Oolite Bulletins

spud42 wrote:

just watched a Space 1999 episode where Paul had to fly one of the eagles back to moonbase alpha.

If you want RL space-travel authenticity points you'll want one of these joysticks... unfortunately not many were made, they're most definitely out of production, and the few that remain are either somewhat inaccessible (being either in solar orbit or smashed on the moon) or ridiculously expensive. And try getting the connectors to interface with a USB port...

Hi Chaps

Spud42 - Plenty of room for a screenshot switch. Top left is empty and as the Keyboard PCB is from an extended Keyboard I can use the * from the number pad which would only need one link to connect to an existing group (Row) and one extra wire out to the keyboard circuit. Retail? Oh no no no. I'll put all the information up as and when things become 'real' such that anyone could DIY. I don't have the kit to to machine on mass and this is likley to look margimally worse than the millenium falcon

Ranthe - Wow. Now there's a bit of history. Just for the cool factor it would be worth it

Whadya know! I found a bit of veroboard in my electronics kit. Just the right size to! This is how I hope to use it.



And with the Screenshot button -



BBD

Bangbangduck wrote:

And with the Screenshot button -

Looks like you forgot to "drill" the veroboard between the switch contacts, so the screenshot key is shorted.


I've been thinking about jumping and injecting work in game and how I would handle the jump drive and injector buttons if I was making a custom throttle control.
I think I'd want to make it possible to push the throttle slightly forward from the Max Speed position to an OverDrive position (and spring back to the Max Speed position when released) which presses either I or J depending on whether thumb button is pressed. So to go to Jump drive you would nudge the throttle to OD and release it, and do the same to switch back to normal speed. (or just pull the throttle back from max to slow down, which automatically kills the Jump drive anyway) To Inject you would hold the thumb button and push and hold the throttle at OD. To switch smoothly from Injectors to Jump drive after escaping a mass-lock you would release the thumb button first, (switching from I to J) then release the throttle from the OD position.

(While I was considering this it occurred to me to wonder if it was actually possible to Inject while already using the Jump drive to multiply the speed bonuses, which it had never occurred to me to try before. I quickly discovered that it doesn't work that way, but by god that would have been cool if it had worked)

- Neelix

Well spotted my young? padawan I also missed the 'drills' 3rd from the left 2nd row down

I like the idea of the overdrive on the throttle end movement. You would have to sort it out so as not to strain the throttle pot. Maybe the handle could be sprung so that when you reach end of travel the grip can move against the spring pressure independantly of the arms to activate the Injectors.

I think there could be many ways to do lots of things which makes it so interesting for people to do their own thing.

BBD

Bangbangduck wrote:

I like the idea of the overdrive on the throttle end movement. You would have to sort it out so as not to strain the throttle pot. Maybe the handle could be sprung so that when you reach end of travel the grip can move against the spring pressure independantly of the arms to activate the Injectors.

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

- Neelix

you could do it with an extra slider beside the pot but with a shorter "throw" with a spring between the throttle and the extra slider..
so the throttle and slide both move together until the slide hits its stop then you would feel the spring tension if you went "past" this point. releasing the throttle would allow the spring to pull the throttle back. how you would get this to trigger torus drive is the thing.
you could use an op amp like a 741 etc to be a comparator. set a trigger level on one leg and the output from the pot to the other. once the threshold has passed the output of the op amp would switch from low to high ( or the other way) then fed this into a small signal transistor to be the switch and feed the output straight to the keyboard matrix as the "j"switch . ???

or even simpler mount the switch for the torus so that when the throttle is at max throw it makes the contact..... that way Neelix's idea of max throttle to enter torus then hitting max throttle again to exit torus would work.

Hi all

Not much to report. Been messing with the key spacing and have made it a bit more compact. Also had a go at button icons. Where a pictogram wont do I had to use... words!



Things to do - Prepare the veroboard, size and track breaks. Fit buttons, Wires. Drill the edge pads of the keyboard matrix ready for the matrix wires from the pad. Get gears and 10K pots ready for the next stage.

BBD

Progress!

Soldered the switches to the veroboard and have added the 'columns' wires. Next up, in an alternate colour, will be the 'row' wires then the fly leads. I scrapped a network cable and also gutted a scart lead so lots of pretty colours!

Also drilled the edge connectors of the Keyboard matrix....... Having fixed my mini drill stand.



Sorry about the next image being blurry but I think you can see the drill holes



BBD

ok someone had to do it so i guess i was first.... what is the QR scan code for? and by the way it doesnt scan... lol

Hi Spud!

Ah well, you see, err, ahhh, mmmmmm.

Toggle ID (the r key) Thinking sideways I thought well to get a ships ID it must get scanned..... I nearly used a barcode instead

BBD

Bangbangduck wrote:

Hi Spud!

Ah well, you see, err, ahhh, mmmmmm.

Toggle ID (the r key) Thinking sideways I thought well to get a ships ID it must get scanned..... I nearly used a barcode instead

BBD

lol... cool . when it didnt work i googled images or other QR scans and tried them with the ph... they worked off the screen!! so it might be something in the scaling of your image that doesnt work... lol would be cool if the QR scan block actually said Oolite, http://www.aegidian.org.. ha ha ha

spud42 wrote:

lol... cool . when it didnt work i googled images or other QR scans and tried them with the ph... they worked off the screen!! so it might be something in the scaling of your image that doesnt work... lol would be cool if the QR scan block actually said Oolite, http://www.aegidian.org.. ha ha ha

In a word, yes.... I looked at the image posted trying to work out why the QR code wouldn't scan and when you look at it at 400x zoom in GIMP it becomes immediately obvious. Turns out, not only has it been reduced in size, (introducing distortions) it's width to hight ratio wasn't even kept consistent and it's been anti-aliased to boot.

- Neelix

Be gentle with me. It was only to indicate the key's usage in game not to actually scan with the moby apps..... Reaches for micrometer - The next one will have the 'golden ratio'

BBD

Moved my horse to a new stable today so nothing has happened with the wiring of the key pad.