SimRail Controller hardware we've built.

[Gazz292]

On 12/27/2023 at 1:52 PM, Pitek said:

So here is also my controller (EU07 etc.) and I'm still waiting for data output. 

 

 

very jealous, 

I wish i could find someone selling the driving desk parts from an EU07 style loco,  got a couple of grand for the right bits,  just finding someone who could sell to me that's proving impossible (me being in the uk dosen't help, might have to take a road trip to Poland with the trailer on the car. 

 

[Deadlost]

Currently in the process of making some controls inspired by the traxx. I'm making 2 modules for now, one for the left hand (throttle) and one right hand(brakeside).
I'm trying to limit my functions to 1 usb joystick card per side. (using 12 buttons and an arcade joystick )

Been using joytokey to give key commands, and worked flawless before(before the last big update). When I use it now, it gives commands I don't have control over, can it be the gamepad support messing it up? is there a way to deactivate gamepad?

Waiting on the case to get done printing and continue design of the right hand side if it works out as intended.
Also have bigger module in progress, with housing for saitek throttles with notchplates etc, but on hold until native joystick support is here.

 

[Gazz292]

the new 'input' system with new control animations seems to have made the controls 'sluggish' to those of use using controllers it seems.

I really notice this when i use a rotary encoder to turn the EU07's wheel,  the encoder sends out 1 keypress for every click it's moved, and before the update i could spin the encoders knob as fast as i could, and the wheel in the sim would match the speed i was rotating the knob.. i could move from notch 43 to 0 faster than the fast move button combo did.

but since the update, if i rotate the knob too fast the wheel in the sim misses a lot of steps it should have moved,
on my arduino boards i've added a 70 millisecond delay between repeated keypresses so the controls do not miss steps., 

 

Not sure if this is the case with your controllers, 

I only have a button box using JoyToKey, and haven't noticed any difference in how that is working, 

I don't think the gamepad thing can be disabled, but i do know there is a 'gamepad switch sensitivity' slider in the control menu, i expect this adjusts how much the analog controls on the gamepad have to move to activate a switch,  but i could be wrong. 

[Deadlost]

I'm not sure, but I feel the throttle on the traxx is also more fiddly to change positions also(from throttle to 0 to braking.

I'll test some more when the box is complete.

Here is what simrail reads the buttons:
button 2 stand up/sit down

button 3 acknownledge/deadman

button 4 panto up

button 5/6 zoom in and out

button 10 is menu.

It's not joytokey ruining it, as no keyboard keys are sent when pushing buttons, so seems to me its something in simrail.

Tested in the "other" sim and I have similar issues there, so I think the sim engine mistakes my generic usb joystick for a xbox/ps controller?

So my request to simrail team is a possibility to disable game controller.

 

EDIT:
My issues was releated to Steam settings. Steam was set to emulate xbox controller, turned it off and voila, my device behaved as intended!
It only became a problem once simrail added game controller support 🙂 
 

Edited January 1, 2024 by Deadlost

[Howky]

 

Ideal would be support from the creators if a communication protocol via IP Address, Port com.

Where for example Simrail would send a message at a configurable interval from speed, pressure, voltage, amps etc.

And vice versa I could send him a message via arduino for example.

For example to change direction I would send a command:  Directions0, Directions1,Directions2
Directions0 - Backwars
Directions1 - Neutral
Directions2 - Fowards

But even better would be if I could set in simrail via a configuration file for example. That the Directions element is the letter A

and then only send the message A0, A1, A2

I use a similar system with Open Rails and TS22

 

[Deadlost]

Both sides up and running, enjoying some test drives and trying to drive hudless.

 

Edited January 3, 2024 by Deadlost

[Gazz292]

Not sure if anyone is interested, but i've made my Radmor style USB microphone a project others can build. 
Downloadable from Printables:

https://www.printables.com/model/869509-simrail-radmore-style-usb-microphone

 

You need to be able to 3D print a few parts and buy some electronics, everything is listed on the printables page above (no need to sign up to download) The electronic parts cost me around £30 from amazon (so should be cheaper elsewhere) and the 3D printed parts used about 150 grams of filament.

There are 2 solder joints for the MX keyboard switch, then everything is 'plug and play'  as the internals of my mic are based around a small USB hub that a mic dongle and single button microcontroller board plug into, that then plugs into a coiled USB extension, and it all fits inside the 3D printed mic housing. 

Pictures below show the internals of the mic, the electronic parts and the 3D printed parts, and the finished microphone.

 

Edited May 6, 2024 by Gazz292

[Conrad]

EN-57 version alpha

3D model - concept for 3d print

[Maciej_ZG]

Home cockpit play with Maszyna while waiting for I/O support in Simrail...

Edited August 21, 2024 by Maciej_ZG

[Gazz292]

Just posting a "little" update about what i've been doing with my controller project for the past year (my last post in may 2024 was just the Radmore style microphone being uploaded to the printables site) 

Basically i've done nothing much...
i have of course been using my controllers whenever i drive trains in SimRail, just i haven't been doing that as often as i wanted, and i hadn't turned my 3D printers on for over 8 months, let alone fired up fusion 360 to work on any models. 

The reason for this is some medication i am on can work a bit too well at times, it's supposed to reduce the adhd hyper states where i start loads of different projects at once and never finish any of them before starting another load of projects,
or deciding i want to sell the house and live as a hippy in a teepee in the woods.

