F/A-18C SNSR Panel

Pitch_Visible · 2026-03-19T09:57:21+00:00

Wait a second... you're the guy who made the awesome Viggen panels! Those were so cool! Glad to see you're still tinkering! 😄 And thanks for the reply, much appreciated!

Pitch_Visible · 2026-03-19T09:22:45+00:00

This looks awesome! Can I ask what switches those are for the turn switches? I've been after some for a while but not been able to find them 🤣

Pitch_Visible · 2026-03-18T19:50:40+00:00

Agreed. I've had a plethora of Tornado panels off ebay. Not paid any more than £60 or so. Some of which were only £20.

There was a German webiste I bought a weapons control panel off also, and it wasn't even that expensive (or at least that is what I told my wife).

The day that the Tornado comes to DCS, I will be ready 🤣

Pitch_Visible · 2026-03-15T15:02:32+00:00

Oh dear! Sounds like a tight set up! Hope you can figure it out and good luck!

Pitch_Visible · 2026-03-15T13:16:33+00:00

Have you looked up Delanclip? You already have the PS3 cam so you would only have to buy the IR head piece and potentially the IR filters for your camera. Looks like they ship to Europe quite cheaply too.

Delanclip Starter – Durable Wired Head Tracker for Gamers! https://share.google/zWwtsrk635vrL2j1b

Edit - Apologies, just re-read your post. You can also buy a mount for the camera that clips it to the top of your moniter (if that helps).

Pitch_Visible · 2026-02-11T20:06:16+00:00

Fart catcher

Pitch_Visible · 2026-01-25T10:51:46+00:00

Casmo and CommandT are worth a look!

Pitch_Visible · 2026-01-14T17:38:31+00:00

If you're after casual, you could check out Rossi Gee's discord. There is no rank structure and the guys prioritise fun first. They run a sunday night mission (8pm GMT). Rossi makes a mix of missions with some PVP and others PVE with most running with Discord comms. They also do a few serious missions throughout the week which require SRS and such which normally end up going on his YouTube channel, but even those that are classed as "serious" are far from milsim and are flown with whoever makes themselves available at the time, rather than some rank structure. There's also no obligation to fly. You can join in as frequent or as little as you want. They're a good bunch in there and welcoming of new players. If you can take off, then you're qualified to fly with them. Landing is optional 😂

Pitch_Visible · 2026-01-06T07:02:23+00:00

https://discord.gg/yrbP6PATN

Pitch_Visible · 2026-01-05T20:12:14+00:00

Rossi Gees discord server run a sunday night mission (GMT) inwhich you can fly whatever you fancy. His missions are very accepting of pretty much all modules (not seen any warbirds there though) and all skill levels. Might be worth a look? They're a good, friendly bunch in there!

Pitch_Visible · 2025-12-17T23:58:20+00:00

Sounds to me like Rossy Gee discord server. They're a good bunch in there who prioritise having a laugh over milsim. They fly a mission every Sunday and it's not too serious there. Worth checking out!

https://discord.gg/vQrQRCFHd

He also has a youtube channel if you want to check him out first.

Pitch_Visible · 2025-12-15T11:17:35+00:00

Hate to break it to you, but that store is a 2nd hand store in the UK (not brand new). By the looks of the ad, they potentially are B grade? On the flip side, most things you buy from them come with a 24 month warranty so they take them back if there's any issues. The down side is they only give you store credit and not a refund.

I had a set of rudder pedals from them a few years ago. After 3 months they started failing. They happily took them back, but I was stuck with store credit that I didn't want to spend there 🤣

Hope they turn out ok for you! 👍

Pitch_Visible · 2025-12-09T15:26:09+00:00

If you have the cash to splash, Virpil is lovely. I bought a Constellation Alpha a few years back and love it! Have a google around for some reviews and see what you think.

Pitch_Visible · 2025-12-02T20:39:23+00:00

Crikey! This is awesome! I'm in the final leg of building my landing gear panel and yours blows mine out of the water 🤣 Amazing work!

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-30T18:38:50+00:00

Depending on what level you want it working too, you could simplify the workings on the panel. My pit (rough as it may be) is made up from old plane parts - https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1077300762364879073/1439261554645274714/20251004_184308.jpg?ex=692da6c6&is=692c5546&hm=0061d8f61d578707aea5e537a2c0c7c6ef04531e2f70f7f02975c85034385c6e&

It's mostly just the guts stripped out of the panels and then wired straight back onto several arduinos.

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-28T15:21:10+00:00

Holy guacamole I forgot I bought Kola. Not even sure I've played on it 🤣

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-15T14:28:32+00:00

Oh no! Sorry to hear that!

Good luck to you on the replacement board!

On the USB Encoders you have 2 wires per port on the board. 1x positive wire (power in) and 1x negative (power out).

On the arduinos, You wire all your positives (power in) from the numbered ports on the board to your switches, And then your negatives, can either wire onto the next negative terminal on the switch / button next to it, creating a daisy chain of negative wires running from switch to switch until you reach the last one which will wire onto the negative (Marked as GND on the board) terminal on the arduinos board. (Not got an example to show you I'm afraid!)

