Hardware Hardware interface of Orbiter

[gattispilot]

Hi, I am checking out how to interface orbiter with a physical cockpit setup? So when you fire thruster with your controller the spacecraft moves as the thrusters are firing on orbiter?

 

[Urwumpe]

Hi, I am checking out how to interface orbiter with a physical cockpit setup? So when you fire thruster with your controller the spacecraft moves as the thrusters are firing on orbiter?

Well, you can always map this to a Human Interface Device via USB, creating just a fancy game controller.

But more complex things require add-ons.

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. Above my pay about mapping. Would it be done the vessel code? I wonder what the limits are?

 

[Urwumpe]

Thanks. Above my pay about mapping. Would it be done the vessel code? I wonder what the limits are?

Well, you know the old wisdom, that my arts teacher told me once? She said: Better well stolen than badly made yourself.

Just buy a fitting stick and blend it into the cockpit.

Sadly, you can't by CAN bus components for SimPits from the shelf. Then it would be easy.

 

[Johan2011]

Where is @martins?

 

[n72.75]

Some generalized USB controller input is possible as long as you can find a C++ library for it. For general controller input @ggalfi wrote some awesome code for NASSP.

If you're trying to go a bit further afield (not just controllers), still I would start with the input/output device and then try tind a C++ library for it.

That's the beauty of the OrbiterAPI being in C++, if you can write a console app to display numbers from your input device, or output to blink an LED, you can interface those with API calls.

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. I will contact @ggalfi
Like I said this is above me. Just finding info

 

[gattispilot]

Sadly right now it looks like the will work for only NASSP.

What I what is one joystick to operate rotation thrusters and one to operate the translation

 

[n72.75]

@gattispilot you should be able to get joystick input from something like DirectInput https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ee416842(v=vs.85)

Iirc Orbiter does something similar under the hood. There are probably some alternative FOSS APIs on GitHub if you look around.

You really just need an API that has functions you can call so you can check input levels on two controllers, and then apply those values to thruster output in clbkPreStep

 

[gattispilot]

@gattispilot you should be able to get joystick input from something like DirectInput https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ee416842(v=vs.85)

Iirc Orbiter does something similar under the hood. There are probably some alternative FOSS APIs on GitHub if you look around.

You really just need an API that has functions you can call so you can check input levels on two controllers, and then apply those values to thruster output in clbkPreStep

Thanks. It maybe above my pay grade

 

[gattispilot]

So one could not plug the joystick 1 and select the tranlsation and plug in joystick 2 and select roational?

 

[gattispilot]

I am asking for someone else:"
I’m curious as to how Orbiter distinguishes Translational from Rotational joystick inputs. ???



I have our two Translational Hand Controllers (THCs) act as a single 3-axis joystick, requiring an either/or hardware input, and a null/neutral command if the two inputs conflict. The Rotational Hand Controllers (RHCs) are fighter aircraft style joysticks, mounted as sidesticks for the Commander and Pilot. If I had to, I could do some circuit and microcontroller surgery to get them to likewise behave as a single joystick."

I don't know how hard it would be to select 1 joystick for Rotational and another for translation? I guess they would be mapped. No idea how though

 

[E69shango]

Why just don't map the different hardware to different axes through fly by wire? It allows a lot of granularity when it comes to RCS axis: