My DG spaceship

[bpops]

lockingtoggle,

You make me embarassed to ever again show pics of my sim pit in progress...

Wow, yours really does look amazing. Wish I had access to a CNC -- and the experience to design something like that. Please keep us up to date!

 

[BHawthorne]

lockingtoggle,

You make me embarassed to ever again show pics of my sim pit in progress...

Wow, yours really does look amazing. Wish I had access to a CNC -- and the experience to design something like that. Please keep us up to date!

No need to be embarassed about anything. We're all building to have fun and learn. It's not a contest to see who makes the coolest. If anything is a contest it to see if we all can make building more mainsteam and accessable to everyone.

 

[lockingtoggle]

lockingtoggle,

You make me embarassed to ever again show pics of my sim pit in progress...

Wow, yours really does look amazing. Wish I had access to a CNC -- and the experience to design something like that. Please keep us up to date!

Thanks for the compliment.
And as BHawthorne said, this is not a contest, we are just trying to learn from each other.

 

[Redburne]

The problem I faced was how to have two joysticks connected on the same functions. If both pilots would move the joysticks in the same time it would be a mess.

I do not know if you tried Fly-By-Wire to do this. You can set it up to have two joysticks control the same function in a way that could be acceptable for a simulator (but certainly not for real world use).

The key is choosing a "combined axis" as input, with the negative component inverted. (for centered controls, you may also have to scale the inputs by 0.5 and the output by 2.0).

As long as only one joystick is moved, it has full control. If both are used simultaneously, they will either add up (if moved in the same direction), or cancel each other out (if moved in opposite directions). For obvious reasons, that would not be acceptable in a real plane ...

I'll check how hard it is to add a true master/slave combined axis to FBW, where any master input would simply cancel out the slave input.

 

[tblaxland]

As long as only one joystick is moved, it has full control. If both are used simultaneously, they will either add up (if moved in the same direction), or cancel each other out (if moved in opposite directions). For obvious reasons, that would not be acceptable in a real plane ...

It seems this is exactly how the A320 works:
http://www.kls2.com/cgi-bin/arcfetc...ers&id=<[email protected]>

Thus, if the captain pulls full left, and his first officer pulls full right, the net effect is zero.

I'll check how hard it is to add a true master/slave combined axis to FBW, where any master input would simply cancel out the slave input.

Or perhaps, program an override button with the same function as that in the A320 as described in the above link. Getting the stick status output indicator could be a little more troublesome but could perhaps be an on-screen annotation to start with.

 

[bpops]

Thanks for the compliment.
And as BHawthorne said, this is not a contest, we are just trying to learn from each other.

Well here's mine so far. I'm using a 3 19" monitor 'window'. It's intended to be a combination flight/space sim, so I'll have a yoke on there too. Also, I wanted to be able to get it in and out of rooms easily, hence the two sections, and casters.

 

[tblaxland]

...the two sections, and casters.

All the better for damage simulation :lol:

 

[EliNaut]

Unbeliveable, nice work!
I'm quite jealous.
Very Youtube worthy if you get the whole thing running!
If you do, just dont give me your adress - you might find me down there some night =D

 

[BHawthorne]

Well here's mine so far. I'm using a 3 19" monitor 'window'. It's intended to be a combination flight/space sim, so I'll have a yoke on there too. Also, I wanted to be able to get it in and out of rooms easily, hence the two sections, and casters.

Really cool design. I like that it's on casters. Is it designed to be able to go through regular doors? Forethought like that makes life easier once you have it up and running. This tackles one of the biggest issues with simpits, not many people have a whole room they can just take up with a build. I like that you can wheel it in and fly it then pack it up as needed. :speakcool:

 

[yagni01]

Well here's mine so far. I'm using a 3 19" monitor 'window'. It's intended to be a combination flight/space sim, so I'll have a yoke on there too. Also, I wanted to be able to get it in and out of rooms easily, hence the two sections, and casters.

Very nice! I assume controls will be going in the rectagular holes. . . do you have a sample to show how that's going to work?

