A place to document my trials and tribulations in my quest to make cool stuff.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
We have liftoff!
The Open Source Gemini Simulator has achieved liftoff! The project reached its goal of $1,675 with less than 45 minutes remaining in the campaign!
Thanks to all who backed the project!
The Kickstarter will continue to get updates as the project is built, but the primary source for updates will be here; Ventures in Making.
I will be writing a couple of lengthy posts talking about my first time experience with Kickstarter in the next few weeks, it has been quite an eye-opening experience.
Friday, August 11, 2017
OSGS Update: The Controls List
As we come into the final 5 days of the Open Source Gemini Simulator Kickstarter campaign, I have finalized the list of controls to be placed in the capsule, and I am ready to release them.
I have spent numerous hours carefully documenting all of the controls one would want in a KSP sim-pit with the intent of enabling the players to perform nearly all of the functions of the game without needing a keyboard or mouse. Below is the full, comprehensive list of controls, what type they are, their location, and notes on how it will work in the game.
After deciding what controls would be in the cockpit, it was time to start working on the layout of the controls. For this I went directly to Gemini Guide and the Gemini familiarization manual to try and recreate the "feel" of the original Gemini capsule. Obviously, there are many controls needed in the Gemini capsule that are not needed in KSP, and many controls needed for KSP that were not needed for Gemini. Despite this complication, I made my best effort to preserve the "spirit" of the Gemini capsule by placing similar controls to their real life counterparts in KSP.
The greatest change to the look and feel of the Gemini capsule will be the addition of a screen on which the game is displayed. To accommodate the largest screen possible, I decided to place it on the center cockpit panel (see picture below, the area outlined in red is the approximate shape and location of the screen)
Much of the center console is dedicated to the communications/radios and life support systems found in the Gemini capsule. Given that KSP has minimal implementation for communications/radios and life support (yes, there are mods that do it, but not in the stock game, and I didn't want to complicate this capsule any more than it already is, more controls can easily be added later), I decided to eliminate much of these controls and replace them with the screen.
The physical controls are located mainly on a few major panels, the overhead panel, the right and left panels, and the center console. Most of the controls are switches, just like in the real Gemini spacecraft, though I have opted for lighted toggles because who doesn't love blinking LED lights?
Anyhow, without further ado... The full control list:
I have spent numerous hours carefully documenting all of the controls one would want in a KSP sim-pit with the intent of enabling the players to perform nearly all of the functions of the game without needing a keyboard or mouse. Below is the full, comprehensive list of controls, what type they are, their location, and notes on how it will work in the game.
After deciding what controls would be in the cockpit, it was time to start working on the layout of the controls. For this I went directly to Gemini Guide and the Gemini familiarization manual to try and recreate the "feel" of the original Gemini capsule. Obviously, there are many controls needed in the Gemini capsule that are not needed in KSP, and many controls needed for KSP that were not needed for Gemini. Despite this complication, I made my best effort to preserve the "spirit" of the Gemini capsule by placing similar controls to their real life counterparts in KSP.
The greatest change to the look and feel of the Gemini capsule will be the addition of a screen on which the game is displayed. To accommodate the largest screen possible, I decided to place it on the center cockpit panel (see picture below, the area outlined in red is the approximate shape and location of the screen)
Much of the center console is dedicated to the communications/radios and life support systems found in the Gemini capsule. Given that KSP has minimal implementation for communications/radios and life support (yes, there are mods that do it, but not in the stock game, and I didn't want to complicate this capsule any more than it already is, more controls can easily be added later), I decided to eliminate much of these controls and replace them with the screen.
The physical controls are located mainly on a few major panels, the overhead panel, the right and left panels, and the center console. Most of the controls are switches, just like in the real Gemini spacecraft, though I have opted for lighted toggles because who doesn't love blinking LED lights?
Anyhow, without further ado... The full control list:
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Less Than 10 Days on Kickstarter and Navball Design
It's been quite a while since I posted an update due to life getting very busy with the Kickstarter, but with less than 10 day s left I felt I should really get around to posting an update. Here is an in depth update on the navballs.
One of the most complex parts of the project is the design of the two 3 axis navballs. The navballs (also know as FDAI, or Flight Director and Attitude Indicator) are a key part of the project, and will be a valuable addition to the standard flight instruments. Of course, I could have gone with a small screen and some graphics to simply display a navball, but the excitement of have a truly mechanical navball was simply too much.
The first step to designing the navball was to create the 3-axis drive system and frame. This would consist of the ball itself and the three stepper motors to go with. As described in this KSP forums thread about creating a mechanical navball ([WIP] The REAL Nav Ball Project Thread (2017 Edition)) two of the steppers are located inside of the ball itself.
I decided on a 5" diameter ball, this gave me enough room to locate two small stepper motors comfortably inside without needing any sort of gear-train. The navball requires almost no torque to operate, therefore, I could use the smallest readily available stepper motors, NEMA 8 size motors. One of the motors would need a dual shaft to support both sides of the navball.
