Hi all�Again�

This will be the third time im starting a simpit project (and probably not the last) with hopes of actually completing it. And before anyone asks, Ill say right away that life is working against me in this pursuit! But more on that later!

So, earlier this summer I was suppose to get an Obutto on which to mount various panels and button boxes, I had some panels well underway in my earlier thread (Simple Simpit Panels) but since the Obutto is currently out of the picture for various reasons I have returned to an old idea; To build a small dektop mounted simpit.
Ive seen various incarnations of this idea in the past, some really impressive, and all of them fulfilling the immersion and practical use of a simpit.

So I quickly drew up a concept drawing in Sketchup, complete with future triple monitors+extra center monitor for instrument extraction...


and then a more detailed version from which to start building.


And heres a quick sketch of the panels and their design


I decided to make the main construct from 10mm MDF to give it some stability, and 6mm MDF for the outer shell.
To this, the panels will be made from 2 pieces of 3mm clear plastic with a graphical inlay inbetween. This is the way Ive previously experimented with to make panels and its a rather quick, simple and cheap way of making good looking panels, as long as you have a good cutter for the plastic and spend some time on the graphical inlay.
Also note that, as opposed to my previous panels, these are all rectangular with straight cut edges.
It make the panels look somewhat dull, but its intentional to make cutting them easier.
Its also possible to make very good looking backlit panels through this design, with graphics printed on transperent overhead "paper" but I havent tried this myself yet and have not decided if I want to go with backlights straight away or leave it for a future upgrade.


Since ive intentionally choosen the above materials and dimensions, its possible for me to buy them straight from shops in my local area so last weekend I began the actual building process. You will see that some things doesnt match up with the drawing, but thats just the way of life

Heres the front of the pit, cut, mounted and filled ready for first run of sanding.


Backside with big enough holed all the way through for the horrible nest of wired and cables as well as the controllcards for the switches.


And the front again, with mockup panels/ICP drawn so I can drill the holes needed for everything to be fitted. Im going to drill/cut those holes tomorrow and then cover the entire thing with basecoat, so I can more easily spot the places that needs extra filler and sanding.



And ill finish this post off with a picture of the ICP, which will also be made from MDF as opposed to the panels. Im not sure if i will like the finished ICP but if not i can always remake it later. Its also not a true f-16 design, I had trouble finding good components for it, but its a close enough design for me, and the size is more or less to scale so it will serve its purpose.




So there you have it, my third try at a simpit is well underway. So what was that earlier about running into some trouble?
Well, a couple of days ago it appears that there is a water leak in the apartment building where I live, and today I got informed that there is water in both the walls and below the floor in my apartment and basically they will have to tear the entire place down to dry it all up�
I will be moving to a room for the duration, while my furniture and such are housed in a warehouse until the apartment is ready to be moved into again, a couple of months from now.

While this wont halt the project altogether, it will sure make it go slower for a while now. I didnt have plans to post the project here until I had gotten further down the line, but seeing as it might be some time no until i got more to show, I decided to do it anyway.


Thanks for reading, hope this might inspire others. And tips, tricks and ideas are always very welcome!

looks good so far.. I would suggest a small FYI, Predrill the holes so not too spilt the wood when installing the screws, nails.. It should be a small hole little bit smaller then the screw,nail to prevent splitting..

Yes I found this out after a while!
I did predrill the holes in the first segment, but not where the nails go down into the shortside of the other segment, and the mdf split a little in a few places.

I made sure to put a fair bit of glue into these cracks to prevent further splitting, and then started predrilling all the way down!

So yea, anyone joining pieces together like this, predrill where the nails will go, the entire lenght of the nails!

Ive cut the holes for the panels and whatnot and am currently filling/sanding and prepping the pit for paint.

Today I also received my triple monitor stand, a very basic stand but it was damn cheap ( about 1/4 of the usual price for these stands) and had gotten suprisingly good reviews.
Of course I had to mount everything up just to check heights and see if theres any last minute adjustments I need to do before settling with this final design.

And yes there is. First of all, I must have had my measurements off because the monitor will have to get higher then the stand will allow it. As you can see in the pictures below the center monitor will block the ICP. But this is easily solves by adding some spacers between the stand and the table. But I have yet to try it out so just to make sure everything will work when finished, im cutting the spacer block at work tomorrow.

