my space sim home cockpit design

[tsmpaul]

Hi guys!

I'm in the planning stage at the moment for a 'home cockpit' idea, that turns my desk into a semi-enclosed environment, so when flying flight simulators or space simulators (X series, freespace 2 open, eve online, etc), the three monitors will feel like actually looking out a window into space :) The idea is that when sitting at the desk, the rest of my house is invisible - all I see is the 'interior' control room / cockpit of the spaceship / freighter.

Anyway, here's a design pic of how I'm thinking of building it at the moment. I took a photo of X3 on my screens, then drew a 3d desk-plan image over the top of it to see what it may look like. The block on the desktop to the left of the joystick is just a keyboard cover that hides it when it is not in use. The lights on the lower right panel would just be small holes drilled in the panel, with some simple led bulb christmas lights glowing behind them :) The small white box with glowing red buttons will be a "doomsday usb hub" box I saw at thinkgeek... The red lights above the middle monitor are the TrackIR 5 head motion tracking sensors. I haven't tried them out yet to see if they can work with X3 or not. The large white buttons below the left monitor would be programmed to emulate keyboard presses, so I'd have labelled switches for common simming things like 'dock with target' or 'open communications' or 'initiate time compression'.

[ external image ]

One thing I would love for them to re-introduce into the X games, is how in X2, if you opened up a 'monitor' you could display it on a seperate phsyical monitor. In X3, for some reason, they locked those 'monitor' views to small windows in the top left and right of the play area. If they would only introduce the ability to display those views on seperate physical monitors, it would be fantastic!

I'm thinking of adding two 10" screens, one beneath each side monitor, for things like GPS and satellite maps when in a flight simulator, and I would love to be able to use them for the two 'monitor' views in X3, instead of those views being drawn on the main screen...

At the moment, I've just bought a 7" lilliput screen, which is the small white screen beneath the middle monitor, so I can run itunes on it while simming, or put airplane flight gauges on it while flying airplanes, or check emails without having to take away the game's view.

I'm trying to think of things I can add to the design so it will look more spacey... I probably have too much time on my hands.

[em3e3]

I plan on starting my 'cockpit' with this:

http://www.gyroxus.com/gyroxus

[Deleted User]

I plan on starting my 'cockpit' with this:

http://www.gyroxus.com/gyroxus

WTF

I need this one

[tsmpaul]

that tilting chair looks pretty good too! I wonder if there is a way to attach monitors to it, so they rotate with you. That would be truly awesome!

[Chobittsu]

OMG CUP HOLDER!!!!! THATS ALL I NEED!!!!!!

[Jonzac]

If your going to do this I'd look at EPIC Cards

http://www.mindspring.com/~rrelect/epic ... aser.shtml

It takes analog "button" pushes and turns them into actual keystroke equivilents. A lot of aircraft cockpit builders use it...including the guys making realistic F-16 cockpits.

I'll also look at runing a program "Shoot" voice recognition program that uses your microphone and no other hardware.

http://clans.gameclubcentral.com/shoot/

Look at SimPits for additional information

http://hub.webring.org/hub/cockpits

Also..post pictures as you go through this effort.

[cj-spartacus]

that tilting chair looks pretty good too! I wonder if there is a way to attach monitors to it, so they rotate with you. That would be truly awesome!

Something like this? Click!

[tsmpaul]

Hi guys! Another update. I decided that since I do a real lot of flight simming in addition to space simming, I would continue to work on desk design but with more of an aircraft flavouring to it. I've been collecting Saitek equipment for Flight Simulator X, so I've designed the dash to have a similar feel to smaller aircraft dashboards, but including small monitors built into it as well.

Here's the current design with joystick, and displaying itunes and Microsoft Excel on the smaller monitors (so I can make calculations of prices and stuff while freighting things around, and take notes of anything of interest):

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... eb18th.jpg

And here it is for the flight simulator, with itunes and a moving map gps system on the smaller monitors, and a saitek yoke and throttle for controlling the plane:

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... eb18th.jpg

{Massively oversize images replaced by links. Please review the forum image posting rules before doing so again. - Nanook}

I've got some of the components now - I still have to collect some more saitek instrument panels (the dials in the middle for flying airplanes) and the radio panel and switchboard on the right.

The keyboard is a luxeed illuminted keyboard, to the left of the joystick. You can swap keys on it, so I put some white keys among the black keys, and when it is dark and the LED's are turned on, it glows and looks like a control panel - but I can still use it as a keyboard if I need to type anything.

In X3, the saitek instrument panels are blank - as X3 doesn't send out any information for them to intercept. The radio panel, similarly, won't do anything with X3. I'm not sure about the switch board, it is possible that the buttons will be treated as a second joystick input, but I'll have to wait until I get it to find out.

I also came across this:
http://www.flightsimstore.com.au/produc ... d85jsrjsf5
which I am considering putting beneath the small monitors. All of the buttons and dials are illuminated, and they are treated as a joystick input, so you can assign them to anything in any game that lets you assign your own controls.

I got my first of the lilliput 7" usb monitors in the mail, and have tried it out. It can display all sorts of things on it - with an 800 x 480 resolution. I was a little disappointed because it doesn't let dx9 or dx10 stuff display on it. I was originally going to try dragging aircraft controls onto it, but it didn't work. However, the gps/map system displays on it just fine. When playing X3, I put excel on it, so I can keep record of good and bad prices, or run quick calculations to see how much money I would make from selling a product, and that sort of thing.

The plus side to the lilliput monitors is that they have a graphic adapter built into them, so they don't use up your main screen's resources. You can run a game full size on three screens, and still have the little monitor running just fine. The downside is that it has two usb connections - rather than just one, and also, the cables are only around two feet long! So, without a usb hub, there is no way at all it can connect to a computer that is underneath the table.

The saitek instrument panels are interesting - they are built for Flight Simulator X, but you can download a developers kit that lets you write programs to make the screens display stuff from other programs. Already people are experimenting with different simulators and games - however, I have no idea how that works, and I'm not sure it could intercept variables from X3. If there is a way for it to do that, though, it would be fantastic - things like shields, hull strength, speed, etc, could all be displayed on dials beneath the main screen!

Anyway, it'll be a few weeks before any more stuff arrives in the mail, but once I start assembling the enclosure, I'll post some photos of the construction for anyone that's interested!

[Capt.Mayne]

this is sweet! hope to see developing pics. I just finished my enclosed cockpit, I'll post some pics up. Good luck, hope to see more!

[mark01]

An Orangery would feature high glazing to provide maximum light and warmth, whilst tall doors would allow easy access to move citrus plants and trees without restriction. The trees would be stored under cover (and in tubs) primarily to ensure their survival, rather than as a way for them to flower or fruit. Where this cover alone would not suffice, as temperatures dropped well below zero, a stove would be brought into the Orangery and lit.

Orangeries
Orangery

[_Zap_]

wtf, bot?!

[SoLs]

I want!!!!!

[Morkonan]

...he downside is that it has two usb connections - rather than just one, and also, the cables are only around two feet long! So, without a usb hub, there is no way at all it can connect to a computer that is underneath the table..

It might be for some other input the product uses, but typically two USB connections are used because of power requirements. If it doesn't have an external power adapter, than that's the likely case. If so, just get a powered USB hub extension from a local computer store. If that second cable isn't needed for data, you may even be able to get away with only using one.

..Anyway, it'll be a few weeks before any more stuff arrives in the mail, but once I start assembling the enclosure, I'll post some photos of the construction for anyone that's interested!

/watching with interest