I plan on making a flight data diaplay for use with Kerbal Space Program (and possibly other flight sims with a bit of tweaking). The display will retreive various flight data statistics such as air speed and altitude and provide warnings for low fuel, high G forces, and high aerodynamic stresses. It will also display fuel levels and orbital parameters. You can see the basic outlines of the display console below.
Many have done displays like this before for kerbal space program, and most of them can be found on this Kerbal Space Program forum thread. Many of these are much more complex than what I plan on doing for my final project. Communication between the game and these displays has been made easier with the KSP Serial IO plugin, but lacks control abilities on windows 10 computers (which I am unfortunately stuck with). Below is an example which is closest to what I will be doing.
I will use either an Atmel 1284P, if I need a lot of program space and memory, or a 32u4, if I need easy serial communication and control. I will most likely use both at once. I will use smaller modules to drive the various components of he display, which will be driven by Atmel 328s and Tiny44s. We have toggle switches and LEDs, which will make up controls and fuel dispalys. I will also use a 4 digit LED display and an LCD. The exterior of the display will be acryllic and/or wood. These components will be sourced from our (admittedly outdated) local fab inventory (328, Tiny44, LCD, blank PCBs, sheet materials, and headers and resistors as needed), Digikey (32U4, resonators for 32U4), Amazon (switches and switch covers), Ebay (1284P), and local electronics stores (LEDs).
These materials will most likely cost at least 50 USD in total but may be somewhat over $100 if the expensive Alaskan shipping costs and mistakes are included.
I will be using my boards from Input Devices and Output Devices, which will be communicating with the main board over I2C, which I have outlined in Networking. I will also need to create sepertae boards for several pieces. such as boards for the LED 7 segment display and bar graphs.The main board will also have to be designed and produced.
For the exterior of my console, I will laser cut acryllic or wood, and the files for the box will be designed in Aspire. This will use the process I developed for non-parametric design in CAD and my press fit project for the CNC week. The electronics boards will be produced using the chemical etching method I have outlined in Input Devices. I will program the boards I make using the FabISP I have been using since I made it in Electronics Production. I may spray paint the box if I use wood, and I may also use 3D printed or moulded components for the buttons of the display console.
To finish this project, I will need to design and cut the box, design and etch new PCBs, program the individual modules, develop a method for communication between the display and the game, test this method, and assemble the final product. I will attempt to have all of this done by mid June (I will be out of state after then).