Simviation Forum - Re: My Cockpit Project

May 2^nd, 2005 at 9:34am

TacitBlue Offline
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Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA

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Hello, and welcome tom SimV! Sounds like a great project, cant wait to see pictures. How well does the fresnel work? Ive tried it, but not with a lense bigger than my monitor.

A&P Mechanic, Rankin Aircraft 78Y

Aircraft are naturally beautiful because form follows function. -TB

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Reply #1 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 2:12am

Imzzaudae Offline
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 52

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I will get the pictures posted as soon as I figure out how.

I have them ready to go but can’t figure out how to make the link thing post them.

I’m working on a little more in depth article and hope to have it ready to go in a few days. The Fresnel lens setup gives me a pretty nice 3 D view sitting in the pilot seat holding it up in front of the monitor.

Will let you know how it works out in a few weeks when I get the upper framework finished and the shrouds and lens installed properly.

The upper shelf was designed to hold a 17” to 19” Monitor about 25 lbs.
So it’s off to the shop to rebuild the shelf to hold up the 21” a whopping 65lbs.

I’m currently writing a new panel.cfg in order to place the gauges on the 2 - 15” panel monitors.

A few necessary changes to the aircraft.cfg of the Dash7v1 aircraft found here at Simviation where also needed to get the outside view just right.

Hacking a keyboard was a little scary at 1st and ripping apart a perfectly good joystick for a trim wheel and gear handle. Needless to say we don’t want to be letting the smoke out of any computer parts so great care must be taken when wiring!

Once again
Thanks for the warm welcome to the forum.

And thank you Simviation!

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Reply #2 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 3:36am

SilverFox441 Offline
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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Posts: 1467

Congrats on joining the ranks of the insane!

To post your pics follow the helpful instructions found here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=...

Pretty much all you need to know is in that post.

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #3 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 10:13am

JBaymore Offline
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hombuilt cockpit!

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Imzzaudae,

HI and welcome to the "Dark Side" of Simv Wink

.

Steve gave you a good link on putting up pictures here on SimV. It should be easy after the first time you do it.

When you post an image file(s), a window pops up that has the basic path string to the URL of the image uploaded onto the SimV server. The easiest mistake to make is to copy a TRAILING SPACE when you highlight that for a copy and paste. I've done it a number of times. Then the picture does not work.

We all look forward to seeing documentation of your cockpit work here. All of us cockpit builders do a lot of "R+D" .......... (rip off and duplicate Grin

). And I think you'll find some threads here with useful info in them too. If you have questions..... fire away.

best,

................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #4 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 10:59am

TacitBlue Offline
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Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA

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Cool, are you going to mount the instrument monitors in cut-outs in the panel?

A&P Mechanic, Rankin Aircraft 78Y

Aircraft are naturally beautiful because form follows function. -TB

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Reply #5 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 8:48pm

JBaymore Offline
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hombuilt cockpit!

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Imzzaudae,

Hey... that's looking nice already.

Got some shots of your gear lever assembly? I've been assembling ideas from all over on that one and am always looking for input.

Mine likely will have multiple momentary switches involved to provide some "logic" for annunciators in various parts of my pit. Also to drive a real motor that will provide slight tactile vibration when the gear is in transit. And so on.

best,

.................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #6 - May 4^th, 2005 at 2:53am

Imzzaudae Offline
Colonel
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 52

Thanks for the pat on the back!

Yes I am going to drill the panel for viewing gauges.
Still working on the panel.cfg so I know where to drill.

As you may have already figured out I'm going to be flying a Dash7. With lots of steam gauges on the right monitor!

Seeing I have had a love affair with the FS 737 panel
the left monitor layout and gauges will be like it.

Will post a picture of the gear leaver assembly on the weekend for you. It's so simple it's scarry but it works.

The wooden box the seat sits on has a 12" woofer in it
put a sterio Y cable into the sound card so I drive the headset with one side and the amp to run the speeker the other. I feel every bump and grind when the gear or flaps are moving as well as engen speed and tires on the ground.

Been working on the sound.cfg for quite some time so it has all kinds of bumping and grinding. I can actualy fly it on the big monitor while I'm working on small stuff.

All panel fronts will soon be a blue gray like smoke.

The dash and all body panels are flat black.

I ended up with a 3rd 15" monitor this last weekend
so now I have to go find a forth video card.

I may move the Flap switch and gear leaver up to the main panel and install a 4th monitor for GPS and radios.

I'm 8 NM 143 from CYZR so I get to watch the real thing
daily.

Regular CYQG, CYZR, CYXU, CYYZ. Many others.

Anyone flying there home builts yet?

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Reply #7 - May 4^th, 2005 at 3:08am

SilverFox441 Offline
Colonel
Now What?
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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Posts: 1467

Mine's not built yet...but we fly the same neighbourhood! I fly CYYB/CYTZ mostly but TXKF for "vacations".

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #8 - May 4^th, 2005 at 8:19pm

Imzzaudae Offline
Colonel
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 52

My pit is 48" long and 39" Wide.

It took a little tinkering but here are a couple of better shots

After many years of desktop flying and almost as many
Dreaming of the day I'd build my own home cockpit.

So the story begins.

Countless hours scouring the Internet, Searching hundreds of websites!

I began to draft a simple single seat cockpit with panel, center console and rumble seat.

As I already have a CH Products USB Yoke, Ruder pedals and 4 Engine throttle.

I have designed them into my cockpit project.

I elected to go with a 21” monitor and Fresnal lens display.

Found and purchased a great 36” lens at

http://www.maxiaids.com/store/prodList.asp?idstore=1&idcategory=195

Item#: 04537

The Computer is a 2.7 Gig P4 800 bus, 128 Meg ATI - AGP card. And a gig of 400 speed ram.

I installed 2 used 64 Meg Radion7000 PCI Cards.

I had the computer built for me 2 years ago with the Idea of building a multi monitor cockpit. As it has Windows XP home, multiple monitors is actually as easy as inserting the PCI cards plugging in the monitors and it works.

Picked up 2 used 15” monitors for about $ 20.00 each for the instrument panel

Even found a nice used 21” for just under $300.

The Cockpit is a work in progress, 2 years of planning, drafting, collecting, building and assembling.

My cockpit is beginning to take shape.

Will post pictures soon!

Gota love it ???

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