So it basically made me enter a 'can't be arsed' stage where i lost interest in pretty much everything in life (on the plus side... it's amazing how much weight you can lose when you only eat 3 crackers with cheese a day) .... other medical issues compounded things, it's been a miserable year weather wise where i live, and cold damp weather just causes me more pain than usual. 
Pretending to drive trains in SimRail helped me stay relatively sane... and i still managed to annoy people with my lengthy posts on the forum and discord.

Then it was found i was very low on vitamin D (oohh err missus 😜) and i've had yet another pill added to my daily meds to combat this... possibly it's this that's kind of woken me up and got me back into wanting to make controllers again. 

.

So here we are, near the end of 2024, and today i finally started the 3D printers up again and fired up fusion 360, then started playing about at making a new SimRail button box. 

My current button box was built to screw to the edge of a tiny overbed laptop table i used to have, that's why it is vertical when it should be horizontal, with the buttons and switches spread out across 5 rows.
A change of bed to one with legs this time last year allowed me to get my much larger hospital overbed table out of storage, giving me much more room for controllers, but i simply placed the button box on the table to the left of my laptop and used it for a year. 
.

So my next project is to make a more realistic button box that better resembles the switch panel found to the left of the power controller in the EU07 type loco's... below is the basics of what it will be, this one is going to be sized to fit in the 260 x 140mm space i have between the left side of my laptop and the edge of the laptop desk, without blocking the GPU exhaust vents.
So again it's a compromise in size and the number of switches i can fit in, but the toggle 2 switches i've left out are for SHP and Czuwak light dimming, which do not have keybinds anyway. 
The push buttons i am using are 'only' 22mm outside diameter (the flat buttons having a 15mm actual button bit in the middle) so this is at least half the size of the real thing, but everything about this controller setup is sized to fit around a laptop on an overbed table, 
I will one day be making a full sized driving desk / cab after the input-output system is released for SimRail, that will be going in a room with my omsi bus driving cab and 3D printers.

I do want to share the model files for the controllers i have made somehow, sharing just the .stl files would mean it's very hard for others to modify anything, but i'm not sure on how to share the model files from fusion 360... and then there's the thing that i often go back and tweak things as the controllers are evolving, 
Also i have not got a specific scale for my current controllers, everything is a mix up to what space i have on my laptop desk, so the brake levers are larger than the power controllers regarding scale. 

Then the biggest thing, writing instruction on how to assemble everything, there's a lot of parts that all go together a particular way to make everything work, and i'd end up writing a 200 page instruction manual that covers every eventuality including what to do if an asteroid hits the earth whilst assembling the controller 🤪

 

Edited December 27, 2024 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

I've now printed and assembled the new version of my main switch panel:

All switches and buttons work in SimRail except the brake delay mode rotary switch, and the train heating toggle switch, due to missing keybinds in SimRail... and as i mentioned before, i did not have room for the 'adjust axle forces' rotary switch, the SHP and Czuwak dimmer toggle switches, and the 'reserve' red mushroom button, none of those have keybinds either, so i'm not missing out on much right now.

The blue mushroom button on the front of the panel is the sanding button... these controllers are mounted on my overbed laptop desk, as i spend a lot of my life on my bed due to medical issues, i can't operate foot mounted switches on this set of controllers.

The panel lamps are not functioning yet... but they can be illuminated when a 5mm LED that fits in them is powered, below is one of the early versions of the panel lamp being tested on the electronics bench,
When we get the I/O system in SimRail, i will add another controller board and make the panel lamps functional:

I hate how the camera shows up light reflecting off the layers that you don't notice with your eyes, it's even worse when zoomed in... these indicator lamps measure only 18.5mm square!

I'm currently working on the design for the lighting switch panel, the main thing i'm stuck on is getting the angle is sits at right (TBH i think it'll look better at a shallower angle than reality to match my laptops screen angle) 

After all, these laptop switch panels are not 1:1 copies of the real thing, they are sized to fit in the space i have available on my laptop desk, and i've worked out the switch panels are about 1/2 scale (a real flat push button is ⌀46mm overall, with a ⌀30mm button, the ones i use in these panels are ⌀22mm overall, with ⌀15mm buttons) 

My brake levers and wipers button panel are closer to full size, and the power controller wheel and the EN57 controllers are sort of in-between somewhere, the main thing i wanted was to drive the trains at my laptop desk with controls that resemble those in a train, instead of using the keyboard and mouse. 

I have started modeling the full size buttons and switches, and the size difference really shows up here:

But a 1:1 size driving desk is what i had a 'simulator room' built for a few years back, it's currently housing my Omsi bus driving rig... which is still a work in progress 12 years after i started it, and about 5 years after i started re-building it 😞 
It's also got parts of my BR111 train drivers desk in it (that project is on indefinite hold, as i much prefer driving the wheel controller trains like the EU07 more than the lever ones) 
And that room is where the 3D printers, electronics bench, and my many plastic tubs of 'things i can't throw out, as they may come in useful one day' live, so it's not sitting empty whilst i play about making mini controllers, but one day it will have a full sized EU07 style driving desk in it.  


A panoramic shot to show how many containers of junk **important stuff** i have stored on the high level shelving around the room 🙈😬