[simpits-tech] Now that's a good deal

[Matt Bailey]

Awesome. :) Ah yes I recognize the "board" part of the scooter now, with the 
emblem on it. :) I'm guessing that one says "Razor"? Or "Mongoose"? Actually 
I work on bicycles and similar stuff at a local retail store here in the US, 
and I've messed with some little electric scooters like this. We have not 
only some junk bike and scooter stuff, but also there are a lot of nice metal 
fixtures etc in the store, which sometimes get thrown away.........one of 
these days I'm going to have to work up the nerve to ask a manager if I can 
have some of the junk stuff. :) There are these nice chrome-looking fixtures 
we use for hanging clothes on, they would be awesome for building 
controls....

In the construction of my quick-hack-til-I-build-a-pit controls, I've used:

Old 486 case, gutted

Aluminum pipe from an R/C plane rack (and the pipe was for a ham radio antenna 
before that, if I'm not mistaken)

Base, pedals, and some other stuff from a V3 wheel/pedal racing combo

Music wire and wheel collars, from R/C planes

Various R/C plane control linkages

Plus some nuts & bolts, other R/C accessories like wiring harnesses, and of 
course the "new" stuff (mainly just the potentiometers and the Plasma 
module). It's interesting what you can come up with when you start scavenging 
parts off of whatever is sitting around the house/shop. :) I've already 
started thinking of a smooth, durable rudder pedal rig using bits of old 
bicycle frames and the pedal cranks & bearings. And if I can't score some 
Cessna-style vernier throttle handles off ebay or from a junked 150 at the 
local airport, I'll probably use the caps from shampoo bottles for throttle/
prop/mixture handles. :D

Did you do much welding on the collective, or was it mostly just cut the thing 
up and bolt it together?

	-Matt Bailey

On Sunday 16 January 2005 12:17, Frank Riedel wrote:
> The only part of collective i build my self.... is the plastic that hold
> the pots
> and mounted a shockabs. the rest of thew building was cutting of the
> scooter and belive me... i works fantastic... twist and push/pull - damn i
> like it ;o))
>
> Frank
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matt Bailey" <mattb at rtccom.net>
> To: "Simulator Cockpit tech list" <simpits-tech at simpits.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 6:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [simpits-tech] Now that's a good deal
>
> > Ehhhh, it's a cheap and simple solution. :) And looks to be pretty good
> > quality. I wonder why it tints blue? That's not so much an issue for some
> > applications though......it would be a cinch to tweak instrument images
> > etc
> > to look right, especially for simple images like engine info pages on
> > MFD's.
> > Did you try any specialized third party software for tweaking colors?
> >
> > Since running into Pygame in November, I've been planning on writing some
> > MFD
> > software for X-Plane.....using a couple of these little gems should allow
> > me
> > to go totally panel-free on the main monitor, with MFD's and various
> > instrumentation on the Sony's.
> >
> > Those are a couple of cool looking pits on your site! How much of the
> > collective's parts did you machine yourself? Neat idea, using a scooter.
> >
> > :)
> >
> > I've got a joystick working and a throttle box, almost got some pedals
> > going
> > too (though I'll probably scrap them as they are junk). I'll probably
> > build a
> > collective control, but I *really* need a mill. :/
> >
> > -Matt Bailey