[simpits-tech] Poll-What are you building?

[Mike Williams]

Volker, sounds like a great setup, will you be building an enclosed cockpit
around the rock & ride?
Do you have any pictures you could post of your pit?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: simpits-tech-admin@simpits.org
> [mailto:simpits-tech-admin@simpits.org]On Behalf Of volker metzger
> Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 8:40 AM
> To: simpits-tech@simpits.org
> Subject: [simpits-tech] Poll-What are you building?
>
>
> Hi ,
> first i  say sorry for my poor english but nevertheless i will
> introduce my  project (who interacts with falcon 4.0).
>  OK, first what i dreamed in the beginning of plan the pit
> (summer 2001) ,:
> -the pit should have lights (caution, warning ....) , the pit
> should have motion  (interaction with falcon 4.0) , the pit
> should have so much switches and knobs as possible, the pit
> should have good sound (vibration), the whole construction should
> be affordable ( not more then 1500$ ). Ok, thats was a big  wish
> list, now i can tell you what the status quo is,
>
> Lights:
> The pit have around  60  leds with different functions who works
> with the great lightdriver programm from Robert Favre, by the way
> thank you Rob for your help !,  Robs great light driver works
> perfect , i use 2 mm 5451 led driver with the programm and so i
> have all  lights from falcon  (for example master caution ,
> complete caution panel, threat warnings and so on ....).  I
> integrated also some led s in the panels (for example  elec or
> epu, threat warning ). This solution was  cheap and i dont need
> to buy a epic card.
>
> Motion platform and my rock n ride/falcon interface program:
>
> >From the begin of plan the pit  i want motion for falcon 4.0.
> The only affordable solution  was the rock n ride. After
> searching  a few months i found a used one and pay  only 250 $
> for it. Then i replaced  the mountings with home made aluminium
> holders so i was able to built a construction  with large panels
> around the rock n ride who moves with the chair.  For the panels
> i use poylstrol (plastic) so the whole construction its  not to
> heavy for the rock n ride.
> After a while is was not more satisfied with  moving  the rock n
> ride only with the joystick controll programm who came with the
> rock n ride. Especially when the falcon is  on the ground (for
> example its not realisic that the rock n ride moves with every
> joystick movement while im taxing on the ground)
> After thinking a lot of this problem i decided to write a
> programm in visual basic 4.0 who use parts of Robs lightdriver
> programm  to controll the rock and ride movement. (Thanks Rob
> Favre again for the Host  code  and the help to extract the pitch
> and  roll data).
> It was a long way to find a way to controll the rock  n ride with
> the falcon, but in the end it was a success. After uncountable
> hours of try and error i found  out that i can move the rock n
> ride with  the mscomm commmand from visual basic. Now my programm
> use the pitch and roll data in conjunction with the mscomm  to
> move the rock n  ride. It works good and was very exact .(I do a
> little fine tuning programming in the future).
>
> Panels  switches and knobs, ICP:
>
> I draw the panels and print it out with a laser printer. Then i
> cover the  printing with transparent foil . After that i  glued
> the printing on the poylstrol panels, thats all.
> For the switches  and knobs i use a hagstrom ke 72 encoder and a
> hacked programmable keyboard.
> I think a lot of the ICP ,  should i built it myself or what else
> i can use ?, in the end i come to the conclusion to use a
> stripped of pcdash2, draw a new surface  and paint it. It works
> and looks also  good.
>
> Visuals:
>
> LCD projection panel (800x600) with a 400 Watt Overhead projector
> , (affordable  and works great)
>
>
> Sound :
>
> transducer mounted on the rock n ride
>
> Speech recognition
>  Game commander 2
>
>
> What i want to do in the next 3 months:
>
> Complete the pit (I finished the pit to  90% at the moment) .
>
>
>
> Volker "Dragomir" Metzger
>
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