Secondly, to save as much space and avoid anything hindering placement of everything, ive decided to drill holes in the table to draw cables for controllers, MFDs and such. Its a cheap table, and I already own two of em, so its not like its a big deal, but originally I had intended to draw it inside the pit, but that will make correct placement of everything somewhat difficult with these items.

Anyways, heres some pics from my quick tryout. No triple screens yet, but it sure was a nice stand for just over $100

Things are moving along and ive finished painting and coating everything for the deskpit and the ICP. Ive also done some minor random things that needed to be fixed such as putting velcro on the thrustmaster MFDs, adding rubber feet to the keyboard, cutting some holes in my desk and so on.


MFDs! Ive thought about getting these for a long time but never did. I couldnt imagine how much immersion they add, aside from being practical! For the price, they sure are a must buy if playing anything featuring MFDs!


Heres the ICP and two pieces of clear acrylic plastic.
The ICP didnt come out as good as id hope for but ill stick with it until I can figure out a better way to make one.
Then again, when buttons and markings are added, maybe itll look alot better and all its flaws might be less obvious!

The acrylis pieces will be glued on to the left and right top surfaces of the pit (paint side down) which will give it a much more durable surface for coffee mugs and tobacco cans. Itll also add a touch of detail to it!



And heres the pit itself. I think I went 4 layers of grey and another 4 of clear coat. There are alot of flaws in the finish, and uneven bits here and there, but the surface is fairly durable and im very happy with the result thinking of how little work and money i had to put into it.
Had I a better place to work in where I could move and house all the tools and rig the area for painting without time constraints, then I would have tried for a better result.

Next up is gluing the top pieces on to the pit then im gonna rig everything up and take it for a flight!
After which ill start working on the panels, the fun stuff!

Forgot to mention the latest addition I got today!


According to reviews, these are great value for the money! And I actually like the green details on them!
Being a razer fan for years, it will fit nicely to the rest of my kit
They have no inline volume/mute controls but that will be solved via one of the panels ill make for the pit!

I thought about picking a set of the headphones in the past. Those things appear to be built like a tank, compared to a lot of other headphones that have plastic attaching the cups to the headband. (It's hard to go wrong with essentially copying the good old David Clark design). I've currently got my wireless Logitech G930 headset jury rigged up with cable ties to compensate for the failed plastic parts. When I finally resign myself to replacing the G930, that headset will be a prime contender.

You may be aware of this already, but in case you are not... Razer has software you can download that is supposed to make stereo headphones like that behave like the ones that have (synthesized) surround sound.


http://www.razerzone.com/downloads
specifically:
http://www.razerzone.com/surround/download

That program is supposed to work with any stereo headphones, not just the ones that Razer sells.

Yeah they look and feel great and seem to be fairly well built. I cant give anything but a initial impression yet but it is all good so far

Yeah, ive used the razer surround emulation for some time now and aside from some minor issues where certain sounds almost disappear for some reason i find it to be excellent! Absolutely wonderful surround for an emulation and worls with any stereo headphones!

Heres some pics from the pit painted and ready!
Ill say again how im not happy with the ICP, and Ill probably remake it the same way im making the panels.
The acrylic top really did wonders for the look of it!

Last pic shows the rest of the panels cut and fitted.
Next update most likely when panels are starting to take shape.

Excellent idea. Looks great so far.

Outstanding work looks really good!

yes excellent looks great with some paint..

Thanks for the kind words!

But im in need of some help right now. Im struggling with designing the panels because i cant decide if im gonna make it specifically for bms (which i play the most) or try something more generic to better suit many different games?
And should i stick with only the controls practical in flight or just go nuts and place as many switches and buttons i can possibly fit?

Make it so that you can have interchangeable face plates. When you change to a different game, load the appropriate profiles and swap the faceplates to match the new functions you have programmed. Obviously you won't get high fidelity to the real cockpit on more than one vehicle, but you can have good functionality across a number of games/sims if you pre-plan a bit and have the budget for numerous switches and buttons, etc.

Im afraid the panel design Im using makes changing faceplates quite the hassle.
Possibly I could make yet another piece to fit on top of the others and glue the graphics onto this one. Maybe something to do later.

Ive drew up the panels and they are ready for printing but Ill post them here and hope to get some thoughts and ideas if some changes might be needed.

