One more simpit

[ao7g]

Hi all !

A new simpit is in construction, and I would like to share it's progress.

I started it after reading Kamaz's thread about physical external MFD's, which amazed me, making me think it was time to do something.

Now is the time of plywood, screws, nuts, bolts...

Later on should come a little programming to be able to light some indicators : rcs state, auto-pilot commands, maybe more ( if I don't sink in plywood )...

Some pictures :

 

[Sparrow]

Man, that's pretty awesome! Looking forward to updates

 

[blixel]

Looks like you're off to a great start. This kind of thing is my dream.

 

[HazMatt]

Wow! That is going to be a serious simpit!!! Best of luck to you, enjoy your project. Please post updates and pics.

 

[Ripley]

Ripley is looking for his jaw, should be somewhere under the desk...

 

[ao7g]

One inspiration for me was this picture, found on MyCockpit forum :

It's a model of an Embraer ERJ 145, but the look seems very adaptable to a spacecraft.

The original post :

http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=744&title=shell&cat=531

 

[Donamy]

What is the best viewing Resolution for a simpit, with 2 monitors?

 

[ao7g]

Hmm, don't know... The plan is to use one big TV as monitor, 1920x1080 pixels, around 46" in size.

 

[ao7g]

Hi all,

During this very long winter, some work was done, time to report...

First, the seats, which I think are an important part of a ship :

It's through the seats that Armstrong, Aldrin and Schirra felt the 33.7 meganewtons of thrust of their F1's, on their way to the moon.
The same for the 43 meganewtons of the NK-15's, which would have sent Leonov to the same place...

So a very important part, which deserves some attention, in the simpit.

To feel the vibrations ( not only hearing them ), the solution was to stick a "body shaker" under each seat, connected in serial to a subwoofer amp.

The seats were office chairs in a former life :

The feets were replaced with a wooden structure, which elevation and inclination were copied from a car, for ergonomy :

Casters, to roll back and forth, and 2 more on the side, guiding precisely the whole :

And the "Body Shakers" :

The cockpit, during this winter :

After testing :

- it's working, but a too high vibration level (when main thrusters are on) is not bearable a long time, the right amplification must be found

- the best effect is in free flight, when the ambiant sounds are heard (through the regular amp), and at the same time very lightly felt (through the subwoofer amp), RCS actionning is very pleasant also, main thrusters are a pain...

In short : it shakes well...

 

[ahunn]

nice looking pit ao7g, any chance you can share a high level overview of how you plan to implement the systems and visuals? What tools/add-ons etc?

Watching this pit very closely

 

[ao7g]

Sorry, didn't look at the posts for a time. :facepalm:

Overview coming soon...

 

[sitha241]

any updates in pictures?

 

[ao7g]

So, cryo-hibernation deactivated, time to get awake !

Here are overview and pictures.
( in fact, I wanted to take the cockpit outside this summer to make pictures, but work was not finished enough, and is not yet finished, and anyway will it be finished ever ? so no pictures outside for now... )

First, the overview, as it works, or should work :

The idea was to have a main screen showing the forward view ( +z axis ), with two additional displays, one showing the view from a left camera ( -x axis ), the other from a right camera ( +x axis ).

How is this possible ? With the "MasterSlave" addon, by Kamaz :

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=28826&highlight=master+slave

There were 2 possibilities :
- one computer with quad-core processor and 2 or 3 graphic cards
( I noticed that in a quad-core system with win7, running more than one instance of orbiter, each instance occupied one processor, so 4 instances could run in parallel with no problem ).

Ah, yes, for that : "Multiple instances of Orbiter", by Orb :

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=20653&highlight=Multiple+instances

For the screens, I have not tested it, but maybe 2 graphic cards could do the job ( 2 screens each ), or else 4 graphic cards ( there are mother-boards with 4 or more PCIe x16 slots, not cheap ones... )
Not sure if all displays would be full-screen and it would be expensive, so I went the other way :

- a network, with a master pc ( main display ) and 2 slave pcs ( left and right views ).

Pcs are Pentium4 second hand ones, so relatively cheap, displays the same, and the main screen is a 42" tv, second hand also.

-------------------

The next problem was, for the side views, to have a camera in cockpit view, pointing exactly at the wanted direction ( +x or -x ), which is not implemented in orbiter...


The solution in the next post, time to cryogenate, good night !

 

[Donamy]

Awesome !! I need to know all when you get it done.

 

[RacerX]

very nice! looks good :thumbup: Will you be using VNCMFD for your tablets?
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=28474&highlight=vncmfd

 

[kamaz]

Not sure if all displays would be full-screen and it would be expensive, so I went the other way :

- a network, with a master pc ( main display ) and 2 slave pcs ( left and right views ).

Yep, that was my thinking when writing Master/Slave. 3 single-display computers are much easier to get running than a single 3-display computer.

The next problem was, for the side views, to have a camera in cockpit view, pointing exactly at the wanted direction ( +x or -x ), which is not implemented in orbiter...

Well, I could add that feature to Master/Slave I believe. You just need to call oapiCameraSetCockpitDir() on the slave. But I want to see your solution first

very nice! looks good :thumbup: Will you be using VNCMFD for your tablets?
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=28474&highlight=vncmfd

Yes he is, you can see from the screenshots on the drawing Besides, VNCMFD has built-in support for Cougar MFD frames, so it's a logical choice

 

[ao7g]

Sorry for the long time, the week was busy...:shrug:

Yes, seing vncmfd last year was the funk which started all this !

The first purchase was 2 cougar mfds, 2 tablets, some plywood and after some work here was the result :

The "joysticks" on the right are switches, connected to a hacked numeric keypad.

The idea was to use :
- the middle switch ( x/y) for rcs rotation and translation (keys 4, 6, 2, 8)
- the left switch for rotation (keys 1, 3)
- the right switch for translation (keys 6, 9)

In a later stage, there would be an Arduino talking with orbiter through Orb-Connect, and selecting whith logic gates which switch would be in use, following rcs rotation or translation.

But since then, the Arduino option has been dropped ( would be too much work ), and I'm using a joystick ( a Saitek Cyborg Evo )...

The switches are keeped for aesthetics only, maybe later...

During winter, as the work was slow and the tablets awaiting in a cupboard, I gave one to my nephew, before obsolescence...

So there is only one MFD functionnal at this time.

 

[N_Molson]

Wow you're definitively a skilled craftman ! :thumbup:

Beau boulot ! :tiphat:

 

[ao7g]

What it looks like :

DG docked to ISS :

Flying saucer over Pictown :

Right over Pictown :

A hint for the camera problem : I'm using Multiview, from Computerex...

To the next post !

---------- Post added at 10:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 PM ----------

Wow you're definitively a skilled craftman ! :thumbup:

Beau boulot ! :tiphat:

Merci !

 

[Hielor]

I have a pair of those frames, and was working on adding better support for the up/down buttons in the corners to RemoteMFD when I stopped having enough free time to continue with the project. The screens I was planning on using also didn't really have a high enough pixel density to be used effectively inside those frames. Anything you put in there would already be tiny, and then you need to lose some space around the edge for labels as well...

It's good to see them working with VNCMFD, though. How do you feel about the thickness of the MFD frames? That was another thing I was concerned about--they're so thick that they would really be sitting pretty far above the screen.