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Last updated
10-Oct-2009

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Walter Zanette

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FMSUSB

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Introduction:

Searching the web for an RC(PPM) to FMS (Flying Model Simulator) USB interface i didn't find such a device for free and with interesting characteristics. For this reason i decided to start the developing of the FMSUSB. The name could be not so appropriate because this is an interface that converts the PPM signal coming out from the RC to a Windows Joystick, so it can be used not only with the famous FMS, but also with all the games that are allowing a joystick as an input. For example you can use your RC also to drive a car. Another interesting thing is that no extra driver is needed to allow this circuit to work on a Windows 2000 or XP system, really plug and play!!!

Features:

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Tested Games:

Flight simulators:

Others:

The Schematic:

In the following picture you can see the schematic drawing of the circuit. Click on the image to download the full size schematic in zipped PDF format.

26/12/2004: There was a mistake in the schematic: C4 had a value of 222pF... i was so tired... ;-) it's value is of 2200 pF! Now the revision 1.0.1 of the schematic with this little correction is out.
13/07/2005: Please note that the new and corrected schematic!

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4719 downloads

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Components description:

In this new PCB release only the 16C745 chip is supported. This is because 99% of people writing to me are asking why and how they have to install two chip on this circuit....!

The filtering capacitor C1 must be placed as near as possible to the power pins of the PIC chip.
The R1 resistor must have a maximum tolerance of +-5% and the capacitor C5 a maximum tolerance of +-20% because of the USB 1.1 specification. If you don't respect this requirements the device may not work properly.
Values for C2 and C3 capacitors must be between 15pF and 33pF, i used 22pF. Resistors R2, R3, R4, R5 and capacitor C4 are non critic, but try to use values as near as possible to the specified.

The PCB:

In the following picture you can see the PCB for the interface. Click on the image to download the 1:1 scale PCB in zipped PDF format.
13/07/2005: Please note that this is the new corrected PCB!

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2872 downloads

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BUG:

I discovered a big bug in my old schematic. To correct this on the old PCB please change the connection as shown in the following picture. Cut the red points and wire the green one.
The PDF files you will download with PCB and schematic are not yet corrected, please take care of modifying them before making your circuit!!!!

This is the top view of the PCB, so if you are going to realize it by lithography you have to print it on a transparent sheet and then place it over the board carrying attention to the writing... they must be readable on the finished board!!! This is an help to avoid mistakes during PCB fabrication. Otherwise if you are going to realize your PCB with the blue sheets (the one you have to press on the board with an hot iron) you have simply to print this file over the blue sheet.

The following image shows components disposition over the new PCB revision 1.3.

You can see that the PCB have the place to mount two chips: the 28 pins 16C745 and the 40 pins 16C765. Ounce the PCB is ready you can make the holes only for the chip you need, the other will be unused.

If you will use a PIC 16C765 the resistor R1 must be mounted on the component side or under the chip if you mount a socket.

I also suggest you to use a socket because it will be simpler to replace the chip if there will be future firmware upgrade to fix bugs that could still exist or to add new features to the device.

On the PC side:

Ounce connected the interface is recognized as two joystick with 8 axes each as you can see on these images taken from the Game Controllers utility of the Windows Control Panel:

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If you click on the Settings tab you can calibrate the related Joystick.

How the channel mapping works:

When the device is connected to the PC the RC channels to joystick axes mapping is setted as follows:

Using an application that i have developed you can map your RC channels into joystick1(Joy1) or joystick2(Joy2) as your needs. To do that you only need to connect the interface, start the setup application and choose the configuration you want. After that you have to click the Send button and in two seconds the configuration is sent to the device. You can also save and load all your configurations so you it's simpler to switch between flight simulators.

Click on the image to download the application.

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3180 downloads

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If the application will not work on your PC you have to download and install the Visual Basic 6 Runtime from the download page on this site.

From this snapshot you can see the simple way to map RC channels to Joy1 and Joy2 axes: simply select the desired channel in the X, Y, Z, Rx, Ry, Rz, Dial and Slider related combo boxes, and ounce you have finished press the "Send" button to send this configuration to the device. The important thing is that normally you don't have to do nothing to use FMS because the standard mapping is already good. But it's also important that you can change your mapping in a really easy way like said here over.

The Firmware:

If you will build this device and test it, please let me know if it works great also for you and on which transmitter!!!

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Known issues:

- None

In this page you can find some feedback emails from who built the interface or buyed it from me. There is also a list of successfully tested transmitter. All the ones not jet reported are still untested (but 99% working) and i'm waiting for reports from those of you that are using FMSUSB with other transmitters! :-)

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05-Jan-2006