New Republic Flight Trainer

[mcseforsale]

Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.


AJ

[PL1]

Le Chuck should receive a "Major Award" for this.   


Scott

[Ond]

Nice work fella!

 

[AlienInferno]

Holy #($*,
I don't log in for a few months and look what I miss.  Awesome job!  Would love to do this myself but don't have anywhere close to your skill to pull it off.   

[ids]

It has been about a month now since the last update.  More pics required!

[Le Chuck]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the feedback!  I will get some more pics up soon.  I've been taking care of a lot of prep work and am getting ready to start on the CP.  The body will be the last thing completed so I can make sure everything gets tied together properly.  I've been struggling with the shoulders but think I have a working solution - he's a bit broad across but I needed the space to ensure that I would have room on the CP. 

In the past on this thread I've mentioned "crew" a few times.  My crew mate was Brent Nevels.  I bring this up now because Brent passed away this week due to complications related to pneumonia and a congenital heart valve defect.  He and I also coached our kids' baseball team together with another mate.  Brent was 27 years old, younger than I.  I've lost a lot of friends, mostly due to my line of work, but to lose one so young to disease always gives one pause.

I'll still be cranking away on this and I'll try to cover down on the technical aspects that Brent was helping out with, but I wanted to mention him because he was a part of this build for a while and will be missed.

Don't spend too much time in the shop guys.  There is a lot of life out there, go make sure you live it!   

[jmike]

Wise words about shop time and enjoying life Le Chuck.

My condolences about your friend. Way too young.


 
               

[ids]

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.  You have my deepest condolences.

[mcseforsale]

Godspeed to him and peace to his family. 

AJ

[Le Chuck]

Wise words about shop time and enjoying life Le Chuck.

My condolences about your friend. Way too young.


 
               

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.  You have my deepest condolences.

Godspeed to him and peace to his family. 

AJ

Guys, thanks so much for the kind words.  Service was good, he was born and bred in this area so the turnout was amazing.  He had a very nice send off. 

After that I took some of my own advice for a change and took my older boy ice skating for three hours until I could barely walk (stupid rental skates).  He was just getting warmed up.  Kid is 5 years old and is smoking kids three times his age out on the ice. 

I got the legs on for the test fit and am pleased.  Tomorrow I'll start on the CP.  That will be a long bit as I'm not 100% sure on the design yet so I'll have to do a few mock-ups to see how things feel.  I took some pics tho, just to keep the wolves from my door.   

[yotsuya]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnnnn.......

[CoryBee]

[Termin8tor]

 

[emphatic]

Really sorry to hear about your friend.

[ids]

Sounds like you have a budding NHLer on your hands there!

That R2....if I wasn't convinced that it's not the droid I was looking for....dayam

[darthpaul]

I'm speechless, you never cease to amaze me Le Chuck.

[Dawgz Rule]

Amazing.   

[Sjaak]

Wow, this is amazing!

[Le Chuck]

I'm flattered.  I break into a huge smirk every time I walk into the garage and see R2 standing there.  Sure he's got a toilet paper tube looking body right now but that will all get sorted out. 

I need some help.  Advice, crazy ideas, amazon links, the works.  No I'm not talking about buttons again, don't worry, I mostly have that out of my system.  I need gun help. 

Here's what I'm starting with.  Two Taito Gun Buster positional guns fully working.  One shown cracked open for reference. I have a uhid and am fairly confident that I can figure out how to get the force feedback working with some digging in the forum.  I'm thinking about trying to wire both guns pots through the serial port as it would kind of be fun to do but that's mox nix.   



My problems, I think they're huge andugly and don't go with the theme.  I'd like to put a SW universe gun on but I'm not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze.  Here's where my thoughts have been leading me.

Leave them as is:  Pros - well, that was easy.  Cons - well, I just stuck some non cannon guns on a very themed build


Han Solo's blaster:  Pros:  Easy to make as air soft mauser bodies easily available and easily modable.  Cons:  Have to add a second trigger or thumb switch somewhere to account for number of games that need a second button.  Have to lose the recoil in the gun body, no room.  Can probably keep the rumble tho, but w/out recoil what's the point.   


Rebel Blaster:  Pros:  A bit more room than the mauser, can probably fit the recoil solenoid...maybe  Cons:  Pretty sever angle on the handle, will have to fab up a new stock to go from positional gun to shell.  Probably a giant PITA to do right.  Toy versions are available but will take even more modding than the mauser.

