Forming pit building group in Calfornia

[rocketeer]

Hi all, I'm quite new to pit building, just finished building a simple pit with several toggle switches, push buttons, slide pots etc.

Recently my friend and I began discussing about pit building for BlackShark, which is a highly detailed and realistic helo sim by the makers of Lock On. It'd be released sometime this year. We are looking for others to join in discussion about pit building. You may not be into military sims, or care about Lock On or Blackshark. As long as you like to talk about pit building, and are roughly around PST time zone, we'd like you on our team.

If possible, we'd like to meet up sometimes physically, to look at each other's work and analyze problems that we are facing. But usually we'd chat through teamspeak, MSN or yahoo messenger. So even if you are not near the Bay Area, you are still welcome to join us through teamspeak. We just want to share ideas and learn from it other and ride the synergy of a team than do it alone.

Hope some of you will join us! Anyone interested please contact me.

[dodiano]

Interesting project buddy! Please keep us posted!!

Regards,

Roberto

[BHawthorne]

Good idea to form a SIG (special interest group). If you get some consistency to meeting regularly, you could have some really fun networked LANs. Imagine a LAN party with simpits. That would be too cool. And if some pits can't physically be at the LAN party, invite them to remotely join the LAN party. Cali is a large enough place that something like this can succeed. Much harder to do in smaller places in the mid-west. :)

[Tomlin]

Neat idea. Ive always thought that it would be neat to have a place where people who were interested could go and work on a sim, and build it very nice with everyone contributing by investing in the sim itself, and having access to it whenever they wanted. The only issue is that usually it's very hard to find others that are as dedicated to spending equal money to get the thing moving forward, and of course, you need a place where the others can have equal access to the thing 24x7. I know of Model Railroad clubs that have a rented area and they can access the layout, but I know of no such project with a sim. Imagine how much more cost effective this would/could be. However, not many people are into aviation as much as we here are.

Best of luck with your project(s)!

[rocketeer]

We are not sharing the cost to build a super pit. We are just trying to get together as a bunch of friends to brainstorm ideas and learn from each other. We all have different budget, and it'd be difficult to decide where to place the shared pit if we build it. So we'd build to each's budget and time availabilty, but help each other with whatever skills we have. The idea is not do it alone, and have fun as a group.

Whoever is interested does not even have to be near the bay area, just hopefully around PST time zone for easier coordination as most of the time we'd discuss through MSN or teamspeak. That'd be easier than meeting physically regularly. Unless we are neighbours!

[HitchHiker]

First Post (longtime lurker)

Well I say this is the one that did it for me. I've been meaing to join for well over a year now but never got around. My name is Chris, I live in Northern California in Manteca. I'm mainly into military sims (I love blowing things up!) with a keen interest in simpit building. I'm very interested in your idea Rocketeer. At the moment I have a generic simpit with pretty much all off the shelf equipment. My wife and I just bought a home and I'm looking at starting work at last on a real simpit. My first goals are simple, I just want to get a set off toggle switches, rotaries and pots (trim wheels) wired up).

I dont have any particular sim I favor so my long term vision is to have something generic that could fit a number of different sims like Il-2 1946, LOMAC/Black Shark and other lite sims. EDIT: I take the favored sim part back its Il-2 at the moment!

I would love to brainstorm and meet up with others that share this hobby. I'm very much a beginner in every aspect other than playing sims for fun. I have the tools and the drive to put something together just not the know how!

I'll post an intro and my current set up in another topic when I get a chance its not much at the moment but its slowly growing!

[rocketeer]

I have the tools and the drive to put something together just not the know how!

Hi Chris,

welcome to the forum. Don't worry about the lack of building experience. All of us start somewhere. This forum and many others are full of helpful people. I can meet up with you if you want. I stay in Fremont, about an hour and half's drive to you, or we can meet in between. Before we jump into the details of how to wire switches, you need to plan the layout of your panels, and what switches you want, you IO cards you plan to use to interface the switches to the PC etc. I'd PM you my MSN and we let the fun start!

Note: pit building is addictive. You don't really ever finish it. That'd always be room for improvement, modification, expansion etc. Hope you prepare your wife for this! :D

[HitchHiker]

Hey Fremont isnt bad at all actually more like an hour without traffic. I also work primarily in Livermore and travel the bay for work. I have no fear of lack of exp. I really want to learn something about electronics and more so about tinkering! Tinkering is actually easy stuff just so long as you know what your doing lol! I have a rough vision in my head of what I want to do but have yet to put on paper. My wife and I's new place will finally have a room (MY ROOM:cool:) to use as sim room. Its actually going to be three rooms in one (maybe four): simpit, office/computer room, home theater and possible be where I keep my guitars. All generic looking and rigged to know end! I've been working on my current set up for a few years on and off and now I'm really looking forward to getting something put together.

Now I should warn you that buying a new place is putting my wallet in a pinch so for starters I'll only be brainstorming or working with what I have to start.

[Triggerhappy]

Hi Mate..!

Just got home from Marocco.. M-m-M That was a sweet vacation..!

How's life?

[HitchHiker]

Hey I just got back from the vacation that was painting my house, moving in and fixing up the yard, at least my sim is in its new home and I have everything in place at the moment (even if its not the finished product).

I have my workshop set up as well for electronics work to come! I need to post some pics. Has anyone ever seen Rocketeer since hes posted this? I see him on DCS's Black Shark site, but not for a while.

One more thing I've been considering is just making a sim shell with limited electronics. As Black Shark will have a fully clickable cockpit there is no need for all the bells and whistles. The only thing I might go crazy for at this point is if Storm of War BOB doesnt feature fully clickable, then I'll be building more switches!

[rocketeer]

Sorry guys for the late reply. I'm now working in Seattle. The hours are long and the client doesn't like us checking personal emails. Then I fly home on Fridays.

Hey trigger did you mean Morocco? that's north africa! sounds like a hot place. was the heat too much for you? I guess they have many historical sites for visits. Must be interesting.

And Hitchhiker, you'd need considerable space for pit building. I also have mine in a room but it feels a bit cramped. I don't have a garage. Else I'd put mine there, and leave the car on the driveway!