The computer components are mounted and working great. I need to get a long VGA cable to reach the projector and clean up the wires, etc. Hopefully I will get some pictures posted tommorrow night.

David

Time for an update:

Things are really rough right now, the room the pit is in is not actually the room that it will be housed perminantly. We are clearing out a walk-in closet in yet another guest room (so we can still use the beds). The walk-in closet is 12'x7' so there is plenty of room for the pit.

The PC is mounted down but the PSU and drive tower is not yet bolted down. PC controls are mounted in the instrument panel, two vandal switches for power and reset and a LCD for the harddrive light. There will be USB outlets in the walls of the side units when this is done. There are, right now, wires everywhere but this will be loomed and hidden in time. The Simpit if fully functional right now (I chased a Fokker DVII around the sky a little while ago).

The Projector is an Infocus X1, the screen is a white bedsheet stretched onto a frame (pine) and painted with Behr "SilverScreen" paint. It gives and excellent picture about 6'x5'.




Here is a view of the chair slid out of egress, the trackball will eventually be buried with just the ball showing and two pressure plates to push the buttons.



The bass unit of the speaker system (creative 5.1) is under the seat when it slides up into place. The throttle quadrant is (obviously) homemade. I used some flat aluminium on pivots and hooked the pots via radio control airplane servo arms to the aluminium linkages. The knobs are cut off a wooden staircase handrail (oak). There are four pots, two throttles, flaps, and prop pitch.



The gauges are fake, simply built up to give them depth (face dial faces help) with plexi and printed gauges pasted onto the backs. There are 50 spaces for switches, right now I have 14 switches from a Saitek Aviator and 5 axis for the controls. Everything is working excellent. The PC controls can be seen on the lower left, and of course the CD/DVD face is mounted in the panel for ease of access. The keyboard drawer is pull out, you need to be able to "chat" in game so I wanted it accessable. The webcam (for headtracking via Freetrack) will be housed in a fake reflector site (leaning toward making a Spitfire unit)



Under the hood, it looks like a snarled mess right now but I will have it tamed soon. Once I have everything arranged I will strip everything out, paint up the pit before it is moved into its new home. The 9600GSO is an impressive card (especially for 39.99 on sale at newegg) it plays Rise of Flight smooth and looks awesome.




Thanks all for watching....

Youtube video of the first flight, sorry it is so poor. This is also my first attempt at making a video for youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OproQ57VL-0

Amazing, love the quadrant... Field trip to PropNut's house!

Looking good Propnut.
a +1 on the quadrant, looks very cool.
Got any close ups of that?

Pak, thanks, you all would be more than welcome to come over and test it out.

Brigstock, I do not have closeups but I can get some. I still need to finish the top and put some stops on them.

That is just so friggin cool! Really good job and I love that you're integrating the computer into the engine compartment, very appropriate.

Awesome stuff!

Thanks Redhornet, I hope to have it painted and moved into its new home this weekend. More pictures when I have that done. I also want to redo the control stick. I purchased hall effect IC's, rare earth magnets, and a Leo Bodnar control unit. I need to pick up a car driveshaft for the gimbal (U-joint assembly). I will keep the head but the moving parts are going to be changed.

See that is just the point - if you have an LCD or better, a touchscreen, you get to create/build whatever profile you want to show up on the screen, and you can have as many different ones as you like for whichever sim you are flying. I am using one touchscreen now and thinking about building in another one. Understand you aren't planning to go that route right away, but might keep it in mind for future iterations -- go to the touchbuddy sight and take a look at the IL-2 profiles they have other there. Pretty good.

Ripcord

My Bodnar unit arrived today!!! Friday I will have time to start wiring it in (I hope)

Other news: I have moved the pit to its new and ( again I hope) perminant home. It is a 7x12 walk-in closet of one of the spare bedrooms, which has been gutted of shelves, etc. The pit has been painted (nothing fancy) and everything seems to be functioning properly. I will get some pictures posted on Friday. I should have 46 useable swtiches (momentary switches, or less if I use the rotory switch feature of the Bodnar unit) using both the Bodnar controller and the Siatek Aviator hack.

Until Friday mates!

David