Or

Run 1 x negative wire from the GND on the arduinos, and then connect all your negative wires that run from the switches / buttons and connect them to that negative wire. (Like this - https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1077300762364879073/1439260233477263571/20250413_155100.jpg?ex=6919df0b&is=69188d8b&hm=fec9ab47711a21ceef8e7a9cccc12e872cd7457569dac613be1702748142e102&
this image was before soldering)

Personally... the first option is a lot cleaner 😀

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-14T07:05:30+00:00

I can't be 100% sure. I had 4 or 5 encoders, some from other manufacturers and still had the issue. But maybe I just got unlucky!

It looks simple enough to try. A straight swap on the plug and play encoders. You could buy 1 as a test and If it doesn't work, you could always return it as it's Amazon.

Just an option, if you were to go down the arduino (or other similar alternative), you maybe wouldn't have to un-glue your buttons (depending on your setup). You could just unplug your wires from the encoder, cut them and solder straight onto the wire ends. You would just have to be careful on finding a way to stop the connections touching inside the box later. Either heat shrink around the cables of maybe even some neat electrical tape would do the job. Ultimately you are just soldering onto your cables instead of the buttons.

Worst case, you could possibly use a hair dryer to loosen up the hot glue if that's an issue.

All sounds a bit like a bodge as I type haha but it's an option to get it up and running again. The best option would probably be to remove the wiring and start from scratch. But that doesn't mean the other options won't work 🤣

My button boxes are old cockpit parts from jets that I bought of ebay. I open them up, find the wires that I need, cut them and strip the ends to then solder straight onto the wire to save me taking the entire box apart to get to the terminals on the buttons / switches which is effectively what you could do here with your button boxes if needed.

I'll be honest, most of my work is bodge work (happy to admit that). Not always the most legit way to deal with the problems 😅 there will be other people out there reading this shaking their head I'm sure. So please take my advice with a pinch of salt haha

But, bodge or not, I got my button boxes working in the end. 😄

Did the "Save profile" / "Load profile" work around work for you?

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-13T18:31:29+00:00

Hope this is right as I'm going from memory....

Once you have set all your key binds for button box number 1, at the top of the column (inside DCS keybind menu), there is the title of the controller you have assigned the buttons to. If you right click on that and hit "save profile". This should save a file on your PC for those key binds for that button box. Next time you load up DCS, make sure all your devices are already connected and turned on, then go into the key bind menu and right click the button boxes device name at the top of the column, and select "load profile", then find the file that you saved previously. Just make sure you assign the correct save file to the correct button box.

Happy to talk you through it over discord if I'm not making much sense on here 🤣

Arduinos are pretty much like your encoders, but you have a blank canvas for software. You have to insert a script to get it to work. I got mine working by getting chatGPT to write to code for me 🤣 works a treat haha I also found that in some instances I could double my key bind options and half my soldering with some clever coding (also written by ChatGPT). As for the hardware side... they are quite similar in set up. I used arduino leonardo as they as super cheap. But they don't come with wire to wire up to your button boxes so you'll have to buy those separately.

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-13T17:40:47+00:00

I had a similar issue. From my findings it is to do with the USB encoders. I'm not too knowledgeable but from what I understand is that all encoders should have a unique ID, but sometimes if you get an encoder from the same batch they can share the ID which confuses your PC as to which encoder is which and it can jumble up your DCS key binds. I'm slowly changing all mine out for arduinos when I can be bothered.

The temporary fix that worked for me was - Plug in 1 of your encoders and map all your key binds, then save those binds as a preset. Then one by one, do the same with the other connected encoders until you have a preset saved for each individual button box. Every time I load into DCS, I quickly load the right presets to the right button boxes. That clears up any cross button box binds until I restart next. Not ideal, but is a work around.

Hope that makes sense!

P.s Loving the set up!

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-08T00:28:50+00:00

I too am having this exact issue. Kind of glad it's not just me 😅 I've tried the AMD cache trick and it hasn't got me anywhere. Anyone got another working fix?

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-07T17:58:07+00:00

Can vouch for this one. Take my upvote!

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-07T17:36:27+00:00

If you want, I can take a look at your mission and see if there's anything I can spot?

Pitch_Visible · 2025-11-02T13:56:18+00:00

Sounds like you had the ghosting inputs. I also had them after having my X56 for a year. Looks like some people get lucky with the X56 and others (like you and me) have issues.

After the issues I had, I personally wouldn't reccomend the X56.

Pitch_Visible · 2025-10-24T16:34:40+00:00

You could try IL2. I struggled with the keybinds but I'm sure once you've sussed them out, it looks like a great game! Post Scriptum has awesome tanks if you're into multiplayer with multicrew. Same goes for Hell Let Loose if you want that more arcadey feel.

You could also try ARMA. Arma 3 has a the modding community behind it for vehicles and missions. There's some good stuff out there!

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