is automated by now. It wasn’t all fun n giggles tho and while the new hard- and software “just worked” in e.g. #StarCitizen it was #EliteDangerous that gave me a hard time to actually use most of the new buttons.
Turns out it had no idea about the device and model identifiers reported by the joystick daemon and that the kernel assumed a gamepad based on declaring e.g. ButtonNorth via the more recent xinput system really didn’t help – because that limited the amount of read buttons via xinput severe! In the end I set it’s identifier to a “vJoy” device. That I found in the DeviceMappings.xml of Elite and since this could be basically anything I gave it a try (and removed all “offending” magic gamepad buttons from the code) and sure enough Elite started accepting the inputs as expected and from there it was smooth sailing – got even the hat working.
Oh and for everyone who is wondering what exactly they are seeing on the “MFD” when I’m playing Elite: That’s basically a Website using the #Arwes FUI framework. Find a quick demo video here. Without the cardboard covering up parts of the screen it looks basically like this:
I also started doodles for a version 2 – now that I have an idea what I really want.
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Visited Blühendes Barock Ludwigsburg, 71640 Germany. Well, wasn’t much bloom going on any more. The dry summer shows everywhere.
Anyway, did see a lot of interesting stuff, like sand sculptures, a switchboard from 1959, fishes and exotic birds (well, exotic to me), a fable park, that the kids loved and at the end we also visited Circus Roncalli (https://www.roncalli.de/). A circus without animals, mind you. And it was awesome! We really had a blast. I may have blisters from applauding 🙃
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Huh, another year has passed already 👩❤️👨
Good to see Jon posting again after a long hiatus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2hendTC5Bw
He demos his DIY PIP management and FTS button setup for his #EliteDangerous #simpit – also in a cardboard cockpit ❤️
The best video player feature, beside subtitles, is speed x2.
Why know how is mostly encoded in videos nowadays is beyond me tho.
My Primary Buffer Panel is almost completely revamped 😄 Just an #Arduino now, no more #RaspberryPi in the mix. The CY-822A is also gone. I did add an external PSU to drive as many LED as I can imagine too 😄
I also programmed support for 4 to 8 rotary encoders and there is an additional slide potentiometer sitting on my desk. I still have to find space for that – but I want that very badly since I know how mining in #StarCitizen works 🙂 That makes now 49 buttons and 4 axes so far 🙃
A more detailed write-up is planned, as usual.
Told the children for years to stack and order their dishes. Had it coming.
