R-Pod MkII Racing Simulator: Now VR Enabled

[Slippyblade]

... lights running along the bottom sides to appear as the road, racing away under you. And maybe a small fan, blowing "wind" into your hair. 

and have one of your kids occasionally run buy and pelt you with a bug.  Just for the extra realism factor.

[SpaceHedgehog]

I hope your plans will work out. Subtle lightning is classy lightning.

For a racing rig, it would be really cool to have some sort of flowing animation to the lights running along the bottom sides to appear as the road, racing away under you. And maybe a small fan, blowing "wind" into your hair. 

Completely agree about the subtle lighting, The position of the strips will be designed to avoid 'dot effect'. I'll figure out a way to reduce the output if it's too strong (some sort of translucent covering) - I had it in mind to figure something along those lines out.

As for the flowing animation ... sounds like a really cool idea. When I get this on a base, I'll see what can be done. Cheers for the idea emphatic 

[SpaceHedgehog]

and have one of your kids occasionally run buy and pelt you with a bug.  Just for the extra realism factor.

lol, they do that already

As for a fan, I have one of these on the way:



The rig will get too busy if I try and design it into to build unfortunately. It'll sit on top of the Amplifier rack I will be building. It get's darn hot racing.

[mpm32]

Especially when you're wearing your full face helmet and Simpson racing suit with the nomax underneath. 

[floriske.nl]

Especially when you're wearing your full face helmet and Simpson racing suit with the nomax underneath. 

+1 for safe driving!  ... and next to that remember to eat vagisil if you ever tend to do sim nascar racing!

Really love where this build is going.....

[SpaceHedgehog]

Haha, safety first 

And there was me thinking Vagisil was a banned substance.

I wanted to complete the dashboard sides so I can start filling and sanding as soon as possible. I've chamfered the inside faces and cut out the access panels. It's the usual sandwich approach:









I need to keep making progress, no matter how small.

[rCadeGaming]

Wow, how long is that roll of LED stripping?  I have some, but it was only a few feet, and it was pretty expensive.  Can I ask where you got yours?

[mattgold]

Wow, how long is that roll of LED stripping?  I have some, but it was only a few feet, and it was pretty expensive.  Can I ask where you got yours?

I don't want to speak for SpaceHedgeHog - but you can get cheap LEDs on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJZKAOY/

Depending on color/adapter, it's $9-$17 for a 5M (15foot) roll.

[Generic Eric]

Wow, how long is that roll of LED stripping?  I have some, but it was only a few feet, and it was pretty expensive.  Can I ask where you got yours?

I don't want to speak for SpaceHedgeHog - but you can get cheap LEDs on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJZKAOY/

Depending on color/adapter, it's $9-$17 for a 5M (15foot) roll.

I got lucky on ebay.  You might look there too.  Or dealer tremendous.com

[SpaceHedgehog]

Yes, it's a 5m roll with connectors and power adapter sourced from eBay. It was £16.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Spent the last couple of hours filling and sanding (it will need to have another round of this):



And priming:



I'm using my old faithful car body filler - I can't seem to get the finish I'm after on the edges any other way:



I spent a lot of time avoiding this little monster:



If she's not careful, I'll velcro her under the air intake to make the rig purr (or probably growl).

[Slippyblade]

If she's not careful, I'll velcro her under the air intake to make the rig purr (or probably growl).

Going for that 4-banger tuner sound, huh?

[SpaceHedgehog]

Going for that 4-banger tuner sound, huh?

Yes but only a 1 litter.

[SpaceHedgehog]

This morning I have prepared the LED strips for fitting; cutting to size, stripping wire, testing, hot gluing and testing again.



Side location:



I will drill small holes through the side panels for the the cables.

Testing:



It's very difficult to capture this type of light on camera unfortunately:

[SpaceHedgehog]

A few more hours filling and sanding ...





At least the weather is nice today.

[SpaceHedgehog]

I've managed to get the fist layer of undercoat on which is great for highlighting the areas which still need a little more work.



I'm aiming to get the the flat black stage by the end of the weekend.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Redesigned the wallpaper for the rig this morning whilst waiting for the neighborhood to wake up:

[emphatic]

I guess the logo is places off center by design? I would put it centered, or more off center not to confuse schmucks like me.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Yup, still a work in progress - thanks for pointing that out, I'll attend to it in a bit 

[SpaceHedgehog]

I'm really happy with the wallpaper although I may experiment a little further with the background texture so still open to suggestions. I do want to keep it fairly simple.

5 hours of phase 2 of filling and sanding later, the panels are finally ready to paint. Here they are in their unflattering, naked state:





I've been looking forward to getting these painted all weekend ... but first ... coffee ...

[rockyrocket]

I've been looking forward to getting these painted all weekend ... but first ... coffee ...

No need for coffee dude, just sniff that P38 and get painting  .

The build looks sharp so far - well done!.