So... what do you all suggest?  Chop the current stock and make a new one that fits the blaster? I can save myself a lot of pain by eliminating the recoil but it would be admittedly cooler with it.  That said, I'm not emotional about it either way.  I just really hate the stock shells.  Should I get over it or go with a different gun?  What gun would you go with for this build and why?  They don't even have to be the same, I could do one of each, or would that look bad? 

[Sjaak]

Stormtrooper blasters    Or maybe rebel blaster v.s. stormtrooper blaster.

[PL1]

Anyone wanting to see other views/more info on Han's blaster and the rebel blaster, they are called the DL-44 and DH-17, respectively.

Here are some other possibilities to consider.



Maybe a Model 434 "DeathHammer"?




Scott

[mcseforsale]

!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!

!WOOOWOOOWOOO!

!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!


Damn I love this stuff.  Yeah, I was thinking Death Hammer would be cool!

LeChuck, you are a renaissance man!  What will you me making the gun out of?

AJ

[Le Chuck]

Haha, you guys are awesome. Death hammer may be too small. Im leaning towards one of the droid blasters since it reasons they'd be a likely retrofit for an R2.

Do positional gun games angle the guns so that the gun at rest points at the center of the screen?  I don't angle my joysticks but it stands to reason that perhaps I should angle the guns. Thoughts?

[selfie]

I thought the scout trooper blaster would be the perfect fit. I still have a toy of one of those from the ROTJ era packed away somewhere

[PL1]

!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!

Yeah . . . I'm a "nerd" . . . who knows how to use a search engine to find where the real nerds are posting a bunch of possible design options.   

Why am I suddenly picturing a "Revenge of the Nerds" / "Star Wars" crossover comic?


Scott

[Le Chuck]

!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!

Yeah . . . I'm a "nerd" . . . who knows how to use a search engine to find where the real nerds are posting a bunch of possible design options.   

Why am I suddenly picturing a "Revenge of the Nerds" / "Star Wars" crossover comic?


Scott

I call dibs as Booger Solo!

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there Le Chuck,

I agree, go with the Scout Blaster and make it a little bigger than screen used prop size.  That way you could put the recoil and vibe in as well.  I think that would look pretty awesome scaled up.  Would guess that it would be pretty comfortable in your hand as well.

Jigenjuke

[Le Chuck]

That's not a bad idea, to upscale the scout trooper blaster, have to see how much redesign that will take.

In the mean time I've got two of these inbound now:



I went with these as practice bodies because they have a nice wide base on the grip and look to have the interior space to house the recoil - plus they look cool.  They'll need some bits removed, some other bits added, and a hefty surface treatment to make them look legit but it's a fair start.  What's nice about these is that if they don't work out they shoot silly string and I'm pretty sure my boys will go gonzo over them.   

[PL1]

!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!!NERD ALERT!

Yeah . . . I'm a "nerd" . . . who knows how to use a search engine to find where the real nerds are posting a bunch of possible design options.   

Why am I suddenly picturing a "Revenge of the Nerds" / "Star Wars" crossover comic?


Scott

I call dibs as Booger Solo!

Hock or do not hock the loogie -- there is no try.




Scott

[TopJimmyCooks]

We've got bush.

[jdbailey1206]

That's not a bad idea, to upscale the scout trooper blaster, have to see how much redesign that will take.

In the mean time I've got two of these inbound now:



I went with these as practice bodies because they have a nice wide base on the grip and look to have the interior space to house the recoil - plus they look cool.  They'll need some bits removed, some other bits added, and a hefty surface treatment to make them look legit but it's a fair start.  What's nice about these is that if they don't work out they shoot silly string and I'm pretty sure my boys will go gonzo over them.   

[Le Chuck]

Once every build I try to include some kind of useful how to for the community.  I'd like to do a comprehensive guide on hooking up positional guns with rumble and force feedback.  The pot hookup is too easy but I'm totally clueless about the force feedback.  Hopefully Badmouth will drop in and hold my hand. 

As said I have two gunbuster positional guns.  Each has a recoil solenoid and a shaker motor.  I do not have the manual for gunbuster and don't have a whole lot of info about these guns and their wiring but it seems pretty self explanatory. 

I haven't found any examples of recoil and shake both being wired up in one device so I might be in new territory here. 

I saved this to my phone the other day when I came across it (badmouth again I think) but haven't been able to find the thread to credit it.



