KAPCOM

Doing some code cleanup and migrating everything to use Python's logger module and PEP8 formatting. I cleared out some of the more confusing bits of code and fixed a bug or two. Keypress buttons are now working again, so that's nice. Fly-by-wire no longer spams uncontrollably, it now only sends when it's needed.

So I just ordered a bunch of parts to make my project wireless. Raspberry Pi for onboard computing, SD card, wifi module, battery. I'm also going to start working on a Flask or Django powered web frontend for KAPCOM. This will be used for allowing configuration of displays and input modes. For now, I'm going to use my iPhone as the display since I don't want to drop ~$50 for a Raspberry Pi display. I'm not sure whether I'll eventually get one, that remains to be seen. All of this was originally on my 'plans for the future' list, but I've decided I'd rather not re-do the enclosure, so if I'm going to integrate a display, I should do it before.

Meanwhile, the enclosure is still in progress. I'm still planning the shape of the enclosure in SketchUp. Meanwhile, I'm working on 3D printing the throttle handle, but the library hasn't been working out. Hopefully I can get it working, but I may need to resort to another service.

I've been busy playing Kerbal Space Program for once and haven't been working too actively on the project. Tonight I decided to fire up PyCharm and did a bit of work. I found PyAutoGUI which does cross platform keyboard input.

It seems like it'll work, but I'm still not 100% happy since I don't know if this will work when I eventually use a Raspberry Pi and set up a fully remote controller. Then again, I have the same problem with the trackball, so I'll have to learn with both issues at some point. Perhaps some creative use of Synergy.

I have been trying to get my throttle handles printed, but the library has been having some problems. First it was the extruder, now it's the print bed. Hopefully I'll have better luck on Friday.

I'm exporting as I type this, but all three intro videos are complete. I'll review them tomorrow morning and post them to YouTube as soon as I'm done.

I merged the code from tinkering with Windows into mainline. I worked on the intro video again, but I'm not 100% happy with it. I'll look at it tomorrow and see if I can edit it into something I'm satisfied with. I did decide to split it into three segments so that at least makes it a bit easier to work with.

I had a bit of trouble getting the Arduino serial to play nice on my Windows VM, but eventually I was able to get it working. I just did a test launch and my configured controls worked great. I need to commit some changes I made to GitHub and then finish the video, but I think I should have that done by the end of the weekend.

Tonight I worked on getting the basics video out. I actually had pretty good luck. I ran into some hiccups since I was setting up from scratch on Windows, but all things considered it was pretty smooth. On the plus side, I worked out kinks for the setup script on Windows. I'm up to the point where I'm actually running kapcom.py. Anyway, it's getting late so I'll have to finish the video tomorrow night.

I got a lot of positive feedback on my video and a handful of people on the KSP subreddit are interested in a followup video outlining how to get started. I'm going to try and follow through with that later this week. I have my Uno set up already with a button, potentiometer and LED. I do need to polish up some of the setup code for Windows, which I'd like to do before posting the video.

Today I put together a logo for KAPCOM, since I want to have some sort of graphic on the project. I had been thinking about something SpaceX related since it's styled after the Dragon 2, but I decided to stick with KAPCOM, but use the SpaceX logo font/style. I grabbed the SVG from Wikipedia, converted to a high-res PNG, moved the existing letters around, sliced and diced the rest into shape. I used the E as the basis for the M and used the X as the basis for the K. I'm really pleased with the end result. My wife helped make design decisions out with some of the new lettering — she's not too happy about the M, but I love it.

In other news, I've been working on the throttle assembly. I found out that my library has a 3D printer for use, so I went down and got scheduled for tomorrow evening. I've just been putting the finishing touches on the model. I'm using multiple pieces to assemble the throttle rather than trying to print it in one piece. Now that I have the KAPCOM logo, I decided to get fancy and emboss the logo on the handle. I converted the PNG back to SVG, then to DXF, imported into SketchUp, fiddled around with it and boom:

Also, my throttle components are coming over the next few days, so by the weekend, I should have a working-ish throttle handle. I need to do several sessions with the library to print all the parts since they have a 3 hour limit.

Now that I have the PCBs assembled, I have a fully functional prototype. There are still one or two things that need work, but it's complete enough to do a video demo: