Hi all, I'm starting this thread to show you all what I'm going to be working on for a little while. It's a flight sim cockpit (obviously) but I wanted to do something a little different.

First of all a little bit of history if you will put up with it. A long, long time a go a friend and I built some cockpits, actually he designed and built them, I just sat in them and went 'wow'. The cockpits were what should be called Allen Pawley's Mk I cockpits. If his name sounds familiar it's because his Mk II design formed the basis for the Ackers-Barnes cockpit. We formed a Virtual Fighter Squadron called the 82nd Sydney Hawks, we flew digital SU-27s around, made some friends. We attended an airshow with the 62nd Fighting Falcons and basically had a great time.

A long time passed (I don't want to think about how long) I moved cities, Allen moved too (to the same one!), more time passed. This year a group of us decided to dust off the old flight-sims, throw them out, drool over the new ones and go for a virtual flight.

Allen drew up a new cockpit based on the Mk II, a little wider (the wood of the old one must have shrunk in the intervening years because it didn't fit as nicely) and optimized for modern controllers and screens.

Something to know about me is that I work from home in the shed so I sit around all day looking at the stack of wood and my tools. I started thinking about what I wanted in a cockpit and one day I started up Google Sketch Up and took some measurements from the updated MK II drawings and put a different shape around it. I don't have the design goal of portability so I'm a bit more flexible with construction method. Because instead of slots I could use screws and wood to put the thing together I had some more options.

Eventually I had a free afternoon so I took out the jigsaw and started cutting.

Ok, so that's that for the history.

Now a little about what my aims are with this design.

I wanted a cockpit that wasn't specific to a particular aircraft. Right now we have A-10 and Black Shark, a P-51 is on the way form DCS too. There are modern airliners, vintage airliners, GA aircraft, helicopters and everything else that flies being released every week for FS X and X-Plane. There is COD, Condor and I'm sure many more that I've missed.

I think the best way to enjoy all of these is through optimizing the virtual cockpit experience, so as an experiment I'm going to build a generic a cockpit as I can and customize it for each aircraft that I want to fly.

It's going to have two engine controls (throttle plus two analog inputs for each engine), a center mount joystick, some common physical controls (switches, gear, flaps) and a customizable touch panel or two (iPads).

In use, controls that need to be accessed NOW will be physical, so obviously the flying surfaces, mechanicals like gear, flaps, emergency controls like fire extinguishers, all of these will be able to be operated while still looking outside the aircraft or at the instruments.

Controls that need speed but can be heads down will go to the touch panels, MFDs for example. So when the time comes for programming weapons for an attack run I'd zoom into the panel, lock the Track IR view and now lean forward and start operating the avionics from the iPad. The iPad can show many different screens of customized buttons so I think this will work well.

Controls that are not urgent will be relegated to virtual cockpit only, startup procedure controls for example. A touch-pad and keyboard will operate these while the view is slewed around the cockpit with Track IR.

The controls will be home-built except for the rudder pedals.

Ok, I'm going to post this now as it is and then try to add some pictures.

As you know this is a progress thread so please don't expect too much right now!

A render of the pit in google sketch up:



In three versions with different amounts of 'side pods', two in the closest one, none in the furthest.

View from another side. The displays are modeled after a 27 inch iMac, which is what I use. I will probably cut slots into the cockpit uprights so the computer can be dropped in there. May start off with a shelf though.

Here is a very quick video panning around the three versions.

Very nice sir. However, for those of us that are not as good with a jigsaw, maybe less curves and more angles? Easier to cut and not too obvious when we make a mistake.

That just screams, "cut me with a CNC router!!!!!!oneone"

g.

Love the design. Nice curves . Endless layout options. We need drawings

Hi all, thanks for your kinds words. You don't need a lot of jigsaw-fu, I certainly don't have it, it was only the third time I used one.

