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Final Documentation - University of Central Florida

1. ROL BUSHING DECK lt ATTITUDE gt QTY 1 0 1500 4 Te 0 7000 EDELE nO 0 3800 JE 0 1500 60 1094 0 1500 H 0 1900 v E i 0 7000 R0 18759 6 VIP 3800 hoe YY so L 01500 O O at A EN pay Aare N 3 2400 0 0600 Uy R1 4000 3 2400 0 4009 Si Nha E e 0 5347 Q O ica o R Y O O 20 2188 Q 3 2400 lt 3 2400 0 1406 a SCAU N 7NNN 60 1094 J6 as t t i 1 4 4 T Mm 4 4 y Y 4 Figure 3 27 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the attitude indicator sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi Five options that were considered I Construction of the attitude indicator consists of several parts The gauge will be controlled by servo or stepper motors A servo motor design may require either the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees if a roll indication of 360 degrees is desired A standard servo can be modified by either modifying the internal structure or by pairing a set of gears together with the proper gear ratio to spin at least 360 degrees Il Two standard 180 degree servo motors can be used if the desired roll indication does not require 360 degrees The two servo motors will drive the scales which are able to turn left or right as well as move up and down One of the servo motors will control upward and downward motions The sec
2. Figure 6 2 FTDIport inf Screenshot by Chris Dlugolinski c The highlighted section above shows the section in ftdiport that you need to edit i You need to add a new PID for your device and a name following the GAUGE_ lt name gt or CONTROL_ lt name gt Page 126 convention this is for the plugin to work with the gauge or control d Do the same for the ftdibus inf file as shown below following the same naming convention File Edit Search View Format Language Settings Macro Run TextFX Plugins Window E fdibus inf Heise ine cSHR amp s olg OB PP clase 21GSl 2162 S 2 Fe z oo x ftbusui dli ftd2xx d1l FTLang dil PtaiBus NTama64 Copy ftdibus sys PtaiBus NTama64 Copy2 ftbusui dlz ta2xx dl1 frd2xx64 d11 FILang d11 El FtdiBus NTamas4 Copy3 td2xx al1 E Strings Ftdi FIDI DESC CDM Driver Package DriversDisk FIDI USB Drivers Disk USB VID_0403 lt PID_6001 DeviceDesc GUAGE_HEADING USB VID_0403 lt PID_6002 DeviceDesc GUAGE_AIRSPEED USBAVID_0403 PID_6003 DeviceDesc GAUGE VERTAIRSPEED USBAVID_0403 PID_6004 DeviceDesc GAUGE_ALTIMETER USBAVID_0403 PID_6005 DeviceDesc GAUGE TURNINDICATOR_ROLL USBAVID_0403 PID_6006 DeviceDesc GAUGE _ATTITUDEMIDDLE USBAVID_0403 PID_6007 DeviceDesc CONTROL_THROTTLE RUDDER USBAVID_0403 PID_6008 DeviceDesc CONTROL_YOKE FBRL USBAVID_0403 PID_6009 DeviceDesc GAUGE ATTITUDEOUISIDE USBAVID_0 03 P
3. T 2400 ME ae 1 6200 ou 7 O 0 C 1 k f 0 3800 0 7000 E 3 2400 Figure 3 18 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the altimeter sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi We had three options for constructing this gauge in order to be implemented in the cockpit Of the following three gauges we have selected option two and three This is because the stepper motors provided us with 360 degrees of rotation which is necessary should the plane ever go above 1000 feet this will happen with 100 certainty Three options that were considered l Construction of the altimeter would have consisted of several parts The gauge would be controlled by servo or stepper motors A servo motor design would have required either the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees A standard servo could have been modified by either modifying the internal structure or by pairing a set of gears together with the proper gear ratio to spin a shaft at least 360 degrees Multiple motors may have been required to control the altimeter The small hand and large hand of the altimeter could be controlled by a modified servo made to Page 42 run continuously Each pointer would be USB controlled by an electronics board which would deliver direct feedback of the position of each pointer The small indicator could have been controlled by a stepper motor A second stepper motor could
4. A __ View Ext Lights int Lights import author www dmax it N172SP descrip Cessna 172 SP SkyHawk 180HP 9990999 call sign edit in METRIC Karae for A 5 dimensions has aerial Pacers refueling port B 999 igen pilot s 2 T arm 22000 lona arm ee AOA viewpoint 003 50 ft refueling port 0 0 0 0 0 ft cockpit bject 0 0 0 0 0 IKT Vs 044 99999 99099 99999 999 AAA ARABA ABABA Aaa iat lew point 0 0 0 8 0 ft refueling part 0 0 0 0 0 ft cockpit object 0 0 0 0 0 fh Viem 110 full dep 99999 990990 99999 999 efec 20044 vert arm AAAA vert arm 20000 AAA viewpoint 00150 ft refueling port 0 0 0 0 0 ft cockpit object 0 0 0 0 0 Kft Viel 085 1stdet 999909 99909090 99999 999 Vno 116 tsi anaana 20000 anana long arm long arm long arm tow hook 018 80 ft winching hook 000 00 ft boarding door 000 00 ft Vne 133 99999 99099 999099 999 20046 aAA boarding door 0 0 0 0 0 ft Mmo 00 40 Mach 99999 9909 20000 20000 20000 AAA tow hook 0 0 0 7 0 ft ra o boarding door 00 0 0 0 103 posG 04 5 limit 999909 990909 99099 999 AAA negG 02 0 limit 999 notes FA has aural has verbal aircraft cockpit Ny Mi warning O gail callout EA is glossy has gear has verbal airspeed indicator shows speed units EE m peile hom B gear callout B autopilot airspeed setting has airliner aural has verbal 500 only airports 5 warning system A AGL callout Y Sn map B AAA min r
5. 2 Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there are no obstructions to the gauge movement 3 Verify wiring to from the FTDI USB controller is in Page 107 No Testing Action Result accordance with the schematic diagram i Plug in the heading indicator into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes P F the device Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 1 Launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft ona runway idling Ensure the throttle is set to zero Ensure you are in the cockpit view in X Plane We will want to verify that the same position is indicated on the screen and with our simulated gauge First note the direction indicated on the physical gauge while on the runway Verify that this matches with the heading indicator in the virtual cockpit Release the brake by pressing the B key on the keyboard take off and climb to any altitude Once at an appropriate altitude turn to a heading of 330 degrees Verify that the physical gauge moves smoothly in the correct direction to 330 degrees and matches the movement of the virtual gauge Put the aircraft back into level flight Next perform a 360 degree turn to the right Verify that the indicator goes around the full 360 degrees back to a heading of 330 degrees Resume a forward heading and continue level flight Repeat part 5 but instead of turning to the right as stated make a turn to the left Verify
6. E 20ms refresh rate minimum Met Use less than 5V to power the actual chip Devices connected to the chip may use other values Minimum 8 I O Pins for external communications Met Fit inside of a 3 24 x3 24 profile For the aircraft gauges and alongside the flight Met controls Low Cost Microcontroller Including not only the chip but also the development Page 121 Sub Req Requirement Description Result As self contained as possible Does not require any complex circuitry or boards to be manufactured outside of very simple boards that can be manufactured in ENGR 456 Motor to drive flight instruments Use of servo and stepper motors to drive flight Met instruments Must be able to complete a turn of over 360 degrees for the altimeter and heading indicator Other gauges need only to travel less than 360 degrees Realistic flight instruments and controls Flight controls are to be original instruments should be as close to original Partial manufacture specification as possible Gauges Standard Six Pack has been implemented Altimeter Airspeed Indicator Attitude Indicator Turn Coordinator Heading Indicator Vertical Speed Indicator Ensure each gauge Met matches or closely matches the actual gauge utilized in the G700S cockpit Flight Controls Stick Pedals Throttle Using existing controls from the GoBosh G700S to preserve realistic look and feel Requirements F2 and F2A wer
7. 65 below Page 93 Figure 3 65 Finished Aircraft Model Image by Robert Gysi 3 11 1 Model Generation Generating the model was a fairly difficult process although was made much simpler thanks to the included Plane Maker that ships with X Plane 9 In order to generate our basic fuselage shape we utilized dimension drawings obtained from the manufacturer We contact one of Aero s design engineers who was more than willing to provide us with this information From these drawings we were able to trace our fuselage shape into the plane maker While the drawings we used were dimensioned it is possible that our fuselage is not the exact length of the actual aircraft however by using the same drawings for each background image we are confident that it is at least to scale and should still be fairly close to the full size This process is shown in Figure 3 66 below Figure 3 66 Wireframe model traced over dimensioned drawings Image by Robert Gysi Page 94 The wings were much easier to implement as all that really needs to be done is to specify the length of the wings and place the control surfaces in the correct location Due to our simulator not having controls for the flaps this feature was not implemented However the ailerons are required to the fly the aircraft and they were placed that the location specified in our dimensioned drawings Also in terms of control geometry we needed to be able to specify the chord r
8. B 4 November Monthly Status Report Period Covered 1 Nov 2009 30 Nov 2009 Project Progression Page B3 Upon reaching November 30 2009 we have completed major areas of the project design The majority of the flight instruments design has been completed although we are still attempting to contact simkits in regards to a discount on their pre built gauges Part selection for all of the major components including the computer has been completed and has been rolled into our projected budget At this time we are working on pulling together our project documentation and taking care of the remaining design tasks We have also successfully tested the FTDI chipset that we intend to use for the aircraft gauges Project Expenditures e Project Funds 0 e Personal Funds this month 0 e Personal Funds project total 50 Project Files Delivered Budget Project Status e Design of Flight Instruments o Microcontrollers USB interface Complete o Servo Motors Complete o Required software on simulator PC Complete o Mechanical design In Progress e Design of Flight Controls o USB interface Complete o Throttle Complete o Yoke Complete o Pedals In Progress e Other Electrical Design o Lights Switches Complete o Power Supply Complete e Design of Aircraft Model Have aircraft manual other sources of performance data e Mounting Design for Monitors and Computer Hardware In Progress e Design Documentation In
9. E DVD CD ROM drives 1 Human Interf es Ca IDE ATA ATAPI controllers IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers a 23j Imaging devices z5 ejet 7300 series 23 USB 2 0 UVC 1 3M WebCam and game controllers gM Syste es Universal Serial Bus controllers driver and point to it f Click continue anyway Figure 6 5 Device Manager Screenshot by Chris Dlugolinski i You will see a USB to Serial device with a Yellow Exclamation Install the FTDI Driver Right Click on the device and select Update Once the drivers are installed you need to uninstall the VCP drivers Then unplug the USB and re plug the device in if it comes up again You will need to find the directory where you saved the FTDI drivers without the yellow exclamation you can continue if not reinstall the driver and uninstall the VCP Once installed you can change the device to what you have entered into the other files above using the FTD2XX exe serializer program Page 128 Y FTD2XX Serializer and Tester File Device Options Help D BEAL Rx Manufacturer FTOI Manufacturer ID FT Vendor ID 0403 Product ID 6004 Description GAUGE_ALTIMETER gt n MODE Program Figure 6 6 FTD2XX Serializer Program j First you need to enter the info as seen above just changing the description to your corrected name and changing the Product ID to your corrected ID k Then you will need to select the Advanced setup button F
10. The schematic below in figure 3 55 represents the overall circuitry for the implementation of the flight controls utilizing the pins on A D ports mentioned in the previous sections tied to a potentiometer Page 76 Pa R6 Q2N2224 R5 Slide POT 2 lide POT 1 R7 10k Figure 3 55 Circuit implementing control systems Created by Chris Dlugolinksi 3 5 Computer Hardware Selection Computer selection is a probably the most important task on this project due to the fact that a full computer needs to be assembled so that we are able to meet our requirements that were discussed earlier in this documentation to provide the most realistic and smooth experience while maintaining a low cost This is not always easy to do and in section 3 5 1 a discussion on the choice of various components along with trade offs are presented 3 5 1 Computer Hardware Flight simulators are notorious for being some of the most graphics intensive applications that a consumer can install on their personal computer This is even truer with X Plane because not only does it feature impressive graphics but also due to the fact that X Plane is also a full fledge aerospace modeling application Because of this we needed to ensure that we had hardware powerful e
11. To ensure that we can roll back decrease the altitude to 500 feet above sea level Verify that the physical gauge matches the value given on the virtual gauge in the simulation software Overall Result Pass With conditions With the altimeter everything from an electrical standpoint works as designed However from testing we discovered that the gearing we utilized eventually causes the gauge to be off at high altitudes We can partially correct this by adjusting the barometric pressure in X Plane on the virtual gauge In order fully fix this new gears would need to be installed Unfortunately this was discovered late in the process as this gauge took a very long time to construct 5 4 2 3 Attitude Indicator The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action 1 Result Perform Visual Inspection of the attitude indicator WARNING Ensure attitude indicator is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly 2 Verify that the attitude indicator was constructed in accordance with the manufacturer s specifications Verify mechanical assembly and electrical schematic Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there ar
12. We were only able to utilize the faceplates needles and glass frame of the real altimeter we obtained from GoBosh Aviation to build our simulated altimeter These components were added to the faceplate deck of the layered sheet metal 2009 Nov Drawing of Altimeter Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Sens_alt_components PNG Page 43 and hex spacer flight instrument design A single stepper motor was mounted in the center of the motor deck and used to turn the needles of the altimeter A piece of 3 8 round aluminum tube was first mounted to the shaft of the stepper motor Next brass tubing of 1 16 was slipped inside brass tubing of 3 32 and each was allowed to spin freely within each other To simulate the altimeter needle readings 48 pitch gears of 12 24 48 and 60 teeth were used to spin the shafts at a 1 10 ratio to indicate the 100 and 1000 feet readings 3 3 1 2 Airspeed Indicator The airspeed indicator measures the indicator airspeed of an aircraft via a probe on the fuselage In our application our airspeed indicator is fed data from X Plane simulating the mechanical operation of a pressure driven system In an actual gauge the speed indicated is relative to the surrounding air by measuring the ram air pressure in the aircrafts pitot tube As with our other instruments this is powered over USB and based on the FTDI chipset previously mentioned in our microcontroller design section All of the co
13. AMD L3 Cache TNA MB Here we have two very similar CPUs that are matched in almost every specification but one of them the 99 AMD Phenom X2 550 is around 70 cheaper than the most equivalent Intel manufactured CPU Since we are attempting at all costs to create the most powerful machine for the lowest cost it makes perfect sense to choose the AMD Phenom CPU over the Intel Additionally while this was not a factor in determining the CPU it appears AMD has given the enthusiast community a gift with the release of this particular model It turns out that the Callisto based Phenom X2 processors are really quad core chips with just two of the cores disabled and are extremely receptive to overclocking to upwards of 4 GHz This means that for 99 we could upgrade our CPU using a fairly simple process to unlock the remaining two cores requires no hardware modification and up our clock speed to a high value in the end giving us the performance of a nearly 200 AMD Phenom X4 or an Intel Core 2 Quad 22 2009 Nov Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Specifications Online Available http www newegg com ProductProduct aspx ltem N82E16819115037 si 2009 Nov AMD Phenom X2 550 Black Edition Specifications Online Available http www newegg com Product Product aspx ltem N82E 16819103680 a 2009 Dec AMD Phenom X2 550 Review Unlocking Blocked Cores Online Available http www xbitlabs com articles cpu display ohenom athlon ii x2_15 h
14. It is an 8 1 decoder it will take 3 pins for selection and then one pin to read the switch This can be done for 2 separate decoders allowing input for 16 different switches and since switches are not really time needy they don t need to be polled very quickly and this circuit should work fine Each of the switches would need to be connected to a high point or the USB 5 volts or the power supply whichever we chose to go with There should be a resistor in the circuit so that we don t draw too much current The software on the computer side should recognize the chip as the control chip and then be setup to poll 2 switches at once using the same code sent out to each of the decoders This info will then be read in over the USB and applied in the simulation 3 7 Panel Indicator Lights Similar to the switches we didn t have time to implement this additional feature Although we did receive lights from GoBosh in case we were able to find time to Page 87 implement this feature we were not able to implement them However we did populate the panel with the lights we were given and the electrical design in this section is presented here for future use by our project sponsor Just as with all the other devices controlled by the simulator the indicator lights will be controlled once again through USB and using the FTDI chip we could use simple transistors and resistors to turn on and off the lights whenever needed The nice part about using the FTDI
15. climb you should see the vertical speed indicator move in a clockwise fashion Ensure that the movement mimics the virtual gauge on the screen Pitch the aircraft nose as far back as possible putting the aircraft into a stall Right before the stall the gauge should go no further than the established maximum on the gauge Recover from the stall return to level flight and pitch the nose towards the ground The vertical speed indicator should now move in the counter clockwise direction Verify that this matches the gauge on the screen a OveralResult Pass 5 4 3 Flight Controls This section of the acceptance testing will cover the testing of our flight controls to that were installed in our instrument panel Each step must result in a pass with any deficiencies noted for correction Each individual component should pass before being installed to the instrument panel and before integrated system testing Any comments about the testing follows the result tables in each section 5 4 3 1 Joystick The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component had been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This was tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Acton Result Perform Visual Inspection of Joystick Control WARNING Ensure joystick control is disconnected from the USB Port and that th
16. simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes the device P F Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 1 Launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway idling Ensure the throttle is set to zero 2 Ensure you are in the cockpit view in X Plane We will Page 103 No Testing Action 2222222222222 Result want to verify that the same indicated airspeed is displayed on the virtual instrument on the screen and our simulated instrument First release the aircraft brake by pressing the B key on the keyboard Then using the throttle control increase the power to at least 40 kts Verify that the physical gauge matches the airspeed indicated in X Plane Verify that the gauge moves at the same rate as indicated on the screen Bring the aircraft to a halt Verify that the gauge returns to zero If it does not return to zero note where it stops This is important as we will need to potentially adjust the calibration of the gauge if it does not return to zero Repeat steps 3 and 4 Ensure that the data again matches on both the screen and on the physical gauge installed in the cockpit a Overalesult O Pass 5 4 2 2 Altimeter The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test comput
17. would require either the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees A standard servo could be modified by either modifying the internal structure or by pairing a set of gears together with the proper gear ratio to spin a shaft at least 360 degrees Il The airspeed indicator only has a single pointer to control A single servo motor capable of 360 degrees a modified 180 degree servo motor or a 180 degree standard single servo motor paired with a set of gears could have been used to control the pointer on the airspeed indicator III A single stepper motor capable of turning 360 degrees could be used instead of a single servo motor to control the pointer of the vertical speed indicator A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know when the shaft is positioned at zero or home To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor could be used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position Page 45 IV A real commercial airspeed indicator could also be used for the flight simulator It would require accurately generating slow varying pressures within small fractions of a PSI Figure 3 22 shows the inherent complexity involved when trying to use a real aircraft flight instrument in building a flight simulator cockpit The mechanical parts of the aircraft flight instrument would have needed to be removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Servo
18. 360 degrees just as with the attitude indicator and altimeter This gauge is probably the slowest turning of all the gauges This means that any choppy movement would be magnified The vertical speed indicator bottom left corner of figure 2 11 is required to have a range of motion of 360 degrees Unlike the altimeter the attitude indicator and the heading indicator this gauge is not required to turn more than 360 degrees To match its real life counterpart our gauge must also have a range of 2000 feet per minute This is the fastest of all the six pack gauges and our model will have to replicate this speed But because this gauge operates at a higher speed choppiness and lack of precision is less of a concern as it is hardly noticable 2 3 Project Budget Our project sponsor has established a budget of 1500 during our initial discussions Due to the previously mentioned issue with not receiving a cockpit we went through a major design revision This affected our budget in that we wound up being significantly under our original budget due to not purchasing several components For this section we will discuss our actual planned budget in addition to our actual spending after design changes For the original design effort we anticipated that our budget would need to be expanded to cover the costs of the simulation computer and monitors Up to the moment the decision was made to alter our project due to the lack of a cockpit we had an antici
19. 5 3 4 2 Switches Restart X Plane Perform steps 3 through 4 again Ensure that the gauges switches lights and controls still work the same without needing calibration If any gauges appear to not reset to zero take note of which need adjustments along with the ones that reset with no issues If the system performs with no issues on the second system run then we can consider the system as having been certified in working order and built to our specifications and design Page 116 At the completion of our integrated systems testing all systems were functioning as they should and with the limitation on the instruments as noted in the acceptance testing section Any issues that have arisen since testing are not covered in the above results 5 6 Prototype Use Cases The simulator being developed as part of this project was slated to be ultimately used as a demonstrator at the Sun n Fun airshow and aviation conference at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in April 2010 Unfortunately due to cockpit not arriving this use was never realized Should the cockpit have arrived this simulator would have be used by the aircraft manufacturer to give prospective buyers seat time in a very realistic simulation of the actual aircraft In this capacity it would have also be utilized to take those prospective customers and show how relatively easy compared to other general aviation aircraft that the aircraft is to fly This was meant to assist in the s
20. Created mock controls Complete Yes Legend Created by Chris Dlugolinksi Page 31 3 2 Microcontroller Design After some research on the types of microcontrollers that were available with the ability to do the required tasks we decided to go with the FTDI chip that has the capability to be used in bit bang mode which allows for control of individual I O ports The chip has the capability to interface with any microcontroller being the USB portion of the communication for the microcontroller without the need to code the interface for USB communications This was great but added to the cost of the gauges Yet the added cost saved us some time This gave us the ability to not really worry about USB protocol and it is able to remove our need for a microcontroller at least for the gauges we have implemented The implementation only called for controlling of a few I O ports this was done with any I O ports and the FTDI chip in its special mode was able to do this It can read and write to the lines directly giving us the ability to write the control for the device right into our software We used the FT245BL chip it has 8 I O pins and direct connection capable to talk over the USB line as needed It also has the capability to have EEProm connected up to the chip This will allow us or anyone who wants to make a gauge to make one and we could easily identify them through a description or a PID or VID that we will assign Our program conta
21. Online Available http www girr org mac_stuff usb_stuff html 2009 Nov Stepper Motors reference guide Online Available http ams2000 com stepping101 html Page 19 Use of the servo needed some sort of extra timing circuit in order to give the servo motor the pulse widths it desires to run correctly The initial design of the controller for the servo involved a 555 timer and some sort of Digital to Analog converter The 555 timer was to be used to give us our pulses of the different lengths depending on the analog values that are received from the D A converter In order to get the most from our FTDI chip we needed to get an eight input D A that can give out voltages with high resolution 248 256 values between 0 and 180 degrees This was ruled out when our sponsor who has an electrical engineering background decided that the 555 timer circuit couldn t give us the most stable of time pulses to keep everything accurate The design and test phase of the project will determined we needed to add some sort of outside power source to help control the gauges but we first tried to put it together using no outside power source Unfortunately this led to the devices disappearing during operation due to the power supplied was too low for the device to function properly A diagram of the circuits can be found below in Chapter 3 2 2 2 3 Flight Instrumentation Requirements The flight instruments are one of the most important elements
22. Protected MaterialS coconcococcnncnononononaonnnncnnnnnnannnoncnncnnnnannannanons 0 C 1 Images by Mark Verschaeren Flight Illusion oonooccnnocononccononnnonancnnnanononnnonnnnnnnnnnonnanornnos 1 C 2 Information from Bob Miller ooo ti 1 EA A O 1 Page 1 Chapter 1 1 1 Executive Summary When the idea of creating a flight simulator came up as a topic for a senior design project it sounded like a fun project that could have many different types of challenges A simulator is an imitation of something real and the simulator that we were asked to build was for a real product the GoBosh 700s aircraft The aircraft is used for training students on how to fly and the simulation would make that task easier and also make the student a little more comfortable with his her ability as a pilot before they actually fly the real aircraft Originally an actual aircraft fuselage of this aircraft type was going to be part of our design The fuselage would have come equipped with all the working control inputs pedals stick and throttle as well the instrument panel for our simulated instruments Unfortunately due to supplier issues between the factory Aero Sp z 0 0 and the US importer GoBosh Aviation we did not receive a cockpit as intended Although the cockpit was not received GoBosh did come through and deliver us an instrument panel cutout and several gauges to use for parts to add what realism we could to our simulator Eve
23. The implementation of the plugin has three main parts 1 The TimeProcessing part this is the part of the plugin that has the main parts of the plugin callbacks needed in X Plane 2 The devices have two separate threads one for the Controls this updates the controls for the aircraft 3 Then the final part of the plugin is the control of the Gauges Each of these will be discussed in detail later in this section By interfacing with all the gauges using a single plug in we have a little more control and can step through all of the interfaces in series This way whenever it is time to refresh the data on the I O devices we can make sure it all happens at the same time You could also keep the desired modularity by allowing the user to configure which devices to use or by having the software sense all appropriate I O devices at initialization Also by using one global plugin it makes it much easier to share and recycle code Figure 3 62 shows a block diagram of our high level plugin architecture Each device will plug into the computer with its own designated USB cord and will be controlled by the plugin The reason we chose to group them in this fashion was because the design for all of the control devices are very similar as is the design for all for all of the flight instruments Figures 3 62 and 3 63 show a higher resolution diagram of the control and flight instrument interfaces respectively Because all of the hardware interfaces into the
24. This arm will need to go all the way around up to ten times The shorter arm corresponding to the hour hand of a clock represents thousands of feet above sea level This gauge will move at a fairly fast rate especially during dive maneuvers and therefore the gauge we build must turn the needles fast enough to replicate this real worlds speed The requirement for smooth movements also persists with this gauge but precision is not as critical as with the slower moving gauges Page 22 The turn coordinator bottom left corner of figure 2 11 is another more complicated gauge similar to the attitude indicator It consists of two components a plane shaped needle that indicates the bank of the plane during a turn and a small ball in a tube similar to a bubble level that indicates the slip and skid Both components require the least range of motion and therefore every move they make must be as smooth as possible This gauge operates at a moderate speed that is far less critical than some of the other gauges To optimize authenticity this gauge must have four tick marks as shown in figure 2 11 The top two tick marks represent no bank and the bottom two marks represent a turn in which the heading change is three degrees per second These two bottom marks are now at the 2 minute marks because it takes two minutes to do a full 360 at this bank The heading indicator bottom middle of figure 2 11 is required to turn all the way around more than