[SpaceHedgehog]

I've been looking forward to getting these painted all weekend ... but first ... coffee ...

No need for coffee dude, just sniff that P38 and get painting  .

The build looks sharp so far - well done!.

Thanks rockyrocket and yup, that P38 sure is strong stuff 

A bit of painting, sanding and painting:

Flat black first coat after sanding:



Second coat waiting to dry:



Managed to get a bit of wiring / testing sorted out in between.

Bits from the electronics store:



Wired to a toggle switch:



Hurrah, it works (electrics isn't my strong suit):

[ChanceKJ]

All respect in the world to the build, but why has nobody pointed out how phallic these are...



I mean sure, once they are built into a box, (phrasing) and sitting alongside the rest of the build you'd never notice. But man....

[SpaceHedgehog]

All respect in the world to the build, but why has nobody pointed out how phallic these are...



I mean sure, once they are built into a box, (phrasing) and sitting alongside the rest of the build you'd never notice. But man....

Emphatic has  already

That's a... quite penile shape.  Sorry. Carry on.

I'm going to rename it the p-rod.

[ChanceKJ]

  must have missed that!

[emphatic]

Hey, are we still doing phrasing?

[SpaceHedgehog]

That went straight over my head emphatic 

It looks like I'm out of time for the weekend. I can carry on with the painting during the week.

I managed to get 2 coats onto one of the side panels - fortunately it looks like the 8 or so hours prepping were worthwhile:

[emphatic]

That went straight over my head emphatic 

Sorry, it was in reply to ChanceKJ's post.

There's a wicked fun animated show about this secret agent called Archer, and whenever there's sexual innuendo, he (or someone else) says either "phrasing" or "are we still doing phrasing". It's one of the funnier bits in that show, IMHO.

Carry on.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Gotcha 

Final progress pictures for the weekend. I couldn't resist getting this assembled:





I guess it still looks suspect ....

[SpaceHedgehog]

Second side piece with 3 coats of flat black:



Hope to get the polyurethane on during the week ...

[SpaceHedgehog]

Cap and mouse pad finally arrived:

[SpaceHedgehog]

Some real progress ....

Polyurethane coat 1:



Coat 2:



Coat 3:



Close-up:

#

[SpaceHedgehog]

Loose assembled and resting against the side:



Pictures will look a lot better in the daylight ...

[SpaceHedgehog]

Left side complete with everything screwed in place:



Right side - 2 coats of poly, one more required:

[SpaceHedgehog]

Completed both main front panels:



And started the polyurethane on the remaining pieces.



Edit: better picture in the daylight:

[SpaceHedgehog]

Side panels for the dash have been varnished with the rubber and backing board glued in place. I'll leave this to dry for 24 hours before doing anything further:



LEDs attached with epoxy, waiting to set:

[SpaceHedgehog]

Couldn't wait so I got busy attaching the side panel. The glue looks to have dried (I should have waited really but am keen to get this complete and no damage was done).

Pictures are rubbish and don't do it justice so I'll take some more tomorrow:



The Picture captures blue light for some reason:



Grainy dark picture:



It will look a lot better and more balanced once the main dashboard surface is in-place.

Edit: I'll be fitting a dimmer switch also.

[emphatic]

Very cool!

[SpaceHedgehog]

Cheers emphatic  Dimmer switch (well, RF controlled) is on its way.

After having road tested the rig for a while, I was finding that despite the shelf bracing, there was still a bit of vertical flex. Not enough to be a deal breaker but sufficient for me to do something about it. It looks to be the MDF itself which is bending between the lower braces so I have reinforced it with another sheet. This kills 2 birds with one stone as I actually wanted the wheel another couple of cm higher. Hopefully it will remove the flex completely:



I want to get this just right before I put the final vinyl covering on.

[SpaceHedgehog]

This is a warts and all build so a few pictures of the progress today. I've been inching towards the vinal application but needed to get all those last little jobs complete.

First up, now that I have been able to attach the sides for the dashboard, I was able to determine how much space I need to allow for to fit switches. These are deep and I don't want to compromise on the layout so ... time for a bit of butchering.

First the sides:



Then the panels:



Holes have also been drilled on the main rig for the LEDs. Lots of lining up, assembling and disassembling.

Prepare the internal screws to attach the panels to the sides making sure I hit a 'thick' part and don't end up screwing through the inlays:



I have some of these to cover them:



Some nice big screws for some extra, extra added stability to the wheel support:





The stability is improved considerably and barely moves at all.

Also tidied up the bottom panel (the one with the tow hook), some flush trimming, filling, sanding and painting (I need to put a couple more coats on and apply vinyl to the back of it):



An extra power strip was attached after cutting the cable down to size.

Wiring for the lower LEDs was also prepared and run through the cable sheathing.

Still need to give is a bit of a clean inside.

A productive day without too much to show for it though