[simpits-tech] Finally its done!

[Roy Coates]

On Wed, 24 Mar 2010, Chris Brace wrote:



That's pretty darned impressive Chris!  You've been working on that beast
for as long as I can remember.

Superb stuff - love those projectors... what are they?  Pics of the mirror
setup please?

Very very cool.


> 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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--

Roy Coates.

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Lord, If I must have an instrument failure, please let it be the Hobbs meter.
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