25. at the same price However there is one major difference The ASUS board allows for 16GB of DDR3 RAM to be installed while the MSI board only allows for 8GB of DDR3 RAM A comparison of the two follows in Table 3 7 Table 3 7 Motherboard Comparison P ASUS M4A785TD V EVO MSI 790X G45 Expansion Slots 2x PCle x16 1x PCle x1 2x PCle x16 2x PCle x1 3xPCl 2xPCl USS CA With the CPU graphics cards and motherboard selected we can select our remaining components to round out our computer build For RAM we have decided to go above the minimum requirements for X Plane set at 1GB and Windows 7 minimum also 1GB and go with a 4GB DDR3 dual channel kit running at the DDR3 1066 speed PC3 8500 This should be sufficient for the simulator although if more memory is desired the motherboard will allow up to 16GB total to be installed 64 Bit Windows 7 is required for this For drive selection it was incredibly straight forward For the hard drive we calculated that total space required by an Installation of Windows 7 Professional and X Plane 9 4 would utilize roughly 100GB of capacity Since we do not need a very large drive due to the computer s specialization a 160GB Serial ATA drive with a 8MB cache and a 4 2ms average latency from Western Digital was selected In reality when it comes time to purchase any drive as long as it meets or exceeds the same specifications could be purchased This will allow us to procure the cheape
26. ball by utilizing a moving plate It should also be noted that the SimKits gauge while it has a X Plane plug in available it is only sold for professional use and is priced accordingly at 2000 The Flight Illusion gauge however includes a free X Plane plug in so there would be no additional costs or development required to implement Figure 3 28 Flight Illusion Attitude Indicator Gauge Photo used with permission from Mark Verschaeren For the attitude indicator we chose option three and four The attitude indicator was one of our toughest and challenging flight instruments to simulate We were fortunate enough to get a real attitude indicator from GoBosh Aviation The attitude indicator was taken apart and the gyro was removed A stepper motor was mounted on the inside of the yoke to drive the pitch indicator A second stepper motor was mounted on the back to control the roll indicator Figure 3 29 1 For e mail response granting permission to use see Appendix C Page 51 on the following page shows the setup of the actual attitude indicator and the mounted stepper motors Figure 3 29 Actual Attitude Indicator during modification process Photo by Lewis Vail 3 3 2 2 Turn Coordinator The turn coordinator provides to the pilot information about the yaw roll and coordination of the turn being performed If the turn is coordinated than the ball that exists in track in the bottom of the gauge see Figure 3 30 will rem
27. be used to regulate the air pressure scale by using a dial located at the lower left land hand side of the gauge Il The altimeter could have been built using 3 stepper motors There would have been a motor to move the 100 ft hand and 1000 ft hand The third stepper motor could have been used for the plate linked to a potentiometer to adjust the settings for the barometric pressure The pointers small indicator and dial for the barometric pressure would be USB controlled by an electronics board which will deliver direct feedback of the position and setting A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know when the shaft is positioned at zero or home To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor is used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position III A real commercial altimeter could be used for the flight simulator It required accurately generating slow varying pressures within small fractions of a PSI Figure 3 19 shows the inherent complexity involved when trying to use a real aircraft flight instrument in building a flight simulator cockpit The mechanical parts of the aircraft flight instrument are removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Stepper motors are then placed inside the aircraft flight instrument Barometric scale adjustment knob Figure 3 19 Actual altimeter components As a work of the U S federal government the image is in the public domain
28. cause unneeded traffic That could of slowed down the code and could take away from other threads that were operating So at that rate we needed to have a speed of 1 sec 30 33 ms and we also needed to send enough information to update each of the gauges we implemented For the basic six pack we have 8 bits x 6 gauges which is the same as 6 bytes that need to be updated every 33ms that gives us a speed of 6 bytes x 30 180 bytes sec this was easy to keep up with over USB speeds as USB 1 was 12 Mbit s There will be room to expand the gauges and input devices as needed The microcontroller FTDI chip we used set the type of software requirements that we needed also It determined the how we needed to update the gauges as well as how we could get our information from our controls 2 2 2 Hardware Requirements The hardware requirements development includes all of our hardware and physical assemblies that will need to be created This includes our simulator PC that will run X Plane the requirements for the microcontroller outside of software issues requirements for our aircraft instruments and requirements for our flight controls While we did not receive our cockpit or demonstrate at Sun n Fun as intended some of these requirements were not implemented especially for the computer setup As these were requirements developed for our original design we will retain these discussions at the end of this paper show the status of each of the re
29. chip is that once the port is high or low on the chip it will stay that way acting just like a switch This allows the indicator light to stay lit or not lit whenever we need it to be A circuit of the lights is shown on the next page as well as the actual indicator lights to be implemented along with their labels in the actual aircraft below The data to drive these lights should be pulled from variables in X Plane FUEL FUEL RESERVE PUMP ON 26 US gal NCP r E No 452 OU Noe as y 11 ten 0 2 33_OUT _ G5_ING 7 d 9P12 0 3 BIIN G4_OUT L 23004 Wase GND G4 f 10 5 0 ag VO0 6 e L 9 k vont i f __ Q2N3904 GND ha ae ii j a7 Q2N3904 Figure 3 61 Indicator lights circuit diagram Created by Chris Dlugolinksi Page 88 The schematic in Figure 3 61 on the previous page shows how the design for illuminating the lights in the cockpit could of been implemented The other way that can be used depends on the sinking capabilities of the buffer If it can light up all the lights and still function it may be possible to remove the transistors and just use resistors 3 8 Flight Instrument and Control Interface Design The core of our simulator will be X Plane s simulation software Therefore all of our softwareinterfaces with X Plane via its plug in API This API gives us access to all of the functions and variables that we needed
30. control is always YES and the second is always NO REVERSED This is if when you finish creating your gauge it spins in reverse you 7 set this to YES else NO STEPOFFSET This is set here because the flags used to stop the gauges weren t engineered to the highest standards and offsets need to be taken NOLED This variable is used to tell the program if the gauge or control you have created has a photodiode used to stop the gauge if NO LED is used type YES PARA RARA RARA RARA ARA RARA RARA RGAUGES RARA RARA RARA RARA ARA RARA RARA HEADING_MAX_STEPS 400 HEADING_MIN_VALUE 0 HEADING_MAX_VALUE 360 HEADING_WRAPAROUND YES HEADING_REVERSED YES HEADING _STEPOFFSET 95 HEADING _NOLED NO AIRSPEED MAX _STEPS 380 AIRSPEED MIN VALUE 0 AIRSPEED MAX VALUE 160 AIRSPEED_WRAPAROUND NO AIRSPEED_REVERSED NO AIRSPEED_STEPOFFSET 5 AIRSPEED NOLED NO VERTAIRSPEED_MAX_STEPS 380 VERTAIRSPEED_MIN_VALUE 2000 VERTAIRSPEED_MAX_VALUE 2000 VERTAIRSPEED_WRAPAROUND NO VERTAIRSPEED_REVERSED NO VERTAIRSPEED_STEPOFFSET 2 VERTAIRSPEED_NOLED NO Dos Windows ANSI Figure 6 4 Config ini file Screenshot by Chris Dlugolinski 5 Plug in the FTDI chip Page 127 6 You will see the found new hardware window open cancel it and open the Device Manager a Start gt Right Click on My Computer and select Manage b Click on Device Manager all a 4a Christopher PC Y AsusOtherDevices Ez Display adapters
31. indicator would have consisted of several parts The gauge would be controlled by servo or stepper motors A servo motor design will require either the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees A standard servo can be modified by either modifying the internal structure or by pairing a set of gears together with the proper gear ratio to spin a shaft at least 360 degrees Il The vertical speed indicator only has a single pointer to control A single servo motor capable of 360 degrees a modified 180 degree servo motor or a 180 degree standard single servo motor paired with a set of gears could have been used to control the pointer on the vertical speed indicator III A single stepper motor capable of turning 360 degrees could be used instead of a single servo motor to control the pointer of the vertical speed indicator A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know when the shaft is positioned at zero or home To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor could be used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position IV A real commercial vertical speed indicator could also be used for the flight simulator It would require accurately generating slow varying pressures within small fractions of a PSI Figure 3 25 shows the inherent complexity involved when trying to use a real aircraft flight instrument in building a flight simulator cockpit The mechan
32. motors or stepper motors would then be placed inside the aircraft flight instrument For the airspeed indicator we have selected option three and four This is because stepper motors provided 360 degrees of rotation While our airspeed indicator never had to go around more than once we do need to ensure that the extreme values can be represented Servo motors unfortunately lacked resolution at high angles 71 LS tS Static Air Line Figure 3 22 Components of an actual airspeed indicator As works of the U S federal government all FAA images are in the public domain We were only able to utilize the faceplate needle and glass frame of the real airspeed indicator we obtained from GoBosh Aviation to build our simulated airspeed indicator These components were added to the faceplate deck of the layered sheet metal and hex spacer flight instrument design A single stepper motor was mounted in the center of the motor deck and used to turn the needle of the airspeed indicator A piece of 3 8 round aluminum tube was mounted to the shaft of the stepper motor to extend the shaft length to the faceplate 3 3 1 3 Vertical Speed Indicator The vertical speed indicator measures the speed at which an aircraft rises and falls its vertical speed If the nose is banked upward and the vertical speed drops starts to decrease for example this would indicate that the aircraft has stalled or lost lift Also for example if the nose is banked dow
33. of X Plane please see the X Plane User Manual at http wiki x plane com Category X Plane_Desktop_ Manual This will cover all aspects of the simulator software 6 3 Troubleshooting At some point during the operation of the simulator a component may fail or produce undesired results This section will cover the steps to recover from these failures 6 3 1 Inoperative Gauge It is possible that a gauge may not properly work during simulator usage This could be caused by a variety of factors including Windows not recognizing the device properly The steps below should correct this issue 1 Check the Config ini file to see if the gauge is named correctly 2 Check to make sure the gauges and controls show up in the Device Manager Correctly a Right Click on My Computer and select Manage then select Device Manager b Click on the USB and you should see all the connected gauges and controls c Right Click on the gauge or control in question and select properties d Select the Advanced tab i You see that the VCP drivers are deselected e If you don t see Advanced tab then you need to uninstall and reinstall the device making sure the VCP drivers is deselected Page 124 6 3 2 Gauge does not Initialize Properly If the gauge does not initialize properly on startup the first thing to check is to ensure that the LED for the light sensor is on If it is on ensure that it hits the light sensor It is possible that during transport that these tw
34. of instruments that exist in the six pack that on an actual aircraft generate their data from taking measurements based on air pressure For our purposes this is just grouping these common gauges together as we will not be utilizing any air pressure systems These gauges include the Altimeter the Airspeed Indicator and the Vertical Speed Indicator 3 3 1 1 Altimeter The altimeter is used to measure altitude above a reference level which is usually set at sea level This is done by measuring the local air pressure Figure 3 17 shows the faceplate of a three pointer sensitive aircraft altimeter displaying an altitude of 10 180 ft while Figure 3 18 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we used For the altimeter we only implemented two pointers to indicate tens and thousands of feet Figure 3 17 Altimeter Face plate dials and barometric pressure adjustment knob This image has been released into the public domain by its author Bsayusd at the Wikipedia project 7 2009 Nov SVG Drawing of Altimeter Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File 3 Pointer_Altimeter svg w oa oO Page 41 4 R Oa 0 1500 A 20 1250 3 2400 Lee 0 7000 raceruane necx or Lo 40 3800 _015 Ledisoo p 01500 0 7000 IN o 0 39004 4 h A201094 ott 90 1406 er Ns RO0 109 O LATE Asno ats 00 1250 vd z 0 3800 1 60 1406 A A O Ya MS A R1 4000
35. regarding the authentication of the simulation For this reason we had some very strict requirements regarding the instruments First of all it was asked that we use mechanical heads down gauges for all the instruments we were modeling In the simulation world many times the instrument panel is modeled using LCD screens displaying virtual gauges and this functionality is even built into the simulation software The problem with virtual gauges is that you don t get the look and feel of the cockpit like you do with mechanical gauges Figure 2 9 shows the view of the instrument panel from inside the cockpit Figure 2 10 shows our simulator s instrument panel As you can see the look of the simulated gauges are almost identical to those of the actual gauges Unfortunately we did not have the time or resources to model all of the Gobosh instruments instruments so we just modeled the essential flight gauges as seen in Figure 2 10 Page 20 Figure 2 9 The interior view of the instrument panel Photo by Robert Gysi MAXIMUM MANEUVERING SPEED V 90 KTS IAS TOE BRAKES Figure 2 10 Our simulator s instrument panel Photo by Lewis Vail The instruments that were essential to properly simulate the aircraft were the standard six pack of gauges Figure 2 11 is an enlarged view of these gauges from the actual aircraft They include from left to right top to bottom the Page 21 airspeed indicator the attitude indicator the alti
36. rotation Gimbal Gyro rotation Canted gyro Figure 3 32 Components of an actual turn coordinator As a work of the U S federal government the image is in the public domain V Another option would be to buy a simulated instrument kit for this type of flight instrument Like with the Attitude indicator there are two manufacturers of this gauge SimKits and Flight Illusion SimKits has one with an existing faceplate while Flight Illusion does not have this particular one If we are to order this gauge versus building it we would need to order from SimKits For the turn coordinator we have decided to go with options three and four We were only able to utilize the faceplate airplane and glass frame of the real turn coordinator we obtained from GoBosh Aviation to build our simulated turn coordinator These components were added to the faceplate deck of the layered sheet metal and hex spacer flight instrument design Two stepper motors were mounted side by side on the motor deck offset from the center The airplane was fastened to brass hobby tubing through the center of the faceplate with a gear fastened on the opposite end of the tube Another gear was fastened to one of the stepper motor shafts and allowed to mesh with the brass tubing in order to spin the airplane clockwise or counter clockwise The second stepper motor had a piece of 3 8 round aluminum tube attached to its shaft in order to extend it On 2009 Dec File Turn_indic
37. same direction Overall Result Pass Page 111 5 4 3 3 Pedals The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This was tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action 0 Result Perform Visual Inspection of foot pedals WARNING Ensure pedals are disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure contacts on the slide potentiometer are soldered correctly and that the wires lead to the correct pin on the A D Converter board responsible for the throttle and pedals as specified on the schematic Ensure the entire throttle mechanical assembly including the wires leading to the slide potentiometers is connected and that there is no restriction in the movement of the pedals aa a ae a e computer Verify that the computer recognizes the device P F Perform operational testing using X Plane 9 4 1 First release the brake on the keyboard if enabled by pressing the B key and then proceed to take off 2 Once in the air use the rudder pedals to change the position of the rudder on the tail of the aircraft This is best observed when flying in chase view Ensure that both the left and right pedals cause the correct change in direction of the aircraft on the screen 4 Overall Result Pass 5 4 4 Cockpit Switch and Ind
38. simulation fall into one of these two categories much of the code is reused for each gauge Figure 3 63 shows interface architecture for the control devices As with all of our I O devices the controls will be integrating with X plane via the X Plane Plugin Manager The plugin manager is a dynamically linked library that handles all the communication between the plugins and X plane The main loop for our control devices will be as follows Setup each of the Devices connected to the computer Find out how many devices are attached and initialize them using the ini file that is used to set parameters for the controls or gauges The two threads that need to be started by the plugin are then kicked off 3 2009 Dec X Plane SDK Online Available http www xsquawkbox net xpsdk mediawiki Overview Page 89 The controls thread is used to allow us to eliminate any waiting period to update X Plane when the controls are being monitored Most of our controls will give us a 8 bit digital signal which will need to be truncated to an 7 bit signal so that we can use it in software This is only for controls that have multiple controls linked to the FTDI board Once we have this data we will need to turn it into a format that can be assigned to one of the X Plane variables according to the plugin API There will be a variable sized array in the plugin that is filled with the data for the controls that are connected so that we can just read these valu
39. skies on an Al flight path including some that are not available to the user This ensures a decent mix of air traffic that adds to the realism On top of all this for users that seek true realism many users in the FSX community have generated their own flight plan files This allows the addition of the schedules of entire airlines or flights around an airport Additionally this also means that it is relatively straight forward to create custom flight plans X Plane however lacks built in Al based aircraft support This however does not mean that you cannot have computer controlled aircraft sharing the airspace with the user it just means that like everything else with X Plane a plug in has to be developed Luckily there exist several plug ins already available to download for free FSImp is one such plug in that has spanned many versions of X Plane and allows a user to import flight plans from Microsoft Flight Simulator in to X Plane The beauty about this solution is that an X Plane user can utilize all of the flight plans developed by the Flight Simulator community which far outnumbers the available flight plan databases that are available to the X Plane Community There are other plug ins as well for X Plane for Al aircraft including one that is nothing more than a flight recorder that replays your past flights as computer controlled flights Table 2 2 Aircraft Modeling ltem Description X Plane 9 1 Included 3D Model Generator Abil
40. the USB communication It can be used in conjunction with the other chips or on its own in a speacial mode that allows for direct transfer of the info from the cpu to the ports on the chip Conclusion Needing to know the devices and gauges so we know what ouputs and ports need to support We have been looking into different servo motors Joe bought a small servo that seems to have the ratings needed to run off of USB power alone that will be easily interfaceable with the FT245BM USB chip That will solve some of the problems with some of the gauges as well as allow for feedback of the position we could also gear these motors to get the full rotation that is necessary The other gauges that need to be continuous are a little different and will need to use steppers if possible to find a mini stepper at the ratings that we need have been looking and have found a few but the ratings are right at the cutoff for the power consumption of the USB This will take a little more research but it should be possible if not we could always use a separate power supply for each of the gauges either way the gauges can be driven by the simple FT245BM chip and circuit that is necessary to make it work found on the FTDI Website A 2 Flight Simulator Trade Study Table A 1 Environmental Aspects No Item Description Req FSX X Plane 9 No 1 Inclusion of Majority of Airports 1 B Yes Yes Worldwide Page A 2 Item
41. the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action esa Perform Visual Inspection of the turn coordinator WARNING Ensure turn coordinator is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly 2 Verify that the turn coordinator was constructed in accordance with the manufacturer s specifications Verify mechanical assembly and electrical schematic 3 Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there are no obstructions to the movement of the gauge P F Plug in the turn coordinator into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes P F the device 3 Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 Page 106 Launch X Plane and set up an aircraft on a runway idling Ensure that the throttle is set to zero and you are in the virtual cockpit view Take off and climb to 4000 feet above sea level Keep the aircraft in level flight At this point the aircraft pictured on the turn coordinator should be level and the ball below the aircraft on the instrument should be in the center Next make a turn to the right The turn coordinator should match bank angle of the aircraft or in other words the right wing should be dipped to the right as indicated by the instrument The ball
42. this will pop up a window you just need to select OK to Then you will see that the other buttons are enabled press the save button m Then you can program the chip using the Program button Ke n Now press the test button it will probably fail but that is fine al o Unplug the USB and re plug in the device and see if the new name shows in the Device Manager If it does OK if not you need to Right Click on the device and Uninstall it then Scan for new hardware and you should find it If Not then you have to check your inf files to see if the PID and the Description you typed match in that file Upon completion of the above procedure the new FTDI chip will have been programmed At this point you can use the chip for the purpose you have set it up for Page 129 Chapter 7 7 1 Summary Our project has been completed according to our design specifications and we have ceased all further production All the software and parts have been integrated and tested completing the test and production phase of the project The following is where we stand with each component of the project The first part of the semester we spent all of our time doing expensive trade studies to decide on various implementations to peruse For our simulation software trade study we chose X Plane over Microsoft Flight Simulator because it better met our need overall Once we picked this platform we did extensive research into the X Plane SDK and decided on
43. when a new version would be released if ever X Plane 9 however released version 9 40 recently with no indication that development will stop soon In addition X Plane models the aircraft more realistically and includes the model Page A4 generator to develop an airframe to fly in the software compared to FSX which requires the use of an expensive 3 party 3D modeling package X Plane also includes a few more effects in terms of crashes but lacks detailed scenery Any areas that would need detailed scenery would need to be modeled or purchased as a add on from a 3 party developer Finally there is the aspect if this simulator were to ever be used for ground based training the only option to allow for this would be to use X Plane after purchase of a 500 USB license key which unlocks the ability for it to be FAA Certified Recommendation Use Laminar Research X Plane 9 4 for the graphics software to power the G700S Cockpit flight simulator Appendix B Project Schedules and Fall Semester Monthly Status Reports Page B 1 B 1 Fall Semester Project Schedule 10 O inene Dwetee Sat fon PAPA Al re AME ee ARE 1 EJ Papas Odma Wes 0d Wee WIGOR TY air jes eatae Document a Flv aerea Rea Neen HAVIA Fn aI 4 Y Meeting Wwe Spores tay Ms S 1 Design Docwmertanee Mila Posos Men 121400 y Conduct Trade States and intai Reseach Msds AVI Ine F i USFS va LP tide Sen IA PON 5 seen e ote oe Misma tiv Compas Proar Tama AO ODO ie Dew gn 16
44. with the GoBosh Simulator Prior to doing this you should have e An idea of the gauge or control that you are creating e FTDI Drivers can be gotten at the Code Site through a versioning software tortoise SVN or here http www ftdichip com Drivers D2XX htm e Aboard wired up for connection to the computer USB A B cable Page 125 Procedure 1 Make sure the board is at least wired up to drive the FTDI chip 2 Figure 1 Basic Bus Powered 5V System Figure 6 1 Basic Bus Powered 5V System Image by Chris Dlugolinski Connect the USB A B cable to the chip and to the computer since it is self powered as shown you don t need any external power In the FTDI Drivers folder you need to open the DAFTDI Drivers CDM 2 06 00 WHQL Certified folder a You will see two files that you need to edit b Ftdiport inf and ftdibus inf Edit Search View Format Language Settings Macro Run TextFX Plugins Window OA sal Dl is RSG ftdiportinf 51 G FtaiPort2232 NT Services 2 Ae t a BR gt 10 1 mL Replace E AddService Serenum SerEnum_ Ada DelService FISERIAL E Ptdi Port2232 NT CoInstallers AddReg HKR CoInstallers32 0x00010000 ftcserco D11 FICSERCoInstaller 4 c E i R E a i VID O 03 PID 6011 DeviceDesc USB Serial Port D SerEnum SvcDesc Serenum Filter Driver MS ini file nb char 7123 nb line 199 Ln 184 Col 1 Sel 565 Dos Windows ANSI INS
45. 2 64 002 21 001 98 001 72 VOY JVJ PVJ 0UYUYY CNG ss 99999 YJ Figure 2 5 Plane Maker Fuselage Editor Section Front Back 1 BOTTOM Figure 2 6 Wiretrame re entesentalion ofa Fuselage in development Another part of the plane maker software that will allow us to interact with the simulation correctly is the fact that you can actually model the aircrafts systems and inputs This includes being able to customize an existing cockpit panel or creating your own panel and even the flight electrical systems All of the gauges can be displayed and indicator lights can be switched on and off based on the data that is given to the simulation In Figure 2 7 we show a default cockpit from a Cessna C172 that has been modified to include some additional gauges Page 15 utilizing the Plane Maker tool They are located on the right side of the cockpit This is helpful with the testing of our gauges since the output to the in game gauges is the same as we will be outputting to our hardware via the plug in we developed Figure 2 7 shows the layout of an example cockpit built with the cockpit editor that is part of the Model Editor software ON IE IM Me Figure 2 7 Example cockpit showing additional gauges 2 2 1 3 Microcontroller Software Requirements The requirements for the microcontroller software were really based on the hardware that ended up using to implement our design We are used stepper motors and A D conver
46. 70 Figure 3 48 Mechanical configuration of the pedals Photo by Lewis Vail In addition to the basic frame of the pedals we needed to place a location for the user to place their feet during use We also wanted to ensure that we had somewhat of the feel of actually using the pedals in the aircraft In order to achieve this we simply cut two pieces left over from building the frame of the pedals and attached each to the from using door hinges This allowed the user to either have their feet at an angle up on the pedals provided they did not push too hard as it possibly would have adverse effects on the gear shafts or in a position with their heels on the ground and their feet on the pedals Together with the stick the instruments were secured to another piece of plywood so that each device would retain proper distance apart in addition to keep the user from pushing the pedals away during use Figure 3 49 below shows this configuration Figure 3 49 Pedals and Stick combined Photo by Lewis Vail Page 71 3 4 2 1 Rudder Pedal Analog Design As mentioned in the previous section we did not utilize our 60mm 10kQ slide potentiometers as originally intended Instead we utilized a 10kQ linear rotary potentiometer for our data measurement The decision was made from a purely mechanical standpoint and can be reviewed in the section preceding this one Just as with the joystick control we utilized the 5V supply from the computer ATX power suppl
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48. Description Req FSX X Plane 9 Detailed Realistic Scenery 1 A Yes Yes Accurately detailed major cities and 1 A Yes No landmarks Realistic Weather Conditions 3 A Yes Yes Real World Weather 3 A Yes Yes Al Aircraft in the virtual world 3 E Yes No Deliver a constant 30 FPS 6 No No Notes 1 X Plane 9 does include the majority of airports worldwide including a few obscure airports that are not found in Microsoft Flight Simulator but otherwise each largely has the same facilities available Microsoft Flight Simulator however does include a higher detail of scenery of individual airports by ensuring that beacons buildings and fueling stations are located at each facility X Plane 9 has only the runways and taxiways in the scenery lacking any structures even at major airports such as KJFK or KMCO The retail versions of FSX and X Plane do not include any guarantees for being able to reach 30 FPS This requirement can be achieved by purchasing sufficient computer hardware and optimizing the setting of the software package FSX will allow you to set a target frame rate in the display options but this will not change the display settings to deliver the required rate X Plane 9 also allows you to set a target frame as well as ensuring that the target frame rate is reached by changing the graphics settings on the fly In addition to this one can purchase a USB key that brings the so
