Radio Panel

F-14B Tomcat ARC-159 Radio Panel

AN/ARC-159(V) 1 UHF Control Panel for DCS F-14B Tomcat. Built with Arduino compatible microcontroller board Pro Micro, use with Flightpanel DCS-BIOS fork.

Parts

• 5V/16MHz Pro Micro Board w/ ATmega32U4
• TM1637 6-Digit 7-Segment LED
• Mini toggle switches:
  • 4 (on)-off-(on) for freqency dials
  • 1 on-off for SQL
  • 1 (on)-off for READ
• 2 potentiometers for VOL and BRT
• 1 rotary encoder for preset channel selector
• 2 rotary switches for mode selector and function selector
• 2 push buttons for TUNE and LOAD

Design

This is the final panel (AoA Indexer excluded, for AoA Indexer design see here).

The size of the original AN/ARC-159(V) is 5.75 inch in width and 4.875 inch in height. I don't need the frequency chart to record preset channel frequencies, so that part is removed from my design to make the panel size smaller:

• width: 5.75 (14.61cm)
• height: 3.75 (9.525cm)

I design the panel using FreeCAD. It consists of three layers. The bottom and middle layers are composed and 3D printed as a single object.

Note the hole diameters are determined by looking at switches, buttons and encoders I have. They are likely to not fit for others.

Pro Micro PINs Usage

Pro Micro has 18 digital PINs, 9 of which can also be used as analog inputs. This radio control panel will have 26 Joystick buttons and 2 axes as inputs, and 1 TM1637 LED as output. To connect them all without shift register, I'll use resistors to add simple voltage dividers to these:

• Freq (On)-Off-(On) Switches: use a single analog PIN instead of 2 digital PINs.
• Mode and Function Selector Rotary Switches: use a single analog PIN instead of 3 or 4 digital PINs.

PIN	ARC-159 Function	Button/Switch	Joystick Button/Axis	Note
0/RX1	Chan Sel	Rotary Encoder 0 CLK	BTN8	Rotate CW
1/TX0	Chan Sel	Rotary Encoder 0 DT	BTN9	Rotate CCW
2	Tone	Push Button 0	BTN10
3	Load	Push Button 1	BTN11
4/A6	VOL	Potentiometer 0	Axis0/X, BTN22, BTN23	BTNs for Rotate CW/CCW
5	SQL	On-Off Toggle Switch 0	BTN12, BTN13	Off needed as well *1
6/A7	BRT	Potentiometer 1	Axis1/Y, BTN24, BTN25	BTNs for Rotate CW/CCW *2
7	Read	(On)-Off Switch 0	BTN14
8/A8	Mode Selector	Rotary Switch 0	BTN15-BTN17	3 Pos, voltage divider
9/A9	Function Selector	Rotary Switch 1	BTN18-BTN21	4 Pos, voltage divider
10	❌	Rotary Encoder 0 SW	BTN26	Misc button *3
A0	Freq 10MHz Switch	(On)-Off-(On) Switch 0	BTN0, BTN1	Up/Down, voltage divider
A1	Freq 1MHz Switch	(On)-Off-(On) Switch 1	BTN2, BTN3	″
A2	Freq 0.1MHz Switch	(On)-Off-(On) Switch 2	BTN4, BTN5	″
A3	Freq 0.025MHz Switch	(On)-Off-(On) Switch 3	BTN6, BTN7	″
14	Freq LED	TM1637 LED DIO	❌	DCS BIOS Output
15	Freq LED	TM1637 LED CLK	❌	″

• *1: DCS needs separate keybinds for On and Off. For F-14B ARC-159 Squelch, it has Squelch SQL, Squelch OFF and Squelch Toggle. The first two will be used.
• *2: DCS doesn't have axis binding for VOL/BRT knobs; Create two buttons for CW/CCW similar to rotary encoder.
• *3: F-14B Radio Panel doesn't have a center push button on the CHAN SEL knob; Creating one for rotary encoder's button could be useful, say, to reset the panel to initial state.

DCS-BIOS / HID Hybrid

This radio control panel works in DCS-BIOS/HID Hybrid mode.

1. Inputs: All switches, buttons and rotary encoders are mapped directly in DCS or other simulators. Although this panel is designed and modeled to look like ARC-159, it can be used anywhere, as it's recognized as an HID joystick in Windows thanks to the ATmega32U4 chip on Pro Micro.
2. Outputs: The TM1637 LED interfaces with DCS-BIOS to display DCS Radio channel or frequency based on mode. When in F-14B Rio seat, it will display the AN/ARC-182 info as well. Currently these modules are supported:

• F-14B Front Seat
• F-14B Back Seat (RIO)
• F-5E

Arduino Libraries

• Flightpanels DCS-BIOS Arduino Library
• TM1637TinyDisplay
• ArduinoJoystickLibrary
• NewEncoder
• ResponsiveAnalogRead

License

Available under MIT license.