HOWEVER, the results were fairly dismal! I'll be working on how to make the jigsawing more foolproof when I recut the sides. I did a lot of measuring and thinking to get the dimensions right but I made at least two mistakes. I had a human figure in Sketch Up and I posed it in the pit to make sure it all fit right, what I didn't do is work out how to get into it! It's a little awkward.

I also didn't take into account the height of the rudder pedals. I'm using the Saitek Fighter Pro ones and they're a little high. I will have to adjust the rudder shelf and possibly make the whole pit a little longer.

One of the things I'm aiming for is to destroy my idea of where the ground is when I sit in it. As a result the rudder pedals are a lot higher than you would expect and the seating position is fairly laid back. I want it to feel like you're pointing up about ten degrees instead of sitting flat.

The whole thing fits into a 1.2mx2.4m piece of plywood although eventually I'd like to make it out of mdf to see how it goes, it's cheaper but it could bow at the seat bottom.

Some more pictures on the way.

One of the sides after cutting. The pit is actually quite small.

The whole pit put together:

And here is a shot with the start of my home-made joysticks clamped in place. It wasn't until I was halfway in that I realized a wrong move would result in a cheap home vasectomy.

If you ever want to publish those as CAD drawings, let me know. I'd be happy to tweak it for cutting on a CNC router. It's such a nice and clean design! Little slots to auto-align the seat and other parts would be easy to do as well.

I wouldn't recommend MDF unless you want to nearly triple the weight of the setup. I'd actually recommend using an 18mm (3/4") Russian Birch instead.

g.

Thats a very good looking sim-pit. I am digging the curved cuts, it looks fairly streamlined!

That is also a very nice looking hardwood floor, are you thinking of placing some rubber edging on the feet portions. If it is very heavy, have you considered mounting some wheels? Find a few old skateboards/roller-blades from the garage or a thrift shop and you could mount those in pairs on each foot section.

Again, great job!
Derek

Gene, if anyone is interested in building something like this I can put up the Google Sketchup document once I've finished adjusting the dimensions. Is sending the thing to get cut at a CNC facility cost 'effective'?

MudPuppy, glad you like it. The floors are actually bamboo! I moved the pit around them some and made sure that it didn't scratch. Once it's settled in place I WILL add something soft in between the pit and the floor. A bit of sand caught under one of the legs+my weight in and out of the thing would really do some damage.

I'd love to give it a go myself, just for giggles. There's a "CNC facility" about 100 feet from my front door, so it's VERY cost effective.

If you could arrange the SketchUp model to have it both assembled and broken out to flat parts, it makes it easier to bring into AutoCAD and Inventor for design tweaks. After I'm done screwing it up, I'll be happy to send the CAD files back to you as well as the VCarve or Aspire data files needed to cut them on just about any cnc router ever made.

g.

Ok Gene, thank you! give me a couple of weeks to finish getting the dimensions right and I'll put the file up somewhere. I just tried to upload it to this post but it doesn't seem like I can.

You're welcome to throw me a PM and I'll give you my email address.

g.

This is looking very nice! I'm excited to see where this goes!

I suspect with a tweak or two, it might make for a nice driving rig too.

g.

Hi all, sorry about the lack of updates recently. I've been working on the controls and so I figure I'd let you know what's been happening on that side too. Not a lot of time right now so just some pictures.

I started by seeing how nicely a pair of ball bearings and plywood/MDF would play.



It worked relatively well but I didn't think it would be stiff and durable enough.

I bought some plastic and designed some gimbals around that.




Unfortunately my machining skills weren't up to the task and the thing turned out to be a bit of a mess.

Hunting around the internet I found some plastic that becomes soft, like putty, when immersed in hot water. It then remains in that state until it cools down a bit so it can be shaped. I liked THAT! so I made a little prototype.




The theory here is that I'd make sure that all the parts that had to be on the right axis would be as a result of using metal rods to locate elements around that axis. All the bits that aren't' dimensionally or axially critical could be held in place with the above mentioned plastic.