49. GoBosh G700S Flight Simulator Senior Design II Spring 2010 Group 11 Christopher Dlugolinksi Robert Gysi Joseph Munera Lewis Vail Project Sponsor Mr Dave Kotick Grizzly Aviation 5 3 2010 Page i Table of Contents Chapter dics a A A A TA e A a a es ee data 1 1 LExec tive UNO ia 1 El A O sie E E S ET ete hee eae 3 2 1 Project OEM iii A AAA ett ine Eco ete in RE 3 2 2 Specifications REQUIFEMENKS cccccccssccessceeseceescecesseeesaececseeceeseecsseeceasececasecesseecaeeseaecesees 4 2 2 1 Software Requirements cccceesessececeeecessesnsaeceeececeeseaaaeeeeecssessesaaaeeeceessesseaaaaeeeesesseesees 4 2 2 2 Hardware REQuIrEMEeNtS ccccsssccececessesenneseeeeeeesseseaaeseeeescesseeaaeseseessessesaaaeeeeeessessags 16 2 3 gt Project BUdBe tr a a dt es 22 ZA Project Mel eii A 24 CAI Il O O AO A e da 25 AE A A Ceauces eva aea ain 25 3 2 Microcontroller Desi e ee a edi ed 31 3 2 1 Implementation Of Hardware cccccccccccscssssssssececececsesesseaecececeseeseaeaeeeeseessessaasaeeeeeens 31 3 2 2 EMb dded SoftWare aeaiia eia a iada 33 23 Flight instrument iD r n e e a a 33 3 3 1 Air Pressure Sensing Instruments ococcncncncnononenennnnnnnonenenenonononononononononnnnnnnnnnnnncnenenennnss 39 3 3 2 Gyroscopic InStrUMENtS ooconcncnononnnenenenenennncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnenenenss 48 3 33 Gauge DESI E Miiri A A A AA a a a aaa i aain 57 3 4 Flight Control DE
50. ID_6010 DeviceDesc GAUGE TURNINDICATOR_SLIP USBAVID_0 03 PID_60108MI_00 DeviceDesc GAUGE _TURNINDICATOR_SLIP USBAVID_0 03 PID_60115MI_01 DeviceDesc USB Serial Port USB VID_0403ePID_60116MI_00 DeviceDesc USB Serial Converter A USB VID_04036PID_60116MI_01 DeviceDesc USB Serial Converter B USBAVID_0403 PID 60115 MI_02 DeviceDesc USB Serial Converter C USB VID_04036PID_60116MI_03 DeviceDesc USB Serial Converter D SvcDesc USB Serial Converter Driver ClassName USB I m J m MS ini file nb char 6196 nb line 165 Ln 147 Col 1 Sel 624 Dos Windows ANSI Figure 6 3 FTDlbus inf Screenshot by Chris Diugolinski There is one last file that needs to be edited before you can begin and that is the Config ini file Follow the other data format and fill in the info needed to make your control or gauge work correctly File Edit Search View Format Language Settings Macro Run TextFX Plugins Window coDABR s oals DACA e a Bal n 622 FR Bz er zon E dbusit E ftdootint TE Configiri e rc ci A Ti the cockpit MAX_ VALUE This is the maximum value of the actual gauge that is being put in the cockpit WRAPAROUND This if YES if the gauge goes around its start point and values keep getting higher NO if it doesn t MULTIPLE Controls only This is set to YES if the control created has multiple inputs on the same FIDI chip NO if it doesn t If there are two controls then the first
51. Progress Appendix C Permissions to use Protected Materials Page C 1 C 1 Images by Mark Verschaeren Flight Illusion RE Permission to use Photographs info flight illusion to you Nov13 More Details Add to To Do Calendar Please feel free to use the images from our website We only sell the gauges ready made for use with FS or X Plane We can give you a discount but you would have to send us the list of gauges you require Usually this is 10 discount Best regards FLIGHT ILLUSION Mark Verschaeren Marketing amp Communications Manager Flight illusion mobile 32 475 37 37 28 www flightillusion com From jmun7767 aim com mailto jmun7767 aim com Sent vrijdag 13 november 2009 19 17 To info flightillusion com Subject Permission to use Photographs Hello am building a flight simulator for my senior design project at the University of Central Florida was wondering if could get your permission to use some of the photographs on your web site for my senior design documentation Do you sell just the housing faceplate and indicators Also do you provide any discount to college engineering students Thank you Site http www flightillusion com This reference is used with permission for the following figures A Figure 3 28 C 2 Information from Bob Miller Reply OTA is NOT copyrighted Please pass along anything you like Credit back to OTA would be appreciated Bob Miller Site http overtheair
52. SET OUTPUT Lam L P12 1 0 3 9 CONTROL 2 2k 1 0 4 4 47 THRESHOLD 1 0 5 DISCHARGE LA 013 1 0 6 e GND 1N40p2 DiN4002 1 0 7 T SEND 1 C13 tu Digital_Pot 7 5 10K _ eV IN output INC GNDe DEC OUT 100n C11 Figure 3 9 Circuit for the Servo motor controls Created by Chris Dlugolinksi Figure 3 9 above shows the controls for the servo motor the 555 timer is used to generate the pulse widths needed to control the position of the motor Page 33 Depending on the needed position of the motor we are turning on a certain amount of resistance in the digital pot chip that will change the pulse width of the 555 timer We are keeping the frequency at a frequency that will allow the pulses to be output every 20ms The circuit shown above was vetoed by the sponsor based on his knowledge that the signal from the 555 timer will not be able to give the correct pulse length repeatedly it is not that accurate The power supply needed to be able to provide 5 volts for any of the circuitry that we need as well as 12 volts for the motors that were used in the design A simple power supply was used that needed to be able to give at least 6 amps That is 1 amp for each of the gauges We used an extra power supply from a computer and Molex connectors This gave us our 5v and 12 volts needed to drive the circuit 3 2 2 Embedded Software The emb
53. SIBN ita 64 o ADIE A ss E c veces saavadun duns kcetsndsds danas cess E Harcneees eee 65 324 2 Rudder Pedal Sii td A A AA adic ated eta teste 68 3 4 3 Throttle ce ctacacet ea eraa ri EE EE EEA LEE EAE L TAa AE EAER 71 3 4 5 Combined Flight Control Circuit ccccccccccsssssssecececscsssecseaeeececeseeseaeseeeescessessaeaeeeesens 75 3 5 Computer Hardware Selection se eere a i TEROA AEE E R Aa E aa 76 35 1 Computer Hard WT a a O a sakes EA REE 76 35 2 Display Project viii A aea e oon Se eaa e a a aasa 82 A ES penina a E AA A E E ARE EA LA E eastern a 85 3 7 Panel Indicator Lights s ieren eiiiai aaia ea a id dada 86 3 8 Flight Instrument and Control Interface Design cccoconocconncnonononononnnnnnnocanonononnnnncononannonanoss 88 EN A A E E E ie eas ea ee ee eee 91 3 9 1 Peripheral Devices Power Supply occcccccccononococnnonononanononnnnnnnonononononnnnnnnnnananennnnnnnnonons 91 3 10 Remote Instructor Operator Station ccccccesesssssseseseseeeseseeesseeseeseeeeseeeseseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 92 3 11 Aircraft Modelo cional 92 3 11 1 Model Generation r 93 A A O NT 95 COPE Ai A A AA A AAA ah 96 4 1 Project Implementation dd dada elven eee 96 4 2 List of Required Parts cccccccccccessssesssceeeeeceseeseaeseeeeeceseeseaaeseeeescessesaaaeeeeeessessesaeaeeeeeeeseesega 96 43 Bull Psittacidae at avtane teentanees 97 4 3 1 Flight Instrument ASSEMDIY cccccccnnononocnnononocanonononononcnnonnnannnonnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnn
54. add flocks of birds in the air or deer running across a runway change the aircraft position or speed and also add other aircraft operating in the proximity of the piloted aircraft In addition the instructor can view the aircraft gauges as well For the purposes of this project utilizing the built in X Plane IOS over a local network is the most efficient use of resources and keeps the project sponsor from being locked into a custom application 3 11 Aircraft Model One of the major requirements of this project was to build an accurate as possible flight model for the GoBosh G700S In section 2 2 1 2 we discuss the requirements that we developed for our model For example Table 2 6 on page 12 covers all of the basic aircraft data available from the GoBosh Flight Manual However when it comes to developing the model this information while helpful is only a part of the required information to complete the task Section 2 2 1 2 also covers additional information on the background on the operation of the Plane Maker tool This will not be discussed in this section It should be noted now that none of the group members had any experience working with any sort of 3D modeling software or have any strong background in flight physics As a result we were only able to make our model to the best of our abilities given our limited knowledge and experience Still we were able to generate a model that bore a strong resemblance to the actual aircraft Figure 3
55. aft data installed proceed to plug the seven port USB hub into one free USB port on the simulation computer Plug the 4 port hub also into a free USB port on the simulation computer At this point you should hear multiple audible alerts that Windows has detected new hardware Each of the instruments and controls can be verified in the device manager of Windows After plugging in all of the devices double click on the X Plane icon located on the desktop This will launch X Plane While the loading screen appears on your monitor you should see each of the six simulated instruments move as they initialize If a gauge does not move proceed to section 6 3 for troubleshooting information Once X Plane has loaded you should be on a runway with the GoBosh loaded on the screen If the GoBosh is not the aircraft on the screen then the GoBosh will need to be selected from the Aircraft menu on the top of the screen It can be found in the category General Aviation Before flying it is suggested that you ensure your control devices are calibrated With the pedals the gears can slip when extreme forces are applied during use This causes the center to not be correct Using the chase view of the aircraft ensure that the rudder pedals are forward facing to you and that the rudder of the aircraft is in the 0 position Additionally take the time to move the joystick to ensure that the ailerons and elevator moves as expected At this point one can s
56. ain in between the two black lines If this ball moves to the left section of the track it is known as skid and to the right section of the track it is known as slip these are both when the aircraft is making a turn to the right Figure 3 31 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we used Figure 3 30 Turn Coordinator Used with permission under the GNU Free Documentation License 2009 Dec Turn Coordinator Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki Turn_coordinator 18 2009 Dec Turn Coordinator Drawing Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Turn_indicator png Page 52 2 5400 He 0 7000 1 O SAA 0 1500 60 1250 3 2400 el 0 7000 racesnare neck ary 40 3800 _p15 as 0 1500 J Ll d1500 f 0 7000 g 39 ji R o 0 3900 dh N g0 1094 C i 1 esos N 90 2188 RO0 1094 A o 0 1500 aer 32 F 20 1250 hb 0 3800 Y TA 7 001908 i 7000 LL o poly o a SADA i i wen e i L h y 90 25 LR1 4000 asin 90 3750 y EFT 40C 0 3750 N 2 NM P 1 6200 4 s 4 E A O t ant je Se o t 1 38 al amp 40 3800 0 7000 1 0 7000 db E O 3 2400 Figure 3 31 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the turn coordinator sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi Five options that were considered Construction of the t
57. and over G thresholds as well as the flaps and gear doors when over Vfe thresholds have been passed X Plane 2 Microsoft Flight Simulator utilizes the GameSpy matchmaking service for multiplayer sessions across the internet but also supports direct connections across computers on the same LAN X Plane has support for local networking built in 3 X Plane features a built in IOS that can be projected to a secondary monitor or can be utilized across the network with a different computer running a separate copy of X Plane Microsoft Flight Simulator does not have this feature built in and would require an additional application to be developed for this functionality to exist Table A 4 Simulator to External Flight Instruments Controls Communication No Item Description Req FSX X Plane 9 No 1 Protocol API to interface with flight 2 A Yes Yes simulator software Notes 1 FSX allows for two methods of interfacing with simulated flight controls and instruments the SimConnect API and the legacy FSUIPC interface X Plane 9 4 utilizes plug ins based on dll files to communicate between the software and other applications and external instruments controls Summary While Microsoft Flight Simulator X wins in regards to the default scenery included with the software and the number of resources available on the internet it is also unfortunately no longer being developed by Microsoft with no time frame for
58. aper you can find several of our early project deliverables and research information In order to make the simulator as real as possible we needed to pinpoint the parts of the activity of flying the GoBosh that were essential From several meetings with our sponsor and two of his fellow aviators we gathered and formulated our project requirements This allowed us to develop requirements for our hardware and software components that we needed to interface with one another These requirements are listed in the requirements chapter in this paper and are broken down by functional area Also located in that table is the status of the implementation of our project requirements since due to some decisions between us and our sponsor several requirements were not met From our requirements we formulated our budget We were given an initial budget limitation of 1500 by our sponsor which would not have been enough for the project if we had purchased the computer Since we did not purchase a computer our budget came in at under half of the original This is explained further in the budget chapter of this paper Additionally the design of our individual of components is discussed in the chapter on design It lists all the reasons why we decided to create the system the way we did as well as provide the basics for implementing our designs After discussing our design we will discuss the implementation of our designs including the testing of our system to ensure t
59. art off discussing how we need to modify our slide potentiometer to be able to interface with our throttle rod The reason we picked this slide potentiometer outside of it meeting our electrical requirements was the fact that the slider on it would be able to be modified for use on any of our control devices That that end the dimensions from the slide are 197 at its widest and 787 total height This gives us adequate space to drill a hole for a 4 screw into Figure 3 51 shows an approximation of the tab and the modification made to it 0 7880 KK omer Figure 3 51 Drill Pattern for potentiometer modification Drawing by Robert Gysi Page 73 After modifying the potentiometer tab we can discuss how to connect the throttle rod To achieve this we knew we wanted to secure a small piece of angled metal to the slider Through searching through the scrap metal bins at SkyCraft we discovered several small pieces that were strong lightweight cheap and small enough to fit in the space required lt was important to use a piece that was angled so that we could have a flat surface against the potentiometer and forward facing flat surface for the throttle rod to mount to To build our throttle rod we started with a 6 32 threaded rod that was also purchased from skycraft This gave us a satisfactory length with the slide potentiometer we used would have needed a longer rod if we had been able to secure a 100mm potentiometer Since the r
60. ary operation area of this simulator will be at air shows and other aviation gatherings so this was a major concern In designing our display system we needed to know what size monitors we need to purchase in order to produce a field of view of 120 To achieve this we have established a set of formulas using basic trigonometry to calculate the required monitor size for any given viewing distance Figure 3 56 shows the monitor configuration that meets our 120 degree field of view requirement The dotted line in the middle represents the distance used in equation 3 1 Monitor size in this equation refers to the diagonal of the screen This is because that is the dimension manufactures use to market their product K in this set of equations represents the proportionality constant used to calculate a monitor s diagonal from their width It is included in the formula set to illustrate the path that was taken to get our monitor size to distance proportionality constant this constant comes out to be about 0 8352 Monitor Pilot Figure 3 56 Schematic of display configuration Diagram by Lewis Vail Jo 167 K 4 1 tan 20 V92 16 constant 2K tan 20 ___ Eq 2 8 monitor size distance constant Eq 3 Equation 3 1 Monitor Distance Formulas Page 84 From these three equations we can solve for our constant value and then multiply that by the distance the individual in the cockpit will sit from t
61. at it picked up by the photocell During initialization the LED is lit When the needle finally gets around to the home position the flag interrupter blocks the LED from lighting the photocell and the signal to stop is sent to FTDI chip 3 3 3 5 Mechanical Construction Figure 3 36 shows the internal structure of a dual needle aircraft flight instrument along with dimensions required to build the gauge The measurements are in mm and the following labeled parts are A Face Plate Motor 2 Printed Circuit Board 1 E F Printed Circuit Board 2 Page 60 The entire aircraft flight instrument structure is made from a variety of components including Aluminum and metal tubes with a diameter of 2mm to 5mm In addition the glass window of the gauge isconstructed using acrylic or plexi glass Figure 3 38 show the implementation of the autocad drawings into the basic structure and foundation of our simulated flight instruments As you can see the aluminum rods connect the front and rear ends of the gauges with the sheets of aluminum providing stability to the whole assembly including a place to mount components to Figure 3 38 Constructed flight instrument Photo used with permission from Lewis Vail Figure 3 39 shows some of the finished faceplate designs that were mounted to the front of the aircraft flight instrument gauge frames The faceplates are all from the actual aircraft flight instruments we received from GoBosh Aviation except fo
62. ated buildings are displayed along with other Page 6 support buildings However while this is a feature that is nice to have the whole purpose is actually to have the plane flying not taxiing to a commercial aircraft gate at a terminal At the same time Microsoft FSX also includes more detailed scenery overall In order to provide some realism the modelers at Microsoft decided to model major landmarks and major population centers That means when flying over Disney World you fly over the EPCOT attraction Spaceship Earth or if flying over New York City the skyline of Manhattan is present Now this isn t to say that X Plane does not have decent scenery installed In fact in some areas it does appear to have a decent level of detail however most areas do appear to be just randomly generated entirely When you realize that X Plane is not an entertainment simulator like Microsoft FSX you can see that why Laminar Research spent more time on the aircraft physics modeling instead of providing great details to look at Additionally one can supplement the default scenery of either simulator by purchasing 3 party packages or creating your own A comparison of scenery in each simulator is in the following figures figure 2 1 and 2 2 a Figure 2 1 Flyinga Cessna C172SP over Innsbruck Austria in Microsoft FSX Page 7 Figure 2 2 Flying a Cessna C172 over Innsbruck Austria in X Plane 9 4C Comparing the two images pr
63. atio of the ailerons Using our drawings again we found that the ratio was approximately 0 20 of the total surface area of the wing In order to create the winglets on the tip of the wings we simply created a new wing section and tweaked the incidence values in the plane maker until we had a similar shape The horizontal stabilizer is where we first ran into problems when modeling the aircraft Due to a limitation in the Plane Maker software we are not able to change the point about which it rotates In the actual GoBosh it pivots from the leading edge of the stabilizer but in Plane Maker it must pivot from the center of the control surface This is a limitation that according to the creator of X Plane will be corrected with a future release We still attempted to ensure that the proper control reactions were the same so utilizing flight manual we input values of 20 for the upper range of motion and 10 for the downward range of motion Similarly the vertical stabilizer was not able to be accurately modeled in Plane Maker as well There is not an easy way to change the base of the rudder so that it is angled upwards We even contacted Austin Meyer the creator of X Plane to see if he had any ideas for implementing this and admitted that there was not a good method to do this within Plane Maker As a result we attempted to maintain the other aspects of the shape of the stabilizer so to as hopefully maintain as close as possibly flight characterist
64. ations beyond traditional graphics and video processing 2 With all of the information about each of the graphics processing units taken into account we must come to a conclusion about which to pick for inclusion in the simulation computer The ATI Radeon HD 5750 from XFX is the one that has been selected It has a slight edge over the NVIDIA based card in the raw specifications but the real selling point has been the inclusion of the Eyefinity technology While the Eyefinity technology may have some limitations currently this project will ultimately have a much longer life beyond the end of the Spring Semester and it is important that we design the computer powering the simulator to be ready for future technologies and future capabilities The selection of the motherboard is something that either happens first and then you build your computer around it or you go in the opposite direction and find the 2009 Dec What is CUDA Online http www nvidia com object cuda_what_is html 2 2009 Dec ATI Stream Technology Online Available http www amd com us products technologies stream technology Pages stream technology aspx Page 80 components you wish to use and find a board that will meet your specifications Performing a search on newegg com returned several boards but two stood out from the rest The boards one manufactured by ASUS and the other by MSI are both fairly comparable boards with nearly the same specifications
65. ator cockpit The mechanical parts of the aircraft flight instrument would have to be removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Servo motors or stepper motors would then be place inside the aircraft flight instrument Gimbal Main Compass Rotation Drive Gear Card Gear Adjustment Gimbal Gyro Adjustment Gears Knob Figure 3 35 Components of an actual heading indicator Photo used with permission from Bob Miller 7 For the heading indicator we selected option three This is because stepper motors provide 360 degrees of rotation In this gauge we needed the capability to continuously rotate the instrument if someone was piloting the aircraft in a circle formation The head indicator is the one gauge we did not receive from GoBosh Aviation Fortunately it was not an extremely difficult gauge to build and construct A single stepper motor is used to spin the compass rose of the heading indicator A 3 8 round aluminum tube is attached to the shaft of the stepper motor to extend the length The compass rose is attached to the end of this tube A square cutout of clear acrylic with an airplane marking is placed above the compass rose to indicate the heading of the aircraft Figure 3 36 shows the heading indicator without the lens 2 For e mail response granting permission to use see Appendix C Page 57 Figure 3 36 Completed Heading Indicator without lens faceplate Photo by Lewis Vail 3 3 3 Gauge Design This s
66. ators png Wikipedia Online http en wikipedia org wiki File Turn_indicators png Page 54 the tip of the aluminum shaft was a black flag that was used to indicate the slip or skid ball 3 3 2 3 Heading Indicator The heading indicator in the standard instrument gauge setup on an aircraft functions as a compass pointing in heading of travel of the aircraft This however does not function exactly like a wet compass as it is not affected by the downward slope of the Earth s magnetic field Figure 3 33 shows a common design for heading indicator face plates while Figure 3 34 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we used Figure 3 33 Face plate of the heading indicator Used with permission under the GNU Free Documentation License 18 2009 Dec Heading Indicator Wikipedia Online http en wikipedia org wiki Heading_indicator 2009 Dec Heading Indicator Drawing Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Heading _Indicator png Page 55 0 1250 3 2406 9 7000 3900 1 4 pre 1500 7 80 1250 40400 0 3800 o e 20140 i y PA i R1 4000 2400 4 N 16200 WW P aa 2 oa J E E 40 3800 m 0 7000 H 3 2400 Figure 3 34 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the heading indicator sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi Four options that were considered Constructio
67. cations 5 7 2 Hardware Requirement Verification The following table determines compliance with the established hardware requirements from the beginning of this document Several of these requirements were not met due to the cockpit not arriving and the subsequent decision to not build a computer as a result of not going to Sun n Fun in Lakeland FL All of our primary requirements were met however for implementing controls and gauges Sub Reg Requirement Description Result USB interface for controls amp gages Motherboard provides enough free USB ports for all of the flight controls and instruments or requires the use of a USB hub 120 degree field of view Ability to in X Plane as well as with chosen graphics Partial adapters and monitors ze 120 Sub Req Requirement Description Result 3 LCD monitors Must be no smaller than 24 and secured to the fuselage of the aircraft Graphics Card Adapter Powerful enough to output required resolution to 3 monitors with a resolution of approximately 1920x3240 2Ghz 64 bit CPU minimum Established through X Plane requirements 4GB RAM Sufficient memory to run both Windows 7 Professional as well as the flight simulator 120GB Hard Drive minimum X Plane requires around 72GB for a full install and Windows 7 requires 20GB 160GB recommended USB Controlled Has USB on the chip with little development required to implement computer communications
68. clusion of Airports Worldwide s2 Abily to change environmental factors dynamically 52 A Ability to interface hardware with sofware via APL s3 Model Entertainment Aspects s3 A WeatherEfiecs O O s3 B Crash Efes SSCS ss Je sons C O s3 D__ Abily to create custom scenarios missions 53 E Al Aircraft also utiizing airspace and airpors sa Aircraft Model CS s4 A Aircraft Exterior Model s4 B Model parametio data 55 Abiy to interface with other Flight SimiXcplane games s5 A Native Multiplayer Suppot s6 Guaranteed minimum 30FPS s6 A FAA Certification Optional Requirement s7 Abily to interface controlsfight instruments se Ability to interact with an Instructor Operator Staton 2 2 1 2 Aircraft Model Requirements The requirements that we needed in our simulation for the aircraft model have to do with the actual aircraft and how we can get its physical characteristics into the X Plane editor While we were able to get a good amount of information from the manufacturer Aero and the Importer GoBosh on the aircraft model specifications some of the needed info was not able to be obtained We also contacted the creator of X Plane and some of the modeling that we wanted to do was not in the current release of X Plane and was planned for a later time Yet from some of the info we could get from the sponsor and from the brochure tha
69. d phase as displayed in a Gantt chart can be found in Appendix B A simplified view of the progression through this phase is presented in figure 4 1 below Order Components Preliminary Design Perform Assembly of Acceptance Testing and Hi Instruments Controls Systems Integration Review Lights and Switches Testing Jan 3 2010 Begin Software Development and Aircraft Modelling Figure 4 1 Overview of the Build Phase 4 3 1 Flight Instrument Assembly The assembly of our simulated flight instruments occurred immediately after completion of our design review with our sponsor We began to prototype our boards at this point and working out issues with the circuits During this time we also attempted fabrication of our mounting decks and dertermined through this exercise that having parts fabricated was the best option Our original schedule Page 98 had us finishing our flight instrument build phase by the first week of March 2010 Unfortunately due to a variety of factors this milestone was not reached This was due to the fabrication time of our cut aluminum Additionally we had to work out issues with gearing and other mechanical related issues We did complete the construction of each component however within an updated schedule which left us with plenty of time for testing of our project All the work on the flight instruments occurred in the senior design lab at UCF 4 3 2 Flight Control Assembly Flight control ass
70. dder pedals as a basic flight control device and to enhance the simulation experience Like with the stick due to not receiving the cockpit meant that we would not have actual pedals to interface with Additionally we found that we would need to change every aspect of our design aside from the electrical components in order to implement this requirement For our original design we wanted to match the feel of the pedals in the aircraft as close as possible This meant imply interfacing a rod to the back of one of the pedals in the footwell to a slide potentiometer behind the engine firewall This Page 69 would allow have allowed us to keep the mechanical interfaces and linkages intact and maintain the feel In addition to this we should note that from the beginning the requirement for toe brakes were not required nor planned to be implemented We also did not implement this as an additional feature when we needed to build our own pedals Figure 3 47 shows the pedals as they exist in the aircraft and what we needed to replicate Figure 3 47 Pedals on the GoBosh G700S Photo by Robert Gysi Using purchased lumber and scrap pieces from the senior design lab we set out to create our rudder pedal test rig so that we could validate our electrical design efforts and provide input during the demonstration phase of the project The design was kept inherently simple just like with all of our other control interfaces The biggest difference her
71. de required to drive the motor is developed as a plug in for X Plane Figure 3 20 below shows an example of an airspeed indicator similar to the one utilized in the GoBosh G700S while Figure 3 21 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we used 40 ES 50 g 180 AIRSPEED L 80 pkuots 109 100 Figure 3 20 Airspeed Indicator Faceplate Wikipedia Used with permission under the GNU Free Documentation License 2009 Nov Drawing of Airspeed Indicator from FAA Instrument Flying Handbook Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File True_airspeed_indicator FAA SVG Page 44 iai 2 540 g F 7 0 7000 1 i O ann i 1 1500 20 1250 3 2400 E 0 7000 raceocare eck B 0 3800 0 150 A if disoo 99 0 7000 E 9 4 R g 0 3900 1 dh 0 1094 So 00 1406 00 2188 R0 109 o C E anie aana a FaN 20 1250 0 3800 p Y _ 50 1406 AS R1 4000 s0 32400 3751 40 JN 60 gone y S ra NS Di 1 6200 7 3 k 0 MY o t 0 t t Q q o 500 a 29 ate E 40 3800 10 Sanae 0 7000 a a 3 2400 Figure 3 21 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the airspeed indicator sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi Four options that were considered I Construction of the airspeed indicator would consist of several parts The gauge would be controlled by servo or stepper motors A servo motor design