One major alteration to the design described in the KSP forum thread will be the orientation of my ball. Instead of having the stationary center ring located vertically, this design is positioned horizontally. This makes 3D printing the ball halves simpler because each half can be printed in a single color.
The roll motor had to be mounted on a gear because of the need for a slip ring to pass through the center of rotation. Not wanting to resort to using extremely expensive slip rings with shaft pass through capability, I decided to simply use a 3D printed herringbone gear to drive the roll axis. This was not a problem for the yaw axis because it supported from both sides, therefore the slip ring is located on the side opposite the stepper.
This was actually the simplest part of the design process, the needles ended up taking far more time and thought to create.
For the purposes of my navballs, I decided to include two flight director needles, enabling the pilot to display two different "nodes" at a given time. This dramatically eases the process of docking due to the need to see both the prograde and target vectors at the same time. At first, the needles seem like a very simple setup. The needles only need to rotate about one axis each, so they can easily be attached to a servo that will rotate them up and down, (or left and right).
Initially, I went with this design, also including full length needles that will be the length of the navball. This idea was quickly written off because I realized the needles would collide with one another. When the needles move they rotate, and therefore also move "in and out" relative to the face of the navball. This could lead to a situation where if the needles crossed in one of the corners, that one needle could essentially get "stuck" behind the other.
Of course, there are ways to alleviate this problem including:
For my purposes, I decided on another option, to just simply make the needles move linearly. This way, no needle could ever get "stuck behind" another needle, without needing to do a lot of design finagling to ensure the needles never collide.
The needles slide in a pair of slots on the side of the navball face and are moved by the servo pushing on the needle against a spring. This way the full range of the servo is used, and the spring eliminates any hysteresis from the mechanism.
The below pictures represent the current state of the navball design.
This pretty much covers the design of the navballs. I'll try to post at least a couple more updates before the Kickstarter ends, but that is no guarantee. Once again, any support on the Kickstarter is massively appreciated! Find the project here: Open Source Gemini Simulator
One of the most complex parts of the project is the design of the two 3 axis navballs. The navballs (also know as FDAI, or Flight Director and Attitude Indicator) are a key part of the project, and will be a valuable addition to the standard flight instruments. Of course, I could have gone with a small screen and some graphics to simply display a navball, but the excitement of have a truly mechanical navball was simply too much.
The first step to designing the navball was to create the 3-axis drive system and frame. This would consist of the ball itself and the three stepper motors to go with. As described in this KSP forums thread about creating a mechanical navball ([WIP] The REAL Nav Ball Project Thread (2017 Edition)) two of the steppers are located inside of the ball itself.
I decided on a 5" diameter ball, this gave me enough room to locate two small stepper motors comfortably inside without needing any sort of gear-train. The navball requires almost no torque to operate, therefore, I could use the smallest readily available stepper motors, NEMA 8 size motors. One of the motors would need a dual shaft to support both sides of the navball.
One major alteration to the design described in the KSP forum thread will be the orientation of my ball. Instead of having the stationary center ring located vertically, this design is positioned horizontally. This makes 3D printing the ball halves simpler because each half can be printed in a single color.
The roll motor had to be mounted on a gear because of the need for a slip ring to pass through the center of rotation. Not wanting to resort to using extremely expensive slip rings with shaft pass through capability, I decided to simply use a 3D printed herringbone gear to drive the roll axis. This was not a problem for the yaw axis because it supported from both sides, therefore the slip ring is located on the side opposite the stepper.
This was actually the simplest part of the design process, the needles ended up taking far more time and thought to create.
For the purposes of my navballs, I decided to include two flight director needles, enabling the pilot to display two different "nodes" at a given time. This dramatically eases the process of docking due to the need to see both the prograde and target vectors at the same time. At first, the needles seem like a very simple setup. The needles only need to rotate about one axis each, so they can easily be attached to a servo that will rotate them up and down, (or left and right).
Initially, I went with this design, also including full length needles that will be the length of the navball. This idea was quickly written off because I realized the needles would collide with one another. When the needles move they rotate, and therefore also move "in and out" relative to the face of the navball. This could lead to a situation where if the needles crossed in one of the corners, that one needle could essentially get "stuck" behind the other.
Of course, there are ways to alleviate this problem including:
- Angling the tips of the needles to conform the the shape of the ball
- Lengthening the axis to "linearize" the motion of the needles
- Shortening the needles so that they overlap less.
- Increasing the spacing between needles so that they never cross paths
For my purposes, I decided on another option, to just simply make the needles move linearly. This way, no needle could ever get "stuck behind" another needle, without needing to do a lot of design finagling to ensure the needles never collide.
The needles slide in a pair of slots on the side of the navball face and are moved by the servo pushing on the needle against a spring. This way the full range of the servo is used, and the spring eliminates any hysteresis from the mechanism.
The below pictures represent the current state of the navball design.
This pretty much covers the design of the navballs. I'll try to post at least a couple more updates before the Kickstarter ends, but that is no guarantee. Once again, any support on the Kickstarter is massively appreciated! Find the project here: Open Source Gemini Simulator
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