It worked out well and I felt that the parts would stand up to some use.

More photos of progress as soon as I take some!

Wow. What's that part for? Center-mounted joystick?

Yes, that was an early example. I mounted the magnets directly on to the joystick piece. After thinking about it for a while I decided to extend the shafts and mount the magnets where they will be more accessible. That way I can take care of all the mechanical elements first and once all that is done I can make and adjust the magnet mounts to suit.

I should mention by the way, that all the sensors will be Hall effect, hence the emphasis on the magnets.

Here are some pictures of the center mount joystick arrangement. The big almost vertical bolt will hold the joystick, the little bit of tube behind it is only used as a stop so the whole thing doesn't swing 360 degrees!

The first two show the joystick at what will be top-right and bottom-left.




Close-up of the assembly.



These last two pictures show the throttle assembly. Two throttles mounted side-by-side. The rod projecting forward will be used as a friction stop. There will be one per throttle and the little bit of plastic around the rod on the left holds eight magnets that provide the friction. The other end will obviously be connected to the throttles.

Before you know my workmanship too much please note that the mounts are temporary and only there so I can work out the dimensions and positioning. I imagine they will be quite sloppy in use the way they are.





You can probably see that the 'square' white plastic piece with five holes is important to me! I made a mould for it and can now make them from the plastic I mentioned earlier quite quickly. I put the ball bearings in to the piece when I make them so it's all held in place very tightly. The ball bearings can pop out if required too.

Wow, custom joystick and throttle as well? That's a lot of work! Looking forward to see what you end up with!

Ice, I'm looking forward to seeing what I end up with too!

My first milestone will be simulating a glider in 'Condor', I hope that's only a few weeks away.

I suspect the project will never be 'finished'.

I spent some more time on the throttles (air brake in Condor). when I tried out the throttles with the magnet friction locks I found them to be very 'sticky'. I didn't like that at all so I thought about how to do it better and came up with a way that's working very well. I use the plastic to make a sheath for the friction rods. I've included some photos of how this is set up later on but first I thought you guys may enjoy some photos showing how the original friction locks with magnets were made:






And here it is cooled down and mounted on the throttle. I wasn't happy with the feel though.


Here is the improved friction lock system. The plastic sheaths the friction rod. I'm not sure how long it will remain consistent for. It will be interesting to see.

What is the plastic and where did you find it?

It's called 'Polymorph', although it goes under different names. An eBay search for Polymorph will get you plenty of sources. I paid around AUD$50 for a kilo delivered to Australia.

Thanks. I'll look into it.

I've made some progress in the last few days. I've moved the seat forward to put the panel within easier reach. I don't remember why I originally put it a little further back. Probably just a layout mistake. Once the seat and therefore panel were in the right positions I was able to find the right position for the rudder pedals. Here is what I settled on:



I can't say I'm too happy with the Saitek Pedals, the brake action is way too soft and the only way to use the pedals without having the brakes on is to push only on the round metal part at the bottom. If you rest your feet on the main part of the pedals the brakes are almost guaranteed to be applied unless you're thinking VERY hard about it. Even then holding your feet up is just not comfortable for long periods of time.

The last photo shows the center mount joystick gimbals bolted on to the pit and a temporary joystick in place. The nut you see in the middle actually joins the short thread below it to a larger bolt sitting on top.



I think I'm now ready to remove the controls from the cockpit and wire them up to the controller board.

Very nice!

g.

Thanks Gene!

Made some progress over the last few days.

First of all, I've wired up and tested the gimbals and throttles. I forgot to take photos of the installed sensors but here is a photo I took of the sensor cables. They're basically just four Hall effect sensors connected to the 3-pin plugs supplied with the interface board:


I was going to install the controls tonight and try to go for a flight but I realized that without ANY buttons at all even a glider is going to be a challenge. So I quickly put together a joystick. It's very rough but it seems to be working and it has enough controls for a glider, helicopter, GA and perhaps even a Black Shark or A-10 depending on how well the iPad interface ends up working out.