72. ded to implement the gauge smoothly Fortunately we were able to design a timing circuit to interface the FTDI chip with the servo This implementation is illustrated in figure 3 14 The other limitation that we ran into is that a servo only has a certain range of motion For most gauges we can gear the servo so that it turns as far as we wish but two of the gauges must be able to turn all the way around multiple times and would therefore require another implementation Servo timing logic Gauge face DO D3 D5 Signal in from computer USB Interface Board Signal out to computer Figure 3 14 Block diagram of servo based gauge Created by Lewis Vail The last implementation we had to choose from was a stepper based gauge Stepper based gauges are similar to servo based gauges except that they use stepper motors instead of servos They are comparable in terms of cost and ease of implementation but they don t suffer from the two limitations servo based motors do Instead of taking in a timed pulse like servos they take in a 5 bit Page 38 digital input meaning that it can be interfaced directly with the FTDI chip Also stepper motors will turn indefinitely in either direction They do however have a few limitations of their own The first being that when you step the motor it will turn the needle a discrete amount which can look choppy if the steps of the pulse are too large To overcome this limitation we used
73. dependently Although these two could have been implemented by using the techniques used for the other ones with some extra components this seemed at first to be too difficult mechanically to justify the cost After considering all of these options we found out through contacting GoBosh Aviation that the Vice President of the company Dave Graham had set aside for us five of the six traditional flight instruments and a aircraft panel that we were able to use to house the simulated instruments The five instruments that we Page 39 received from Dave Graham included the altimeter attitude indicator turn coordinator airspeed indicator and vertical airspeed Figure 3 16 shows some of the instruments we received from GoBosh Aviation We were allowed and given permission to take apart every flight instrument and use any of the parts that were useful for our flight simulator The fact that we were able to use real flight instruments to build our simulated gauges helped to give our flight simulator the highest realism that we could hope to achieve The only flight instrument that we did not obtain was the heading indicator Fortunately this flight instrument was one of the simpler gauges to build and simulate We were able to build and construct the heading indicator from scratch Figure 3 16 Instruments as received from GoBosh Photo by Joseph Munera 3 3 1 Air Pressure Sensing Instruments The air pressure sensing instruments are a collection
74. e The theme with the controls for this simulator is that in each section the design becomes simpler and simpler For our throttle control all we need to implement is a simple slide potentiometer which should have a travel length as close to 100mm in order to get as much travel as possible From an electrical standpoint it is the same as our other control inputs Mechanically it is nowhere near the same as the others This was also the only control device that we were not slated to receive from Aero as part of the cockpit pedals and stick were to be in place As a result we did not need to make any design changes to our throttle assembly To implement our throttle we opted to use the same slide potentiometer as with our other control devices meaning we used the Alpha Taiwan RA6020F 10 20D1 B10K This potentiometer did meet the requirement of being 100mm of travel but unfortunately due to costs of some Page 72 100mm slide potentiometers and the lower cost ones being not expected in before project completion the decision was made to utilize this slide potentiometer As a result we are about an inch short on the throw of the throttle but this does not impede operation of the device Figure 3 50 shows the location of the throttle inside of the cockpit of our sponsor s GoBosh G700S O GA an a Figure 3 50 Throttle location black knob pulled out of instrument panel Photo by Robert Gysi To begin with the mechanical design we will st
75. e this part oO 2A 20000 pele AAAA AAAA nes 09 long arm 000 00 ft heading r 9 0 0 0 0 deg texturetop 0 75 4 Tan texturetop 1 000 ant Du 999099 999099 99909 9909 20000 AO 0000 AAAA AAAA ight AQAA AAAA iont body radius 0 0 2 0 0 ft lat arm 00 0 00 ft pitch offset 0 0 0 00 deg left 0 000 0 754 95 left 0 000 0 754 ght 99009 99099 99909 9999 9909 yl VJJ ratio left ratio right body pag 0 0 7 5 TAREA vert arm 000 00 ft rollof set 0 00 00 deg texturebot 0 510 aegea texturebot 0 75 6 Caio gni 9999 99999 999099 9999 90909 CROSS SECTIONS Double click on a node to LOCK it preventing smoothing operations from moving that node _ 00008 _a0008 _OO4600 10006 _AAAAA 003 00 004 00 005 00 006 00 A 008 00 009 00 99009 99009 990909 99009 99009 99009 ELLIPSE E ELLIPSE ELUIP O O A ESET RESET EDITING OFFSETS arrows and to change part description Figure 2 3 X Plane Model Editor running in Windows Table 2 3 Entertainment Features 9 1 Detailed Crash Effects S3B No Yes 2 __ Multiplayer Support 3 Aircraft Sounds Ability to create custom S3 D Yes Yes scenarios missions 15 Built in Instructor Operator Station IOS S8 No Yes Page 10 By default in both of the flight simulators when the aircraft crashes or the airframe is overstressed due to physical factors the flight ends
76. e no obstructions to the movement of the gauge Plug in the airspeed indicator into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes Page 105 No Testing Action 0 Result EE S S Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 1 Launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway idling Ensure the throttle is set to zero 2 Ensure you are in the cockpit view in X Plane We will want to verify that the same position is indicated on the screen and with our simulated gauge First release the aircraft brake by pressing the B key on the keyboard Take off and then climb to any altitude As you are climbing the attitude indicator should indicate that the plane is at an increased pitch in the blue region Verify that the same level is indicated on the physical gauge and in X Plane Put the aircraft into level flight Verify that the attitude indicator rests on the line representing the horizon between the blue and brown sections Roll the wings to the left and to the right Verify that the result on the gauge matches the movement of the aircraft on the screen and the gauge on the screen Put the aircraft nose down The attitude indicator should roll forward into the lower half of the gauge brown section as you head towards the ground a OverallResut Cd 5 4 2 4 Turn Coordinator The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If
77. e able to complete all of the necessary software and hardware without it and this can be put into the real cockpit once obtained This would allow our sponsor to ultimately meet these original goals Another additional objective for this project was for it to potentially be used in ground based flight training Pilots are allowed to use a limited number of ground based flight simulator training in lieu of actual time in the cockpit With this in mind we have kept this as an open option through the development of our Page 4 requirements and through our design In fact as later discussed in Section 2 2 1 1 we see that it actually is as simple as plugging in a special USB key into a computer running the simulation software X Plane While providing the key is not within the scope of this project the ability to do this allows our sponsor to add to the simulator once we have finished 2 2 Specifications Requirements We have broken down our requirements into two parts our software requirements and our hardware requirements In each subsection we break down the development of our requirements and explain why we chose a particular option over the other and ultimately which devices or software were ultimately the one that met our requirements 2 2 1 Software Requirements The software requirements will be broken down into three sections the requirements for the flight simulator the requirements for the aircraft model we developed for the fligh
78. e between our other controls is that for our test rig we did not utilize a slide potentiometer instead using a rotary potentiometer for measurement We opted for this as we wanted to have a single pivot point so that the pedals moved together To achieve this we just needed to build a simple frame with two pedals and a rod sticking out of the front middle Given the short time frame that we had to develop a solution approx 3 weeks before the project deadline is when the final determination was made that cockpit would not arrive in time we sought to keep everything simple in comparison to a design that would have utilized a slide pot in the middle This would have required more moving parts would have more than likely increased the cost During our testing we found that our first revision had a design flaw in that the motion was not very smooth at all due to the wooden frame rubbing across the plywood base To rectify this issue we purchased a lazy susan from Home Depot that elevated our pedal frame off of the base and provided a smooth motion This resulted in more favorable results although occasionally the gears on our potentiometer slip for an unknown reason As a result when first using the simulator it is recommended to use the test application to find the midpoint of the potentiometer and then set the pedals so that they are aligned correctly Figure 3 50 below shows a close up of the gears on the shaft of the rotary potentiometer Page
79. e both recorded to have partial compliance with our stated project requirements In the case of requirement F2 this is due to the end result of our gearing being off on the altimeter and the FTDI chip that control the turn coordinator ball having fried As a result these requirements have been mostly fulfilled but will need work after the project is handed over to our project sponsor to fine tune the results Page 122 Chapter 6 6 1 User Manual In this chapter we will discuss the proper operation of our flight simulator We will start with the basic operation and cover some troubleshooting procedures if something unexpected occurs during use This user manual assumes that the user is familiar with the Windows operating system and flight simulators 6 2 Setup and Basic Operation With this section we will describe how to setup the simulator for a first run To start navigate Windows Explorer to your X Plane directory This is commonly found in C Program Files but could be located elsewhere depending on your setup From here verify that you have the following directories e X Plane 9 Aircraft General Aviation GoBosh e X Plane MAirfoilsiNACA_4415 afl e X Plane 9 Resources plugins GaugeTest xpl e AX Planelconfig ini Also verify that X Plane 9 4 is the version that is installed This software has not been tested with version 9 5 which was released in March 2010 After verifying that you have the appropriate plug in and aircr
80. e device is not powered 1 Ensure contacts on each of the slide potentiometers Page 109 No Testing Action 222222222222 Result are soldered correctly and that the wires lead to the correct pins on the A D Converter board as specified on the schematic Ensure the entire yoke mechanical assembly including the wires leading to the slide potentiometers is connected and that there is no restriction in the movement of the stick P F Plug in the joystick control into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes P F the device Perform operational testing utilizing the Windows Control Panel 1 In Windows 7 click Start Control Panel Devices and Printers Right click on the icon associated with the yoke Click Properties Click on the Test Tab This is built in Windows Test utility for game controller and joysticks First move the joystick in the positive X direction and then to the negative X direction The crosshair should move up and then down Next test the Y axis in the same fashion Moving the stick to the left should move the crosshair to the left and moving the stick to the right should move the crosshair to the right If the joystick passed the previous test then we may verify that it works accordingly in X Plane 9 4 First launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway 1 First release the brake on the keyboard if enabled by pressing the B key Then u
81. e panel of switches that could be implemented using this electrical design The numbered circles in the left of the picture are not switches but are fuses and circuit breakers This design discussion does not cover implementing these Figure 3 58 Switches and knobs that control the aircraft Photo by Robert Gysi Page 86 To integrate these switches we could have used some sort of multiplexer or decoder to decide which of the switches is in what position Each of the channels could have been read by the FTDI chip which only has the 8 I O ports which is polled by the software Pulling information from the simulator is relatively straight forward a simple circuit diagram showing how the switches could be connected is shown below This would allow any other developer to put this into the code and implement this 5vC FTDI fi P3 1 0 0 VA R7 L 3 4P10 1 0 1 i aiig 100k YE P11 I una 5 Che vo a E ld ur IN7 3 100k i gt y a VO 4 e 14 CS IN6 VV R5 Us gt 1 0 5 e IN5 gt 100k Da V0 8 gla IN4 ps RAV 7 VO 7 p IN3 43 100k A GND 7 A1 IN2 45 VVV R3 UA L IN1 3 100k 4 gt 9 glao INO 45 RWW A ug Agak 1X _2 RI A T yy 1 2 ut Figure 3 59 Switch circuit Created by Chris Dlugolinksi In this circuit in Figure 3 59 you can see that the FTDI chip would be connected to the Decoder and a couple of the pins are used to select the channel that is allowed to come across
82. e purpose of integrated systems testing is to validate the install of the components as a whole and ensure that each system works together in a combined environment This represents the final phase of testing before the project can be considered complete and allows any issues to be corrected before the project deadline and demonstration In the integrated systems testing each component was tested individually in a large scale test event using the acceptance test procedures During the testing we had one individual operating the simulator one individual ensuring that the data from X Plane matched our physical gauges and another individual keeping track of everything from the test computer screen 114 Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of cockpit WARNING Ensure that power is disconnected to all of the electrical components including the computer before performing the inspection 1 Ensure that the mechanical components of the stick pedals and throttle are all free of obstructions and that the electrical components have been properly installed in accordance with the schematic Verify that each of the gauges has been installed in the proper location Check the mechanical connections on the motors to the gauge faces for any obstructions or misconnections Verify that the electrical layout matches the appropriate schematic drawing Verify that the indicator lights have been installed in the instrument panel co
83. e with a standard crystal and an Page 32 EEProm that holds some descriptions that we used for naming the gauges Along with the FTDI chip we needed a chip to keep the FTDI chip from being overloaded and we will use the 4050 buffer chip to help drive the transistors that drive the small stepper motor 54 O 4 1 PHOTODIOD Sean ERTE e f3 ut 7 317 5 5 R2 D2 AD D3 AD D4 AD D5 AD 47k vex 6 STEPPER MOTOR a Iii cork corz cors kora 4 4 a a2 a3 aa Aa Ra A A Q2N2222 Q2N2222 Q2N22P2 Q2N2222 R4 10k t o e 2 Figure 3 8 Circuit for the stepper motor controls Created by Chris Dlugolinksi Figure 3 8 shows the connections needed to run each of the coils of the stepper motor and how the circuit is designed The microcontroller being the FTDI chip and each of the coils needed to be turned on by the transistors The diodes are in the design to stop the motor kickback current from coming back and hurting any of the hardware components 5v Oe 4050 NC 1_OUT cs_ourd 1_IN G6_IN 220UT Ne gt ls i ETDI 452_IN G5_OUT 100 g 110 0 9 3_OUT G5_INe a ah A vec P10 1 0 1 9 3_IN G4_OUT C10 H TRIGGER 4 R16 4P11 1 0 2 p ND G4_IN RE
84. eceding this paragraph Figure 2 1 and 2 2 you can notice some interesting differences between the two simulators However before we start we should make it clear that in X Plane 9 the default airport is Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport LOWI and is therefore has higher detailed scenery than many of the airports in the game whereas in Microsoft Flight simulator it is just another airport from a list of thousands One thing that is noticeably different between the two simulators is that smoothness of the rendering of the aircraft Both simulation packages ran on the same machine and resolution but the one in FSX is slightly jagged Also while not able to tell form this picture X Plane supports curved runways which this airport has runways typically are not a 0 gradient whereas in FSX it s a flat straight line Also speaking of airport surface areas the taxiways in X Plane are also of a higher detail where in FSX they just intersect the runway as a opposed to having some curve into it Terrain data in either X Plane or FSX appears identically the same there were no missing or added terrain features so there is no differentiation in that department Render distance is essentially the same but as the terrain fades off into the distance FSX does a better job of blending the horizon and the sky If you notice in Figure 2 2 the mountain in the distance appears to be on a boundary of different shades of grey in X Plane Out of this table one
85. ection details the construction of the flight instruments including the housing motors faceplates and needles Due to the similar nature of many of these gauges we were able to use a common design and then only make slight adjustments to take care of any differing features 3 3 3 1 Stepper Motor Design This design takes advantage of the two strengths involved when using a stepper motor for a simulated aircraft flight instrument or gauge The motor can rotate continually because there is no mechanical stop There is also quite a bit of torque at your disposal When using stepper motors to design the aircraft flight instrument an optical interrupter must be incorporated into the design An optical interrupter will be used to sense the zero position during power up and execution of the reset command The stepping motor is centered and mounted directly behind the faceplate assembly For this type of aircraft flight instrument there is a rotary encoder which is mounted in the lower corner of the motor deck The optical interrupter is located directly above the stepper motor The optical interrupter is mounted on the decks front surface with the leads pointing toward the circuit deck Just behind the motor deck is the circuit deck which is followed by the rear deck Page 58 There is no unique starting position for the stepper motor When powered up the stepper motor shaft is in an unknown rotational position A 400 step per revolution stepper mo
86. ed extensively on the X Plane community message boards To start we got the polar coordinate data file from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Applied Aerodynamics Group for the wing profile on their public website From there we needed to utilize an application known as javafoil to convert this file into a format that X Plane can understand This is a fairly time consuming process as one must wait for all the calculations to be completed and then remove extra information from the afl file it generates 3 2009 Dec Airplane Flight Manual Aero AT 4 Light Sport Airplane Online Available http www ussportaircraft com uploads Gobosh_POH_1_ pdf Page 96 Chapter 4 4 1 Project Implementation Following the completion of our Preliminary Design Review with our sponsor on January 3 2010 we started our build phase All of the design work at this point was considered completed and we were still slated to receive a cockpit to integrate at this time In mid March we were told that we would not be receiving the cockpit as planned and which necessitated several design changes This included building our own joystick and pedals and not procuring the computer we would have powered our simulator with Upon demonstrating our project and presenting to the review committee our project has been completed with all the hardware and software being handed over to our project sponsor 4 2 List of Required Parts The following table Table 4 1 l
87. ed on an NVIDIA chipset while one will be based on an ATI chipset They both should have fairly comparable specifications and performance given the rivalry between the two companies The comparison between the ATI and NVIDIA based chipsets are in table 3 6 located below Table 3 6 Comparison of Graphics Card Options EVGA 01G P3 N981 TR XFX HD 575X ZNFC Memory Clock 1800 MHz 1150 MHz Memory Interface Type 256 bit GDDR3 128 bit GDDR5 SLI CrossFire Yes SLI Yes CrossFireX Support 139 99 139 99 2009 Dec ATI Eyefinity Technology Brief Online Available http www amd com us Documents ATI_Eyefinity_ Technology Brief pdf 2009 Dec EVGA Product Specification Sheet Online Available http www evga com products pdt 0 1 G P3 N981 pdf 7 2009 Dec XFX 5750 Specifications Online Available htip www xtxforce com en us products graphiccards hd 205000series 5750 aspx 2 Page 79 These two cards are exactly the same price at Newegg com and while they have some similarities such as memory size relatively close GPU clock speeds and the ability to be linked to another graphics card to increase graphics processing power they are very much different cards The ATI based card for example has a lowe memory clock rate than the 9800 but many more stream processors Now there may be a difference in how ATI versus NVIDIA calculates the stream processors on the chip but there is not a way to know
88. ed to a USB hub which is then connected to a USB port on the game computer Page 36 j ADA Figure 3 13 Back view of the aircraft panel received from Dave Graham of GoBosh Aviation with USB controlled gauges mounted Photo used with permission from Joseph Munera a To accomplish the requirements regarding the flight instruments there were a few options to consider The options available were to mod a real world gauge to interface with the flight software buy a simulation gauge kit that comes with all the parts pre manufactured build servo based gauges or build stepper motor based gauges The best part of modifying real world gauges is that you get the most realistic look as the gauges are in fact real The other benefit of using real aircraft gauges is that all the faceplates needles glass coverings and in some cases the mechanical inner workings are already there so that all we would have to create would be the interface with the computer Unfortunately creating this interface was not an easy task In the aircraft that we simulated all the gauges we are replicating are either barometric or gyroscopic neither of which are easily simulated by a computer For instance the airspeed indicator can be simulated by a variable speed fan blowing into the barometer but this was neither easier to implement nor more accurate than the other methods we have available The other problem we had with real world gauges is the price After calli
89. edded software has been minimized since we are using the special Bit Bang mode on the FTDI chip that allows for direct use of the I O ports The amount of embedded software just comes down to programming each of the gauges so that they are recognized as different gauges and can be recognized if unplugged and re plugged in This shifted most of the software to the host computer and also shifted where we manage all of our gauges as well With this type of design we needed to come up with a way to get our modular design We have a write up that we will give the end user on how to go about implementing our design for future expansion of the gauges or controls 3 3 Flight Instrument Design There are six main flight instruments as pictured above to be designed and simulated for our senior design project Figure 3 10 shows the actual flight instruments that have been simulated for the GoBosh 700S Figure 3 11 shows a close up of the traditional six pack of flight instruments arranged in a basic T that are very similar to the flight instruments contained in the GoBosh 700S and many traditional aircraft to date The names of the flight instruments in Figure 3 11 starting from the top are airspeed indicator attitude indicator altimeter turn coordinator heading indicator and vertical speed indicator In this section we will describe the name and function of each flight instrument how it is constructed and the way we built and constructed our own f
90. elling of flight instruction courses for the actual aircraft The second usage scenario for our prototype is as a ground based instruction simulator In the configuration being developed as part of this project it has the ability to give a new student basic lessons in aircraft control before setting off in the actual aircraft However those hours will not be able to be logged as flight time due to the simulator not being FAA Certified In order to achieve certification the optional 500 USB key from Laminar Research would need to be purchased This allows the student pilot to log up to ten hours of ground based training towards the completion of their sport aviation license Although we do not have the actual cockpit our desktop simulator could possibly be used for this scenario All that would need to be done is to procure the computer components to build the simulation computer and the three screens for the 120 degree field of view Beyond the scope of our efforts is the use of this simulator at future airshows and general aviation conventions after the prototype has been turned back over to Mr Kotick and Grizzly Aviation It has been mentioned that one of the second type of events this would be taken to gatherings and trade shows such as the Orlando Home and Boat show At this type of show the goal would be to introduce individuals to the aircraft and flying in general This use scenario is dependent on our sponsor receiving the cockpit fro
91. elow Table 2 8 Established Requirements Req Task Summary M1 USB Controlled M2 Use less than 5V M3 Minimum 8 I O Pins for external communications M4 Fit inside of a 3 24 x3 24 footprint M5 Low Cost Microcontroller M6 As self contained as possible The gauges that we duplicated are the six pack that is located slightly to the left in the photo in Figure 2 8 next page From the requirements we needed to make these gauges look and act just like the real gauges would in the actual Bosh aircraft We also need to make them react as the gauges in the X Plane game this makes them as real as the model in the simulation They also needed to fit in to our budget was a very small amount There of course are the pre made gauges that were discussed but those are expensive so we needed to think of other ways What we came up with is the handmade gauges discussed in this paper and we also got lucky when we talked to the people at GoBosh and they sent us some used gauges to take apart and alter for use in our simulator The gauges are controlled by a stepper motor In order to do this we needed to come up with a way to power these gauges as well as control them Page 18 Figure 2 8 A photo of the cockpit in a GoBosh aircraft Photo by Robert Gysi We were given a requirement that everything needed to be connected via USB With this constraint we had to find a way to control the motors with the USB protocol Along with the re
92. em bese soe ee mica eo co q wo oe on assena oe e CET usnesvaan suso arenes reo aro nesa ne emesan pree aws use toros utsa wens oe Oe a ree re o parans poant AGUA A ds Te eran A at asaan wrat e mms n sieas o tee eee ee ews cvs mayen rs eno mars rw A e aa rete ee ee e er A ad see Mg tees Ho e sarean Page B 2 B 3 October Monthly Status Report Period Covered 1 Oct 2009 31 Oct 2009 Project Progression Upon reaching October 31 the trade study and requirements development phases have been completed Trade studies are being presented at the first meeting of November along with our formal recommendations for design In addition the design phase has begun with USB communication and microcontroller interface being worked on Project Expenditures e Project Funds 0 e Personal Funds 50 o Purchased a copy of X Plane servo motor and USB communications chip for evaluation Project Files Delivered FSX vs X Plane Trade Study Microcontroller USB Implementation Trade Study Hardware Trade Study Project Items to be Completed e Design of Flight Instruments o Microcontrollers USB interface o Servo Motors o Required software on simulator PC e Design of Flight Controls o USB interface o Throttle o Yoke o Pedals e Other Electrical Design o Lights Switches o Power Supply e Design of Aircraft Model Need Parametric Data e Mounting Design for Monitors and Computer Hardware Design Documentation
93. embly occurred unfortunately at the last minute of the build phase The reason behind this was up until mid March we were still assuming that we would be receiving a cockpit to integrate with As a result while we had our electronics finished and tested using rotary potentiometers we were behind schedule The design of mechanical interfaces was not part of the original scope of this project and as a result we had to focus efforts on additional designs Fortunately we were able to get this completed before our testing phase commenced For more information on the design of the controls refer to Chapter 2 4 3 3 Indicator and Switch Assembly No work was completed on the indicator lights or swtiches This was due to the lack of time for completing the project and in addition to not demonstrating at Sun n Fun These were never required components of the simulator but features we designed in case we had the time available Page 99 Chapter 5 5 1 Overview This section contains all of our test procedures for testing the individual components to be installed in the aircraft cockpit as well as the final test procedure to ensure that the system as a whole works correctly This is critical as our project ultimately will wind up in the hands of our project sponsor and this an excellent method for us to perform quality control on our components In addition to test procedures and results this section also includes the usage cases as well as the req
94. er No Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of the altimeter WARNING Ensure altimeter is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 fs 3 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there are no obstructions to the gauge movement Verify wiring to from the FTDI USB controller is in accordance with the schematic diagram Plug in the altimeter into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes the device Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 1 2 Launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway idling Ensure the throttle is set to zero Ensure you are in the cockpit view in X Plane We will want to verify that the same altitude is displayed on the virtual instrument on the screen and our simulated instrument ge 104 No Testing Action Result 3 First release the aircraft brake by pressing the B key on the keyboard Then climb to an altitude of 900ft above sea level Verify that the physical gauge matches the altitude in X Plane Verify that the gauge moves at the same rate as indicated on the screen Now climb to a level of 2300 feet above sea level With this increase in altitude the thousands hand on the gauge should move Verify that the altitude matches the result displayed in X Plane If the thousands hand is not correct check the gearing of the motor
