I’ve been bulding models for quite a few years now, more than I want to think about because then it reminds me how old I am getting. Mind you, Im not old yet, I know old people, and I’m not one of them,yet. I do mostly aircraft, modern jets mostly, and took a short period away from them when I got into flight sims, in partictularly, Falcon 4.0. Well, this got the model juices flowing. Combining those skills with my job as a cabintermaker, I decided to build a 1/1 scale cockpit using a lot of our modeling techniques to make the gauges and panels and such. I taught myself more about these darned computers and found something called an X-keys USB matrix board that would enable me to take all of the switches in the cockpit and make the emulate keystrokes on the computer. This enabled me to do away with the keyboard while flying for the most part. Here is a picture of it just before I started wiring in all the switches.
Hammerfly
Wow I am speechless.
Do you have it wired up and working yet?
That would be great for Falcon 4.0. I love that game, and that seat would just make it that much cooler!
demono69
I haven’t got it all wired up yet. I’m in the middle of moving and things are ar a halt for that and my modeling. I hate moving with a passion ya’ll. It does add to the immersion a lot with this pit and really isn’t that hard to build, It does cost a bit though for all the switches and matrix boards. It’s worth it though, at least for me it is. LOL
Do you have the flight suit, G suit ,harness and helmet to wear when you are setting in it? [8D] Fantastic job.
Years ago I thought about building a simple cockpit around my computer desk to take flight sim to a higher level. I never planned to do it up as much as you have though! Now I’m motivated to build some kind of cockpit, but I don’t have the space now[:(!]
All I can say is way to go, and happy flying[8D]
DJ
Thanks guys. When I had my wreck it slowed down the work on the pit. I can’t get in the thing with my hip like it is now so I’ve lost the incentive to work on it. I can’t wait to get back to normal, or at least close enough that I can climb in to fly with it. I need to go by a double fist full of diodes to wire in with the switches and get at least the front panel wired so I can use the MFD’s and the ICP. Those are the main things I need anyway so I could at least get them done. I want to build a room just for the pit with no windows and two doors. One door behind the monitor so I can access the computer back, and then another door on the throttle side so I can climb in. I want the room to be just big enough to hold the pit and painted black. One of these days I’ll get a projection type monitor and then when I go fly I may come out in a couple of days when hunger takes over. LOL I mounted the subwoofer under the ejection seat and plan on mounting a 15" speaker in the seat back so that the low level sounds will vibrate right on my back. Should at least sound neat when I go to AB. Here’s a pic of the left side panel and all the switches on it.
What sort of stick and throttle are you using? I have a ch setup, fully programable stick and throttle, and I use Thrustmaster rudder pedals. There is a company also, that makes a set of lightweight glasses that plug into your monitor, and wireless ones now as well. When you have them on, since their projection is slightly off of the monitor’s image (not quite exactly sure how this works) it leaves a completely 3d image with depth instead of a flat monitor image. I think it’s only 60 bucks or so. That might be worth looking into.
madda
I’m using the Thrustmaster FLCS and TQS that I modified to make it look a little more realistic for the pit. I have a pair of the E-dimension glasses you are talking about, but have had trouble using them with my vid card so they sit on the shelf now. I’ve got the CH pro pedals but they aren’t recognized by Falcon. It can only recognize one input device at a time so for now, no rudder pedals. I"d love to get the new TM Cougar with all the mods available for it, but that’s about $1000.00 I don’t have. Maybe when I win the Poweball Lottery. LOL I wish.
Hammerfly,
I am thoroghly jealous. This is something that I’ve wanted to do since playing with Falcon4.0 (r8). You picked the best components - too bad thrustmaster no longer has the FLCS/TQS combo - or atleast supports it. They came out with a new system that does the same thing.
This is just too cool. Are you going to hook up a series of hydraulic presses (simulated turns and nose up/dn attitude? What about a surround screen projection for the landscape?
