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Author Topic: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!  (Read 12386 times)

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thagerty

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thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« on: August 01, 2009, 05:07:37 pm »
Well.....  OK, so the title is a little dramatic!  After using my previous simpit:

http://www.thewayiplay.com/mainforum/index.php?topic=981.0

for about a year... I figured it was time to rebuild! I didn't want to get rid of the old post because,... well, that simpit no longer exists...and someone may have wanted to see it...

The old girl... we had good times together...



Oh, well... out with the old and in with the new! The total build time was about 1 week of free time.  I still wanted to be able to do car and flight sims like before. Tools available this time were just an old Table Saw, a Skill saw, and a Jigsaw... all borrowed from friends. I decided to build this time out of Black Melamine for the simple reason that there is NO SANDING, PRIMING, or PAINTING!!! I used two 4'x8' sheets...

Here goes the progress:


Taking apart the old pit for parts and space...




Construction begins...  the wife cringes!

The bottom frame with the old plastic couch legs for fairly easy movement...



All the big main pieces were cut at Home Depot (you get 5 free cuts), so I just got each of my two 4'x8' sheets on different trips...









Disassembly of the G25 pedals for inverted mounting...that part was a pain to get the right angle and height!



The mess begins...







The Shifter/Flightstick  assembly...







The mess worsens...








But then.... the day arrives....




Its done!!!... well mostly.







The Flight Throttle now beside the chair and much more comfy...



The shifter with my TERRIBLE cutting of the hole for the G25 (covered with electrical tape)  :mad:














When I want to change from a Car Pit to a Flight cockpit... I first loosen the two "T" nuts on both sides of the shifter console...





Then I lift up the top lid...



Then the shifter rotates down...



...and around 180 degrees to reveal the Flightstick (old Logitech Force 3D Pro)



Then I just tighten the "T" nuts again, and lower the lid and I'm good to go for Flight! The only thing holding that Flightstick down when its upside-down is dollar-store velcro!












The end of the pit where all the wires come out... eventually this will hopefully be mostly hidden...




and the shifter console has a storage place that holds something amazing....



My super-duper custom made  Head-tracking hat made for Free-Track (track-ir type software for free) using Kinex... :)




and my even more amazing Wii remote stand (made from cardboard) to hold my Wii remote used for Free-Track.




When all is done for the day.... I slide my pit to the side of my Man Cave...




Thanks to all on this site for great ideas!

Future plans... maybe a button/switch panel by the Throttle to turn on/off the Flightick/wheel/Throttle/keyboard, so I can hide the USB Hub...

and maybe even some casters to make moving easier!!!



patrickl

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2009, 06:06:26 pm »
Very impressive. Looks very solid and comfortable. Just the setup I'd like to have ;D

The IR head tracking is intriguing. Wonder how well that works in reality, but I'd love to try that.
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Bender

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2009, 08:30:49 pm »
man put some wheels on that and I think you'd be able to drive away! nice work!

I to would be interested in how the ir tracking works in a real world application

SavannahLion

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2009, 09:12:43 pm »
I admit that when I saw the title, I thought the builder of that hideous in-floor driver/flight cockpit finally came out of the wood work. I was going to break out the popcorn and watch the carnage.

thagerty

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2009, 09:52:07 pm »
I think i know who you are talking about....

The simpit that unfolds from INSIDE his floor automatically... and then folds back in as well... this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=ES&hl=es&v=RqZsW-uU5B4&e

That is a lot of work.... crazy but cool...


The head tracking works the same as Track-IR... a lot of newer PC flight/race games support it. Whgen you have it setup correctly, it works quite well and is very natural feeling. The key is to get it setup right...

« Last Edit: August 01, 2009, 09:55:47 pm by thagerty »

mini77

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2009, 03:17:17 am »
That's sweet.  I've thought of doing something like this for years.  Seeing yours might just have persuaded me to give it a go.  Good stuff!  :cheers:

Franco B

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2009, 05:24:10 am »
Very cool, I bet its great fun to play!  8) Good job  :applaud:

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2009, 10:18:58 am »
Nice project, wow!
My original plan before ever getting into MAME was to build a cockpit for racing & flight sims and Mechwarrior games (shows you how long ago I was thinking about it). I was in a 3rd floor apartment at the time and just kept putting it off till later.

This really has me thinking about that original project again!  :cheers:

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2009, 12:02:25 pm »
I think i know who you are talking about....