 

[bpops]

Very nice! I assume controls will be going in the rectagular holes. . . do you have a sample to show how that's going to work?

Sure. I've based my design of these off of those by ednixon (he's been something of a mentor).

Also attaching another pic that more clearly shows the two sections.

 

[yagni01]

Sure. I've based my design of these off of those by ednixon (he's been something of a mentor).

Ed inspired me as well. Thanks, Ed! (I think)

 

[MajorTom]

One more panel.

On the CNC.


Finished

Fantastic idea...have you considered not painting your panels completely, such that your white text can be back-lit, such as in an Apollo panel?

I've been thinking on that problem a long time, that of panel material and solving the problem of back-lit text near the switches. I think that with your transparent, cnc-carved panels, you've solved it!

 

[lockingtoggle]

Fantastic idea...have you considered not painting your panels completely, such that your white text can be back-lit, such as in an Apollo panel?

Yup, done it allready actualy.
You need to paint them first on white, than on black and than etch the labels by laser or cnc. You need to give a white coat under the black for two reasos, first let the light bounce within the pannel and second to be able to read the labels when the panel is not lighted.
It is allright for one panel or two, but for a whole pit its a pain.

Lighted

Not Lighted

 

[Danny Ramone]

Bloody awesome, when you get time you will have to give me more info on those MFD's I was going to play around just trying to get one going and then do up a tutorial on it (or even if im good enough, building and shipping them). I would almost say that ripping a keyboard apart would be almost as good as X-keys and cheaper, you could use auto-hot keys to have a huge number of random keyboard combinations (26x26 = 676, and thats just the letters) But as I say if you get a chance PM me what details you can so im not starting from scratch.

 

[lockingtoggle]

Thanks Danny,

You can ask your questons here and we will all try to answer them.

 

[TexW]

Simpit

Sorry RisingFury but I'm thinking to build one myself as well!!! :lol:


-----Post Added-----


Sorry RisingFury but I'm thinking to build one myself as well!!! :lol:

 

[Danny Ramone]

Thanks Danny,

You can ask your questons here and we will all try to answer them.

Yeah well its no secret that I want to build a sim pit of my own. For now i think it will be limited to a desktop board with physical representations of some of the 2d panel switches so that i dont have to keep clicking the damn buttons all the time.

I notice on your center panel that you have a screen behind for some of the fuel displays. I'm wondering, I know that you can push out MFD's using ext MFD, but how easy is it to push out elements of the 2d panel?

IE. my board would be based on the XR cockpit. It would be cool to havea touchscreen MDA but how easy would it be to detach that from the 2d panel and make it external?

hopefully that makes sense, im typing with one hand holding the baby with the other lol (I'm getting good at this now)

 

[BHawthorne]

Yeah well its no secret that I want to build a sim pit of my own. For now i think it will be limited to a desktop board with physical representations of some of the 2d panel switches so that i dont have to keep clicking the damn buttons all the time.

I notice on your center panel that you have a screen behind for some of the fuel displays. I'm wondering, I know that you can push out MFD's using ext MFD, but how easy is it to push out elements of the 2d panel?

IE. my board would be based on the XR cockpit. It would be cool to havea touchscreen MDA but how easy would it be to detach that from the 2d panel and make it external?

hopefully that makes sense, im typing with one hand holding the baby with the other lol (I'm getting good at this now)

IMHO, anything is possable, the problem is having the knowledgebase to pull it off. Custom 2D panels to external displays can be done, but there might be programming involved.

If everything can be assigned a key you could probably use something like touchbuddy for touchscreens.

http://touch-buddy.com/forums/index.php

 

[Danny Ramone]

Thanks for the reply. Its good to know that almost anything is possible, but I will wait to find out how LockingToggle did his one.

I should really admit that my knowledge is limited to hardware and electronics i dont really know the first thing about programming especially in orbiter.

Are there any good refs or tutorials that start from the basics? It would be goo to be able to muck around with things myself rather than trying to get someone halfway across the planet to do it for me.