Arduino with FSX (Part 1)

Short History — 

FSX is flight simulator software that continues to have a large following of professional and non-professional pilots, and gamers who want realistic flying experiences. FS was marketed by Microsoft beginning in 1982 as Flight Simulator 1.0, and progressed through multiple revisions as FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 (aka FS9), and FSX in 2006. Microsoft closed down further work on FS in 2009. Dovetail Games obtained the rights to FS in 2014 and develop the Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition. (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X)

FS has progressed from 8-bit and 16-bit DOS and Windows machines using only a mouse, keyboard, or game controller for flying the simulator missions, to 64-bit PC's with multiple flat-screen views and full-scale 737 cockpits with all the buttons, switches, and instruments.

This blog shares my experience as a beginner FSX simulator pilot that has added hardware control devices with knobs, buttons, switches, and displays, as flight sticks, rudder pedals, trim controls, and digital readouts. 

While several sources of hardware and software add-ons for FSX exist, there are a large number of FSX users that build their own hardware and adapt software to use their simulator cockpit hardware with FSX.

This blog primarily centers on Microsoft FSX Gold Edition as the flight simulation software with add-ons that will be described in later parts of this series of blogs. For these blogs, my FSX runs in a Windows 8.1 Bootcamp partition on a Mac Mini (2012, 16 Gb RAM, 64-bit). Multiple USB 2.0 and 3.0 port expanders are used for connecting hardware to the PC. Two flat-screen displays are used for various FSX windows.

Future blogs in this series will discuss the Arduino microprocessor as a USB device for adding switches, digital displays, rotary encoders, and port expanders to FSX. These switches and displays then connect through USB to the PC for sending and receiving data that ultimately controls or logs some action of the airplane during the FSX flight simulation.

The development work discussed in this blog builds on work done by so many and shared on the web through many web sites and discussion forums. Thanks to all of you who share your ideas and software so that others can benefit.

Arduino and FSX

I have been tinkering with Arduino's for a few years as a hobby, and when I began using FSX Flight Simulator, I had several thoughts: 1) I can not fly FSX using a keyboard and mouse. That just did not work for me; so, 2) I purchased a Saitek X-52 flight stick which works pretty well, but the button mappings to FSX was a new area of confusion. The FSX software could be used to map the buttons and axes, and the Saitek software could also map the buttons and axes. Then there were drivers from other software companies that seemed to replace the Saitek drivers. Each one had their own interface and means of adjusting and tuning the various controls. All of this may seem pretty simple to someone who has some FSX experience, but to a new user, the goal was to learn to fly the flight school lessons successfully, and not be mired down trying to figure out how to make a button work.

I had some military flight training many years ago, and I can remember what that felt like. One goal for this flight simulator training is to regain the fun of flying, which translates into hands-on hardware--trim wheels, flight stick, gear controls, rudder pedals, brakes, and at some point, guns, rockets, and bombs (simulated that is).

It seemed to me that there had to be a way to use the Arduino as a controller for hands-on hardware used with FSX. It took a while to sort through all the scattered bits and pieces on the internet, but several people have succeeded. The work presented here is based on those previous works, of which I am grateful.

Through this series of blogs, I will try to assemble those various bits and pieces of knowledge that I have gained into one source which may be of use to someone that desires to follow this path. 

I ask that anyone that has implemented Arduino's with FSX and want to share that information, provide their comments and links.

(Oct 13, 2016)