Weather Radar & an Interesting Idea

[JSpahn]

Was flying around KPHIL during heavy T-Storms trying out the SA_WXR weather radar(which is cool) and I got an interesting idea.


I use to own a Toyota Avalon, thing was the car was so tight an road noise was almost non-existent. What those crazy engineers did was the climate control always had a slight breeze when the vehicle was moving which increased when your speed increased. This effect gave you the feeling of motion. I'm sure most pit builders use this trick.

My idea while I was flying around in heavy turbulence, understanding that FS outputs wind speed, direction, turbulence, there should be a way to hook some fans to a speed control which is interfaced to an IO card. If done right this could be used to trick your senses. Not only would the air increase with speed but also fluctuate during turbulence. Also it would only have to a slight breeze. Of course this would require some hardcore programming and its way over my head at this point.

Do you guys think this could be done?

[SilverFox441]

Programming not required... it's been done for you (I think).

Using a phidget servo controller tied to a hobby style electronic speed control, and using the FS2Phidget software you can easily make a fan that responds to airspeed.

Having it react to changes of direction is harder... but can be done across the forward arc. You would want to use two fans at 45 degree angles off either side. Using a hobby style electronic mixer you hook one input to speed and another to direction. The end result is a sort of "biased" wind. These type of servo mixers are used for v-tails on planes and twin motor steering on ships/tanks.

Using a third channel, I would probably be able to make it work in either the aft or forward arc by flipping motor polarity depending on whether the relative wind is 270-90 or 90-270. This would also have the effect (in it's simplest form) of having one pair of fans extract air while the other pair was blowing. I can see how to do this... but I don't know if I can electronically mix it or need to make a custom hardware switch. It would take more than the little bit of thought I spent here and some sketching to get the schematic right in my head.  :)

Also possible once that stage is worked out is the possibility to add not only 4 fans (one at each corner), but make it 8. One set of 4 mounted low and one mounted high, use the same type of mixing trick as the direction. This time you mix pitch and roll to assign the value to upper or lower fans.

I don't know about turbulence... haven't given that part any consideration, I don't know how it is output from FS. Probably be able to "pulse" the fans by using the turbulence value as a bias to control all fan voltages... it would pulse low based on the strength of the turbulence.

The only two things left are altitude and acceleration/decceleration. Accel/Deccel can be arranged by pulsing aft fans or fore fans based on which is happening. You would want to do the opposite...ie if accelerating hard you pulse aft fans to simulate the head rocking back into the still air. Altitude is harder... but I get a "fuzzy" feeling that I know how to do it as well... but I'm just not sure. Maybe mix altitude and vertical velocity to get a value to feed to an extra set of fans. Suck extra air out if high/climbing fast, force it in if the situation reverses. Of course, you use cabin altitude and cabin vertical velocity for pressurized types.

I've never heard of a pit that uses anything like this... and other than an open cockpit type I can't figure out why to do it. The tools are available, or very nearly available, anyway. It's just that you don't feel air moving in a sealed cockpit... it's not part of the experience unless it's ventilation air and that doesn't move around it just blows in straight lines. Parts would be expensive... each speed control is about $50-$75. Add in the phidget servo board(s) and then the fans... it gets pricey in a hurry.

[JSpahn]

Thanks for the detailed response, I know a pressurized cabin doesn't have any air flow, I just remember the isolation in my old car and how that slight bit of air connected me to the road. I may try connecting to the  throttle first to see if the desired effect takes place.  

Still a long way off before that happens.

[JBaymore]

masternerd,

Hijacking this thread back to your comment about the SA_WX weather radar.......

Obviously you bought it.  How long did it take to get the activation, and what is your opinion of it?

best,

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

[JSpahn]

Dude well worth the cash.


  It took 3 days but would of been quicker if I would of sent my mac address to the right email. When you start the program it shows your MAC address for the network adapter and asks you to send it too an email. I didnt get the activation so I went to the forum and he is using a different email for registration due to SPAM. Here is the email for you: florian(at)addongauges.com. He may have updated the software with the new email by now.

The manual gives you a pretty good theory of operation so you can learn how to use and interpret the results. Basically it can show percipitation  and turbulence. It will also pick up mountains and there are ways to reduce this by using the tilt options. Here is a link to the manual:
http://www.addongauges.com/SA_WXR.htm#Manual


To see how well it worked I was flying around Philly with heavy T-Storms chasing the storm cells and its dead on. It picks up light pacipitation and heavy. The radar is color coded just like your local news radar.

Really the only negative is the weather events are kinda blocky and I think this is due to how FS9 outputs the data.

I have mine hooked up to the touchscreen computer 500mhz 128meg ram and it runs great. I think you can use it on a computer running 200mhz 64meg ram.

[JBaymore]

When you start the program it shows your MAC address for the network adapter and asks you to send it too an email.

Can you explain this a bit?  For some reasonm "MAC" is not hitting a bell right now.   :-?  Does this mean that the program is "tied" to one specific machine (like IP address)?  I don't even KNOW which machine I'll run it on.  Likely it will get moved around as I play with the pit setup.

[quote]
The manual gives you a pretty good theory of operation so you can learn how to use and interpret the results. Basically it can show percipitation

[JSpahn]

Its asks for the MAC address for a particular machine, but he states you can get new files for different MAC addresses, say if you change network adapters or want to run it on a different computer.