Adapting an ARC-164 UHF Military radio to work as part of sim
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Hi,
I have an ARC-164 UHF Military radio, at least I think it is, or one near the same model. I have heard some people can adapt it for use with Arduino boards and such. I am trying to find information on how to do this. Anyone have any ideas or know where i can find more info? Thanks.Punk
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On the viperpits forum: http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php
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Have you tried a search on Viperpits?
http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php
I’m sure someone there can give you some hints;)
Best regards
ZoomOut;)……okay… Metalhead beat me:)
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I have the same model. Not found any info on it yet.
There are custom pcb’s and arduino-like stuff available for the digital version (like in BMS 3D pit) on viperpits, but not yet one for this analog version.
His code is also available on Github: https://github.com/Wolfman-F16I have all the original wiring schematics of the analog UHF radio and had someone on Viperpits take a look at it. His respons was:
Unfortunately, it appears that the outputs from this panel are different than the Electronic version of the UHF Panel. This means that this mechanical Analog panel can’t be used directly with Wolfman’s uProcessor project. Wolfman would have to come up with a completely different interface and may even have to use a different uProcessor as I think this panel would require either a lot more inputs or would require some surgery and/or additional interface electronics plus possibly software changes to be able to use his boards.
From looking at the wiring diagrams, it looks like the 10’s, 1’s and .1’s Freq Switches are BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) i.e. [10, 20, 40, 80], [1, 2, 4, 8], [.1, .2, .4, .8] outputs. The last digit is four outputs of .000, .025, .050, .075 and the 100’s digit is two position, 200 or 300. As for the Channel switch, the 1’s digit Channel switch (S14) has Ten outputs, 0-9 while the 10’s digit Channel switch (S12) has a single output indicating that S14’s output is either indicating 0-9 (ON) or 10-19 (OFF).
If you are using PoKeys or PHCC it should be relatively easy to write some software to read all these inputs and generate Callbacks to BMS to make this panel work.
But I have no electronics nor programming skills, so it’s currently just a non working placeholder for me
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i just want to say that, originally, prior to my now 17 year career, paid handsomely, in the game and software/internet industry….all i wanted to was to get a thing to work for my simulator. that drove the hunger.
like anything, i find that most people misconcieve this ability with some kind of god-given gift. but thats like saying that it takes a gift to be efficient in your kitchen. ‘oh no, i cant cook. i dont know what im doing in the kitchen’ , always makes me wonder ‘did you at least give yourself a chance to practice and learn before making that statement?’
i digress, but i just wanted to encourage you to try programming. its supposed to be, not unlike say, cold-starting a 70s era fighter jet, something one reads the manual on, and takes a few passes at practicing before doing.
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i just want to say that, originally, prior to my now 17 year career, paid handsomely, in the game and software/internet industry….all i wanted to was to get a thing to work for my simulator. that drove the hunger.
like anything, i find that most people misconcieve this ability with some kind of god-given gift. but thats like saying that it takes a gift to be efficient in your kitchen. ‘oh no, i cant cook. i dont know what im doing in the kitchen’ , always makes me wonder ‘did you at least give yourself a chance to practice and learn before making that statement?’
i digress, but i just wanted to encourage you to try programming. its supposed to be, not unlike say, cold-starting a 70s era fighter jet, something one reads the manual on, and takes a few passes at practicing before doing.
3 years ago I didn’t know the proper difference between + & - on electricity so to speak. At least now I already have Arduino programmed and running DED, working caution panel, working switches etc etc.
But I still like to devote my limited free time in flying, rather then researching and building. Flying for me comes first, building second. For some it’s the other way around -
I’m one of the “other way around” types…I absolutely LOVE building things…but then, I also have a pilot’s license - so if I want to fly, I go fly. The odd thing I’ve discovered in building my own pit is that I appear to know more about electronics and computers than I thought I did at the start…and I think most of that knowledge came from fooling around with audio equipment, long before I began doing this. I think…
Bottom line - don’t think you can’t do something just because you’ve never done it before, like marcocom says. I’ve learned and am continuing to lean a lot…and seriously enjoying it!
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Yes,
just try it. I’ve learned car mechanic years ago, so mostly electrics, no electronics but then I discovered the flight simulation. Low on money, buying the right equipment wasn’t possible. So I had to learn by trial and error, and I learned a lot. With hardware and electronic as well as software.I’m no electronic technician now, and some things I made could determined a lot simpler if I had more knowledge, but they are working and that’s it.
Today with the help of the web, things are much more simple as it was those days. Just type in what you want to know and you get a lot of information about most of the things. The flight sim community is always very helpful, too. They share all the same enthusiasm. Helped me a lot! So piece by piece things come together and at the end you have your result and will be very proud of it. Never say never! If you want something, you can do it.
For modding hardware, the ED-Forum is always worth a look. Many projects are descriped there, including Arduino, BU0836 etc.
This could also be interesting for you http://www.jimspage.co.nz/arduino_keys_beta.htm, it’s for dial, switch and button inputs of all types and for every sim, not only FS. My cockpit based on this amongst others. This could be a way for the input in use of keyboard macros. Just throw out the board and connect the Arduino directly to the dials, switches etc.
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I highly recommend pokeys instead of bodnar or arduino for output & input.
But we are diverting off topic. Issue remains. No easy solutions for now to have real panel like tje uhf radio working.