Building a controller box for flight simming

Projects General Guidance
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I've set out to build a controller box for use in a flight sim (specifically buttons and knobs for flying the Viggen in DCS - so potentiometers to control panel lights, radar intensity and buttons to turn on and off things like the radar scope, and achieving tv fixes).

I'm thinking six different rotary potentiometers and eight simple momentary push buttons.

There's no aesthetics to this project. I'm flying in VR so the whole thing can look like a garbage heap for all I care. It just needs to work in a ... well, in a tactile way. I'm gonna epoxy the thing to my desk eventually.

I'm not looking for answers to specific questions ... yet. I'm just wondering if there's any tutorials you guys can point me to. I'm semi-proficient at coding (C++ and Python), but I'm completely new to soldering things to other things. I've just bought a soldering iron, so that's kinda where I'm at.

I'm using an Arduino Leonardo for this project.

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Many DCS/buttonbox projects can be found on this forum and in text and video form on the internet. Read through some examples first - many are incomplete (especially incomplete are "instructables" and any video with techno/edm background music).

  • draw your idea.
  • document everything
  • ask anything.

Soldering

  • use flux (liquid, with tiny applicator/needle) and clean the splatter with IPA and a toothbrush
  • use 60/40 solder (has lead) because it works (non-lead solder is not cooperative)
  • use a small, noiseless fan to blow the lead-solder smoke away so you can inhale it later
  • practice soldering on a US$30 radio kit - if it does not work, keep practicing, if it works, you have a present to give and ready for your buttonbox.

Where to start?

  • don't be afraid to scrap one idea and try another
  • don't be too quick to scrap one idea and try another
  • Arduino >> File >> Examples >> Built-in Examples (also on arduino.cc)
  • wire (and code) one button and make it work (search: button arduino)
  • learn hardware and software "debounce" method(s) (search: arduino debounce)
  • wire a potentiometer (search: arduino analog input)
  • consider using "rotary encoders" over potentiometers (a thorough explanation)
  • wire a 2x3 button matrix (search: arduino button matrix)
  • learn to read ROWxCOL pins (search: arduino limit pins button matrix) (one example)
1 Like
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Yes. Recalling some products I no longer need, I googled

  soldering practice kit

and turned up a large number of ways to spend less than $30.

You could get more than one kit. :wink:

Some kit might be something you'd actually like to own, as might a (working) radio you built yourself.

Some kits don't end of making anything. It might be worth seeing how far (or not) one has to go to ruin something like a pad on a PC board.

TBC IPA isopropyl alcohol, not beer.

a7

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: )

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Great feedback! I can't find a single source for lead solder locally (I'm betting it's semi-legal to sell here), but I have ordered sufficiently leaded solder from Turkey. Also Amazon for a simple PC-type fan for more diffused, and thereby partly postponed, lead vapor inhalement.

I have begun to solder things to an old PC motherboard (with lead-free solder) for practice. It now looks like a kindergarten art project since the f****ng wires won't stick to the holes I'm trying to solder them to.

Hence leaded solder, I'm guessing.

Great links though, the rotary encoding video actually explained a lot.

Thank you!

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need a tip tinner and tin the wires first..
that being said, i prefer to solder connectors and crimp wires..
soldered wires tend to be brittle and break easily..

good luck.. ~q

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This is how I "tin" surfaces... not the only way to do it, but it looks okay to me.

  • hot iron (easily boils flux and melts solder)
  • flux all wires and pads
  • melt some solder with whole iron tip (tinning)
  • stab copper-wool with iron tip (scrapes off burnt flux, makes solder shine)
  • dip solder wire in flux again
  • more flux on surface to be soldered
  • hold iron to surface to be soldered
  • touch solder to iron/surface meeting point
  • when solder starts to flow, remove solder
  • when solder spreads, remove iron
  • add flux to surface
  • touch surface with iron again to complete solder flow
  • clean up by touching iron to flux and stabbing copper wool
  • wipe solder iron tip across a damp sponge

And... the solder is a 60/40 mix of tin/lead. For electronics, the solder might have rosin core (flux core).

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