Looking For HUD

[coolmanak]

Hello guys. In my A320-Family based home cockpit, I've considered the possibility of using an HUD.

So I was wondering if real FS-Compatible HUDs are actually products, or if they are just a far-off dream? I'd accept any sort of HUD, be it a 'fighter' style, such as this: http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=493167&nseq=73
or a commercial style, such as this: http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=20690
Or anything else!

If there's no 'hardware' HUD available, I'm not going to bother to have a virtual one put in there. I'll just keep things simple and un-HUD-ish.

[warvet]

One suggestion that has worked display what you want in HUD on a smal 15" monitor mount in in the roof angled to a mirror used mirror inversion in screen software then bounce it onto a piece of plexiglass. works perfect.JMO

tim

[coolmanak]

Thanks.

Do you have any drawings, plans, or photographs of this method?

It sounds like an affordable, effective, and down-right good idea to me.

[Jackpilot]

Project Magenta Glass cockpit comes with one.

[coolmanak]

Thanks.

Does anybody know of any 'plug-and-play' versions, or do things like that not exist yet?

[Jackpilot]

Do'nt think so.
But can be done, I think (not on a budget though)
If you have PM GC the HUD (very nice one) can be activated from the ini. file,either normal or reversed (for projection).
So a dedicated computer running the GC can feed a small projector situated above the Pilot, bouncing the image on a mirror and then on a plexi plate.
The real thing is sort of bulky.
You probably already checked that :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-up_display

Has to be tried, please report.
Jack

[Michael Carter]

There was a real 737 HUD unit on e-Bay a couple of months back. Pretty cool looking but I don't remember what it sold for, or if it even did sell. Would've made for a nice project to interface.

[Goldmember]

Google on 'teleprompter'. This is a technique they use in presentation, like news anchors reading text from a piece of glass in front of the camera. The glass mirrors a monitor lying under the camera. Obama always has 2 teleprompters to his left and right, when the camera zooms out, you see 2... eeehr... head up displays.

[coolmanak]

Thanks everybody, but I've closed off consideration of this feature.

I just can't really justify spending that much money on something few real airlines use.

[dnoize]

shouldnt be that expensive.

Can easily be made cheap with a mini projector ( and i've seen those allready for under 200$) and a piece of plexi.

Or you use a real one to start with.

Here's one from a starfighter on ebay.
Ending in 19 hours 2 mins (Mar-30-09 02:54:34 PDT) and needs some TLC.

Its at 72 euros right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=140308979699

ohw....and sorry if this price rockets to 1720 euro's now that ive posted the link ;-)


Stef


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[warvet]

Well Cool,
I can tell you for sure it worked cause I built one about 5 years ago and wanted to see if I could cause i was thinking about building an F15. I actually was one of the guys that dsigned that idea I mentioned of course using technologyfrom other sources to more or less flesh it out.
Here is what i did, I took a piece of 1/4 in Plexi cut it in an Oval shape drilled 2 holes near top attached a simple cupboard hinge the attacked that to a piece of square pvc attaching it to the roof of my pit by a bolt running through center width wise making a pin latch device with a stop lock , to get the projection I angled a mirror under the nose pointing up and a CRT 15" Bouncing onto the mirror with a little adjusting voila an instant HUD and it worked pretty well and software was PM, but im sure you can use any. I made a clock for my wife as well the same way I took a really cool Digital clock off internet made it full screen then bounced it off a cheap piece of mirror I mounted to a piece of plywood and projected it on the ceiling invereted the screen image and it looked great, a beaautiful digital clock om the bedroom roof :) Anyway Just my 2 cents

Tim

[voucher76]

Building a HUD for flightsim purpose is fairly easy, but if you want it to work properly like a real HUD it is not that simple.

First of all the keyword is a CRT screen. It is much brighter than a regular LCD. You will want this to be as bright as possible. If you can find on old "Point of sale" screen 8-10" go for it. I have found mine on ebay(10").
I haven't tried with a projector, but I doubt that will work. Tha image you see on the combiner" tilted glass" plate is the image from the CRT - mirrored. If you use a projector all it will do is blind you. Again I could be wrong.

The mirror you use must be a special mirror. A normal eg. bathroom mirror will create a ghost image on the combiner, due to the fact that the reflecting material is on the backside of the glass. Instead use a frontsurface mirror.(or firstsurface-mirror).

The next thing which is the most tricky part are the optics.
A real HUD is focused at infinity. That means your eyes will not have to refocus each time you want to look a the horizon, runway, other traffic etc and afterwards focus on the information on the combiner.
If you leave the optics out of you homebuilt HUD, you'll HAVE TO MAKE SURE that the screen displaying outside world, is a the same distance away from your eyes as the HUD is focused.
If for instance you use projectors to display outside world, you will probably have to use optics to focus the HUD. IT IS NOT AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS, but doable for sure.:D
A small and yet important thing to remember here is that a real HUD is also colimated like a Holo gun-sight. That means it doesn't matter if you tilt your head or close one of your eye, the flightpath, gunsight etc. will always point in the same direction. A real HUD image is therefore only visible within a certain area (called eyebox). The collimating part is very tricky to accomplish. I doubt I will ever get there, but I will try for sure:D


Last thing. The "combiner glass" which is the tilted glass-plate is fairly simple to create. Yes a plexiglass can be used. For best result the plate has to be "coated" to allow only 70-90% light to pass through. Maybe some very transparent sunfilm for car windows can be used here. This is an area where I haven't done many experiments yet. So there might be better solutions.

Here's a link on viperpit where a guy has built a working HUD for a flightsim.

http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php?topic=2107.msg63911#msg63911

(page 79)

http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/head_up_displays.htm

Best regards.

[warvet]

Voucher is right,
I didnt clarify in my post but the mirror I used was called true mirror same as they use in Telescope or microscopes because as voucher stated it will ghost. Another way of doing it is with an overhead projector and again with a CRT not LCD. Nice demo vid Voucher and great explanation. Also you can use old style video cameras noone wants anymore take out the optics glass and make a combiner this way.Its true its not easy but it isd doable and different ways create similar results. Good Luck

Tim

[ivar hestnes]

Beamsplitters and other interesting optics to be found on link below. Could be useful for the collimated part of a HGS system.

http://www.anchoroptics.com/catalog/product.cfm?id=284