First a quick mockup of the stick plate. Please note, no trigger at the moment and perhaps not for a long time. I'm not a fan of them as I can never fire without moving the stick a little.



Holes 'drilled' and buttons fitted. Anticlockwise we have, an 8-way POV hat, a button, two 4 way hats. The bottom 4-way hat is only wired for up/down as I run out of inputs on the interface board. A matrix configuration is relatively easy to set up but I didn't have the time tonight and this thing is just a quick experiment.



Completed wiring loom for the stick. I'm sorry for the quality of the holes! This thin MDF is difficult to be neat in, it feels like it's just thick cardboard. Plus, I just wanted to get it done quickly.



Stick assembly ready for mounting on the gimbal:



I hope you all don't mind the incremental progress reports. Posting here is a motivator for me.

Two closeups of the mounted sensors, first of the pitch, then the roll axes.

HI, cool work, can you explain your magnet arrangement? I can't figure out how it works.

I'm guessing that each magnet has a different pole facing the sensor. As the shaft rotates it would go from a strong North through zero to a strong South.

Did I win the prize, or am I just thick ?

Cheers,

Andy

Andy, that's 100% right. The magnets have opposing poles facing each other. I bought the cylindrical magnets on a whim but they're fantastic for this because I can slide them in and out of their mount and so adjust the range of movement. By rotating the magnet mount in relation to the shaft I can adjust the center point.

Lots of progress tonight, I'll post some photos tomorrow. It's after midnight and if I hadn't stopped I would have been ready to boot a sim at 0100 and that would have meant no sleep for a long time after that!

Lots of progress last night, controls mounted and PC shelf is in.

It looks very different with a PC growing out of it no?


View from the seat, hmmm, perhaps I should spend less time on the cockpit and more fixing that fence.



This is easily the most over-engineered shelf I have ever made. The top bit of MDF is a spacer, I have no illusions that it adds any strength. I put the PC in, drilled two screws next to it towards the back then shaped the triangular bits of plastic to help guide the PC into place and at the same time stop it from sliding back when the cockpit is being used.



All that's left now before this first stage is completed is to add mounts for an iPad, keyboard and maybe trackpad. I could use an iPad application to duplicate trackpad functionality but it has to go over the network while a real trackpad is bluetooth. Still thinking about that one.

Lots of progress and use since the last post.

Instead of a dedicated iPad mount I made up a little shelf on which devices can be rested. I also added a the right-side panels because I was running out of room and needed something to rest the touchpad on:



I finally sat down for a first flight in Condor and after a one hour flight I crashed a perfectly good pretend glider because the joystick didn't have auto-centering. I was down at the hardware store the very next day looking through springs.

I originally wanted the self-centering mechanism to be part of the joystick assembly but it was taking too long to come up with a a feasible way to do it. The way I ended up implementing works fine for now.



I can add self-centeting in a future version of the joystick gimbals.

The wiring also, obviously needs a little work! it will probably remain as-is for a little longer. I'm going to order another interface board to make the wiring more modular. One board will be dedicated to the joystick and another to the throttles. Once you start adding up the price of connectors and fancy parallel wiring it makes more sense to get to USB as close to the controls as possible. Then cabling and connectors becomes incredibly cheap.

I'm very happy with the progress so far. The large range of movement of the stick is fantastic for flying, it has a light feel too so you can fly holding it lightly between two fingers or with your whole hand at the top to access the buttons.

The throttles are probably a little too stiff to be used as collectives so I'll loosen them up soon. I did some Black Shark flying last night and they were good but if I needed to quickly decrease collective for an autorotation I'm not sure it would be easy.

Thank you all for following the progress so far. I suspect updates will be less frequent now because I can actually use the cockpit and changes will be made as needed to support flying.