I have finally reached a milestone with my pit... I can fly in it! I know, I don't believe it either! All of the primary construction is complete! Now that it is a thousand degrees outside here in Arizona, I have spent some time inside doing assembly and lots of soldering to get to this point. No more measuring, cutting, cursing, re-cutting, painting, and installing. I also have all of the switches wired up to the panel connectors. Now the next step is to make and install the wiring runs between the panels and the programming boards. Sigh, I'm getting tired of soldering everything. I ended up with 235 selectable switch positions split between toggles, buttons, dials and rotary switches. I also have a couple of small sub-assemblies left, like the ejection handles, but those should be fairly simple compared to everything else.

Here are some pics of the pit as it sits today.





This is a side view:





This is a better shot of the main instrument panel.





The center of it is a 23" touchscreen running Helios. All of the gauges on the touch screen work and reflect what is going on in the game (in this case DCS A-10C). I put a bezel over the top of the touchscreen to allow me to mount the TM MFDs over the top of the screen and to give it some depth. By using Helios, I can then present the game MFD images directly behind the functional TM MFDs. It's really cool to see it in action! All of the buttons and switches on the touch screen work with the game. The center part of the panel actually has several screens that I can flip through showing me other parts of the sim cockpit, like the main computer and defensive systems. I also have several of the checklists available through the center screen. They are interactive, so as I peform the action (say turn on the main battery), an indicator lights on the checklist showing me I have completed that step. It's really handy for long or complicated procedures.






This is the right console. It opens like a car door so that I don't have to step over the console, risking damage to the cockpit when I trip over it. Down the road there will be another touch screen in that blank spot in the middle of the console. This is where I will use Helios to put all of my radio stack and CDU/nav computer stuff. Right now, all of those live as a selectable panel in the center portion of the main touch screen.






This is the right front panel. There is some expansion space on the main panel shown here for any future sims I don't already have covered. Remember that this is a generic, multi-sim pit. It isn't modeled after any one particular aircraft or car. I have relocated the power and reset buttons from the PC that runs the pit, along with the power and HDD LEDs. There is also a blank face plate that covers space for a DVD drive... if I ever decide to relocate it out of the PC. Not sure I need to as most of the sims don't require the DVD to be in the tray to play them anymore. it may end up being an expansion panel. You can also see a set of 4 selector switches marked CAR, A/C, & SIDETOUCH. This is a switchable USB hub, that I use to switch between car and plane modes in the cockpit. This is so I don't have extra controllers enabled when I don't need them (say a steering wheel while flying).It will also enable the side touch screen once it is installed.





This is the left side panel. It also houses the throttle set. You'll notice a gap on the left side. That is to allow the center part of the panel (with the throttle assembly, jettison switches, and engine controls/emergency systems panel) to rotate to the left, exposing the well where the future helicopter collective will go... once I build it. That black post supports the keyboard. It pivots on the swing arm in the picture. The keyboard tray also rotates on the pole, making it flexible enough to rotate into a useable position when you need it, or to just be pushed out of the way when you don't. It's also very stable on that thick post. The panel in the lower left corner of this picture is the primary power bus panel... lot's of toggles huh? Speaking of toggles, all of the toggle switches in the pit are momentary or sprung load to return to center. This was a decision I made that allows for faster resetting of the cockpit between flights... or crashes... whatever.





This is the left front panel. Being that I was using momentary toggles, it made it a challenge to have three position toggles like they do in some of the aircraft I like to fly. So, I substituted rotary swtiches for some of them, or relocated those controls into the touch screen area. I made all of the knobs for the rotaries and dials by casting clear resin copies of some sample Boeing knobs I was able to get. This helped keep my cost down, and should facilitate backlit indicators on the knobs once I get around to backlighting the entire cockpit... one day. I also found a cheap way to make the switch guards like those on the gear lever panel. They are small U-bolts with T-nuts on them. Each one costs around .75 cents to make, as opposed to $6.00 for a real one! Yes, I am frugal. My wife says its being cheap... but I like to think of it as being cost effective. It leaves me more money for beer... mmmmm... beer!





This is another shot of the landing gear panel. It shows off my crappy home made gear lever I made out of some brass tubing and an old castor wheel. Next time I go to the Pima Air and Space museum I am going to see if they have a real gear lever for sale in their parts bin in the gift shop. You never know what you will find there!





This is a shot that was gives you a glimpse of where the collective will go once I make it. You can see the well for it below the throttle. I am going to combine an old Cougar throttle base and joystick into a single collective. We'll see how that goes.





This is just a picture of the seat. I even made the cushions myself! I felt a bit like an idiot wandering around the fabric store looking for the right material... but whatever, the result was worth it. It's pretty comfortable too, but I wish I had made the bottom cushion a little bit thicker... it gets a little tough on my behind after about 90 minutes. I'll probably remake that cushion down the road. Until then it gives me a good excuse to get up and stretch my legs once in awhile. Like maybe to go get another adult beverage!