95. er a 120 field of view out of the cockpit Since the actual cockpit was not to arrive in time a decision was reached with our sponsor to not take the simulator to Sun n Fun in Lakeland and as a result to not purchase the associated computer components at this time Even with this limitation we were able to demonstrate the ability of the software to output 120 field of view onto a single 24 monitor Additionally for our demonstration we utilized our primary development machine to power all Page 2 of our simulated controls instruments and visual output without any performance or other issues Additionally another feature of the simulation is that we will include databases for the local airports of the surrounding areas so that pilots form this area can notice landmarks while flying the simulator These databases are all included in X Plane although for higher realism 3 party scenery can be purchased to increase realism of the local area All of the features listed above will give a good simulation of the GoBosh 700s that will give the user a better understanding of this aircraft reacts inflight and the ease at which one can fly this aircraft This paper describes how each of the features listed above were researched how they were implemented and the results of our testing Also we will cover some administrative information including our budget and our original project schedule predictions Additionally in the Appendices of this p
96. es in the plugin for use in X Plane Finally once the appropriate data reference is populated with the new value X Plane will respond appropriately Figure 3 64 shows the interface architecture for the flight instruments It is very similar to the control interface architecture except it is backwards The first step in the main loop once again is to look up the appropriate data reference this is found in the ini file The gauge thread is started and in this thread you have the data that needs to be set getting passed in from the array that carries all the connected devices Next the data must be translated into something we can use to drive the gauge Finally the appropriate value is sent out to the gauges which will turn to display the current instrument readings In the case of stepper motor based gauges an aspect of this final step will be a gauge driving loop that steps the motor through the appropriate amount of iterations to get the needle in the right position Instrument amp Control Interface 8 USB Interfaces Figure 3 62 Instrument and control architecture Diagram by Lewis Vail Page 90 Control Software Interface Figures 3 63 High resolution control interface Diagram by Lewis Vail Gauge Software Interface Figure 3 64 High resolution flight instrument interface Diagram by Lewis Vail The other major consideration with regards to how we integrate our I O devices into X Plane is how often
97. eter over top The tape itself held the potentiometer fairly snug but for extra security we utilized zip ties on both the front and back of the throttle so as to not impede movement Page 74 Figure 3 53 Angle bracket for connecting to slide potentiometer Photo by Robert Gysi Through our testing we discovered issues with the potentiometer wanting to lean towards the right when a user pulls out on the throttle To alleviate this we added an extra angle bracket supporting it from being able to rotate about the rod Also we found that the throttle assembly had issues of wanting to travel left and right within the hole Since we were not able to get the correct nut that the throttle would have normally exited the panel through we devised a solution using the thin aluminum that we used for several purposes in our gauge construction We cut a thin strip that was secured to the base of the front throttle assembly This helped restricted our throttle from moving left and right Although this was our solution we would recommend that the appropriate sized nut be located and installed to maximize the left right travel restriction The completed throttle assembly installed in the instrument panel is located in Figure 3 54 below Figure 3 54 Completed throttle assembly Photo by Robert Gysi Page 75 3 4 3 1 Throttle Analog Design The analog electronics design on the throttle is the same as with all the other control circuits Using the 10kQ
98. extend the shaft length to the faceplate 3 3 2 Gyroscopic Instruments The instruments in this category all are based on gyroscopes They help the pilot determine the position and status of the aircraft in flight While during day time flying a pilot may be able to determine if his wings are level or if he is at level flight or climbing or descending but in times of low light levels it may be impossible to see the ground or may become disoriented and not know which way is up down left or right 3 3 2 1 Attitude Indicator Artificial Horizon The attitude indicator displays the aircraft s orientation relative to the earth As seen in Figure 3 26 we see that the gauge has two different colored areas one blue to represent the sky and one black in most case this colored brown to represent the earth The hatch indicates the attitude of the aircraft This gauge does not solely work in an up and down fashion Since it is gyroscope based on an actual aircraft it also rotates to the left and the right indicating the bank or roll of the aircraft Figure 3 27 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we would have used had we not received an actual attitude indicator Figure 3 26 Face plate of the attitude indicator Used with permission under the GNU Free Documentation License 2009 Nov Artificial Horizon Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Attitude_indicator_level_flight svg Page 49
99. features test results are given in Table 2 3 on the previous page Table 2 4 Simulator to External Flight Instruments Controls Communication ltem Description X Plane 9 Protocol API to interface with flight S2 A Yes Yes simulator software FSX allows for two methods of interfacing with simulated flight controls and instruments the SimConnect API and the legacy FSUIPC interface from previous versions of Flight Simulator but still supported X Plane also has an API available in order to develop plug ins for the software This allows us to develop dll and exe files to facilitate the data flow between the software and our hardware The API for either flight simulator allows access to nearly all of the internal variables used in the simulators This allows us to dig into the simulation state and pull out information ranging to which lights are on is a switch on or off to changing the weather changing aircraft position and of course simply flying the aircraft This allows us to write a plug in for X Plane or an application for FSX that allows us to do nearly everything Due to this we will be able to interface with each of our gauges our indicator lights switches and our flight control systems Our overall requirements list is presented the Table 2 5 below This incorporates all the requirements that were derived in the preceding paragraphs Page 11 Table 2 5 Simulator Requirements s E ESTI s1 A Realistic Scenery SSCS s1 B In
100. ftware This is compared to FSX which as of January 2009 has had a stop in development of future versions due to the closing of the Microsoft ACES studio All of these items together show that for this simulator the use of X Plane 9 4 would be most advantageous to use A further exploration of the requirements and results of a side by side comparison lie in Table 2 1 below with explanations given in the proceeding paragraphs Table 2 1 Environmental Aspects Inclusion of Majority of Airports S1 B Yes Yes Worldwide 2 Detailed Realistic Scenery____ StA_ Yes Yes e O Pe landmarks 3 Realistic Weather Conditions____ S3A_ Yes Yes 3a Real World Weather_________ S3A Yes Yes 4 Al Aircraft in the virtual world_____ S3E Yes No Em Deliver a constant 30 FPS While comparing the environment simulated in both of the software options we find that on the surface the two seem similar They both include a large number of airports worldwide X Plane even includes a few that FSX omits but the major difference is that in X Plane airports are just runways taxiways and aprons There are no buildings on airport property at any airports in the simulator not even at airports such as John F Kennedy International Airport KJFK in New York City or Orlando International Airport KMCO Microsoft s Flight Simulator does have these major airports accurately modeled and where there isn t an actual model automatically gener
101. ftware into FAA compliance at a price of 500 if to be used for flight training Table A 2 Aircraft Modeling No Item Description Req FSX X Plane 9 Included 3D Model Generator 4 A No Yes Ability to change aircraft parametric data 4 B Yes Yes on the fly Notes FSX requires the use of an outside modeling program such as 3ds Studio Max to generate a 3D model of the aircraft This opens up to the possibility that the model could look one way and have the flight characteristics of an aircraft that does not resemble that particular design Requires editing the aircraft cfg file in a text editor but allows you to change all of the aircraft variables Table A 3 Entertainment Features Page A3 No Item Description Req FSX X Plane 9 No 1 Detailed Crash Effects 3 B No Yes 2 Multiplayer Support 5 A Yes Yes 3 Aircraft Sounds 3 C Yes Yes 4 Ability to create custom 3 D Yes Yes scenarios missions 5 Built in Instructor Operator Station IOS 8 No Yes Notes 1 By Default in both of the flight simulators when the aircraft crashes or the airframe is overstressed due to physical factors the flight ends with the aircraft stuck in the position that the either struck the ground or featured overstressed conditions However X Plane allows for the removal of flight surfaces if the aircraft goes past over speed
102. g to use As well as what type of gauges we were going to implement and also what other switches and knobs needed to be able to interact with our simulation For the initial design of this system we came up with a design plan that included a separate IOS station to control the setup of the simulation Since that became an extra hurdle it was an if we have time OPTION and eventually never came to fruition The system still has the capability to have the IOS from the simulation software we chose X Plane The control of the cockpit and the gauges is done through the USB chips that we have decided upon The flight controls are divided into input devices and passive devices The input devices are the yoke and pedals along with The passive devices are the lights that are lit and the gauges All of this is covered in the cockpit design section The block diagram of the design is below in Figure 3 1 Instrument amp Control Interface 8 USB Interfaces 2 USB Interfaces Figure 3 1 Block diagram representing cockpit interfaces and responsible parties Diagram by Lewis Vail Page 26 One of the major decisions was made regarding the design of the GoBosh 700S flight simulator was which flight simulator software to use We had two options available to us as to which commercially available flight simulator software we could use The first option was Microsoft FSX Microsoft s flight simulator is the oldest and most established flight
103. hat it meets our project requirements Overall the project was a tough challenge but we feel that we all now have a greater understanding of the engineering process as well as effort that it takes to create a functioning simulator The effort required many hours of work in the senior design lab but overall it is worth it when in the end a functional product works during the project demonstration Page 3 Chapter 2 2 1 Project Objective The objective of this project is simple to build a simulator around a GoBosh G700S Aero AT 4 Light Sport Aircraft We were tasked on this project by Mr Dave Kotick a local flight instructor based out of the Orlando Apopka Airport X04 near Apopka FL who has sponsored this project through his business Grizzly Aviation As defined in our first meeting with Mr Kotick the initial purpose of this project was to produce a flight simulator that is not necessarily for flight training but for demonstrations of this aircraft In addition to training of aspiring Light Sport Aircraft pilots his business is also a representative of the US importer of the aircraft we simulated GoBosh Aviation the aircraft are manufactured in Poland by a company known as Aero Sp z o o as the Aero AT 4 Because of this he frequently travels to airshows and general aviation conferences to demonstrate the aircraft and find potential buyers or those who are interested in potentially earning their LSA pilot s license One of
104. he goal here is to operate the aircraft under normal flying conditions while a second group member verifies that each component is working The following procedures do not need to be followed in a specific order as long as each step is verified While each procedure is being verified ensure that the same result is being displayed on the physical gauge in the cockpit the virtual gauge in X Plane in addition to the data matching on the Instructor Operator Station computer as well If there is a mismatch in the data being displayed on one of the computers or the physical gauge perform troubleshooting to determine which device is reporting the incorrect information to the user 1 Verify Operation of the gauges Perform the following sections from the acceptance testing to verify the install of each gauge a 5 3 2 1 Airspeed Indicator b 5 3 2 2 Altimeter c 5 3 2 3 Attitude Indicator d 5 3 2 5 Heading Indicator e 5 3 2 6 Vertical Speed Indicator Verify Operation of the gauges Perform the following sections from the acceptance testing to verify the install of each flight control a 5 3 3 1 Joystick b 5 3 3 2 Pedals c 5 3 3 3 Throttle Verify the operation of indicator lamps Perform the following sections from the acceptance testing to verify the install of each lamp a 5 3 4 1 Indicator Lamps Verify the operation of the switches Perform the following sections from the acceptance testing to verify the install of each switch a
105. he monitors For this we know that the distance should be about two and a half feet or 30 inches Plugging this value into Equation 3 above gives us a value of 25 Now this is the complete diagonal of the monitor we have found including the frame In order to find the monitor size that we need to purchase we need to simply subtract approximately 1 total the frame of the many LCD monitors is around 0 5 wide to come to the conclusion that we need three 24 monitors to give us our 120 field of view With our monitor sized now defined we set about to located an adequate monitor for our needs We ultimately found the Gateway FHD2401 on sale at Newegg com for only 189 99 The monitor has a native resolution at 1920x1200 with a maximum viewing angle of 160 Horizontal and Vertical in addition a 5ms response time and a 2000 1 contrast ratio all common traits of lower cost LCD monitors today1s We also expect that monitor prices will continue to drop as they have for the past few years and should a better deal come along say potentially a refurbished monitor from a major manufacturer that meets or exceeds the specifications on the FHD2401 we will consider purchasing that instead in order to decrease the overall cost of our project 3 5 2 2 Demonstration Hardware For our demonstration we still needed to provide a visual projection to the end user separate from our test machine The reason for this is that we wanted to not utilize the
106. hould not need to replace it due to a failure Page 101 Controls are to be tested through the use of their test rig assemblies built specifically for the demonstrations 5 4 1 Part Testing This section is to verify that the critical components that were to be installed in our instruments and controls perform as specified from the manufacturer We will require this of our most critical component the FTDI USB communication board This board will need to be tested before any are installed onto a board as a faulty chip will not only cost us the price of the chip but also the time it takes to receive a replacement component The procedures for this follows in section 5 4 1 1 5 4 1 1 Microcontroller The purpose of the microcontroller test is to verify that the part is received in working order If the test results in any failures a new part will need to be ordered or other corrective actions This will be tested using the test software installed on the test computer No Testing Action esa The microcontroller is internal to the Gauges that are being used in order to test it you must plug it into the computer through the USB port Computer should recognize the device In the Application there is a Test Tab open it you will find a list with all the connected gauges Make sure your gauge is in the list Depending on the gauge you will be able to test the max and the min of the gauge Slide the bar between max and min and the gauge sho
107. ht Instruments This section of the acceptance testing will cover the flight instruments or gauges to be installed in our cockpit Gauges to the tested will include the airspeed indicator altimeter attitude indicator turn coordinator heading indicator and the vertical speed indicator Success will be determined if all of the test steps results in a pass Any failures will need to be corrected before being installed in the instrument panel If necessary a redesign will occur if successive fails are generated by the component in question Additionally any comments regarding the test events are included in paragraphs following the result tables 5 4 2 1 Airspeed Indicator The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of the airspeed indicator WARNING Ensure airspeed indicator is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly 2 Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there are no obstructions to the movement of the gauge 3 Verify wiring to from the FTDI USB controller is in accordance with the schematic diagram P F Plug in the airspeed indicator into a free USB port on the
108. ical parts of the aircraft flight instrument would have to be removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Servo motors or stepper motors would then be place inside the aircraft flight instrument Diaphragm Calibrated Direct Static Leak Pressure Figure 3 25 Components of an actual vertical speed indicator This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government 2009 Nov Vertical Speed Indicator FAA Wikipedia Online http en wikipedia org wiki File Faa_vertical_air_speed JPG Page 48 For the vertical speed indicator we have selected option three This is because stepper motors provide 360 degrees of rotation Again just like the airspeed indicator we will never need to go beyond just short of 360 degrees but since we will need to cover large angles of rotation only a stepper motor can provide us with the resolution we require We were only able to utilize the faceplate needle and glass frame of the real vertical speed indicator we obtained from GoBosh Aviation to build our simulated vertical speed indicator These components were added to the faceplate deck of the layered sheet metal and hex spacer flight instrument design A single stepper motor was mounted in the center of the motor deck and used to turn the needle of the vertical speed indicator A piece of 3 8 round aluminum tube was mounted to the shaft of the stepper motor to
109. icator Circuit Testing The switches and indicator lamps circuits would have been tested to the same level as all other flight instruments and controls if they had been implemented The indicator lamps provide secondary information to the pilot and the indicator switches provide additional input commands including turning on and off exterior strobe lights to the pilot This was established as an optional requirement for the project Not all of the switches may be functional as implementation is solely up to our sponsor after handing over the project Nonfunctional switches will be noted so that they can be excluded from testing 5 4 4 1 Indicator Lamps The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This should be tested using X Plane on a test computer For the scope of this project this component P a g e 112 was not implemented and therefore did not require testing These procedures are included in this document for the reference of our project sponsor and or future groups that may work on this simulator No _ Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of indicator lamps WARNING Ensure indicator lamp control board is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure of each LED is connected to the board P F correctly and tha
110. ics Figure 3 67 below shows a comparison of this section of the aircraft in both real life and in our model Figure 3 67 Actual versus Model Photo by Lewis Vail Model by Robert Gysi Another issue we had with the model stems from specifying the engine We attempted to utilize the specs for the Rotax 912ULS the engine that is shipped with the GoBosh but this unfortunately would not provide enough power to allow the plane to take off This was probably due to an issue from modeling our Page 95 aircraft as there may be something that does not match the GoBosh s flight profile at all As a result we had to customize our engine specifications using other LSA models as a starting point Ultimately we did find engine specs that would allow the plane to take off and fly although it is possible to go slightly faster than maximum speed that the GoBosh is rated for Table 3 10 below highlights these differences Table 3 10 Engine Specifications Rotax Actually Used 912ULS Horsepower 98 5 hp 180 hp Redline RPM 5800 RPM 2700 RPM Idle RPM 1400 RPM 500 RPM Continuous RPM 5500 RPM 2500 RPM 3 11 2 Airfoil One of the particular aspects we wanted to attempt to accurately model was the flight physics To do this we needed to create an airfoil for the NACA 4415 wing profile that this aircraft uses for its wings While we lack the basic aerospace principles to fully understand this process the steps for creating the airfoil were cover
111. ign Effort Display projection really comes down to two options The first option was to utilize a DLP projector for producing our visuals onto a drop screen in front of the simulator Unfortunately this presents several issues To meet the requirement of a 120 degree field of view given to us by our sponsor we would need to use multiple projectors but each time the simulator would be set up the placing of projectors would need to be calibrated and the whole set up would be very cumbersome Another concern was the effectiveness of projectors at an outdoor event We would probably have to implement some kind of tenting to keep the light level within the projectors operational range This of course would also hide our simulator from plane sight hindering our sponsor from luring in on lookers at various shows The ultimate factor that led us away from this option was the cost If we had chosen this form of display our entire budget would be spent on just the projectors Page 83 Our second option is the one we recommend for implementation at a future date by our project sponsor LCD Monitors First of all the cost of LCD monitors has been driven down enormously over the last few years a 24 monitor can now be purchased for under 200 In addition the setup is incredibly easy in that you just need to place each monitor next to the other Also LCD monitors are much easier to see than projectors when operating in very bright environments The prim
112. ins many different types of gauge control capability and adding a new gauge only take setting the PID or VID to that type of gauge and you will have control for that gauge based on the real gauges activity and it will be given data from the simulation that is running it The cost of the FTDI chip will also reduce our overall cost of the gauges During the initial research a microcontroller was thought to be needed and they cost 10 to 15 dollars for the chips we were looking at The FTDI chip is only 5 a chip and needs only a few external components This cost for a premade board for the FTDI chip makes it cost around 25 per board which is slightly higher than predicted One of the most important parts of the design was with the power consumption The USB port on a computer can supply 5 volts and 500mA as we have already stated The use of this to drive a motor of any kind is pushing the power of the USB port to the limit not to mention the ability of the motor to push current back at the port which can kill the port all together So we went with an external power supply computer power supply using Molex connectors for each controlled gauge 3 2 1 Implementation of Hardware The implementation or actual making of the hardware came from the FTDI FT245BL chip that was able to use the USB signal and allow the use of the 8 I O ports right through the computer We ordered the DLP USB245M chip as a dev board for trying out our design The chip cam
113. ists the required parts needed to implement the design contained in Section 3 along with distributors in Table 4 2 Table 4 1 Required Parts Item P N Qty Vendor Req d USB Communication FTDI245BL 10 Board Saelig IC Sockets Assorted Various SkyCraft Radio Shack AE A A Wire TC Radio Shack Radio Shack Diodes 1N4003 As Padio Shack Spacers Assorted N A A A E StepperMotors 8 RoboKitsWord ENTRENA ESP eis Powered USB Hub St BestBuy PEEL ee rie Slide Potentiometers RA6020F 10 20D1 3 B10K Mouser Molex Connectors Various __ Radio Shack Epoxy Putty Home Depot 3 8 x 0 035 Aluminum N A 1 i Tube Cent FL Hobbies Misc Haraware na SkyCraf Home Depot 470 Ohm Resistors A Radio Shack Page 97 Table 4 2 Vendor Contact Information Vendor WebSite PhoneNumber_ Best Buy Radio Shack DLP Design 469 964 8027 Home Depot http www homedepot com 321 235 3600 Mouser Electronics http www mouser com 800 346 6873 Futurlec http www futurlec com Cent Florida http orlandohobbyshop com 407 295 9256 Hobbies None Saelig http www saelig com 585 385 1750 Robokits World http www robokitsworld com None Big Lots http www biglots com 407 380 3755 4 3 Build Phase The build phase for this project commenced after our Preliminary Design Review with the project sponsor which was completed on January 3 2010 A full schedule representing our buil
114. ity to change aircraft parametric data S4 B Yes Yes on the fly In order to deliver an accurate simulation of the aircraft a detailed and realistic model was developed to the best of our abilities Each of the simulators utilize two different methods to model aircraft with FSX requiring the use of a 3 party 3D modeling software such as 3ds Studio Max In addition once the model is generated in the software one must then create an aircraft cfg file which specifies the model properties As mentioned earlier this creates the possibility for generating a model that does not meet the flight characteristics X Plane Page 9 utilizes an included model generator that allows us to build an accurate model without utilizing expensive software Pictured below is how one builds a fuselage with the editor in addition you can edit all the other features of the aircraft including avionics and engines A more specific discussion on the development of requirements for the aircraft model can be found in the next section Section 2 2 1 2 Aircraft Model Requirements is where we cover modeling the aircraft using the tools in X Plane in addition to parametric data we currently have from the manufacturer Table 2 2 above summarizes this information Top Bottom Front Back ZA aircraft has fuselage might be no for flying wings BODY DATA BODY LOCATION BODY TEXTURE AA E AA number none ES use second for stations 10 attach pa J D ratio aircraft textur
115. ity to create custom scenarios missions X Plane has tools to create and save custom missions Aircraft Model Aircraft Exterior Model Complete and generated via the Plane Maker tool Model parametric data Data received and implemented from the aircraft manufacturer or other source Ability to interface with other Flight Sim X plane games X Plane has built in multiplayer as well as the ability to interface with other simulators with an appropriate plug in Native Multiplayer Support Support over TCP IP and UDP protocols included for an enhanced simulation experience through multiplayer gaming or through the use of Al Aircraft also utilizing airspace and airports Available via 3 party plug ins Met and custom development using the SDK ge 119 Sub Reg Requirement Description Result he fie A an Instructor Operator Station Los Guaranteed minimum 30 FPS Set in rendering options ensure graphics settings are not overset so that there is no error while the simulator is launching that it is reducing graphics settings to maintain performance FAA Certification Optional Requirement Ability to be implemented with a 500 key The ability to is the requirement not the implementation Ability to interface controls flight instruments SDK to write control plug ins for flight instruments and flight control s Ability to interact with an Instructor Operator Station Includes built in IOS or 3 party appli
116. lage Length 206 Width At Cabin 41 Prop Diameter 5 8 Lifting Area 122 7 ft Wing Profile NACA 4415 mod Empty Weight 820 Ibs Maximum Weight 1320 Ibs Maximum Cruise Speed 116 ktas Stall Speed Minimum landing speed V 50 39 kts Stall Speed Minimum steady flight speed V1 44 kts Normal Operating Speed 110 kts Never Exceed Speed 129 kts Maneuvering Speed 90 kts Service Ceiling 13 200 msl Sea Level Climb Rate 850 fom Maximum Range 360 nm Minimum Take off distance 380 ft Minimum Landing Distance 656 ft Wheel Track 7 42 ft Figure 2 4 below shows one of the screens in the plane maker software This shows some of the parametric data input for the plane maker and gives an idea of what we had to work with While X Plane makes the creation of a aircraft model relatively easy compared with Microsoft FSX it is still a very challenging task With not a single group member having experience with 3D modeling or aerospace engineering or the basics of aircraft operation there is a limitation on our abilities to create 100 accurate model The GUI of the plane maker was 2009 Nov GoBosh G700S Specs Online Available http www gobosh aero G700 cfm 2009 Dec Airplane Flight Manual Aero AT 4 Light Sport Airplane Online Available http www ussportaircraft com uploads Gobosh_POH_1_ pdf Page 13 also fairly complex and lacked a variety of features that would have made the creation of a flight model much easier
117. lude this feature and requires expensive third party applications in addition to manually editing a configuration file While X Plane takes a victory when it comes to modeling it does not when it comes to scenery Scenery in FSX is much more detailed including airport terminals landmarks towers and major population centers X Plane 9 4 does Page 5 not include any of these and instead uses random auto generated scenery to populate the world While a city such as Apopka does not need major detail cities like New York City miss all the important landmarks a pilot would use to fly However this feature is not a primary requirement and is considered part of the entertainment value of the simulator and where the need arises for detailed local scenery it can be developed or purchased from third party developers There is also the possibility down the road that this flight simulator could be used for ground based flight training Currently only X Plane is certified by the FAA when coupled with a 500 USB key which guarantees frame rates and output data However the consumer version does allow you to set a frame rate limit and it will scale the simulation graphics settings in order to match this rate For the purposes of this simulator a minimum of 30 frames per second was deemed necessary In addition this is part of the commitment Laminar Research has made to the X Plane family including the fact that there are regular updates of the so
