[simpits-tech] Display news...

[dabigboy at cox.net]

Oh my yes.....Gene, you do realize this is pretty much the holy grail of visual systems! How timely......I have been sorta bashing my head in frustration this weekend because I can't figure out a good visual system for my sim....I have almost everything else either built, in progress, or at least a good idea in my head. I was just thinking "man, if only Gene would sell kits of his visual system". :)

Any idea the price range on a short kit for the GA version? Mine would end up in front of a Learjet eventually. My main restriction is I just don't have a way to fabricate the parts.

Semi-related note: tonight my wife casually gave her blessing/acceptance for sticking a Learjet in the garage instead of insisting I save up and build another shop for it....yeeehaw! :)

Matt


---- Gene Buckle <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote: 
> A couple of weeks ago I chased down a lead and found a Mylar vendor that 
> can supply material up to 124" wide. It's _cheap_. For example, a 100 foot 
> roll of .5mil @ 96" wide is roughly $200 shipped.
> 
> We've also come up with a way around the patent issue - instead of the 
> curved "ears" at the ends of the mirror, it can be more square - something 
> shown as "prior-art" in the patent, but a feature we couldn't use because 
> we couldn't get Mylar wide enough.
> 
> What this means is that we're now open to making plans & short kits 
> available to people.
> 
> We're looking at two "reference" designs.
> 
> The first would be large enough to accommodate standard GA aircraft right 
> around Cessna 152-172 size up to something around a Lear or Cessna 
> Citation.
> 
> The second would be a "big iron" display that could be used with cockpits 
> around the size of the Boeing 737.
> 
> If there is enough interest, we'll go ahead and get the design work done 
> and I'll build Inventor models so you can see what they'll look like.
> 
> However, we're not going to build prototypes for either one of them until 
> there is enough commercial interest. This doesn't mean a bunch of folks 
> going, "Hey! I'd buy that!", it's some number of people (say 5 for this 
> example) willing and able (and actually do!) put down a down payment for a 
> short kit.
> We're doing this because building one of these things takes a ton of time 
> and effort when you're writing the manual for it at the same time. The 
> materials aren't cheap either - the prototypes and kit parts will be in 
> 18mm and 12mm Russian Birch - it's a high quality material. It's not the 
> kind of endeavor that either one of us can fund ourselves on the hope that 
> someone might buy one someday.
> 
> A "short kit" is typically parts that most folks can't make themselves - 
> all the shaped parts, etc. Any dimensional lumber, fasteners, Mylar, 
> projectors, etc. would be supplied by the builder.
> 
> We'll also look into providing the vacuum management system - this would 
> likely consist of an Arduino Uno style "shield" and the parts to build a 
> servo controlled bypass gate similar to what you've seen in our videos. 
> Servo not included.
> 
> There will definitely be size issues you're going to need to be aware of 
> if you're going to build one of these. Our single-seat version is a tight 
> fit in a room with a 9' ceiling. You can just about be guaranteed that the 
> GA display is going to be bigger than that and I shudder to think how much 
> shop space that 7x7 display is going to eat up.
> 
> Because of the size & scope of this thing, don't expect any concrete 
> results out of us until April-ish.
> 
> I'm going to re-post this to various places in order to make sure the 
> folks that are interested see it.
> 
> Thanks all!
> 
> g.
> 
> -- 
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