This is the seat slide locking assembly I made. I had started out with a traditional race car seat assembly, but the release lever was down by your right foot and it made it a pain in the butt to get to. So I engineered this one and it works like a champ! I will might paint it like the side console release lever someday, but right now I like the polished metal look.





And now the moment you have been waiting for... CAR MODE! By removing the joystick which is held in place by two quick release latches, you can pull a pin and swing the center touch screen panel out of the way, revealing the steering wheel. It pulls out of the hidden cave in the center panel and locks into place. It has it's own keyboard as the main one is now obscured behind the touchscreen. I currently have an old Saitek P-8000 doing duty in car mode, but it will be replaced by a custom switch panel and touch screen down the road. I will probably pattern it after a BMW dashboard, being that they are the best cars in the world! (notice the car on the desktop!)





This is a close up shot of Car Mode. If you follow the cable from the foot pedals over to the left, you can make out a door which houses the un-used pedal set (car or aircraft). It takes about 30 seconds to switch out the pedals. I did have a rig designed to automate the pedal switching, but it just proved to complicated to be worth while. Sometimes simpler is better..er.





And there you have it. The Dudley Simpit as it sits today. I figure it will take me the rest of the summer to get all of the panels wired into the control unit. Until then, at least I can sit in the pit to fly, using the touch screen and wishing the rest of the switches worked. Stay tuned for the next update, probably around October or so.

Thanks,

Dud.

Dudley the KING OF PITS! That's *&$&*#^@ BRILLIANT! Guys like you are why I started my proper
pit build in the first place! You're set up is so amazing I'm at a loss for words!

Gorgeous! Don't know how you guys do it.

Neat tricks to keep costs down too. must be a treat to fly/drive.

That is very impressive!! Do you have a "build thread" anywhere showing your progress? It's obvious you've spent alot of time on this and given it much thought. I especially like the hidden wheel and keyboard... genius!!

What materials did you use?

Really nice job!!!!!

F-ing SWEET is all I've got to say.

I appreciate all of the comments and kudos. Always nice when someone appreciates what you've done. But, I have to say that I have just put together many of the great ideas I have found here on SimHQ... "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". If it wasn't for Grizz and a few others out there, I'd still be looking at cardboard cutouts going ... "Now what?"

Pitbuilder, here is a link to my web site that has some stuff on the building of it. It's great for those nights when you need something boring to put yourself to sleep. Of course it doesn't show the bloody fingers, stripped screws, mis-cut panels, buckets of sweat (no kidding... a lot of it was done in my garage during the summer in AZ), or hours upon hours of cursing and scratching my... uh... yeah. I prefer to act like it was easy and took no effort what so ever! HA!

The primary building materials are MDF (Medium Denisity Fiberboard) skins screwed to 1/8" aluminum framing. The switch panels are made of white 3/16" cast acrylic that I machine all the holes and cutouts in using a Carvewright CNC machine. After they are machined, I paint them with a couple of coats of black spray paint. I then use the CNC software file as a base to design all of the markings and such for the individual panels. I print this out and take the print out and the panel down to a local trophy shop where he scans the image, loads it into a laser engraver, aligns it to the panel, and engraves the lettering. The cool part is he only engraves it deep enough to remove the layers of paint. No plastic is removed! This way the surface of the panel is still smooth and just the white shows through. It also means that when I am done with installing the backlighting (no time soon!) the letters will light up, but not the rest of the panel. I did a test and it looked awesome! I wish I could afford to get one of those laser engravers, but they start around ten grand, so I will just stick with paying $6.00 a panel for the engraving. Thankfully, I only have a couple more to go for the car mode stuff. It just never seems to end. One day it may even all work right!

Dud

Very very nice!!! Thanks for the awesome description of everything!!!!!!!!!!

Clean...professional...elegant....creative! An outstanding pit, to be sure.
Almost "spouse friendly".......almost.




Whether you current pit is done, or not, you'll always have two or three more banging around the gray matter.
You haven't truely gone over to the dark side until you've had a converation like this...

Wife: What are you doing staring at that big piece of cardboard?!?!... It's 3:40am!!!
You: It's the front dash, for a Starfury simulator I was thinking about.
Wife: What the hell's a Starfury?
You: It's a spaceship. You know, Babylon5.
Wife: A SPACE SIMULATOR!!! Where are going going to put a space simulator?!
You: Never mind baby. It's just cardboard. Go back to bed.

Very nice build sir! I see this project started 2008-ish! Wow!

I'm looking to build a pit myself and I think I've come to the conclusion that it is impossible to make one without some serious tools investment

Can you show us how you've wired all that toggles and switches and buttons? What interface/board did you use for this? Thanks!

Wow, that is amazing. How long and how much did that cost?