118. m scratch 3 4 1 Joystick Design One of the most critical components of this project was the joystick controller that was designed for the flight simulator In most small general aviation aircraft the actual stick is actually connected to the flight surfaces through the use of push pull rods For this simulator we needed to simulate this same operation digitally and then passes the data into the simulator computer so that the appropriate command is executed on the screen In order to tackle this problem we needed to first understand that in order to create this control stick we will need to work with two directions the X axis and the Y axis Connected to these two axes are potentiometers which as the stick is moved change in resistance which allows one to map when at a particular output voltage a certain position has been reached Figure 3 44 Control Stick Photo by Robert Gysi The image shown in Figure 3 44 is the actual control stick in a GoBosh G700S that would have been part of the airframe that was to be utilized on this project From discussions with our project sponsor we determined that since the cockpit was not being received with the control devices we would need to build a basic joystick for inputs and testing We decided to come up with a very similar design from the one we first came up with using the two slide pots one for x axis and one for y axis It uses a plunger for control and return to center Page 66 During our
119. m the manufacturer and moving our completed panel into the cockpit While our prototype did not wind up finished as designed all of the components have been built and are working It is now up to our sponsor to utilize this simulator as he sees fit for his business and expand upon the features we were not able to implement due to time or the cockpit not arriving Page 117 5 7 Requirements Verification After completing the test procedures and certifying that our project was built to our specifications and schematics we needed to perform a requirements verification to ensure that each requirement we developed in Chapter 2 has been implemented The requirements have been broken into two tables hardware requirements and software requirements In this final check of the simulator we have tallied what we successfully met what have we partially met and what requirements were not met Most requirements were met overall however as seen in the following sections there are some requirements that were either partially met or not met at all The majority of these cases are the result of the cockpit not arriving This has also been established as a requirement by our project sponsor in order to have traceability of the implementation of our requirements and that each component has been tested and found to be in good working order 5 7 1 Software Requirement Verification The following table determines compliance with the established requirements from
120. meter the turn coordinator the heading indicator and the vertical speed indicator These are the gauges that are essential to successfully fly and navigate a plane Although we were not able to model any other instruments these were enough to get the feel of flying a GoBosh The following are some specific requirements for each gauge Figure 2 11 This is the standard six pack of gauges in the GoBosh Photo by Robert Gysi The airspeed indicator top left corner of figure 2 11 requires the ability to record up to 160 KTS as indicated on the faceplate This requires almost a 360 degree range of motion Among the six pack gauges this one requires one of the faster moving needles but still needs to support small fluctuations in airspeed without looking choppy The attitude indicator also known as the artificial horizon top middle of figure 2 11 is one of the more complicated gauges It is required to turn all the way around more than 360 degrees and part of the face must slide up and down to indicate whether the plane is nose up or nose down respectively The speed and precision needed for this gauge is comparable to that of the airspeed indicator The altimeter top right corner of figure 2 10 requires the ability to record up to 10 000 feet above sea level as indicated on the faceplate The altimeter has two arms like a clock the long arm corresponding to the minute hand of a clock represents hundreds of feet above sea level
121. models are simulated in the environment turned out to be a differentiating factor X Plane distinguishes itself by implementing a concept known as blade element theory With plane maker you are able to build and model any aircraft using blade element theory This feature will greatly simplify the design of the aircraft modeling and the aircraft flight dynamics In the end we decided to use X Plane as the visuals for the GoBosh 7008S flight simulator One of the biggest components of the flight simulator was the design and construction of the simulators aircraft flight instruments The flight simulator consists of the traditional six pack of flight instruments The traditional six pack consists of the altimeter attitude indicator airspeed indicator heading indicator turn indicator and the vertical speed indicator All the aircraft flight instruments for this simulator are analog designed and assembled using stepper motors As we researched the functionality and mechanical operation of each aircraft flight instrument we began to narrow down the way we were going to go about designing them Page 27 Figure 3 2 Gauges to be implemented The Six pack gauges are the cluster of six large gauges to the left of the picture Photo by Robert Gysi When designing the aircraft flight insttuments we realized we needed 360 degrees of motion for most of the needles on the instruments The best way to achieve this degree of motion was to use steppe
122. mplete with the exception of the lOS This is due to the decision to not take the simulator to Sun n Fun However X Plane does have the IOS function built in Flight Simulator Software esponsible Party Aquired No never got extra computer so no IOS was there Status Left open can be created easily with a separate computer and X Plane license Complete No Network Communication Responsible Party Robert Aquired This is the groups computer and will not be turned over Status Computer used and license used were property of the group Complete Yes TCP HDP Responsible Party Group Aquired No Status Stuck in the UK we had to make a mock cockpit Complete Yes Responsible Party Lewis Aquired Yes Status Made and given to the sponsor for use on the simulator Complete Yes Responsible Party Chris Aquired Yes it was demo ed Status Code was turned over Complete Yes Responsible Party Joe Aquired Yes they were demo ed Status Gauges were created and used and turned over to sponsor to sponsor and how to add more USB controls Complete Yes Responsible Party Chris Aquired Yes it was demo ed Status Code was turned over to sponsor and how to add more gauges Complete Yes Figure 3 7 Software Flow Chart Responsible Party Chris Aquired Yes it was demo ed Status
123. n of the heading indicator will consist of several parts The gauge will be controlled by a servo or stepper motor A servo motor design will require either the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees A standard servo can be modified by either modifying the internal structure or by pairing a set of gears together with the proper gear ratio to spin a shaft at least 360 degrees II A single modified servo motor can be used to turn right or left The heading indicator may also have two dials for this aircraft The left dial will indicate the position of the gyro compass The right dial will be used to adjust the heading bug to the proper heading for use with auto pilot III A single stepper motor could be used instead of a servo motor to control the turn from right or left A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know were the heading is positioned To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor could be used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position IV A real commercial heading indicator most likely cannot be used for this simulator The heading indicator incorporates a gyro which is designed so the indicators do not move The instrument housing bolted to the aircraft is what Page 56 moves around the indicator Figure 3 35 shows the inherent complexity involved when trying to use a real aircraft flight instrument in building a flight simul
124. n with this limitations our goal was to still to make an as realistic as possible simulator with the materials and resources we had available to us Originally one of the key features for this simulator was the actual use of the aircraft s original flight controls However with above mentioned supply issue we instead were tasked with implementing our electronics design to test rigs to validate our design work The electronics design did not change at all and still utilized potentiometers slide and turn coupled with Analog to Digital Converters feeding into one of our FTDI USB communication chips From a mechanical perspective we needed to design in a short amount of time our controls for implementation with our simulator The implementation of these controls is discussed in a later chapter The other half of the physical implementation requirements of this simulator included the design and construction of a set of simulated six pack flight instruments This includes the airspeed indicator turn coordinator vertical speed indicator altimeter artificial horizon and directional gyro compass These will all take their values from X Plane and will display the same as if they were the simulated gauges on the computer screen Another aspect of our original plan was to implement a visual projection system along with computer hardware to power our simulator This was going to be accomplished through the use of three 24 monitors to give the us
125. ng factor that did arise from the use of the laptop however was the number of USB ports With only four available ports on the computer we knew that we would need a USB hub to handle all of our controls and instruments We started out by first utilizing a single powered USB hub that had 7 available ports onboard Through testing our USB hub during our integrated systems testing we found that often when a seventh device was connected to the hub we would experience issues USB should be able to handle 128 devices so the cause of this issue is unknown As a work around we use a separate four port unpowered USB hub connected to a separate USB port on the computer This alleviated our issue and allowed for all devices to work flawlessly A full table below lists the specifications of the machine we used during our demonstrations Table 3 9 Complete Simulation Computer Specifications Description Intel Core 2 Duo 2 4 GHz Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 280 6 GB DDR 500 GB Microsoft Windows 7 3 5 2 Display Projection Just as with the computer hardware selection we will cover both our original design centered on receiving the cockpit in addition to covering what we did when the decision was made to not purchase a computer Section 3 5 2 1 contains our original design work so that it can be implemented by our sponsor at a later date Section 3 5 2 2 covers what we did to have a working component for our demonstrations 3 5 2 1 Original Des
126. ng a few airplane junkyards like the one in Groveland FL we found that to buy salvaged Page 37 gauges would be over 100 per gauge This is much higher than some of the other implementations and therefore was ruled out as an option The easiest option would have been to buy gauge kits from a supplier like SimKits These kits usually come with all the parts needed pre manufactured and ready for assembly The only development work that would be required is to write the USB drivers for each gauge The downfall of this implementation is the cost Each kit costs well above 150 There were however a few gauges that we initially considered modeling with these kits just because the mechanics of the gauges were complicated enough to warrant spending the money Servo based gauges are probably the most common gauge implementation in the flight simulator community In this implementation the needle of the gauge is turned by a servo which is driven by a microcontroller Servo based gauges are fairly low cost and easy to design The microcontroller sends a pulse to the servo and depending on the width of the pulse the needle will turn to the appropriate angle There are however a few limitations with servo based gauges The first problem we ran into in our design was that we planned to interface all of the gauges with an FTDI USB chip using bit bang mode Unfortunately this interface did not allow us to send pulses to the servo with the accuracy we nee
127. nnnnnanannnnnanoss 97 4 3 2 Flight Control Assembly ccccccccccccsssssscseceeececessessaeseceescesseseaseseeeessessesuaeseeeesenesesenaees 98 4 3 3 Indicator and Switch Assembly ccccoconocccnccncnononononoconononnnnnonononnnoncnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnannnannnnnns 98 Chapter 5 E E EAE EE estes E A E E E E A EE E E AE E E singe 99 O LOVE Wes asa 99 5 2 Required TestEQUIPMeN tii A Ad RR 99 DS TESE LOCA HONS ici 100 A Acceptance Testing saoire desea dee AA ida 100 54 1 AAA a eo OO E AE AET E E E E ess 101 54 2 Flight IST LUMO Ser ar arrer erra an erias 102 SA3 Flight CONTOS eee alitas 108 5 4 4 Cockpit Switch and Indicator Circuit Testing cccccononoooonnnnnnnnononannnnonnnnnnnnonnnnnnncnnons 111 5 5 Integrated Systems Testing ccccononocoonncnonnconononnnonononnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnr nn rnnnnnnnnnnnnenos 113 DO Prototype Usedes it ii a di idas ct 116 5 7 Requirements Verification cccoconcononccnnnnnnnononnnnnononnnnnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnnononnnncnnnnn non EEEa 117 5 7 1 Software Requirement Verification cccononcooonnnnnnnnononaonononnnonnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnonononnnnnnnnnn 117 5 7 2 Hardware Requirement VerificatiON cococcococconcnnconononnnnonnnononannnnnononnnnnnnnononnnnnnanons 119 COPADA A aa a al heen eae dde edades 122 6 4 User Mantaliinida ad A eads 122 6 2 Setup and Basic OperatiON cccccononocoonnononnnanononanononcnnnnanonononnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnn nn a iaaa oeiee 122 6 3Troublesho0tiNE s
128. nough to support the application In this section we will cover both the original computer selection that was to power the simulator before the decision to not display at Sun n Fun was made Section 3 5 1 1 and the computer specifications for the system we used for our demonstrations Section 3 5 1 2 This is presented in this fashion to preserve our original efforts for future completion by our sponsor 3 5 1 1 Original Design Effort Starting with our original computer design effort the most appropriate place to start our discussion is on CPU selection When it comes to manufacturers there are only two Intel and AMD and along with that there is a fierce debate Page 77 between enthusiasts over which one provides superior performance Ignoring the recommendations of those individuals we set out to find the lowest cost highest performing CPU available from each manufacturer For comparison the Intel family selected would be the Core 2 Duo whereas the AMD family selected for comparison would be the AMD Phenom II family Each of these processor families are dual core x86 64 processors and are priced relatively the same Upon searching various computer part distributors online we settled on two processors the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and the AMD Phenom X2 550 A comparison the specifications are listed below in table 3 5 Table 3 5 Comparison of Intel and AMD CPU options Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Phenom X2 550 E8400 FSB Intel HT
129. nward the vertical speed indicator would now turn counter clockwise to provide the vertical speed as you decrease in altitude and increase in indicator airspeed as well Figure 3 23 shows the faceplate of a simple vertical speed indicator similar to the one we 2009 Nov Airspeed Indicator Cutaway Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File AS operation FAA png Page 46 implemented in our simulator Figure 3 24 shows the autocad drawings with the dimensions we used VERTICAL SPEED 100 FEET PER MINUTE Figure 3 23 Face plate of the vertical speed indicator This work has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder Benet Allen 4 FACEPLATE DECK OTY 4 Mate 3800 ico q15 0 7000 Tt y E o Jo 3900 de ens o O NS N 9011 406 90 2188 R0 1094 LENS FACEPLATE SEPARATOR QTY 5 po po 901250 a 8 an E Lof Bs e 38 q E a4 A i 13 i N T i R1 4000 J 0 75 Sl AAAA 0 3800 0 7001 0 7000 9700 3 2400 Figure 3 24 Autocad drawings with the measurements of the vertical speed indicator sheet aluminum decks Drawings by Robert Gysi 2009 Nov Vertical Speed Indicator Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File R22 VSI jpg Page 47 Four options that were considered Construction of the vertical speed
130. o could become misaligned and cause undesirable results For the attitude artificial horizon if it does not return to a perfect center it is due to another issue In this gauge there is no LED for calibration Instead the issue is that the wire that goes to the stepper motor will become too tight around the shaft Simply manually adjusting the shaft and rotating until it lines up rectifies this issue 6 3 4 Control Device is not Recognized If a control is not functioning in X Plane first verify that it is plugged into a USB port If it is plugged in follow the procedure below to troubleshoot the control 1 Check the Config ini file to see if the gauge is named correctly 2 Check to make sure the gauges and controls show up in the Device Manager Correctly a Right Click on My Computer and select Manage then select Device Manager b Click on the USB and you should see all the connected gauges and controls c Right Click on the gauge or control in question and select properties d Select the Advanced tab i You see that the VCP drivers are deselected e If you don t see Advanced tab then you need to uninstall and reinstall the device making sure the VCP drivers is deselected 6 4 FTDI Chip Programming This section will explain how to install the drivers for a device that you wish to connect that uses the FTDI chip and how to program the EEProm on the chip to make the device whatever you want it to be This will allow you to use the device
131. o get our voltage divider circuit to register a voltage between 0 and 5 volts This output voltage will then feed into the A D converter which is then fed into the FTDI chip Once it enters the A D it is now a digital design problem 3 4 1 3 Joystick Digital Design As the control stick must ultimately be connected to the USB port of a computer there is a digital component to the design of this device For this purpose there were two options to consider for this design The first option reviewed included using an A D converter IC chip tied to the inputs on the FTDI USB interface chip that is being utilized for our gauge design This depending on the number of controls connected to the FTDI chip is fed into the USB chip based on the chip select pin on each of the A D that are connected to the controls This value is then read in and processed by the software and is fed into the X Plane system Table 3 2 Implementation of Control Stick Analog to Digital Function Slider potentiometers FTDI chip select X Axis Output Pin 3 0 Y Axis Output Pin 3 1 The slide potentiometers that are positioned along each axis of movement are tied to the analog to digital A D converter with the connections listed in Table 3 2 above The software handles the change in values that are needed to take the A D value to the correct input value this is handled in the Config ini file 3 4 2 Rudder Pedals In this simulator we needed to include the ability to use ru
132. od itself is of a small diameter we wanted to increase the shaft diameter by using the same aluminum tube we purchased originally for our gauge construction This was cut and filed down until we had just enough of the 4 threaded rod showing to secure our knob to just a standard wooden cabinet knob purchased from Home Depot The AutoCAD 2D drawing in Figure 3 52 represents the design of our throttle a EE V 0 1380 Figure 3 52 Mechanical representation of Throttle Assembly Drawing by Robert Gysi Additionally we needed to be able to lift the assembly located behind the panel so as to secure it in place and keep the throttle from moving around To achieve this we used more angle brackets purchased from SkyCraft although with only a single bend to form the legs of our throttle stand After drilling a hole large enough for a 6 screw diameter of approx 0 13 we used another 4 rod and secured on each end with two nuts on both sides of each bracket The inner nut is your standard 6 32 nut while the one on the outside is a nylon insert lock nut This helps us keep our rod from rotating once in place It is also important to note that since we wanted to run the rod across the bottom of the slide potentiometer between the connection pins we needed to ensure that we kept the rod from shorting anything To ensure this we wrapped the rod in electrical tape and then inserted the slide potentiom
133. om dyn resource CDC Firmware Free from FTDI to download and no s prod_documents doc7646 paf http mww microchipc com sourcecode inde programming on chip unless really x php pic1 8f4550usb necessary Www futurlec com http microcontrollershop com product_info php products_id 2125 speed 24 MHz 48 MHz USB 1 1 or USB 2 0 compatible Examples Come with dev board Come with dev board http electronicdesign com Articles http Awww create ucsb edu dano CUl ndex cfm AD 1 amp ArticleID 16125 http www edaboard com ftopic313796 html Memory 32k 32k External EEPROM Memory RAM 1k 2k vO 34 35 8 pin Languages c assembler C C assembler any Power Needed 3 0V to 3 6V 30 mA Max Operating Current 3 3V detached 25mA All usb self contained may need to do something for control of external Thoughts Atmel AT89C5131 This seems to be a better choice all around including the fact that we could have pre made USB communications cutting out some of the hassle of that After speaking with Dr Richie and discussions with the rest of the group this option is there only if we need to actually do some programming on chip that is greater than necessary to make the hardware work PIC18F4550 Most hobbyists and a lot of projects on the net use this controller which means we will have many examples to use or go from F1245BM This is a chip that requires no extra programming on chip for
134. om occurring Figure 5 1 on the next page highlights the test application Page 100 a Forml ole ls STATUS STALL CYCLES 0 t Using chip as A D Tun Cociewiee_ _Tum Courtelockmies_ Throttle NOT AVAILABLE NOTAY Pitch NOT AVAILABLE NOT AN MOTOR Rudder NOT AVAILABLE NOTA Roll NOT AVAILABLE NOT AX IblGauge1 Value of Slider U IblGauge2 Value of Slider al Y IblGauge3 Value of Slider IblGauge4 Value of Slider IblGauge5 Value of Slider IblGauge6 Value of Slider IblGauge7 Value of Slider 7 lblGauge8 Value of Slider IblGauge9 Value of Slider IblGauge10 Value of Slider Figure 5 1 Gauge Motor TestForm 5 3 Test Locations All testing occurred in the senior design lab in room ENGR 456 on the UCF campus This included the testing of our parts as we receive them as well as our integrated systems testing Originally the integrated systems testing was to take place at the hanger of our sponsor This was due to this being the location of the stored cockpit if it had arrived from Poland 5 4 Acceptance Testing The purpose of the acceptance testing is to verify that as we completed building each component we could immediately verify if the component is working 100 according to our specifications and requirements or if there are deficiencies that need to be corrected before we install the component into the instrument panel This was our way of performing quality control on our components so that once we install a component we s
135. ond servo motor will be used to control the turning motion With this design the roll indication will have a maximum at 95 degrees to the left and at 95 degrees to the right A centrally located dial underneath the attitude indicator will show proper indication of the horizon Page 50 III A pair of stepper motors could be used instead of servo motors to control the scales A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know where the scales are positioned To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor could be used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position IV A real commercial attitude indicator could be used for this simulator The attitude indicator incorporates a gyro which is designed so the indicators do not move The instrument housing bolted to the aircraft is what moves around the indicator The mechanical parts of the aircraft flight instrument would have to be removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Servo motors or stepper motors would then be place inside the aircraft flight instrument V Another option would have been to buy a simulated instrument kit for this type of flight instrument This could be purchased from SimKits com or from Flight Illusion both of which are companies located in the Netherlands Figure 3 28 shows an example of a kit version available from Flight Illusion This along with a similar one from SimKits simulates the motions of the gyroscope
136. or simulation Page 34 Figure 3 10 Cockpit with gauges to be implemented Photo by Robert Gysi UUN lt KY Sv Zv Bo ny SS KIMY Figure 3 11 Closeup of the standard Six Pack Wikipedia used with permission under the GNU License Figure 3 12 shows the basic layout of how each flight instrument is connected to the game computer Each flight instrument is programmed and controlled using a FTDI FT246BM USB chip which is connected to an externally powered USB hub The USB hub is in turn connected to one of the free USB ports on the computer 2009 Dec Six Flight Instruments jpg Wikipedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Six_ flight_instruments JPG Page 35 PC Connections USB Hub Figure 3 12 Diagram of USB controlled flight instruments showing the connections to the computer Created by Joseph Munera Additionally a mouse and keyboard are connected to USB ports on the game computer This allows the operator of the simulator to adjust the settings of the X Plane flight simulator as well as troubleshoot programming issues affecting the operation of the flight simulator s flight instruments Figure 3 13 below shows the back of the actual aircraft panel we used with most of the USB controlled gauges installed Each gauge is mounted to the back of the aircraft panel with the USB cable connection located on the back of the aircraft flight instruments These USB cables are connect
137. orsia a IA 123 6 3 1 Inoperative Gaulle aiii 123 6 3 2 Gauge does not Initialize Properly ccoconcoconccncncnononaonancnnnnnnanononnnnnnnnnonanonncnnnnnnnons 124 6 3 4 Control Device is not Recognized ccccccconononocnnononnnnnononnnnnnnnnnonnnnonnnnnnnnnanonenonnnnnnnnons 124 Page iii 6 4 FT DI Chip Programming ci it tddi 124 Chapter Tina a o el ete ie tik A din eet a RC ks ot te salted ea TOS 129 TA SUMM AAA ne aL A AL ee oe eS 129 Appendix A Trade Studies ei eetarea aaeain aeai ree ara i aeaiia aki Eo a ao Tinni TOn Rae Aranen EEEE nni Tei 0 A 1 Microcontroller Trade Study ccccccononocoonnononnnanononnnnnoncnnonanonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnornnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnananones 1 A 2 Flight Simulator Trade Study ccccsssscccccecsesessaececececseseseaaeeeeecessesesaeaeeeeeesseeseensaeeeesesseeees 1 Appendix B Project Schedules and Fall Semester Monthly Status ReportS ccconoccoconccnonccononannnnoss 0 B 1 Fall Semester Project Schedule cccononcoconcnnnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnnnnonononnnonnnnnnnnnononnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnncnnnn 1 B 2 Spring Semester Project Schedule coconcococccncncnonononocnnononcnononononnnonnnnnanono nono ata EAK na aa 1 B 3 October Monthly Status REport ccccccccccccsssessssscecececssseseceseeececesseseeaeseeeeseessessaaeaeeeesens 2 B 4 November Monthly Status R pOrt ccccccccccccssssssssscecececssseseceseeeescesseseeaeeeeeeseessessaeaeeeesens 2 Appendix C Permissions to use
138. owertec com power_ep 1000p10 t2 html Page 92 limited availability of power receptacles available for exhibitor use such as outdoor areas at airports during airshows 3 10 Remote Instructor Operator Station One of the feature requests of our project sponsor was to have potential ability to implement a remote Instructor Operator Station IOS in order to dynamically change flight simulator characteristics First it should be noted that as part of the scope of this project we were not responsible for building a second computer to play host to the IOS functions Instead the use of an existing computer like a laptop or netbook to run the IOS functions for us X Plane 9 4 provides many angles of attack for providing an IOS to the simulator user The first option that X Plane provides is to simply draw the IOS on a secondary monitor This is inconvenient due to the fact that it will obstruct the view of the individual flying an aircraft in the simulator and give away anything the instructor may try to throw at the pilot Luckily X Plane provides another to interface with an IOS console Using the local network and either TCP IP or UDP we can either write a custom application or simply purchase another copy of X Plane The beauty of purchasing a second copy of X Plane is that it already has the IOS console built in and all we have to do is simply connect to the host simulator computer machine From there the instructor can change weather effects
139. pated cost of approximately 1700 In the event that our sponsor would have not agreed to pay for costs over 1500 the members of the group were prepared to meet the additional costs required to implement this design Our original budget can be found in the appendices of this document for reference 2009 Dec Wikipedia Article Turn Coordinator Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki Turn_coordinator Pa Once the decision was made to forego the purchase of a computer we knew that we would not have an issue meeting our requirement of keeping spending under 1500 However since to go to that amount under the circumstances would not be in good taste we attempted to keep our spending to approximately within the bounds of what we felt our original non computer component cost would be As a result we made an attempt to spend approximately 500 on components We found this difficult to keep given several last minute purchases including a powered USB Hub In the end our spending represented a total of 626 36 or roughly 100 more than our anticipated spending Table 2 9 below represents our actual spending upon completion of spring 2010 semester All costs are included although may be listed under general categories for small items such as screws would be under Misc Hardware Quantities on items may be smaller than required for project completion due to getting some components from other sources for free or by using parts already posses
140. performance pcs com for 4 00 this is cheaper than building our own and will give us a steady 12 or 5 volts to use Since we didn t get the computer we were not able to get the pass through cards and that can be added later we had to go with our separate power supply for the simulator The power supply that we decided to use has an output power rating of 1000W with six 12V lines rated for 20A each which should be more than enough to power our gauges and controls All that needs to be added are some extenders and splitters for the molex connectors The following table is a summary of the power supply output as indicated by the manufacture and on the side label of the power supply Table 3 9 Power Supply Ratings VDCou 3 3V 5V 12V 12V 12V 12V 12V 12V 12V 5V Imaxout 28A 28A 20A 20A 20A 20A 20A 20A 0 8A 6 5A Iminout 0 3A 0 3A O 5A 0 5A 0 5A 0 5A 0 5A 0 5A 0 1A 0 1A Since we will only need at most 1 amp total current draw on each of the gauges which is well below the power ratings of the power supply In addition this will give us a safety feature in that we are reducing the number of devices to be plugged into a single wall receptacle which makes set up much easier This is especially true at shows where this simulator might be displayed where there is ar 2009 Dec Power Supply Unit Specifications Online Available http ep