Keep in mind that ill only be using momentary toggle switches and buttons so the graphics might look somewhat confusing

Left side panels


Right side panels

The above panels, together with the ICP, lets me start and fly BMS with very little input done through the mouse/keyboard.

I was just thinking that maybe the Avionics panel should be remade to something related to tacan and nav selector, those are more useful inflight. But it feel so good to flick the power on with my hands


Ill probably be making panel layouts before doing good prints of them.
DCS A10 and Elite Dangerous.

Problem with Elite is that we still dont know to what extent we will be able to bind controls in it.
Every update seem to add more keybinds and options for various systems so it might be a good idea to wait a while.
ED also has an issue where it wont detect additional USB devices aside from controllers. I hope it gets adressed so I wont have to use third party apps to bind the BBI32s.


The lower right panel is for controlling future backlight and floodlight as well as inputs for headset with volume and mute controls.

Nice work, looks great so far. I like the panel art too.

Thank you.
Im happy with the result myself, though Ill probably adjust them before making the panels.
Ive also created the art and layout for Elite Dangerous and next up is a set of them for DCS A10C.


Ill go ahead and order a bunch of switches and buttons as soon as I know roughly what I need, and hopefully i have some panels up and running within a few weeks

This weekend i finished the panels and mounted the switches and buttons.
Just finished wiring almost everything and its all working great! Did a quick test in BMS and its great to have access to all these functions without having to reach for the mouse.
Only thing left to do is wiring up the audio/microphone inputs and the volume controller, and eventually get some backlighting working.

Excellent work, I'm working on my first Button box aswell and seeing yours makes me want to throw it into a corner lol.
How did you make the labels if I may ask,I assume you printed it out on paper and put acrylic glass sheets on it?
I like the Master Caution button...something I was looking for but couldn't find something similar. So I went with other buttons.

Thank you, its a bit rough around the edges but im happy with the result and it makes the experience so much more immersive to have most of the controls available in real physical form


The labels are printed on regular paper and placed between two sheets of 3mm acrylic, held together by the switches/buttons themselves.
Initially i planned on printing them on clear/transperent overhead film, and then backlighting it but ive figured out that I can backlight these even with the printing on regular white paper.
The light WILL shine through the black making them appear somewhat greyish, but if the lightsource is just the right strenght, it will only enlighten the white text/lines enough to make them visible in the dark without shining through the black parts.

Thank you,thats a good idea with the Labels.

Looks amazing, can I ask what size screens you are using and what's holding the lower screen in place?

So its been almost a year since this was active so I figured Id post a few pics of the desktop simpit as it stands today, seeing I finally got around to setting up the triple monitors!

Heres a few random images, no particular order:

nice...

Sweet...

Great set-up. Thanks for posting the update pics.

Sorry to bother- and actually first congratulations for your amazing results!

Why did you pick the Leo Bodnar BB I32 boards?

Fact is I'm wanting to create things like that but have no knowledge of those boards... Is that on the best/easiest?
What was the cognitive process that made you pick those?

Thanks in advance,
Cheers.

Thanks mate, much appreciated!

I choose leo bodnar's because of their simplicity! I did do some research when planning the panels but since I had decided to go with only momentary switches and buttons, a straightforward digital interface was good enough.

And of all the ones I could find, the BBI-32 was the overall best candidate.
Good amount of inputs, straight plug-n-play (no fuzz, no software, no issues) and extremely simple installation! (the quickterminals are perfect for trial and error and makes it so simple to work with).
And this for a decent price made it a very easy decision

That said, I did require two of them as 32 buttons really isnt much when you start counting up whats in a cockpit, and if I would ever do a bigger project I would look into more advances input options as there are likely options where a single interface can manage all the inputs a simpit can throw at it. I would suspect it comes at a price though!


So if its any help, IMO for simple projects such as mine, which is just a glorified simracing button box (thus the name) I cant think of a better and easier way to handle the inputs then these! Highly recommended!

Heh, awwesome- jsut what I needed to know.
And what my wife feared! D:




I have my sort-of-cockpit. But I definitely need a Button-Box. Or two.
Will report.

http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=94&products_id=205

These are the ones I bought!
Good luck to ye and the solution is to make sure your wife has a time-consuming money-sinkhole hobby of her own and you will be good to go