[simpits-tech] Finally its done!

Tue Mar 23 16:51:20 PDT 2010

Thanks Roy,
Good things take time!
The projectors are Sanyo PLC-XL45's I did a deal with a local supplier and
bought three at once. One problem with the rear projection and mirrors is
hot spotting, it's clearly evident in the video but from the pilots view its
nowhere near as obvious.
I'll take some more video of the projection setup in a few days and post
again. It took a hell of a long time, many drawings, prototypes and head
scratching to get them right.

We designed everything in the sim to emulate and function as close as
possible to the real aircraft. From cold and dark to fully running it really
does work the same throughout (where possible). This often became our
stumbling block, as there were many many times we were trying to debug
things, getting frustrated to hell because something wouldn't work as it
should, when suddenly it would dawn on us both that another system needed to
be on (or off) and presto it all worked! Pure satisfaction and a wee smerk
later........

Cheers
Chris. 

-----Original Message-----
From: simpits-tech-bounces at simpits.org
[mailto:simpits-tech-bounces at simpits.org] On Behalf Of Roy Coates
Sent: Wednesday, 24 March 2010 12:20
To: Simulator Cockpit Builder's List
Subject: Re: [simpits-tech] Finally its done!

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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