141. pull rods and cables that exist inside of the fuselage While we did not receive the cockpit we were still able to use this design electrically with our test rig setup The only difference between integrating with the cockpit controls and building our own is simply how the slide potentiometers are connected to the controls To keep a record of our original design efforts Figure 3 45 highlights the locations of the push pull rods and cables that we would have interfaced our controls to MechanlCu Commecilonto allas Cyble leadmy tu elevato Omih SHUI Cx ATS Cable ecul vs to Ajlermas Figure 3 45 Mechanical linkages for control stick Drawing by Robert Gysi t 2009 Nov SPC Multicomp STD 2607AR Product specifications and drawing Online Available http www farnell com cad 358999 pdf Page 67 For our implemented design for our demonstration we needed to build out of wood every aspect of the joystick To do this we started with a sheet of plywood which we cut slots for our slide potentiometers to be held in place with screws Attached to this base was also stand which held our stick and created a pivot point for the stick fashioned out of a used sink plunger At the bottom of the stick we connected strips of metal to the each of the X and Y axis potentiometers In our initial testing of our joystick we found that there was no return to center capability like the stick in the aircraft would have To correct this issue we u
142. quirements and which ones we met or did not meet and why 2 2 2 1 The Game PC In order to meet our performance requirements for the flight simulator of providing a constant frame rate while maintaining detailed graphics we have established a baseline for the simulator computer that goes above and beyond the system requirements listed by Laminar Research for X Plane 9 Not only will this give us room to play with the graphics settings but will allow for the computer to be used for years to come as newer versions of software is released In Table 2 6 the minimum requirements for X Plane are listed while our suggested requirements are listed in Table 2 7 in order to deliver excellent graphics and performance Table 2 6 X Plane 9 4 Minimum Requirements Operating System Windows XP Vista 7 Linux MacOS RAM 1 GB CPU Speed 2 0 GHz HDD Space 60 GB Video Card 64 MB Page 17 Table 2 7 Established Requirements Req Task Summary C1 USB ports for Flight Controls and Instruments C2 120 Degree Field of View C2 A Three LCD Monitors C2 B Graphics Card External Device to output required resolution C3 2GHz 64 bit CPU minimum C4 4GB of RAM C5 120GB Hard Drive minimum 2 2 2 2 Microcontroller Requirements In order to make the gauges we needed to decide on what the important characteristics of the gauges will be below is a list of requirements that needed to be met for each of the gauges These are laid out in Table 2 8 b
143. r motors A problem occurred when using stepper motors as they have no unique home position We solved this problem by using an optical sensor to establish the zero position When the optical sensor is interrupted this signals to the computer that the needle is in the home position We also considered using servo motors in our design of the simulators aircraft flight instruments Most servos unfortunately only have a range of motion of 180 degrees This limits our ability to turn the needle on certain aircraft flight instruments the full 360 degrees required There exist several ways to get around this limitation A few that we explored consisted of modifying a servo by removing the mechanical stopper as well as a few other modifications or by buying a servo motor capable of rotating 360 degrees The following figures highlight the basic operation of the two types of motors applied to the gauges The first shows operation of a stepper motor figure 3 3 while the second a servo motor figure 3 4 Page 28 Signal in from computer Signal out to computer N7 Figure 3 3 Stepper Motor Control Diagram Diagram by Lewis Vail Signal in from computer Signal out to computer Figure 3 4 Servo Motor Control Diagram Diagram by Lewis Vail The aircraft flight instruments are interfaced with the computer and the flight simulator X Plane Each aircraft flight instrument is controlled with the FTDI chip The FTDI chip was chosen because
144. r the heading indicator All the needles were also removed from the actual flight instruments and utilized in the simulated aircraft instruments Page 61 a Figure 3 39 Assembled face plates for a various flight instruments Photo used with permission from Lewis Vail 3 3 3 6 Prototype Gauge In order to validate the research we performed we built a prototype airspeed indicator around a Futaba S3003 servo motor purchased from Central Florida Hobbies Using the function generator in the Senior Design Lab we were able to perform a test of the circuitry Other components used in the construction of the prototype consist of plywood nylon gears from a clock kit aluminum shafts circular pipe screws and epoxy Figure 3 40 shows this prototype during testing in the Senior Design lab Figure 3 40 Flight instrument assembly consisting of a servo motor nylon gears circular wood cutout and aluminum shaft Photo by Joseph Munera Page 62 A circular saw was used to make a circular cutout from the plywood The circular cutout is used to mount the servo motor and shaft The aluminum shaft is positioned in the center of the circular cutout A power drill is used to drill out a small section of the wood so that the aluminum shaft can sit in the center of the circular cutout and rotate freely The nylon gears are drilled out so that the smaller gear would be able to fit onto the aluminum shaft and the larger gear would be able to be moun
145. requirement is much more important especially if this simulator is to ever be used for ground based flight training the ability to deliver a constant frame rate of 30 frames per second FPS In FSX you are able to seta target frame rate but unfortunately this target is just a way for you to compare the output frame rate and the ideal so that you can adjust the graphics settings yourself on the computer Unfortunately this also means at times the system can become slow and as a result the simulation will not feel as real at all X Page 8 Plane does address this by allowing the user to set a target frame rate but unlike FSX the software will actually scale the graphics settings of the game to match the target In addition to this feature X Plane also has the option to purchase a 500 USB key that allows for the simulator to be considered FAA accredited through the guarantee that the output frame rate will not drop below 30 FPS For the purpose of this project this key will not be purchased Another point that needs to be addressed is the inclusion of computer controlled or Al aircraft that exist in the simulated environment Microsoft Flight Simulator has this feature built in and turned on automatically These Al based aircraft fly normal routes and will land takeoff and even make contact with the Al based Air Traffic Control Additionally they are not limited to one type almost every single flyable aircraft in the game can be found in the
146. research in Fall 2009 two methods were initially researched for implementation for our joystick The first proposed design we brought to our sponsor had us utilizing a joystick controller that we could purchase from a number of electrical component distributors An example of this option would be the SPC Multicomp STD 2607AR joystick controller available from Newark com This joystick controller has all of the mechanical and electrical connections and can simply be retrofitted to the end of a control stick Mechanically it has the ability to rotate 60 in each direction with a minimum required operating force but only has a rated lifetime of 300 000 cycles Additionally the size is relatively small which at first seemed perfect since we did not know where we would find room to mount this device However it having a short stature 1 29 is the length of the joystick knob was deemed to be impractical to use for this application because we need to be able to have a wide range of deflection in our controls to mimic the actual feel of the stick in the aircraft approximately 8 at the user end Additionally it is a fairly expensive part for a fairly simple task costing 67 with a 20 handling fee as it must be shipped from the United Kingdom Therefore after discussing options with our sponsor we decided to take a much cheaper and basic approach Our finalized approach included using 60mm slide potentiometers that we would attach to the push
147. rrectly Verify wiring to the electrical schematic Verify that the indicator switches have been installed in the instrument panel correctly Ensure that each one is seated properly with no movement of the switch housing when the switch is used Verify the electrical connections with the schematic diagram Verify that the cockpit is clean of any debris Verify that the monitors are secured to the top of the cockpit Plug in the power supply to the computer the individual power supplies for the monitors and any other required power supplies to a 115VAC 60Hz receptacle Plug in all USB cables into an empty USB port on one of the USB Hubs Perform system start up 1 Press the power button on the computer The computer will boot into Microsoft Windows 7 Professional After Windows starts double click on the X Plane icon on the desktop X Plane by default will load to the default aircraft and default airport Select the airport KMCO Orlando International Airport and select the GoBosh G700S aircraft model On our second computer launch X Plane and connect to the IP address of the simulation computer Open the Instructor Operator Station IOS window We will use this to assist in verifying data output over the established network connection P F Perform Flight testing This procedure will make reference to Page 115 No _ Testing Action 0 Result our previous test procedures for the individual components T
148. s inside a hole in the center of the aluminum shaft The gears have 28 teeth on the idler gear and 16 on the pinion If we divide the idler gear teeth count by the pinion gear teeth count we find the gear ratio for the setup For this gauge the gear ratio was calculated to be 1 75 1 Additionally the gear was tested in the Senior Design lab where we were able to successfully turn the shaft with the servo motor It appears however that the Futaba servo does not possess the right response curve in terms of the rotation angle therefore causing problems with gauges that require extreme movements of the gears such as an airspeed indicator or altitude indicator Figure 3 42 Assembled flight instrument with face plate and needle Photo by Joseph Munera Page 64 Since our testing of a prototype using a Futuaba motor did not work as expected we have ultimately decided to not use it Because the issue lies not just with the Futaba motor but with servo motors in general we will utilize a stepper motor in the gauges instead The stepper motor we intend to use the Mineba SMT 112 available at allelectronics com It features 48 steps per revolution with a movement of 7 5 degrees per step Testing with this motor will take place to confirm if this a suitable replacement for the Futaba servo motor The second prototype we built was designed around the multiple layered deck concept and was closer to what we actually built for our simulated flight in
149. screen built in to the laptop as it was only 17 and we would have not been able to place it in an acceptable location without either blocking instruments or at a bad angle resulting in a sub par performance To remedy this we utilized a single 24 monitor Asus VW246H owned by a group member This was placed in the center on top of our instrument panel frame and angled slightly downwards towards the user This allowed us to give the reviewers some resemblance to how if we had three of these monitors the space footprint that would have been required Additionally we selected 120 degree as our output range in X Plane which was in turn displayed on our single 24 monitor Figure 3 57 below shows the configuration used for our demonstration Page 85 Figure 3 57 Monitor placement for demonstration Photo by Robert Gysi 3 6 Switches The topic of implementing switches will be briefly covered as this was not a specified requirement of this project and was not implemented However as we did complete the design work for this we have maintained the section on how to implement this for future reference for our sponsor should the decision be made to at a later date In the GoBosh there is a row of switches that light up when on and that allow you to control different functions on the aircraft This includes switches to control the various lights on the aircraft in addition to the ability to start the aircraft Pictured below Figure 3 58 is th
150. sed the rubber end of the plunger to accomplish this All we needed to do was simply cut a hole in the center and slide over our shaft Additionally we made some slits to the rubber plunger base to free up the motion a little bit This was done after testing showed the plunger by itself was possibly too stiff to correctly get our range of motion Additionally since we wanted to make sure we had the correct throw of the stick we measured the throw in our sponsor s GoBosh to a distance of 8 To implement this in our simulated stick we simply measured out 8 of throw on a table edge and cut our stick to the length that would give us our distance As a result the stick is a bit on the low side to the user but still perfectly usable Figure 3 46 shows our overall construction of the joystick test rig L Figure 3 46 Joystick implementation For this application we just needed your everyday basic slide potentiometer available from any number of suppliers Page 68 3 4 1 2 Joystick Analog Design Without going into how a potentiometer functions the analog side of the design is quite straight forward Utilizing a 5V supply from the computer power supply we can then find what the corresponding voltage is across the separate X and Y axes With these varying voltages we can take the analog output of the joystick control and then feed the result into an analog to digital A D converter We used our RA6020F 10 20D1 B10K slide potentiometer t
151. sed by a group member Table 2 9 Expenses Part Number Quantity Unit Total Required Cost Cost 1C Sockets Assorted Va ous ser72 2172 PCB Boards Smal J a sol yol wie TCS sol sro Diodes mos s se Spacers Assorted Lengths NA s2 220 Stepper Motors sol swo PCB Boards Large Buffer Chip Comparator IC AID Converter Powered USB Hub fen USB Cables Molex Connectors Epoxy Putty 3 8 x 0 035 Aluminum Tube Misc Hardware 470 Ohm Resistors Thin Aluminum Sar 9 Slide Potentiometers RA6020F 10 3 2 12 6 36 Be O a A es OoOo l ge 123 Page 24 2 4 Project Timeline The original deadline of the project was determined by the date of Sun n Fun which meant that we needed to be done around April 1 2010 in order to complete testing and transport the simulator to Lakeland However with that event not occurring the deadline became the day of our presentation on April 21 2010 Originally we had wanted to adhere to our original schedule but unfortunately due to uncertainties early in the semester we found ourselves getting behind our schedule and as a result did not meet an April 1 deadline We did however get all of our components working by the new deadline of April 21 Figure 2 14 shows our original project schedule in a simplified manner while Figure 2 15 shows approximate dates for when certain phases and aspects of the project were completed Also in Appendix B at the end of
152. should also move towards the right Verify that the turn indicator in the virtual cockpit matches the result on the physical gauge Next make a turn to the left The turn coordinator should match bank angle of the aircraft or in other words the right wing should be dipped to the left as indicated by the instrument The ball should also move towards the left Verify that the turn indicator in the virtual cockpit matches the result on the physical gauge a Overall Result Pass During testing our turn coordinator worked flawlessly The bank angle of the aircraft was reported accurately and the ball worked as well during our testing and up to the day of the demonstration Unfortunately we did fry the FTDI chip that controlled the motor for the ball possibly during our first demonstration attempt As a result this instrument will require the purchase of a new FTDI chip to be restored to full functionality 5 4 2 5 Heading Indicator The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of the Heading indicator WARNING Ensure heading indicator is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly
153. simulator of the two We liked the fact that the community and resources available for the Microsoft flight simulator series was very vast and highly accessible Unfortunately for the flight simulator community Microsoft decided in January 2009 to close both Ensemble Studios and ACES Game Studio due to a process of ongoing job cuts due to financial crisis and restructuring of their game studios This became a factor in deciding which flight simulator software to use for this project The second option was X Plane X Plane is the newest and least established of the two flight simulators The X Plane community and resources are not as vast and content rich when compared to Microsoft s This was one of our biggest concerns when we were considering using X Plane for our GoBosh 700S flight simulator It turns out that X Plane was not that different from Microsoft FSX in terms of our integration needs and requirements for the flight simulator X Plane also has a plugin architecture that allows users to create their own modules extending the functionality of the software One unique feature that really stood out with X Plane was the Plane Maker Software Plane maker is included with the purchase of the X Plane software and allows users to build their own aircraft models What is really remarkable about this is that there is no extra cost unlike Microsoft FSX which requires the use of expensive 3rd party applications Additionally the method at which these
154. sing the throttle control increase the throttle until the RPM gauge in X Plane moves and the aircraft moves down the runway Pull back on the stick when V speed has been runway Note if the aircraft is slow to respond to the achieved Ensure that the aircraft rotates off of the joystick control Once airborne move the yoke in the direction of all four axes Ensure that the response on the screen matches both the direction and the speed at which the yoke was moved Return the joystick to center It should stay in the center without moving in any direction P F With the aircraft still in flight verify that the rudder pedals move accordingly Ensure that when pressing on the correct pedal that the aircraft moves in the same direction Overall Result Pass Page 110 5 4 3 2 Throttle The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This was tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action 1 Result Perform Visual Inspection of Throttle Control WARNING Ensure throttle control is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure contacts on the slide potentiometer are soldered correctly and that the wires lead to the correct pin on the A D Converter board responsible for the throttle and pedals as specified on
155. slide potentiometer we used an input voltage of 5V from the ATX power supply and connected in such a fashion that Pin 1 was input pin 2 was the wiper also tied to input and pin 3 was our output pin so that our voltage divider circuit would register a voltage between O and 5 volts This output voltage will then feed into the A D converter which is then fed into the FTDI chip Once it enters the A D it is now a digital design problem 3 4 2 2 Throttle Digital Design As the throttle must ultimately be connected to the USB port of a computer there is a digital component to the design of this device For this purpose there were two options to consider for this design The first option reviewed included using an A D converter IC chip tied to the inputs on the FTDI USB interface chip that is being utilized for our gauge design The second option was to use a microcontroller specifically the Atmel AT90USB1287 which had onboard USB support and A D pins Ultimately the decision was made to utilize two FTDI chips between our controls with our throttle and pedals using one control circuit For our throttle pedals design we utilized the chip select pin on each of the A D that is connected to our controls This is to ensure that we select the right input device for taking in values into X Plane Table 3 4 Implementation of Throttle Analog to Digital Function Potentiometer FTDI chip select Throttle Output Pin 3 1 3 4 5 Combined Flight Control Circuit
156. st drive and potentially cut our spending some In addition the same situation exists for the DVD ROM drive Since almost all DVD ROM 2009 Dec ASUSTeK Computer Inc M4A785TD V EVO Specifications Online Available http Avww asus com product aspx P_ID tcsXWSxnhzZE9rnR 312009 Dec NewEgg MSI 790X G45 Specifications Online Available http www newegg com Product Product aspx 7ltem N82E 16813130249 32 2009 Dec Western Digital WD1600AAJS Hard Drive Specifications Online Available http www newegg com Product Product aspx 7item N82E 16822136075 Page 81 drives are essentially the same they all read DVD and CDs and almost all have a read speed of around 18x we are again able to go with the cheapest possible drive available to us The Lite On HDP118 08 meets this requirement and only costs under 20 All of the components will be fitted into an case that meets the ATX specification We have chosen the Linkworld 313 06 C2228 available from Newegg com for 20 99 It is a very simple case that can hold our ATX motherboard includes 3 mounting locations for fans and provides enough space for all of our drives Also since the case manufacturer is not a critical requirement only that we have a case for the computer this could change when it comes time to purchase components in the spring Table 3 8 lists the complete specifications of our desired computer configuration Table 3 8 Complete Simulation Computer Specifica
157. stepper motors that have a step of 1 8 degrees They are then half stepped to maximize fidelity The other limitation that stepper motors have is that they support no option to supply feedback to the computer regarding the location of the needle To overcome this we implemented an optic sensor to reset the needle to its home position at initialization This stepper motor based implementation is illustrated in figure 3 Gauge face DO D3 D5 Signal in from computer USB Interface Board Signal out to computer Figure 3 15 Block diagram of stepper motor based gauge Created by Lewis Vail Given the options above we initially were going to be using two kit gauges and four stepper motor gauges Although servo gauges are low cost and fairly easy to implement all of our gauges require fairly high range of motion that is not available with standard servos The fact that the location of the needle is always known when using servos makes this the easiest one to code because there is no initialization needed but this implementation falls short of meeting the requirements for our gauges Although stepper motor gauges are not quite as simple as servo based gauges they are not too much harder to implement They did take much more time to test and refine as the sensor circuit took a little while to properly calibrate and mount We initially decided to model two of the gauges with kit gauges because those two required multiple motors turning in
158. striction of speaking USB protocol it needed to fit into the power specs of USB so we chose to connect an outside power source This allowed us to control a stronger stepping motor and also not worry about meeting the requirements for the USB protocol which only allowed for 5 volts at 100mA at startup and 500mA during peak running of all coils of the motor Looking into the different types of stepper motors we to go with a 12 volt and low amperage motor that used to drive 5 25 floppy drives The stepper motor is mostly used in robotics to add an amount of torque strength to the limbs The stepper motor requires sometimes turning on more than one coil inside the motor in order to get the correct amount of movement This required more current from the power supply Since we are using a computer power supply the amount of current and voltage required is less than the voltage and current the power supply supplies Micro stepping is typically used in applications that require accurate positioning and a fine resolution over a wide range of speeds Although the microstepping of the motors was not implemented and is left for future expansion of the project if it is to be included within the scope of a future upgrade work on our system Stepper motors have the capability to run at lower currents since the current is what controls the motors torque or holding power and we only need to hold a small pointing device 2009 Nov USB as a power source
159. strumentation Figure 3 43 shows the prototype for the heading indicator which later became the basis for all of our simulated flight instruments This design consists of the clear acrylic lens with the airplane markings This lens is supported by 4 40 thread female to female hex spacers which connect to a piece of sheet aluminum for the motor deck In between these two pieces is the compass rose which in turn is connected to the shaft of the stepper motor Figure 3 43 Prototype 2 Photo by Joseph Munera 3 4 Flight Control Design In this section we will discuss the design of our flight control interfaces Originally the plan was to implement our designs into the cockpit that we were slated to receive Due to not receiving the cockpit we still needed to provide flight controls for the user and a decision was made with our sponsor to build Page 65 test rigs for the controls that would be used for input for the demonstration in addition to validating our electrical designs We originally were designing a joystick around the existing stick in the aircraft rudder pedals utilizing the existing pedals found in the aircraft and a throttle but since no aircraft arrived we needed to change our design implementation Since we want preserve a record of our original designs so that they could be possibly implemented by our project sponsor if the cockpit arrives at a later date we will present these alongside temporary controls that we built fro
160. t was given to us we got some of the info needed to create a model of the plane we are trying to simulate We also used the planes manual that we were able to get from an online site I don t think it should of been published but we found it In order to get the information into the actual X Plane simulation we needed to use the included application Plane Maker This program is bundled with the game and has an interface that allows you to input the various parameters of an aircraft needed info to build a model and make it fly As for the actual model of the plane you need to have an acf file and this is what is created by the Plane Maker software Page 12 We tried to create the aircraft outside of the editor and ran into many difficulties The drawings for the model needed to be exported in the form of an obj file and then loaded into sketch up and then could be exported as an X Plane format but this proved to not work or be unworkable in the time that we had so we needed to go back to the Plane Maker software for the solution that we eventually went with Given the aircraft specifications in Table 2 6 below we used this information to develop our aircraft model and also developed an airfoil for the wings using publically available wind tunnel testing data A further discussion of the design and implementation of the model will follow in the design chapter Table 2 6 Summarized Aircraft Data Wingspan 274 Height 74 Fuse
161. t simulator and the microcontroller FTDI chip control software requirements 2 2 1 1 Flight Simulator Requirements In order to be able to realistically portray the GoBosh G700S Aero AT 4 in a virtual environment it was critical to pick the correct flight simulation software package Currently there are two competing simulators on the market available to end users Microsoft Flight Simulator X FSX and Laminar Research X Plane 9 4 To the average end user they are fairly similar applications although for our purposes only one really stands out X Plane 9 4 incorporates the most accurate methods of modeling an aircraft in virtual environment by actually taking the shape of the aircraft and model the aircraft through the use of blade element theory This technique means that the software sections the aircraft model into multiple small blades to calculate the forces on these points This gives a realistic physics model of the aircraft which means if you model a solid cube with no aerodynamic properties all it is going to do is sit on the ground Microsoft FSX takes a different approach and instead of breaking down the aircraft into sections and then modeling it in a physics engine it receives all of its properties through a configuration file meaning the previously mentioned cube would be able to fly with the proper variables X Plane also includes a model editor in order to create aircraft that will fly in the game FSX does not inc
162. t the overall circuit matches the board schematic Plug in the indicator light control board into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer P F recognizes the device Perform operational testing using X Plane 9 4 1 First start by setting up the aircraft so that there is only 2 gallons of fuel available This should trigger the low fuel light Turn off the engine to the aircraft Reconfigure the aircraft to have a higher amount of fuel Start the aircraft using the keyboard command CTRL 1 The starter engaged light should come on as the engine starts To check if the generator failed indicator works properly use the cockpit of the Cessna C172SP and toggle off the battery switch This should cause the light to turn on Locate a fuel pump in the virtual cockpit Click your mouse so that the switch is on The light on the board should turn on Next select an aircraft and take off Achieve level flight and a steady airspeed Pitch the nose of the aircraft up quickly until the aircraft loses lift and the stall light turns on This light should extinguish once the aircraft has achieved lift again a Overall Resule CTO 5 4 4 2 Switches The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This should be tested using X Plane on a test comp
163. ted on the Futaba servo motor shaft Figure 3 41 shows the aluminum shaft with the gear in place and also the Futaba servo motor with the larger gear mounted on the top of the shaft The circular wood cutout is now glued and sealed to the back of the circular pipe The Futaba servo motor is glued and two screws are used to mount it to the circular wood cutout The aluminum shaft sits inside its drilled fitting Three screws are used to hold the aluminum shaft in place preventing it from slipping out of its setting The wires for the Futaba servo motor hang out the back of the circular wood cutout The Futaba S3003 servo motor has three colored wires The black wire is the ground the red wire is for the power and the white wire is for the PWM signal Figure 3 41 Flight instrument assembly glued and sealed to circular pipe Photo by Joseph Munera Page 63 Table 3 1 Futaba S3003 Specifications Value 0 19 sec 60 ne 6V Torque 44 oz in ni 2 kg cm 4 8V 1 6 x 0 a X E 4 40 x 20 x 36mm w o output shaft co 1 30z 379 J type with approx 5 lead 10 99 Figure 3 43 shows the flight instrument aircraft gauge finished product A hacksaw was used to cut the aluminum shaft to the correct size The faceplate consists of a printed airspeed indicator face glued to a circular cardboard cutout This was then glues to the circular pipe The needle comes from a build your own clock set kit that was purchased from Skycraft It sit