The simpit that unfolds from INSIDE his floor automatically... and then folds back in as well... this one:

Yeah, that's the one. I think the concept is pretty cool and the construction is very very nice, but the execution just sucks. When I play games, I prefer to have a horizon or lower view. This falls in line with driving a car. Generally speaking, the horizon is not going to be higher than the position of your head. That guy puts the cockpit below the floor then places the TV a couple of feet off the ground forcing him to look up. Now if he built a set of hydraulic lifts or even a scissor jack or something to bring the entire cockpit above the floor line, then he'll get it right.

Basically, the guy blew a wad of cash, wasted a lot of people's time and cut up his floor in an effort to sit inside his floor to play video games.

About your Wii controller, have you thought about building a dash of some kind to hide the controller? You have a nice aesthetic cockpit but that little stand needs to go.

The electrical tape doesn't look too bad. I thought it was a rubber boot actually. If it bothers you that much, why not go get a strip of rubber molding, like the kind they put around car windows or even the flexible rubber weather striping to seal out home doors and put that in instead?
« Last Edit: August 02, 2009, 12:04:15 pm by SavannahLion »

thagerty

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2009, 12:37:20 pm »
Hmmm that rubber or weather stripping idea sounds interesting...

As for the Wii remote... its not dedicated to the simpit as it is also used for the family Wii system as well... i am thinking of ways to get it to look more integrated...

That stand was the only way to get it into proper position without too much hassle... I know it looks like crap.... I'm working on it....


thagerty

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2009, 02:46:08 pm »
Here are some pics of the small updates I made to my Car / Flight Simpit...





Here is my new switch panel that allows me to turn on/off everything that's hooked up to the USB hub. Some games need to have only the  wheel plugged in... or the Throttle may cause a prolem for another game,etc...  Also has a key lock to lock out everything... and now I have a spare USB connector (hidden under near the wheel clamps) for I-POD,etc...











Now the usb hub and wires are all contained inside so the only visible wire is the keyboard and power bar.









The Wii-remote stand is all black now...









And I built a new Free-Track cap that is wireless and more comfortable...









And here it is powered by 2 AAA rechargable batteries and a power switch.











Nothing else...  maybe I'll make a youtube video showing it in action...




Shortbus

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2009, 02:42:52 pm »
wow, impressive. I take it your single eh? kidding....nice one, I wish i had the skills, also the tv.

thagerty

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2010, 11:43:07 am »
It's been a while since I had any updates... so here you go.

A few months back I replaced my old Logitech flight stick and the Saitek throttle with a Saitek X52 Pro flight system. I also now have a black Wii remote that stays with the Simpit full time now.
















I don't have any need for these old plates of mine, so I threw them on here! Yes there is a story there...





The rest of the setup is the same. My 61" LED DLP is not the same as these newer "LED" tvs. Thoses TVs are basically a normal LCD TV with LED backlighting, so you get better colour and black levels, but it still is the same kind of tv as an LCD. (Most people don't know this) My TV is also a 3DTV. Samsung was way ahead of the rest with 3DTV. It will work great with Nvidia's 3D glasses so you can watch movies in 3D and play all your games in 3D. It also costs $200 to $300! (With one pair of glasses)

Since I am now out of a job, this will be the last of my upgrades for quite a while! I am hopefully going to be an electronics tech for the Canadian  Forces (I was an electronics tech for 14 years). So until that happens I have alot more play time right now...

Oh and I have a video tour of it on youtube if you want to see how the console works...

Race and Flight Sim Pit all in one!! - Logitech G25 and Saitek X52 PRO

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #13 on: April 18, 2010, 06:48:28 pm »
yeah....I am making one too lol..

good job looks great. I never wanted one of those so bad until like now :cheers:

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2010, 07:31:41 pm »
Nice. Not as big as a full driving cab, but every bit as functional. I like it!

The wiimote cap for head tracking is great. What do you use for your wiimote setup? Do you have to manually pair that thing every time you want to use it, or is the process simpler?


thagerty

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #15 on: April 18, 2010, 09:13:58 pm »
I use blue soleil to connect and manually pair the wii remote, just two clicks (make sure you get a "virgin" unsynched wii remote if you have a wii in your house)... then I run Freetrack software. You have to set it up the right way at first but after that, you just connect run freetrack and play your game.

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #16 on: April 18, 2010, 09:20:22 pm »
I guess I'm just gonna have to go bluesoliel. Have to investigated Gamii yet?

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Re: thagerty's ALL NEW Car / Flight Sim/Pit... it transforms!
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2014, 10:19:53 am »
This is an amazing driving cabinet.  wow!