Elematik AviatorVR
I am working on 3rd revision of AviatorVR flight controller. First two images in this article show the very first 3D render and final production version which is integrated in flight simulator X-Alpha built by company Aereform for Pipistrel. Aereform is company from Trbovlje and I am really grateful for being part of that story.
But getting from ideas and drawings to end product is a long way, especially for "one man band".
When product is done, from the hardware perspective, it still needs some firmware to power up and utilize all required functions. AviatorVR controller interprets connected sensors, buttons, switches, LEDs, sliders, potentiometers and other 3rd party controls and forwards their respective values to PC software.
AviatorVR controller uses USB connectivity and implements three different interfaces. It represents itself as a keyboard, joystick and custom HID device which is used for communication from 3rd party software via eg. plugins.
Simulation software (X-Plane 11) uses our plugin to communicate with AviatorVR controller and gathers information about controls positions, values, etc... Those values are in plugin mapped to simulation variables and used in simulator engine.
Whole process has many stages and every stage demands different set of skills and experiences. I'm not talking only about programming because there is much more. Everybody can learn programming language but using good programming patterns and writting maintanable code requires years of experiences in programming and also failures to learn from.
There is a need for skills from design and modeling in 3D software and preparing files for fabrication process such as CNC, PCB manufacturing etc.
Some process can be very iterative which means I follow the pattern implement-test-repeat. However I do all kinds of tests as soon as possible to decrease number of iterations and make solid ground for further steps in early stages of development.
Last but not least... as Burt Rutan said: "Try to always have fun doing all that!"
One of the most important things for me here is the fact that everything is designed and developed in Slovenia. I am really proud of that.