http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/...

Yes? No? Cheaper to build? More expesive to build?

Nick 

Overpriced.

Those are designed to allow hours to be logged for FAA IFR tests. The average home user couldn't care less and isn't using the expensive software or the highest priced hardware.

For the cost of $4,000.00 I would want a whole lot more myself. My simpit is currently budgeted for around $3,500.00... but that includes about $2,000.00 on a better computer to be the master in the system.

Pricing is extremely variable!

In my case, the joystick isn't an issue... I'll use the same one I've always used until I decide to upgrade... but that's an unrelated decision. Most of my costs are for thing like GoFlight panels, etc..

If you want a simpit on the cheap you can build much of that stuff from cheaper components, it's just more work. I have very little patience for that type of work and am avoiding it.

Find a simpit that is similar to the one you would want and compare what it cost that guy. If you can't find anything close, compare that costs of the pieces you would want.

For example, you can easily save that $500 by building your own yoke, throttle and pedals... if that is the type of thing you want to fly with.

Check out the various projects in the forum here and the links in http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1115302649.

Most of the information you need is there, including places to get the electronics to make your homebuilt yokes/pedals/throttles work in the sim.

I had originally planned to "hack" controllers so that I'd have pre-wired electronics and only a few USB tails to deal with... it can be a very cheap solution, and extending leads from the boards or even removing pots and switches from controllers is not a big deal... but the trouble with doing it that way is there is a great deal of work and thought and sometimes difficulty in mounting that stuff in some way that makes sense.
I lucked out with my rudder pedal project, but as I started planning my simpit, I realized it would be worth the money to buy keyboard-encoder devices (as described in the resources links; I'm going with Hagstrom).
They're not overly expensive, easy to mount and configure... and simple to program with FSUIPC or whatever.
I will probably still use a modified factory-built joystick, mostly because I don't want to fabricate the gimballing mechanism, but everything else will work off the Hagstrom boards.

Something to think about... start perusing the various links, etc. now... you'll see that it's wise to think and plan ahead before you start building; the more you have planned the better it will go. although you will still make many changes on the fly...

NDSP wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2007 at 5:42pm:


Hagstrom makes boards that concert potentiometer signals to keyboard signals to be read by your PC on a PS2 or USB input, so you can make units like that with any old pots and just wire them to the board.

No need for anything fancy as far as that goes.
You could even use the circuit boards from a factory-made controller and just extend the wires for the pots, using the existing pots or your own.
Same with switches- this is what I did for my rudder pedals. I had an old stick with twist-grip rudder control: I wired two ordinary doorbell switches to the board (didn't even remove the original switches, just soldered the leads on) for my brakes, then cut the stick off and mounted the base of the controller upside-down over a pivoting bracket that swivels when I move the pedals... this turns the stick's rudder pot back and forth. Works great, and all the "guts" stayed inside the base just as before.... and no external encoder needed... It operates via USB just as it normally would as a joystick.


Taking apart a pre-made unit its an excellent way to suss out how to make your own... you may even be able to use the pots or possibly all of the electronics if the damage was only mechanical.

Throttle quadrants can be pretty involved: mine will be a six-lever unit, like a typical twin prop, and it's going to be a bit of work. But with simple linkages to slider pots wired to a Hagstrom encoder, it should be relatively easy to get working.