@MaybeMae

Devlog 11- Mae here! The wiring for all the inputs as gone through its first pass!
.
It doesnt work…
.
Somewhere, in that mess of wiring, was a short circuit. I had no idea where it could be or why it was happening. My current best theory is that I needed a diode between the main power bus and the power for the potentiometers on the joystick and throttle.
.
I am currently working on a fix for it, and once I have the primary flight inputs (joystick, throttle, stability assist) wired up it shouldn’t take nearly as long to wire the secondary flight controls, and the displays.

Devlog 10- Mae again! The top cover is completely assembled (except for the displays)! Now, I can start the process of printing the bottom case and doing final integration to get the controller to talk to KSP.
.
Additionally, the second circuit board is finished! Unfortunately, now the first circuit board is broken…
Im thinking about scrapping the circuit board idea entirely and connecting each button to its own pin on the arduino.
.
It’s the final strech now to get it done and shipped, but i think i can do it!

TW: Awful circuit design, electrical engineers beware
.
Devlog 9- Mae here! “I’ll post the next devlog tonight” she said, blissfully unaware of everything related to circuit design…
.
The good news is the first circuit board is finished! Below is the mess of wires and diodes that come together to let (some of) the buttons on the controller talk to the arduino! This board specifically lets the 10 individual SAS modes be controlled by their own buttons, while only needing 6 output wires! This saves on ports on the arduino, making the programming much easier.
.
Creating this board was a huge pain, but now that I know what to do, the next one should be quicker. After that, all thats needed is to print the outer shell, wire everything up. and do the last little bit of integration programming. I know I’m running very short on time, so I’ve laid out a schedule for myself, and as long as the next circuit board doesnt take 4 days I should be fine!

Devlog 8 - Mae here! The first real piece of the controller is “finished”! Below is the first revision of the top cover of the controller, fully CNCed, painted, and laser engraved! It doesn’t look so great (for reasons I’ll get into later), but it lets me start assembly, as the cover can be swapped out later!
.
Okay, so first things first, the text looks bad. I am (very) aware of this, and the issue stems from one mistake I made when planning. In my infinite wisdom, I decided it would be a good idea to laser engrave a perfectly white object….. As you can imagine, it failed to cut proper;y, so I had to do a very high power pass, making the text look sloppy. Additionally, between the first and second passes, I inadvertently bumped the laser head, making the text ofset from where it should be.
.
To fix this, the next version (already in the works) will engrave the text on the CNC mill. This should provide a much better color and better contrast for the text, as well as removing any issue with the text being offset.
.
Finally, while the second cover is being machined, I’ve started work creating the circuit boards which connect the buttons to the arduinos! I procrastinated on this devlog a little, so that devlog will be coming later tonight!

Devlog 7 - Mae here! My apologies for the (very) large delay, I was caught up in some other responsibilities. That doesn’t mean nothing got done, though. In fact, two huge parts have been finished!
.
First, all of the parts have arrived, and I have finished machining the top cover! Now, all the top cover needs is a coat of paint and some laser engraving of the text, then assembly can begin!
.
Second, I’ve FINALLY got the displays to work! Below is a video of one of the controller’s display “banks”, displaying the rocket’s altitude, and updating it in real time! There is just a small bit of code left to integrate the two other display banks.

Devlog 6 - Mae here! I spent today implementing a slider for throttle control. In theory, it should have been an easy task, no more than 45 minutes. Unfortunately, unlike the potentiometers on the joystick, the slider’s potentiometer was not linear. That meant moving the slider half way increased the throttle to 75%, making using it very unintuitive. So i had to spend quite a bit of time figuring out how to work around it.
.
Below is a video of my first actual flight using the “controller”. It’s quite intuitive, but I’m not the best pilot lol.
.
Up next, I’m designing a small case to mount the throttle, stick, and a few buttons. Hopefully this should be the first actual prototype of the controller, which should be very nice to see.