I'd like to wire two guns in tandum based on this.  Seems to be possible but there aren't enough outputs for the shaker and the recoil so I thought I'd wire the recoil to the primary trigger with an interupt keeps the solenoid from staying in the fire position if the trigger is held down.  The rumble I figure I'd wire up through the computer and use the feedback to that.  It's a definite hack but might be a good solution.

Perhaps wiring through the parrallel port would be better but I'm out of my depth for now. 

Long story short, this is a call for help.  If you know what you're doing with this stuff drop by and hold my hand!

[Nephasth]

I saved this to my phone the other day when I came across it (badmouth again I think) but haven't been able to find the thread to credit it.

I thought that diagram looked familiar. That's from an old thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,100607.msg1144773.html#msg1144773

[dandro]

damn, this thread is inspiring..

[Le Chuck]

I thought that diagram looked familiar. That's from an old thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,100607.msg1144773.html#msg1144773

^ Yes!  That's the one.  Thanks.  Now can you make Badmouth materialize, that'd be great.   

[Nephasth]

If you post it, he will come...

[BadMouth]

Use a U-HID for the guns.  It's pricey, but it handles everything, inputs and outputs.
MAMEHooker can control which motor is used and what type of signal it gets (with transistors or relays to step up the juice of course).

In that diagram, I have it wired to a joystick port.
It works fine in MAME, but with M2 and Troubleshooter2 the crosshairs don't move smoothly.
I think it's my interface.  RetroRepair's seem to move just fine with the APAC.
Check out the video of his new positional gun cab on his youtube channel.
Bug him for his MAMEhooker scripts. 

[griffindodd]

My deepest sympathies for the loss of your friend Le Chuck, 29 is tragically young, it sounds like you guys had plenty of fun though.

As for the thread, you really need to try harder, everyone knows R2D2 wasn't a toilet roll 

[Le Chuck]

My deepest sympathies for the loss of your friend Le Chuck, 29 is tragically young, it sounds like you guys had plenty of fun though.

Thanks man 

Use a U-HID for the guns.  It's pricey, but it handles everything, inputs and outputs.
MAMEHooker can control which motor is used and what type of signal it gets (with transistors or relays to step up the juice of course).

In that diagram, I have it wired to a joystick port.
It works fine in MAME, but with M2 and Troubleshooter2 the crosshairs don't move smoothly.
I think it's my interface.  RetroRepair's seem to move just fine with the APAC.
Check out the video of his new positional gun cab on his youtube channel.
Bug him for his MAMEhooker scripts. 

I just so happen to have a UHID.  I'm questioning the number of inputs I'm trying to pack into this build that that's why I was leaning towards the joystick input to help break things up a bit.

My working list:

Speeder
X axis analog input
Y axis analog input
Analog throttle
Second analog throttle (for SW Racer only - unless there is a second game out there that needs two throttles)
Analog brake wired to right throttle
Analog brake stand alone
Seat shaker for force feedback

R2
X axis gun one
Y axis gun one
Recoil gun one
Shaker gun one
X axis gun two
Y axis gun two
Recoil gun two
Shaker gun two
High low Spinner from GGG
Trackball (maybe)
Keyboard Encoder
Pololulu servo controller

Spinner, Encoder, and Servo Controller eat up three USB ports.  Sure I can add more but I'm tracking that windows starts having issues recognizing too many devices. 

That leaves UHID and it's 50 pins to map all this stuff to.  Do-able?  Dunno, haven't done the math yet.  Windows is limited to 8 axis but is that per device or total?  If so I'll need to share inputs, like gun one is also the speeder directionals and gun two is also the throttles.  Oh, and I'll probably add an LED controller to add some flash and dash so that's 5 if everything fits on the UHID.   

[Le Chuck]

Got home and did some digging. 

The guns have 24vDC motors and solenoids that aren't marked but based on how it is wired I'm assuming that they ran 24v as well.  An internet search revealed that other taito guns have used a 5amp fuse...which I don't have a fuse setup for this rig at the moment so looks like i'll need to cobble one together.  I found this power supply tho I'm not familiar or that comfortable with the vendor.  I still need to hunt down a solid state relay.  A schematic from the original game would be great but I'm coming up with nada. I would like to think that power  supply can feed two solenoids and two motors at once, and hopefully I'll get a compatible rumbler for the speeder to defray costs.  Sound good so far?

I also have started diagraming how I'm going to be wiring everything and I'll put that up for the smarties to stamp off on before I go trying anything.   

Oh, just to clarify I'll still need the relays with the UHID right?  Four of them right (five counting the speeder rumbler)? Those little bastages are crazy expensive it seems.