Hello from Jep!

[Jeprachaun]

Hello everyone! My name is O'Malley. I am currently in the process of researching and designing a flight simulator. You guys have a great website with vast amounts of information. I look forward to reading and contributing to the site.

I am located in Southern California and am a huge supporter of DIY projects. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

O'Malley

[Bob Reed]

Hello O'Malley and welcome to the mayhem!! You like DYI, then you have come to the right place. There is a lot of information here and a lot of people who love to help other builders. So ask your questions. What type of project are you looking at?

[Trevor Hale]

Welcome to the Community. Southern Cali, man must be nice weather there. First thing you need to do is plan your air conditioning well. ROFL! J/K We are glad you stopped by. As we are all learners of some level, feel free to ask as many questions as you like. The forums have very good searching ability and I am sure at one time or another someone may have asked the question prior. If you can't find it... Ask! Welcome again, and I look forward to seeing further progress of your project.

Best regards,

Trev

[Matt Olieman]

O'Malley, welcome to the club.... we were all beginners at one time or another... Still learning new tricks.

Glad to have you join in on our fun :)

[JBaymore]

Welcome Jep. Are you sure that you want to ADMIT that you are a home cockpit builder publically? ;)

Lots of good folks and good ideas here. Remember to post pix.

best,

..................john

[Bob Reed]

Welcome Jep. Are you sure that you want to ADMIT that you are a home cockpit builder publically? ;)

Lots of good folks and good ideas here. Remember to post pix.

best,

..................john

Ya know.... I don't think the world is ready for us to come out of the closet yet.....:shock:

[Jeprachaun]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! I appreciate it.

@ Bob Reed: I am not looking at buidling any plane specific sim. My plan is to build a lower cost motion simulator to learn and for the experience. I am a FSX addict (I had to admit it sometime) and fly with the FS-MP server which is by far the most realistic group around with ATC and real world regulations.

In doing my beggining research I have found a program called x-sim and was curious to know if this is what people normally use as it is freeware?

I am still running designs through my head and was curious to know if electric servos or hydraulics (believe that is what they are refered to) would be better to use? I would think that the servos would be cheaper and quieter?

Thank you,
O'Malley

[Jeprachaun]

Another question. Does everyone use a sim-board to interface their switches and then program them through FSUIPC? If so how are you conecting the switches to the sim-board? Thanks again. My ideas are starting to take shape.

O'Malley

[Bob Reed]

Hey Jep. When you say sim board, do you mean an interface? Yes you have to use some kind of interface to connect switches and lights to the computer.

[Jeprachaun]

I have heard them refered to as sim-boards. I believe one example is the Sys3 (not to sure though). If that is an example of an interface how are the switches connected to it? I hope that clarifies my question a bit.

From reading through posts it seems alot of people use FS9. Is there anything wrong with using FSX? Thanks again.

O'Malley

[Mike.Powell]

There are several options for interfacing switches. Beta Innovations (www.betainnovations.com (http://www.betainnovations.com)) offers several USB interface cards. Flightdeck Solutions (www.flightdecksolutions.com (http://www.flightdecksolutions.com)) makes the InterfaceIT line of interface products. Velleman (www.velleman.be (http://www.velleman.be)) has a generic USB interface. Opencockpits (www.opencockpits.com (http://www.opencockpits.com)) has the IOCards project. FSBus (www.fsbus.de (http://www.fsbus.de)) is a DIY project you build from the docs on the FSBus wibsite. Flight Illusion (www.flightillusion.com (http://www.flightillusion.com)) has just introduced an interface product. If you're only interested in a few switch inputs you can use the electronics from a gamepad for a "cheap, quick and dirty" approach.

I don't think there is anything wrong with FSX. In fact, I would prefer it if I were pursuing a motion base project. SimConnect, the FSX API, allows you to specify the timing of the data transmission relative to the sim rate. I don't know that you can do that with FSUIPC and FS9.

[Jeprachaun]

Thanks for the help. I will be starting a new thread soon to get all of my questions answered. I am just trying to wrap my head around how big of a project this will truly be.

O'Malley

[Trevor Hale]

Hey Buddy,

Don't look at it as "HOW BIG" look at it in sections. Start with one foot in front of the other and build on it. Sometimes seeing the entire scope of work may discourage you. Yes there will be times that you hit a brick wall, and wonder what to do. Thats why we are here, to help you with the path over or around the wall.

Good luck, and I can't wait to see your progress.

[Michael Carter]

Trevor's right. You have to break the build down in managable pieces or this insurmountable task will leave you with your jaw on the floor.

There is always something to do. If you get stuck at something, move on to another area. Maybe an idea or solution to the first problem will arise in the mean time.

But just like a test question you may get stuck on, you can't waste all of your time on a problem you are having when there is no obvious solution at the present time when other things can be done. You can always come back to the problem area.

I've done it enough myself.

Welcome to the site!

[Jeprachaun]

I appreciate the tip. I sat down last night and wrote down a long list of questions that I will get posted when I have some more time.

I am beggining to figure out what exactly I am looking for and how to go about building it. I also decided how I wanted to break down the project. Thanks again for the warm welcome and information. I hope to get going on this project soon.

O'Malley