Kerbal Space Program is already a runaway indie video game hit, and if you ask some people, they’ll tell you it is the way to learn all about orbital dynamics, how spaceships actually fly, the challenges of getting to the mün. The controls in KSP are primarily keyboard and mouse, something that really breaks the immersion for a space flight simulator. We’ve seen a few before, but now custom controllers well suited for a Kerbal command pod can be made at home, with all the blinkey LEDs, gauges, and buttons you could want.
[Freshmeat] over on the KSP forums began his space adventures with a keyboard but found the fine control lacking. An old Logitech Dual Shock controller offered better control, but this gamepad doesn’t come with a throttle, and USB throttles for flight sims are expensive. He found a neat plugin for KSP made for interfacing an Arduino, and with a few modifications, turned his controller into a control panel, complete with sliders, pots, gauges, and all the other goodies a proper command pod should have.
[Freshmeat]’s work is not the only custom Kerbal controller. There’s a whole thread of them, with implementations that would look great in everything from a modern spaceplane to kerbalkind’s first steps into the milky abyss of space. There’s even one over on the Hackaday projects site, ready to fly Bill, Bob, and Jeb to the mün or a fiery explosion. Either one works.
Thanks [drago] for the tip.
Great! Mow it will seem more realistic when I kill my Kerbs!
Uhg can’t spell today, NOW it will seem more realistic when I kill my Kerbs!
Unless you kill them with lawnmowers. Or mow ’em down with machine gun fire. Happens.
Actually, i’m glad that i can’t run KSP on my old machine properly, because this is a VERY addictive game :-)
I didn’t know there is already so much interfacing to an Ardiuno. Now imagine the possibilities…
Also working on my own controller for KSP:
http://daid.eu/~daid/20140703_164805.small.jpg
This one already looks way better, having a joystick seems mandatory to me.
looking pretty awesome so far… keep us updated!
Still need to wire everything up. And it has been sitting on my desk like this for a few weeks already…
Oddly enough, using the keyboard kinda fits for me. I’ve seen some pics of the cockpit of an old Soyuz and it contains many of what look suspiciously like computer keys, albeit with Cyrillic on them ;)
oh I dont know, there is this documentary that clearly shows manipulators onboard Soyuz used for manual manoeuvring
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2013/10/01/Gravity-Review.jpg
real thing:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TzhVBj-1Fo8/Ulh-6lnYSPI/AAAAAAAANLE/S1EK_nqDE-M/s1600/320px-STS-133_Nicole_Stott_in_a_Soyuz_spacecraft.jpg
Shameless self promo, but have been working on a small open source space sim with a few other people over the last couple of years. Still early in development, just looking to spread the word around at this point and hopefully drive some interest (and perhaps some contributions! :-) )
You may find more about it here:
https://github.com/movitto/omega
http://megaverse.net/
i started a project called ‘the joystick of doom’. it ran into a brick wall when i discovered the cost of panel mount components was really high.
Few posts up you can see my panel. All the buttons & switches came from dx.com and where pretty cheap. The joystick is an old PC joystick from a yard-sale. The dials I’m making from cheap servos with 3D printed components.
I would love to have a full-on capsule like this for KSP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfY-SlC2XHc
A Mk 1 Lander Can with proper displays for IVA mode is on the list of things to build once the Hackaspace is up and running.
ridiculous. i love it.
I have always been considering building a custom controller at some point, but until then, I’ll just continue hacking my Steel Batallion Controller.