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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC – the Conclusion

I’ve stated writing this post in Nov. 2017, it sat in draft state for almost 3 years now. the FCC was already installed and working in my pit even then. I’ve made a few bug fixes over the years..
The FCC story came to a sad ending in March 2018. We were shocked over the loss of our friend, Arend van Oosten, creator of FCC, that had passed away. This also marks the sad end of FCC production. So this article, written lazily over 4 years after project has concluded, was supposed to be a complete and coherent thing that would conclude the FCC project, covering everything I’ve missed.

It won’t be. So much time has passed that I can’t really remember what was done, and what was not. which bugs were fixed and when.

I’ve installed the FCC in my pit, in a custom stickbase a friend has built for me. a simple little  metal construction based around a 60mm steel pipe with a top mounting bracket welded on top. drilled and tapped to match FCC specs. and attached to the console via a M12 bolt and nut. All of this is happily attached to my Warthog grip. So task complete! I have managed to have a true FCC3 for my Warthog, with a unique feature set tailored for me (and I hope all F-16 pit builders) that no commercial company will ever implement. As this was designed to a niche market within a niche market.

However, to all you FCC owners code and software is available on github along with some schematics that will help you build your own controller if you so wish. I will do my best to merge some changes made to the code elsewhere with some additional bug fixes. but no promises. 
https://github.com/uriba107/fcc_controller

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Uri_ba's pit

DCS VR performance 2.5.3 vs 2.5.4

In late Nov. 2018 I’ve done an extensive test to figure out the effect of Over Clocking the CPU on DCS performance. You can all read it here.

That test was done on a mid October Open-beta 2.5.3.22877, since then a few updates had came and improved visibility in VR. However, there where some claims of performance improvements. People around the ED forums speak wildly about great results. So I took Dec. 20th 2018 2.5.4.25729 Open-Beta  for a quick VR benchmark.

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Uri_ba's pit

TM grip retention brace

As all FCC (and I assume RSSB users too) are aware, the way Thrustmaster are interfacing the grip to the base will cause, over time, and increasing amount of play in the grip. To solve this some solutions have been suggested by the community, from 3d printed braces to just sticking LEGO blocks between the grip and the locking screw. However, all those solutions work for the stock straight grip. However, If you have a 13 degrees adapter for the stick.. good luck with those.

So I’ve decided to try and model something for myself. I went with a press fit, no screws or any other fancy hardware.

it fits snugly under grip and reduces the play considerably. it does not eliminate play completely, but does an awesome job .

And to top it all off… I’ve uploaded the files to Thingiverse, so if you want it just grab it 🙂 please note that it’s licensed under CC-Share alike.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3242941 

And for the giggles, a short before and after clip.. abd yes, the brace literally installs in 3 seconds.

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VR

8700k overclock performance in DCS 2.5

A year has passed since I’ve upgraded my rig and benchmarked the process. In the year since I went over couple of overclock itterations most as a gutshot. In addition DCS has come a long way, 2.5 which is more VR focused had released and the community has stepped up with a VR performance mod.

So let the testing begin!

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Uri_ba's pit

Upgrading Sim rig from 2600k to 8700k, worth it?

It’s that time… I’ve been faithfully using my 2600K for the past 5+ years. And now, with the launch of Coffee Lake CPUs I decided it was time for an Upgrade, Mostly due to CPU bottlenecks I have in DCS in VR . The Internet is full of Benchmarks and reviews. However, No one does flight sims Benchmarking.  So I hope I’ll be able to provide some light on this niche games of ours. And help you my fellow simmers do make a more educated decision.

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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC, Part V – Deciding on a feature list

Well, now that we had covered the  bases and we can actually “talk” with the hardware, it’s time to start designing the User experience.  Or in other terms, I want to go from a “joystick” to a “product”.

in this post I’ll try and go over some of my ideas and howto overcome some of the difficulties involved.

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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC, Part IV – I love this community!

This would be a short one, I’m writing these posts as I have some time, however, they are usually in a month or two delay behind the real timeline. sometimes it matters, usually it does not 🙂

In this matter it does. When I made my order for the FCC3, I’ve asked WhiteEagle some questions regarding the device, stating I’m going to build a controller for it and write my own custom firmware.

It turned out, that WhiteEagle was himself working on a similar project, he however focused on the hardware side deciding to use “off the self” firmware based on MMJOY2. We have decided that I’ll write my code to work on his hardware design, which over the process, evolved a bit to accommodate for my shenanigans (12 bit ADC) and his awesome ideas (like a centering assist LEDs).

As some of you may have seen WhiteEagle’s posts on ViperPits or on his own site, Vipercore. The firmware side is almost done, we still need to clean up some issues that may (or may not) exist.

In addition, I used this opportunity to go completely bananas on this one and took the HID protocol beyond anything I ever done to provide the best out of the Box experience I could do, allowing a trouble free experience once you have calibrated the hardware correctly.

However, For now I’ve yet to install the FCC in my pit, I’ve developed the hardware using my cougar with WhiteEagle providing real FCC3 tests and feedback. I hope that in the coming month I’ll be able to build a stick base, so the stick could be properly mounted.

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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC, Part III – ADC and all the bits it involves.

FCC3 is basically there to get us as close as possible to the F-16 Stick. But it was always restricted by what the Cougar electronics allows you to do. I could build an equivalent and take it up a notch by giving a little bit more on the HW side. We’ve decided to start by addressing the much sought out buzz word “resolution”…

you might have heard about joysticks with “14 bit resolution” or “8 bit resolution”. in this post I’ll try to explain a bit about this and how does it affect us.

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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC, Part II – HID shenanigans, A tale of a Hat (switch)

Continuing the Quest for a working FCC controller.

In this post I’ll go over on how the hat switch decided to be the thorn in my ass.

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Uri_ba's pit

Road to FCC, Part I – Reverse engineering the Cougar grip

I’ve decided to upgrade my pit and get a Force sensitive mod for my stick. I’m currently using a stock Warthog, and I love it. the grip is fantastic. However, there is only one mod for it, which is the very expensive FSSB-R3 made by RealSimulators. The product seems to be a very good piece of engineering, and is a drop in replacement for the WH, slap the grip on the base and you are done. However, mounting in in a proper stick base is somewhat more problematic. The other Force-sensing mod is the FCC3 by ViperCore.nl it is somewhat cheaper, community proven for years. However, it has a major drawback, it requires the Cougar PCB to work. I have a cougar, but I refuse to use it 🙂 (see my TQS controller series).

But a lack of controller never stopped me 🙂 So I opted for the FCC3 and started to dig into my Cougar to understand what will be required.

In this post I’ll dive into the grip wiring and bit ordering, and all the other fun things I had to dig into a whole bunch of documents to find.