Thinking about building a full 737 cockpit, have a dilemma

[leifgiering]

I'm tired of flying the PMDG 737 with only a joystick, so I've decided to splurge and build a whole cockpit. My budget isn't bad, but it isn't great either (let's say maybe... a few thousand dollars over the course of one year).

Anyways, I want to begin my project by making the throttle quadrant first. There are two ways I can go about this (that I know of):

• Buy two saitek throttle quadrants and merge them together, which would give me six slots - 2 Throttle, 2 Reversers, 1 Spoiler and 1 Flap, plus six switches that I have yet to decide a purpose for

< OR >

• Buy an Arduino chipset and Make my own throttle box, which might give me more room to customize, but I need to know: can Arduino chipsets support incremental controls like throttles, or do they only support simple on/off states?

Do fellow simmers here have a preference over these two options for custom cockpits? Are there any other recommendations?


Thanks,
Leif

[Roarkr]

I'm tired of flying the PMDG 737 with only a joystick, so I've decided to splurge and build a whole cockpit. My budget isn't bad, but it isn't great either (let's say maybe... a few thousand dollars over the course of one year).

Anyways, I want to begin my project by making the throttle quadrant first. There are two ways I can go about this (that I know of):

• Buy two saitek throttle quadrants and merge them together, which would give me six slots - 2 Throttle, 2 Reversers, 1 Spoiler and 1 Flap, plus six switches that I have yet to decide a purpose for

< OR >

• Buy an Arduino chipset and Make my own throttle box, which might give me more room to customize, but I need to know: can Arduino chipsets support incremental controls like throttles, or do they only support simple on/off states?

Do fellow simmers here have a preference over these two options for custom cockpits? Are there any other recommendations?


Thanks,
Leif

Hei,

If you want to use the PMDG B737 you should go for the option 1 ( Saitek) and build the other cockpit functions based on Opencockpits and OC4BA.


This is by far the least expensive solution to build a "real" HomeCockpit aorund the PMDG B737 software.

Just my opinion

Roar

[OmniAtlas]

You could use saitak handles -- http://www.flightsimpm.com/products#...=0&sort=normal

[kesomir]

Buy an Arduino chipset and Make my own throttle box, which might give me more room to customize, but I need to know: can Arduino chipsets support incremental controls like throttles, or do they only support simple on/off states?
Do fellow simmers here have a preference over these two options for custom cockpits? Are there any other recommendations
Leif

The arduino has analogue inputs, the uno has six, the mega has sixteen. They have 1024 increments and can read between 0 and 5 volts.

I really like the arduino, but if not motorising, you could consider Leo bodnar joystick card or pokeys, both a little more expensive and probably a little easier to set up.

The first option of going with the saiteks would likely be easier though and have you flying quicker