The Evolution Of My Sims

[No Longer Active]

Just had a look back to when I very first started cockpit building when Ian Sissons answered my very first question 'How do you wire up a button to FS?'........

Learning the basics, I built this....



Discovering SimKits made me want to build a C172 cockpit, not having money, the LCD version was the only option. Shortly after building I realised the sim was too big for my room, had no option but to dismantle it and I gave the MIP to mycockpit member 'flymo' when he bought a pair of my 32" lcd monitors for his 737.



I missed my Cessna 172 cockpit but wanted something smaller. The Cessna 152 MIP was built on an extreme budget, this was hand made, after being frustrated by my sim not looking neat enough, I trashed and ripped the guts out of this:



I then learnt how to use CAD and discovered just how blimmin cheap cnc cutting really is if you do most of the prep work your self, after getting my whole sim cut from cnc, finally I am happy with the progress and functionality of my current and LAST sim I will make......



This sim is still in progress and still loads to do, but it will be good when its finished!


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Having a look back at my old files on my PC over the last 2 years really does bring back some mycockpit memories, heres some of my oldies:

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hello alex....
i'm very happy to have helped start you on this road to discovery.
you did a great job.... well done mate, but i suspect you're not finished yet
good man yourself..... what's next?
rgds ... ian

[Nick1150]

!!!!! That's indeed what evolution means

[nax228]

Hi folks. You have had great progress... evolution at it's best.
My evolution goes something like this:

One screen:


Two screens:


Three screens:


Four screens, and first piece of hardware:



First Pit:




Second pit:


Hope you don't mind me showing my progress from 1 to 8 monitors involved. It's been a fun run so far. Still a long way to go.

[vybhav]

Really interesting, Pictures speak more than 1000 words. Great work

Regards
Vybhav

[smendlik]

Alex & Ian - very impressive evolutions! It's great that you kept a log for just this purpose.

Alex - Can you provide some details of how you fit the rotary encoder in the MIP without touching your LCD? It's a great idea and I'm trying to visualize it in my mind's eye.

[Jordan Farmer]

very good idea to keep all of his to look back and see how youve improved!

As for the rotary's, i think they use 10mm board, and buy rotarys with that depth to fit behind the panel, it os the only real way to do it!

[No Longer Active]

How do I fit rotaries in the panel?

Easy! MIP is 12mm Thick, cut out encoder shaped rectangles next to gauge cut outs and sit the encoder in the hole. Then wire up your encoder to your I/O card (wires hide behind MIP, then glue in place and then squash LCD panel tight against MIP).

Cheers,

Alex

[smendlik]

It's as easy as that! Thanks.

[nax228]

hehehe.... say you're joking,