164. ters to design the gauges and the controls The stepper motors needed to be updated at a rate that will make the movements look smooth This led to a decision on the motor being a stepper motor that and the fact that we needed to continually go in 360 degree circles We used all the same stepper motors with 200 full steps per revolution With the 200 steps we can get a 1 8 degree resolution this may not be good enough for smooth rotation We needed to half step to overcome this and that required that the microcontroller FTDI chip be able to get information from the host computer and update the motor twice as fast in order to get smooth looking steps The servo motors we looked at needed to be updated by a signal for a certain period of time in order to move it This would of been fine except that when that design idea came before our sponsor he didn t like it and that led to us picking the stepper motors as they could be controlled easily through the FTDI chips There is more discussion of the actual controlling of the stepper motors in the microcontroller requirements section of this paper Page 16 The software that we are running X Plane tells us our capabilities The plugin allows us to dictate the update rate and should update their graphics at a rate of 30 frames per second minimum This gives us our update rate for sending signals to the gauges We could of updated faster than this but it would just be the same value sent and that would just
165. that gauge works correctly and that you have returned to a heading of 330 degrees a Overalesult Pass 5 4 2 6 Vertical Speed Indicator The purpose of this test is to verify that the assembled component has been properly manufactured If the test results in any failures a replacement parts will need to be ordered or other corrective actions performed This will be tested using X Plane on a test computer No Testing Action Result Perform Visual Inspection of the vertical speed indicator WARNING Ensure vertical speed indicator is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure that all contacts are soldered properly 2 Verify that the indicator motor is clean of and there are no obstructions to the gauge movement 3 Verify wiring to from the FTDI USB controller is in Page 108 No Testing Action Result accordance with the schematic diagram Plug in the vertical speed indicator into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer P F recognizes the device Perform operational testing utilizing X Plane 9 1 Launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway idling Ensure the throttle is set to zero Ensure you are in the cockpit view in X Plane We will want to verify that the same position is indicated on the screen and with our simulated gauge Release the brake by pressing the B key on the keyboard take off and climb to any altitude As you
166. the beginning of this document All of these requirements were met through the selection and purchase of X Plane as our simulation software Sub Reg Requirement Description Result Realistic Look and Feel The virtual simulation environment mimics the look and feel of the real world as close as possible This not only includes visual effects but also how physics are applied to the environment Realistic Scenery scenery has a natural feel and does not look jaded or ragged Terrain meshes are of high enough resolution to navigate from the air Ability to change environmental factors dynamically Using the X Plane IOS screen or from the weather and time season options in the menu bar Ability to Interface Hardware with software via API Inclusion of X Plane SDK to develop plug ins to interface with gauges controllers as well as other computers and data types Model Entertainment Aspects Weather Effects Ability to have a wide Page 118 Sub Reg Requirement Description Result range of weather scenarios in X Plane including rain snow wind sheer effects turbulence lightning and strong waves in the water Crash Effects When the aircraft is overstressed or flies into the earth effects are generated by X Plane end the simulation is ended Sounds Realistic prop sounds Either using default audio in X Plane from a similar propeller driven aircraft or recorded sounds of an actual GoBosh G700S Abil
167. the best way to interface with the simulation software We figured out the logical flow of our interface software and have completed and tested the actual code Example code available on the X Plane SDK website was a great resource in the design and implementation of our software On the hardware end we had looked at various parts for various applications and decided on the parts we wanted to use and for what components We ve used FTDI boards for all the gauges and other simple devices as well as for the control devices that generate an analog signal We have completed writing and testing all the interface code for the FTDI boards For the gauges we had explored every conceivable implementation and went with stepper motors exclusively for all six For the electronics we successfully implemented our high level circuit design for our stepper motor gauges Finally we acquired the proper motors and assembled and tested them successfully for all six gauges We have successfully completed every step of the design phase and the build phase and our project has been handed over to our project sponsor Appendix A Trade Studies A 1 Microcontroller Trade Study Table A 1 Microcontroller Comparison Page Al Microcontroller Atmel AT89C5131 PIC18F4550 FTDIFT245BM Dev Board futurlec com futurlec com FTDI Cost Dev Board 35 90 Chip 10 11 DevBoard 46 90 Chip 14 99 Dev Board 30 Chip 5 00 Usb driver http www atmel c
168. the cost of each chip is only 5 00 The low price of the chip reduced our overall cost to design and build the aircraft flight instruments for our GoBosh 700S flight simulator Figure 3 3 and Figure 3 4 show the control diagrams for each type of motor that was considered Page 29 Each aircraft flight instrument is connected to the computer through a USB connection to a USB hub The USB hub is in turn connected to the USB port on the computer This is where our communication with the computer takes place However the previously mentioned FTDI chipset does not handle any processing of our data it merely passes it over the USB to the desktop computer This is excellent because we are able to do all of the programming in C and on the computer side meaning that we will be able to write plug ins for our instrument panels The two flow charts below represent the relation of the Plug ins to the X Plane software and hardware Figure 3 5 shows the relation for flight instruments while Figure 3 6 shows the relation for flight controls Gauge Software Interface Figure 3 5 Gauge Software Interface Diagram by Lewis Vail Control Software Interface Figure 3 6 Control Software Interface Diagram by Lewis Vail Page 30 The following block diagram in figure 3 7 highlights the higher order levels of our design and process The chart also assigns block responsibility and completion status Being at the end of this project all blocks are co
169. the schematic Ensure the entire throttle mechanical assembly including the wires leading to the slide potentiometers is connected and that there is no restriction in the movement of the throttle P F Plug in the throttle control into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes P F the device Perform operational testing utilizing the Windows Control Panel 1 In Windows 7 click Start Control Panel gt Devices and Printers Right click on the icon associated with the yoke Click Properties Click on the Test Tab This is built in Windows Test utility for game controller and joysticks To test our throttle simply move the throttle out The bar labeled slider should move along with the throttle If the throttle passed the previous test then we may verify that it works accordingly in X Plane 9 4 First launch X Plane and set up with an aircraft on a runway 1 First release the brake on the keyboard if enabled by pressing the B key Set the throttle for full throttle and 6 take off Verify that virtual throttle position on the screen is roughly the same as the physical throttle Increase and decrease speed with the throttle while in level flight Verify that it response on the screen matches the physical input With the aircraft still in flight verify that the rudder pedals move accordingly Ensure that when pressing on the correct pedal that the aircraft moves in the
170. these events in which he participates in with GoBosh Aviation is the Sun n Fun airshow and general aviation conference which was held in Lakeland FL at the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport This year the event was held during the second week of April 4 13 4 18 and we were originally to be part of the exhibits with our simulator at the show Unfortunately due to not receiving our cockpit from Aero in Poland a decision was made to not demonstrate at the airshow While making it to Sun n Fun was considered our ultimate objective for this project we also had several side objectives as well that this project needed to meet In addition to being developed for demonstrations at aviation shows where the individuals in attendance are familiar with aircraft or at least flying one it was also designed to be taken to a variety of other shows in the future once handed over to Mr Kotick One example would be the Orlando Home and Boat show where people who may have never considered becoming a light sport aircraft pilot or purchasing a light sport aircraft could be exposed This serves the purpose of education as many people assume that they could never fly due to the fact that flight lessons are expensive and time consuming which is the opposite of the aircraft we are simulating Because of this the purpose at these shows is to show the relative ease that exists to pilot one of these aircraft Although we were unable to get the cockpit in time we wer
171. this documentation one can find our original schedules from our fall semester documentation Sun n Fun Lakeland Design Phase Pre Build Preliminary Design Build Phase Testing Regional Airport December January Review Jan 3 2010 January 11 April 1 April 13 18 Completed Figure 2 14 Original Project Schedule What cannot be seen from the milestones listed in Figure 2 15 is that while the build phase officially started on January 11 start of the Spring 2010 semester is that no actual building started at this time It was at the beginning at this time we built our first test gauge to validate our design and from this we determined that we needed to have our metal gauge decks fabricate by a machine shop Gauge construction was placed on hold for a few weeks during this time in order for fabrication to be complete Additionally the issues with the cockpit arrival kept us from being able to start on working on controls until we received word that we would not receive it in time However with these few issues we still completed with enough time to test all of our components Design Phase Preliminary Build Phase Testing Phase Design Completed Design Review January 11 Presentation 12 09 Jan 3 2010 April 19 April 19 21 April 21 Figure 2 15 Actual Project Completion Milestones Page 25 Chapter 3 3 1 Design Summary In Designing the System we needed to know which of the Flight simulators we were goin
172. tions po PartNumber_ Description S O RAM Hard Drive WD1600AAJS Western Digital 160GB DVD Drive HDP118 04 Lite On 18X DVD ROM Drive OEM Case Power Supply EP 1000SC ePower 1000W SLI Ready ATX PSU 3 5 1 2 Demonstration Hardware While the preceding section discussed our original hardware design under the circumstances of receiving a cockpit to integrate all of our systems with this section deals with the reality of not receiving our cockpit and what we did to ensure that we still had the abilities to run X Plane sufficiently From discussions with our sponsor it was decided that for the demonstrations of our project at the end of EEL 4915 that we should use our development machine to power our graphics as well as all of our controls and instruments Since the bulk of development took place using Chris laptop we set out to test his machine to ensure that it would be able to handle all of the demands of X Plane We should note here that also due to not going to Sun n Fun meant that we would not be purchasing monitors and would not need to implement 3 monitors tied to the VGA output on the laptop Instead we made the decision to just output to one 24 monitor owned by a group monitor and having X Plane output a 120 degree field of view onto the single monitor Page 82 From our testing on the laptop we noticed no issues with graphics performance and as a result decided to use this computer for our demonstration One limiti
173. tml Page 78 The next most important piece of computer hardware to be installed in the simulator computer is the graphics card Just like in the CPU industry there are two primary manufacturers of chipsets ATI and NVIDIA In order to stay within our project budget we would have to neglect the most recent high end cards from these manufacturers This unfortunately means that we would not be able to purchase a card that has ATI s new Eyefinity technology This technology allows for a maximum resolution of 8192x8192 but at the same time also requires the use of a monitor that includes a display port There is also a limitation currently where if one wanted to use three monitors utilizing the DVI connections only two would be able to be utilized even with two cards running due to a technical limitation This technical limitation could possibly corrected by the completion of the project however it would still be possible to run the card in CrossFireX mode without using the Eyefinity support to span the three displays Currently large monitors such as those in the neighborhood of 24 are still quite expensive so we would need to utilize two ATI based cards If the display limitation is addressed or the cost of display port equipped monitors decreases in cost then this may be a suitable graphics solution Now in order to select the graphics card to be utilized in our simulator PC we have chosen two similarly priced graphics cards One is bas
174. tor is used in this design To boost the number of steps to 800 the stepper motor is half stepped The difference between the motor positioned desired and the current position is calculated with each pass through the interrupt service routine The code executes a return from interrupt when a difference of zero indicates no need for movement 3 3 3 2 Flag Interrupter The flag interrupter consists of an L Shaped thin piece of sheet metal A machine screw and nut hold the flag interrupter in place The flag interrupter is bent on the outer end so that as the needle or faceplate rotates the flag interrupter will pass through the gap for the optical interrupter The flag interrupter can be constructed out of any rigid opaque material or aluminum 3 3 3 3 Motor Deck The rotary encoder stepper motor and optical interrupter are supported by the motor deck The stepper motor is mounted on the decks rear surface with the motor shaft facing forward The stepper motor has no particular up or down orientation Figure 3 37 shows a picture of the motor deck on the left Figure 3 37 The motor deck is pictured on the left Photo used with permission from Joseph Munera Page 59 Just above the stepper motor is where the optical interrupter is mounted on the front surface of the motor deck To determine the best direction of movement a difference not equal to zero is used This requires more than just observing the sign of the difference Ideally
175. uirements verification 5 2 Required Test Equipment In order to perform the testing the acceptance testing in section 5 3 some equipment will be needed The list below includes the required items PC running Windows 7 Professional Latest version of X Plane currently version 9 4 Digital Multimeter to troubleshoot any electrical issues that may arise Computer screwdriver set for making adjustments to mechanical components if necessary Second computer such as a laptop for running the Instructor Operator Station IOS during integrated systems testing Test application for light switches and motor control testing USB Cables USB Hub Oscilloscope for troubleshooting issues with motor control In addition to this test equipment will have written a test program that we can use to test the indicator lights switches and the gauges There will be the ability to turn on and off the lights test the response of the switches when the switch is thrown the checkbox will become selected and a tab that will allow us to test each of the motor control circuits for the gauges In regards to the gauge test there will be a slider control with a range representing 0 100 For the gauges that need to continue to rotate it will only rotate one full revolution In addition this will allow us to verify that a microcontroller is in 100 working order before we create any boards and thus help eliminate the chance of a possible expensive mistake fr
176. uld move with the slider Repeat steps 1 3 for each gauge motor Po 4 We will now verify the operation of the switches and lights through the microcontroller to ensure that we have no defective parts Disconnect the microcontroller responsible for the gauge tested in the previous step and connect the switches and lights up individually up to the microcontroller The microcontroller is externally connected to all the switches and lights in order to test this controller connect the controller up to the computer through the USB port it should be recognized T In the Application there is a Test Tab open it you will find a list with all the connected gauges You will see a section for the switches and lights You should see the current state of all of the switches and lights connected to that particular device 8 Depending on the switch you are testing you will see the E Page 102 switch change in the test program as well Do this for all the switches and lights that are being connected N A E Pass From the completion of the above test procedure we were able to verify that each of the FTDI chips was working upon arrival from the distributor In order to knot waste paper the cumulative results of the testing for the entire batch of development boards was recorded the table above Step 9 while included in the procedure was not tested as lights and switches were not implemented as part of this project 5 4 2 Flig
177. urn coordinator will consist of several parts The gauge will be controlled by servo or stepper motors A servo motor design will not require the use of a 360 degree capable servo or the modification of a standard servo of 180 degrees Il The turn coordinator can be built using two standard 180 degree servo motors The first servo motor will control the aircrafts turn rate The second servo motor will be used to control the slip indication III A pair of stepper motors could be used instead of servo motors to control the turn rate and slip indication A problem arises when using stepper motors There is no way to know where the turn rate and slip indication are positioned To determine where the starting point or zero is an optical sensor could be used to sense when the motor is moved to the start position IV A real commercial turn coordinator could be used for this simulator The turn coordinator incorporates a gyro which is designed so the indicators do not move Page 53 The instrument housing bolted to the aircraft is what moves around the indicator Figure 3 32 shows the inherent complexity involved when trying to use a real aircraft flight instrument in building a flight simulator cockpit The mechanical parts of the aircraft flight instrument would have to be removed by disassembling the aircraft flight instrument Servo motors or stepper motors would then be place inside the aircraft flight instrument Turn Coordinator Gimbal
178. uter For the scope of this project this component was not implemented and therefore did not require testing These procedures Page 113 are included in this document for the reference of our project sponsor and or future groups that may work on this simulator No Testing Action esa Perform Visual Inspection of switches WARNING Ensure switch control board is disconnected from the USB Port and that the device is not powered 1 Ensure of each switch is connected to the board correctly and that the overall circuit matches the board schematic 2 Ensure that each switch is in the off position Plug in the switch control board into a free USB port on the simulation computer Verify that the computer recognizes P F the device Perform operational testing using X Plane 9 4 1 First start by setting up an aircraft on a runway with the virtual cockpit open 2 Taking the switch that is desired to be tested and switch it into the on position Verify that the switch in the virtual cockpit has moved to the on position as well For each switch implemented repeat step 2 until all implemented switches have been placed into the on position Next start turning off the switches one by one ensuring that the result on the screen mimics the physical switch Repeat steps 2 4 once more to verify that the switch circuit is still functional after one full operational cycle a OveralResult OC 5 5 Integrated Systems Testing Th
179. waves com vol3 46 jpg This reference is used with permission for the following figures A Figure 3 35 C 3 Wikipedia Images taken from Wikipedia fall into three categories Licensed under the GNU Free documentation License denoted with a A work of a Federal Agency of the United States Government covered by Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 105 of the US Code denoted by a or with no copyright claimed by the author denoted by a 2 For the following figures A Fig 3 11 http en wikipedia org wiki File Six_flight_instruments JPG B Fig 3 17 http en wikipedia org wiki File 3 Pointer_Altimeter svg C Fig 3 19 http en wikipedia org wiki File Sens_alt_components PNG D Fig 3 20 http en wikipedia org wiki File True_airspeed_indicator Page C 2 3 22 http en wikipedia org wiki File ASl operation FAA png 3 232 http en wikipedia org wiki File R22 VSI jpg 3 25 http en wikipedia org wiki File Faa_vertical_air_speed JPG 3 26 http en wikipedia org wiki File Attitude_indicator_level_flight svg 3 30 http en wikipedia org wiki File Turn_indicator png 3 32 http en wikipedia org wiki File Turn_indicators png 3 33 http en wikipedia org wiki File Heading_indicator png
180. way length 000 ft stall 70 0 deg A has fighter aural wv has marker only paved n to show on maps 0099 Waniaiphs 000 En warning system beacon audio runways on map Figure 2 4 Plane Maker viewpoint setup Once the model had all of its parameters input then came the part of the modeling that needed some sort of artistic capability The Plane Maker tool also includes a basic model editor that allows you to change the fuselage to the correct shape it also gives you the options for each of the wings and nose of the aircraft A screenshot below in Figure 2 6 and 2 6 while not representing the model that we developed shows process for creating the fuselage of the aircraft In Figure 2 6 the wireframe representation of the model is manipulated by pulling on the points indicated These can be stretched in any direction and all of the three views will be updated Additionally more sections can be added from the default to increase the ability to create smooth edges Another plus is that we can place an image behind the wireframe to trace our fuselage shape Page 14 SELES CED 00000 09000 00000 ELE coon man LSO NEO roe PERO LebbDbULUDDD co ome pa car me mm eae oe saa o lt vaso me Sma o 20008 _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAA _AAAAD _AAAAA 000 00 ELL UL ELL LLL ELLO CL ELLE ELLE ULLAN LLA 000 00 99999 aaa SABANA Oaa BARRA ARMA ADAH Oana AODA OONA BARRA ARMA Amma 000 00 000 50 000 73 000 90 001 04 001 12 001 90 002 64 00
181. we update the X Plane values In the case of the instruments this would be moving the needle into the right location and in the Page 91 case of the controls this would be updating the variables as the user moves the controls With regards to the instruments the limiting factor here would most likely be the speed of the motors Too fast and the needles may jump around Too slow and the needles movements may be too choppy A good starting point would be thirty times a second to correspond with the frame rate but testing will have to be done to optimize it With regards to the controls the limiting factor would most likely be the human element Once again it would probably be best to start with the frame rate and increase the loop time until it is optimal 3 9 Power Supply No matter what we were doing we needed a power supply Since we didn t get the computer that we planned and had to use a laptop we just used a computer power supply for the external power the USB hub and any of the other circuitry that is was used used this power supply 3 9 1 Peripheral Devices Power Supply The peripherals will need at most a 12 volt supply to run the motors in the gauges We could of designed a power supply for each of the circuits and use this supply for each of the needed devices Another alternative is to use a molex pass through card that can give you the same voltages from the computer supply on the outside of the computer It can be found here
182. we want to move in the direction that will minimize the number of steps required Even though both are positive differences movement from 0 to 1 is in one direction while movement from 0 to 799 should go the other way By looking at the sign of the difference a direction is set forward movement is implied with a positive difference Then the number of half steps equivalent to half a rotation is compared to the magnitude of the difference The direction flag is complemented if the magnitude is larger It is then shorter to go the other way 3 3 3 4 Optical Interrupter The optical interrupter is used to during initialization to tell the gauge when the needle is in the home position It consists of two components a sender and a receiver The receiver is a light sensor that goes to 0 when it senses light It consists of a P4537 CdS photocell connected to ground and a 5KQ resistor connected to VCC wired in series The voltage is taken between them and fed into the FTDI chip at D7 see figure 3 27 When no light is hitting the photocell its resistance is much higher than 5KQ and the D7 goes high When light hits the photocell its resistance is much lower than 5KQ and D7 goes low The 5KQ value mentioned above is just a theoretical value arrived at by examining the P4537 datasheet and it may change once we begin testing A simplified block diagram of this system is located below in figure 3 35 The sending component is simply an LED It emits light th
183. witch to the cockpit view by hitting A on the keyboard or remain in the chase view to return to the chase view from the cockpit hit the W Page 123 key At this point you may release the brakes with the B key and increase the throttle To increase the throttle one just needs to push in on the rod that is located in the center of the instrument panel To decrease throttle simply pull back on the rod Note the throttle may get caught as you pull out on a Zip tie this results in not fully decreasing your throttle Simply pull up and back until you reach full stop Flying in the aircraft is fairly straight forward and works just the same as in an aircraft or with any other flight simulator To increase altitude pull back on the stick To decrease altitude push forward on the stick To go left pull the stick to the left and to go right pull the stick to the right The rudder pedals have been designed to help add realism to the simulator In order to use place your feet firmly on the foot rests or place your heel on the ground and toes on the foot rest The pedals are attached with hinges so either operation will work To turn the rudder to the left push on the pedals with your right foot To turn right push on the pedals with your left foot It may take a while to get the hang of the operation but once successful flying the plane will actually be easier Since the majority of simulator functions at this point are functions
184. with the aircraft stuck in that position either struck the ground or featured overstressed conditions However X Plane allows for the removal of flight surfaces if the aircraft goes past over speed and over G thresholds as well as the flaps and gear doors when over Vfe Velocity flap extended thresholds have been passed FSX has overstress indicators in addition to crash detection but they are not nearly as extensive as in X Plane As for multiplayer support FSX utilizes the GameSpy matchmaking service for multiplayer sessions across the internet but also supports direct connections utilizing Microsoft DirectPlay for computers on the same local area network X Plane also allows for direct connections over a local network For each of the simulators the multiplayer connectivity options allow us to also integrate an Instructor Operator Station IOS to remotely control aspects of the simulator For FSX one would need to have to write additional software and with X Plane this feature is built in and would just require an additional installation of X Plane Alternatively we are also able to utilize the variables presented in the X Plane SDK and create our own lOS application This would allow us to customize the interface to our needs or provide different interfaces for different usage scenarios This way there could be one IOS interface for public demonstrations and one for actual flight training should it be used for that The entertainment
185. without diving into what is more than likely ATI proprietary information Moving on let s discuss some of added features each card brings to the table The NVIDIA based card is a Direct X 10 OpenGL 3 0 based card that includes support for NVIDIA PhysX enhanced physics processing and support for NVIDIA CUDA which is a general purpose parallel computing architecture that leverages the parallel compute engine in NVIDIA graphics processing units to solve many complex computation problems in a fraction of the time required on a CPU These two features however will be of no assistance to us in running the flight simulator for one X Plane is not optimized for the PhysX architecture and we will not be writing any CUDA based applications Likewise the ATI Radeon HD 5750 also comes with value added features as well However it is important to first note that this card is not only DirectX 11 but is also an OpenGL 3 1 card meaning that it is compliant with the latest revision of each graphics rendering architecture and being the most up to date card between the two Additional the GPU on the 5750 includes support for the previously mentioned ATI Eyefinity technology and a technology known as ATI Stream The Eyefinity technology was described on the previous page and ATI describes the Steam technology as enable AMD graphics processors GPUs working in concert with the system s central processors CPUs to accelerate enabled applic
186. y to find what the corresponding voltage is across our potentiometer and then fed the resulting voltage into an A D on the control circuit reserved for the throttle and pedals We would read in a value between 0 and 5 volts just as with the joystick and once this voltage is passed through the A D it becomes a digital design problem which we cover in the next section 3 4 2 2 Rudder Pedal Digital Design As the pedal assembly must ultimately be connected to the USB port of a computer there is a digital component to the design of this device For this purpose there were two options to consider for this design The first option reviewed included using an A D converter IC chip tied to the inputs on the FTDI USB interface chip that is being utilized for our gauge design The second option was to use a microcontroller specifically the Atmel AT90USB1287 which had onboard USB support and A D pins Ultimately the decision was made to utilize two FTDI chips between our controls with our throttle and pedals using one control circuit For our throttle pedals design we utilized the chip select pin on each of the A D that is connected to our controls This is to ensure that we select the right input device for taking in values into X Plane Table 3 3 below shows the chip select value for selecting the A D assigned to the pedals Table 3 3 Implementation of Pedals Analog to Digital Function Potentiometer FTDI chip select Pedals Output Pin 3 0 3 4 3 Throttl

Final Documentation - University of Central Florida

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