Devlog 5 - Mae here! I’m back! i’m sorry for my absence, it took quite a while for the parts to get here, and they arrived the day I left for vacation. But anyways…
.
IT WORKS!!! I have now successfully connected a joystick to the system, allowing actual control of a spacecraft in flight!
Its actually quite simple too, the code just takes the values from 3 potentiometers mounted in the joystick, remaps the values to be in a range the game can read, and packages them into a message for the Kerbal SimPit mod. The message is then sent to the mod, where it reads it and commands the vessel to turn by the amount specified in the message. It took a while to understand how messages actually work, but i think i get it now.
.
Next up, I will be implementing data output using a 14 segment display module. Once that’s done, full scale prototyping can begin, using several arduinos at once to control most of the game. And then, once all the parts arrive, the final construction can happen. About half of the required parts have been ordered so afar, so this shouldn’t be too long from now.

Devlog 4 - Mae here! I finished the layout for the controller! It has every button I use in KSP, including all 10 SAS modes, all 10 Action Groups, quick save and load, and so on. The joystick has a button next to it to transition between rotational and translational control, which should make docking so much more interesting. Next up: ordering the parts!
.
PS; sorry for not getting much work done yesterday, I got distracted playing ksp lol

Devlog 3- Mae here! IT WORKS! I can now register inputs from external “controllers” (if you want to call one button a controller). This was one of the biggest hurdles I foresaw when I was coming up with the idea for this project, so its success is a great sign for the future. It only took me 3 hours of coding (mostly staring at the docs)!
.
PS: I know it says I only logged 44 minutes. Guess who forgot to click record on lapse. (its me, i forgot to hit record :C)

Devlog 2-
Hi again! Mae here! I realized this project cant continue if i cant get inputs and outputs from KSP, so i went ahead and spent about an hour and a half setting up all of the basic configs to get Kerbal Simpit to run. Below is a video of one of the basic test programs running on my arduino uno, receving altitude data from the game. It works! (it only took me till 1 am…)
.
PS: I’ve made some progress on the controller layout too, but its not in enough of a finished state to show it

Devlog 1-

Hi! I’m Mae, I absolutely love the game KSP (Kerbal Space Program), and have been considering making a custom controller for a while. This is gonna be kind of a yap session because I want to set the scene for later devlogs, so I apologize in advance.
.
I’ve already put together a basic parts list, and am finishing up 3d models of all the basic components (see below). Once all the components are modeled, I’ll start drafting a 3d model for the top cover based on some concept drawings (I seem to have misplaced them, sorry :C ), and then once I’m happy with it, I’ll order the parts and start with the programming.
.
To actually interface with the game, I’ll be using the Kerbal SimPit Revamped Mod, and the whole controller will be run off of several arduino boards (the details for this section will be worked out more once the controller is built).
.
The plan for the controller is pretty simple:
.
Construction- The base construction of the controller will be quite simple. It will be in a 3d printed PETG case. The top cover will be a black ABS sheet, with holes for the buttons and switches CNCed out. The sheet will then be spray painted white, and finally a laser cutter will do some quick passes over the sheet to burn away the paint and create labels for all the inputs.
.
Input- Use one joystick for rotation/translation, big button with covering for staging, probably the same button but red for abort, latching blue switches for toggles, keyboard keys for momentary switches, and keylock switches to lock out throttle/ joystick to prevent accidental input as well as act as the power switch (bc who doesn’t love the feeling of turning on a device with a switch)
The lights in the latching switches are (thankfully) not controlled by the button itself. This gives them the added benefit of being able to update themselves when switching to a different vessel, with different settings enabled on it.
.
Display- Have 3-4 rows of 7 or 14 segment displays showing mission information (apoapsis, velocity, altitude, delta v remaining, etc.)
The displays have different modes that show different information , swapped using buttons (ie. orbital, surface/landing, rendezvous/docking, and maneuver information)
One or two additional displays would be nice to keep time warp info separate, but not strictly required.
The coolest idea (but also the most expensive and difficult to program) would be to have a small display to show the navball and/or the current orbit visually.
.
Thanks for reading my first, and hopefully not my last, devlog!