Update to my motion platform - phase 1 complete!

[louisgr]

Hi guys,

Well after many months of work (my wife calls me the caveman!) I finally "finished" phase 1 of my sim. Phase 1 is: a workable 2 axis motion platform, 180 visual, an instructor station and a screen to simulate the panels. I unfortunately don't have the beautiful cockpit that you guys have with the real instruments but that's the next phase. For now, I think I'm going to play!!! (I was so busy building that thing I never had time to fly!). Here's some information on what I have built so far:

1- Motion Platform:

Here's the link to my earlier posting about the description of my motion platform:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/show...t=motion+cheap.

It works pretty well but I must say that the platform is finicky about balance i.e. the same weight on pilot and co-pilot or else the thing will not come back from one side!. The advantage is that it's easy to build. The more I think of it, I spent most of my time writing the software cues for this thing than actually doing the building part. The cues I've programmed are:

0- Start of engine (platform jolts a bit)
1- Runway bumps
2- turning hard (rudder) during taxi will make you go the opposite way (tilt the platform left or right)
3- Acceleration and deceleration while taxi (tilt the platform up or down)
4- A lot of acceleration during takeoff (tilt the platform up a lot)
5- roll while in the air
6- pitch while in the air
7- touchdown (landing) with amplitude proportional to your vertical speed.

Note that these are done with 2 axes only and they give ok results. I've been a few times in a "real" sim with 6 DOF and I'm so far from it it's not even funny but the whole thing did not cost me too much so I can live with that. Implementing YAW would probably be the next axis to add to my platform.


2- Visual

I thought a lot about this and I decided to go with 6 LCD's.

4 of them are for the outside world (Left, Pilot, co-pilot, Right). They all have fresnell glass from 3D Lens (BTW, excellent lens for the price). The fresnell glass adds to the realism as much as the motion. They make you focus at "infinity" so it's like looking outside.
The 2 other LCD's are for the instrument panel and the instructor station.

BTW, I'm running FSX on a EVGA 780i, Q6600 overclocked to 3.4, 4 Gigs or ram on Vista 64. I have 3 9600 GT non-SLI. I run FSX at medium high to High and I have 1 add-on that is mytrafficX 5.1b (I run the commercial traffic at 75% and GA traffic at 50%).

At busy airports (ORD, JFK, etc), I have 12 FPS. The rest of the time (less busy airports, general scenery, etc. I have above 25 FPS).
As you can see I'm very tolerant to low FPS.

3- Enclosure

Made with ABS (plumbing pipes). It's tough and not very heavy. Perfect for a motion platform.


Well that's my update. Here's some pictures (took them with my cell phone. Sorry). As you can see, I just quickly threw a camo tarp on top of the thing. I did not want to be able to see "outside" from the cockpit. This would ruin the experience (your brain would not believe the cues anymore).

Picture description:

DSC00060.jpg Picture of the sim with the camo tarp on it.

DSC00061.jpg Picture showing the ABS pipes (Tarp is somewhat off).

DSC00062.jpg From inside the cockpit looking at the 2 front screens and the panel screen below.

DSC00063.jpg From inside the cockpit looking slightly to the right. You can see the 2 front screens, the right screen and the instruction station screen right below the right screen.


cheers

Louis

[AndyT]

Very nice. Now after you put some faces on the inside, you will be amazed how good it looks. I would strongly suggest a ventilation fan. It's going to get hot under that tarp.

[meo_udon]

Good work and very interesting. I'm wait for see your 6DOFs.

[louisgr]

Thanks Andy. Phase 2 is about making this thing pretty. You're right, some faces on the inside should do it. Yes it is mucho very hot in there! I bought a bathroom ceiling fan today and will install it tomorrow for sure.

cheers