Hello all,

I started on my simpit last night by building the seat. I will have pictures on Monday (I am not home this weekend).

The seat is made of 3/4 plywood (cabinet grade) inspired by an Adriondack chair. The padding is memory foam covered with fake leather (from the fabric store).

This simpit will be a 3/4 enclosure as I am using a projector system rather than LCD's. I decided on a generic pit as I prefer combat games such as Rise of Flight, IL-2, etc. I am not a fan of Heli's or Jet's (although I am very impressed by those pits based on the genre).

I am making the controlls, throttle quadrent, stick, etc. I do have the x52 but do not plan on using in the pit. A Saitek Aviator has provided 5 axis' and 18 buttons but I am also going to pick up a rotery controller from Desktop Aviator for more axis', buttons, and toggles.

The gauges will all be fake (just for show) for now, but will be backlit.

This is my first build, comments are welcome and I will post pictures as I go (got that shiny new Sony DSLR for some reason, might as well use it)

I own a cabinet shop but would still appreceate advice on the best way to build the carcus. I plan on making it modular, this way I can build it in the shop, then transport it to my upstairs "man cave"....and of course move it into the walk-in closet when we need more than to spare bedrooms (we have a HUGE house). The room is 14x16 so I should be able to get a large projection. I have been inspired by Simpit.net

Can't wait to see it.

PS. Nice custom computer!
PSS. Nice Battletech collection!!

Thanks Viper, that cabinet is three levels deep....too bad it is so hard to find players these days

PropNut,

Based in your wooden PC case, I imagine a fine cockpit!
BTW - Show us pic of your Baloo Rudder Pedal.

Sokol1

Pictures pictures pictures, here are some pictures.

I will start with the control stick, I wanted something that looked a bit more real than the x52 that I use now. I decided to hack a Logitech USB joystick for the mechanical pivot and pots, the electronics had a glitch in it so I am feeding it to a second joystick that I have hacked (Saitek Aviator). The Aviator also runs the rudder pedals. I have 4 buttons in the handle for the guns (all airplanes should have guns!). The bungies are temporary until I can figure out something better (like the spring on the X52) for self centering. (Or I might leave it as is) I hacked an old typewriter for parts, the stick is 3/4" PVC pipe, and the handle is 3/4 cabinet grade plywood.
I flew a couple of mission on IL-2 with it today, it works pretty good!





On to the rudder pedals, I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. I should not take pictures of a black object against a black background...bad PropNut!





I wanted a seat that was confortable for me (I am 6'4 300lb) so I wound up with a throne more than a pilots seat. The rear fuse will be contoured like the seat, and I made sure there was a confy headrest for those long autopilot naps!






Next up will be the structure, I want to have that done so I can design the throttles etc.

I built the two side boxes for the cockpit, 39x24 (the reach of my fingers). They will house the trackball (on the right), the throttles, prop pitch lever, flap lever, trims, etc. on the left. They are built of 1x1 pine (frame) covered with 1/4" plywood (luaan). There are removable inner access hatches and the curved ribs of the outer shell will attach to the outer frame. I will have pictures on Friday of the carcus. Hopefully I will have the ribs finished and attached by that time also.

In addition, I have the rear bulkhead completed. The CPU case will attach to this area and the controls will feed back via USB cables under the pedestal (which will be 4" high)

Everything is designed to break down and be portable (maybe I will bring this to the Dayton Dawn Patrol!)

How about some comments and suggestions, I would be happy to incorporate good ideas into this build. I am pretty much designing it as I go along. Any help would be appreceated.


A note on the control stick, I was inspired by the stick in an I-15 WWII fighter such as this one:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Polikarpov-I-15bis-(replica)/1544905/&sid=ef85b1dac8e20b5bf04578539b0a5bbd


David

PropNut, do you mind if I borrow your seat design? I was going to install some kind of car seat in my personal Series One cockpit, but after seeing your seat I'm reconsidering. I'd be happy to post drawings online for others so they can build one as well.

ttyl!

g.

You are more than welcome, consider this build freeware

Since you are clearly going for gold and have the skills to get there, how about placing a small (13" or less) LCD screen in your control panel, rather than fake backlit instruments? As I'm sure you know, some sims allow you to have a seperate screen with instuments that interact with the sim. For those that don't you could turn it off or just display a static image of the controls.

If you went touchscreen you could even get it to control the sim using TouchBuddy.

Pakfront, excellent suggestion. My main interest in flight sims is quick dogfights etc in prop aircraft (no later than WWII or Fantasy WWII+...with the exception of future Mechwarrior releases). I did not feel that higher end gadgets were neccecary for this build. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I am, however, going to make sure there is plenty of room for future upgrades to my pit. I may decide in the future to do servo driven instruments, and MFD or two, etc. At that time I can easily remove the current instrument panel and make a new one. The major drawback that I see to those (really neat) toys is that the software is usually specific to one program and I am not at all loyal to a particular game. I really wish there were a standard for all games, but that would not appeal to the majority of the buying public.