[simpits-tech] Finally its done!

[Chris Brace]

Guys, quick update on my C172 project. Finally its done!

First of all many thanks to many of you, for those little gems and
inspirations that kept Greg and I plugging away at what seemed impossible
solutions. This has been one of those long term projects that suffers from
the usual stop/start/motivation/money/life problems but we got there in the
end. And the results speak for themselves.

Check out the video of the sim in action here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W2omkBwirU

A few things about it. Build time has been around 7 years! Been through
several iterations of software and hardware but settled now on xplane. 

Simulator is Xplane 9.4. Instruments are early simkits with a CCU. All
interfacing is via an XPlane plugin we wrote ourselves that does all the
hard work and is modeled very similarly to FSX's SimConnect in principle.

Primary flight controls are custom made with the electronics being a plasma.
Rudder pedals are from aircraft spruce and the mechanisms (with toe breaks)
is inhouse designed and built.

The complete avionics stack is custom design and built Most the parts are
laser
cut- yes we even bought a laser cutter of our own to do the job. Displays
and I/O are Phidgets. Each unit is completely separate much like the real
deal. They all bolt into a chassis that can be removed as a single unit and
bench run if needed from a single USB connection and power.

Circuit breakers are also custom made. Again each CB is a separate unit. All
are driven by a Phidget 16/16 board. Again each is made from laser cut
acrylic and various parts.

The cessna shell is custom made. I measured up the real thing, drew my own
set of plans and then set about building it. Mostly its 18mm MDF but all
jointed with aluminium L sections and M6 bolts.

Projection is the interesting part. Three ultra short throw projectors
(1024x768 res each). Each screen is about 1500mm wide (about 60 inches) and
is rear projected with a single mirror that folds the image back onto the
screen.
Projection distance is 950mm (2 x 470mm) or about 38 inches in total length.
Everything is adjustable, screen height, screen angle, projector angles and
position, folding mirror angle etc. This was done so that we could roll out
one sim shell and if needed roll in another with different requirements.
Presently we get about 160 degrees wrap around. The images are simply edge
butted together there is no hardware device doing any blending - just plenty
of adjustments and time.

Voice comms are a real aircraft 4 place intercom and headsets - just a cheap
unit imported from China. Audio is fed into it from the Sim PC as needed via
an source input on the unit.

A single fairly grunty PC runs XPlane,the visuals and primary flight
controls.
The PC has 4Gb RAM, quadcore CPU, and three high end graphics cards. Each
card drives a single projector. OS is Windows Server 2008. Another PC drives
all the instruments and avioncs and comms to Xplane. Third PC drives the
dual screen instructor station. 

I have a bunch of pictures of the build (over many years) on my personal
website (www.chrisb.co.nz) under "The photo gallery" section then LS172
simulator project. 

Enjoy.
ChrisB

 

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