Dude, if you ever get this working, you’ve got my vote for model of the year.
An unbelievable project you’ve undertaken. You are the envy of all who enjoy flight sims. By the way, do you play any others, or just Falcon4? I have been playing Jane’s F-18/Team Superhornet Mod for a while. I am looking forward to the release of Lock-On:Modern Air Combat (LOMAC). That looks like it will have killer graphics and effects. POOR selection of Allied aircraft to choose from, though. A bit off the subject. Your cockpit is sweeeeeeet!
I used to have that flcs and tqs setup, years ago, but eventually, after several good years, and hours and hours of stick time, the flcs crapped out on me. When I went to replace it, I discovered that TM had been bought out and weren’t making them anymore. That was when I went the CH route. I still use my tm pedals though. I havent’ looked at the new TM stuff, is it as nice as their old stuff. I loved the feel of that flsc stick, the tension was just right.
madda
The new TM stuff is even better than the FLCS and TQS. It’s USB and a whole lot more programmable. It has a lot better feel to it and there are mods available to make it look and feel just like the real F-16 stick and throttle. I would love to get it, but at $380 for the pair, I guess I’ll have to wait until I get back to work in a few months. With all the mods I want it’ll run right at a grand to get it. They have some Hall sensors to replace the pots and a new base that is identical to the base on the real F-16 joystick. The even have it set up with the same throws as the original thing. The new software for the Cougar (the name of the new rig from TM) is a lot more versatile than the old FLCS and the mini hat on the throttle is a lot better feeling than the old erasor head on the FLCS. I want one so bad I can’t stand it now.
As for the hydraulics for the moving base, I would love to do that eventually, but it won’t be anytime soon as expensive as it would be to do that. I hope to have it finished in time to bring it to the Region 6 convention this year and let anyone that flies Falcon or MSFS give it a whirl to wet their appetite for flying. I don’t know how far into Falcon you are, but, you can now go all the way through the start up sequence in it with the F-16. It’s not like a Cessna where you get in and turn a key to get going. It’s a pretty involved process to get one turning up. Falcon sure has changed from when I got it when it was first released in 98. For a 5 year old sim, it is still way ahead of all the others. LoMac’s demo just came out and I gave it a try and it’s not bad, but no where near as hard core as Falcon, but that said, I will probably get it when it is released. I tried Janes F/A-18 but didn’t care for it too much. I guess I’m spoiled to Falcon. I do like to fly Microsoft’s Flight sim 2002 and 2004 though. There’s a lot to be said about flying in blackout conditions and shooting an ILS approach when you can’t see the runway until 400 feet altitude and the runway is dead ahead and you are dead on glide path and glide slope. That’s a neat feeling when you can do it consistantly.
Enough ranting, I’m gonna look like a ratchet jaw if I’m not careful.[:D]
ShamRage, do you know of any online forums where you can play the Jane’s sims online multiplayer? I used to use Jane’s Combat Net, but that was discontinued.
Thanks,
DJ
DJ, try going to http://www.frugalsworld.com and check out the forum section there. He has forums for just about all the flight sims.
whoah… that’s soooooooo cooul…
So now the $100,000 question, Ted. Once you get back up and going, (and I hope that it’s soon) how much for you to build one of these little things for me? I’d kill to get my hands on one, if I can sneak it past the missus.
demono69
Demon, if you really want a cockpit and can’t build one yourself you need to check out this site herel. http://www.aimsworth.com/html/product.html For me to do it and make a dollar an hour I need to charge about as much as one of these listed on this site. I will say this though, there is another company out there with better avionics packages, but for the basic pit, this one is tops. If I was rich, I wouldn’t have built my own, I"d have bought one of these suckers.
After all is said and done, you’d be looking at over $6000 for the whole kit! I’m pretty sure my wife would notice that, but it would be alot of fun at Lan-Fests, wouldn’t it? Thanks for the link!
demono69
thank you Hammerfly!
DJ