Building a Condor Keypad

Interested in building your own home grown cockpit?

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alioth
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:14 pm

Building a Condor Keypad

Post by alioth » Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:09 pm

As I am now using VR, I had problems operating keys in the main keyboard.

So I decided to build my own keypad for Condor with the features I most frequently use:
I wanted to find easy the keys/functions, and to be confortable with the keys I am always pressing, as flaps, pda..

Image
I designed this keypad. It has a wrist rest and the fingers go to the flap level and pda functions easily .

Image

The switches are the Cherry MX blue and keycaps are PBT.
I am using an Arduino pro micro with self code.

Image

Everything is 3d printed using ABS and PETG

And these are the functions I have coded:

Image

I have pre defined text as:
"Congrats!"
"thanks!"
"regatta?" :P
and some more..
You press the text key, rotate the encoder to choose the pre defined text you want, and push the rotary to send the text. So it is very easy with the VR headset.

It has some more functions (like warning alarm when using airbrakes or sound tones when arm/desarm Q recovery function) to know the state with the VR headset.
Xsoar functions are all in the joystick buttons.

With VR and this keypad I am really having fun as never before in Condor.
And I think the keypad has helped me to increase a little my performance.

Just wanted to share it with you!

Arturo Moreno. AMS

scls19fr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by scls19fr » Wed Dec 22, 2021 9:03 pm

Hello,

Following discussion at viewtopic.php?p=177802#p177802

That's a very nice project!

I wonder if you ever considered open sourcing design (with mechanichal parts models) and code.

Kind regards

alioth
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:14 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by alioth » Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:17 am

scls19fr wrote:
Wed Dec 22, 2021 9:03 pm

I wonder if you ever considered open sourcing design (with mechanichal parts models) and code.
Yes! no problem.
Here are the STLs and hardware used.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

This was the first design.
I am thinking of adding a second slider for elevator trim and change some keys position, and build a V2 version.
But I am really happy with the keypad. I have everything I need

I am not sure about sharing the code. But google "arduino pro micro joystick" and you wiill find generic codes to build a joystick with pro micro. So you only have to map every key in the pad with the pins and you got it. You need some code knowledge.

You can use a leobodnarcard instead, and it is already a joystick. The easy route I think.
Here you have a 32 buttons ,8 sliders card, and 8 hat swtich position: https://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.ph ... cts_id=204
It has no keyboard press support. It is only a joystick. If you need, you can convert joystick commands in keyboard commands with autohotkey software.

AMS.

scls19fr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by scls19fr » Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:10 pm

On my side I have been using PoKeys57U... very easy to setup as keyboard and/or joystick but the board is a bit expensive.

h.kreso
Posts: 85
Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:49 pm
Location: Croatia

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by h.kreso » Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:40 pm

Hi alioth,
can you share arduino code to? I have Leo card, but wish to try with arduino

tnx, regards
Image

Quintalm
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:36 am

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by Quintalm » Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:52 am

Same here, love your design. Printing right now. Bit I am a little bit struggling with the multiplexing part with arduino…

alioth
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:14 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by alioth » Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:55 pm

h.kreso wrote:
Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:40 pm
can you share arduino code to? I have Leo card, but wish to try with arduino
Hi!

Here you can find a joystick library and examples:
https://www.instructables.com/Arduino-L ... rJoystick/

My code is just like that, moded to add the functions I exactly want for my use. And using a port expander, to have more pins.
You can find library and examples of the mcp23017 here: https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/MCP23S17/

And some more code for encoder use. If you want to read REALLY well the clicks, you should use the arduino interrupts system. Examples here:
https://www.bristolwatch.com/arduino/arduino2.htm

So you can join everything in the code in the way you want/need!

AMS.

Quintalm
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:36 am

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by Quintalm » Wed Jan 05, 2022 7:37 pm

Nice! Thank you, the wiring diagram helps a lot!

Y Lima
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:47 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by Y Lima » Mon Jan 17, 2022 5:30 pm

If you can't find the MCP23S17 port expander, as I in my city, a alternate could be wiring the keys and buttons as a 5 x 4 matrix keypad instead of a bunch of individual keys.

With this set up you only need nine input pins, plus two for flaps, plus three for the encoder and his button, so 14 digital input pins and one analog pin for the airbrake. They can be connected directly to an Arduino Micro.

And you can create and test your code with an easy prototype like this:


proto1.jpeg
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scls19fr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by scls19fr » Sun Feb 06, 2022 3:14 pm

A simple way to create a keyboard can also be using an analog keypad with R-2R ladder like https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32635207 ... 6c37tAJ6Zn
This kind of keypad is very cheap and only 3 wires are required between it and an Arduino Leonardo which acts as USB Keyboard.
(quite uggly) code is available at https://github.com/scls19fr/simulator_keypad
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Last edited by scls19fr on Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:15 am, edited 2 times in total.

scls19fr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by scls19fr » Fri Feb 11, 2022 3:31 pm

I tried more experiments with my simple analog keypad and Arduino Leonardo.
My goal was to build a custom joystick with no axis but 16 buttons.
Why such an idea... simply to avoid using too much keyboard keys
I did it in
https://github.com/scls19fr/simulator_k ... uttons.ino
I tested it using joy.cpl and it worked fine ie when pressing a button I see that associated led light up.
Unfortunately I can't associate such button to Condor event such as "Release".
I don't think that's a issue on my side. I would be pleased to have opinion about Condor devs team especially because same basic hardware/code works with MSFS.
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Y Lima
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:47 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by Y Lima » Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:28 pm

Maybe you can try the suggestion of AstirAl at

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19075&p=177976&hil ... no#p177976

scls19fr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Building a Condor Keypad

Post by scls19fr » Wed Feb 16, 2022 8:20 am

Thanks Y Lima. I will try to avoid using default Joystick constructor as suggested by AstirAI

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