Home build in Essex

[BAW19]

Hi all, thought I'd share the fruits of my efforts! It uses GoFlight for AP and radios, BetaInnovations for the circuit boards, Ellie Systems and CockpitSolutions for the displays and Maplin, B&Q and CFS for just about everything else (oh, and not forgetting MachineMart - they made a fortune out of me for tooling up!!!)



All the best

Ian

[JBaymore]

Hi Ian..........

Good to see you over here.

[BAW19]

Hiya John - our paths seem to cross all the time don't they, lol!!!

Yeah, in fact I have 4 working displays:

1. Captains PFD (Ellie) and ND (Cockpitware)
2. F/Os PFD (Ellie) and ND (Cockpitware)
3. Upper EICAS (CockpitSolutions)
4. Lower EICAS (my own VB6/FSUIPC synoptics - 6 screens)

The MIPs are 19"" LCD Dell monitors and the two EICAS displays are 12" LCDs from IBM. The LEDs (gear lights and Fire handles) are driven by a Phidgets board but all the switches are read using BetaInnovations cards which are rock solid. There you've started me off now....!

MachineMart are a UK tool shop. I've spend a small fortune in there this year buying lathes, band saws, sanders, drills, gauges,

[JSpahn]

Well done, I kinda wish my cockpit had that look. Why are you flying on the right? British I assume?

[BAW19]

Hehe, no I'm right handed - I've tried flying on the Captain's side and I just can't get used to handling the yoke with my left hand and the throttles with my right. It's filled me with a new kind of dread to think about all those freshly promoted Airbus captains trying to use a tiddly little joytickwith the wrong hand (give it a try yourself!)

[Hagar]

Hehe, no I'm right handed - I've tried flying on the Captain's side and I just can't get used to handling the yoke with my left hand and the throttles with my right. It's filled me with a new kind of dread to think about all those freshly promoted Airbus captains trying to use a tiddly little joytickwith the wrong hand (give it a try yourself!)  ;D

Keep practising. Pilots have to be ambidextrous & there is no right or wrong hand. You would have to use the wrong hand to fly even a simple trainer like the Cessna 152 or Piper Cherokee.*

*PS. That's what makes them good trainers.

[pepper_airborne]

Sweet looking cockpit! Wish i had the money to make that!

[BAW19]

Still looking for co-pilots (can't believe there are so few in Essex!!)

New picture at the top of the thread for anyone interested.

Ian

[stevehookem]

That's what I hope to have someday soon! Awesome job!

Can you tell me about the computers? What is the makeup of your computer running the FS (and what FS are you running) and the makeup of the client computers?

What make projector?

[BAW19]

Hi Steve

I use two computers for the sim and a third in another room for flight planning etc (once you get past a certain point it gets a bit awkward to use the sim PCs for email etc).

All three machines were sourced from the same place (AutDirect) and are all AMD AM2 4200+ machines with 4gb RAM, 160gb hard drives and nvidia cards (fastest is a humble 7950GT but it dipslays FSX fine).

One machine runs FSX, the Cockpit Solutions server, FSInn and some home made EICAS software, another run the actual client gauges from Cockpits solutions, Ellie Systems EADI and ND gauges and both machines run some home made hardware interfaces to read switches and fire up the LEDs for things like the landing gear panel lights. The thirds currently runs FSCommander, Servinfo, Simplates. a home made cargo generator and a home made Weather map generator (that's crude and un-finished!).

They all talk across a home netwokd and use FSUIPC/Wide client to swap data.

Hope that gives you what you need! I'm being hugely enconomical in terms of electricity for my set up. Some builders prefer to use lots of old PCs that have been thrown out by schools and business. One cockpit I know of has something like 14 machines running his cockpit (they have a lot of really good software!!). Each machine performs one task on it's own so it doesn't need to be big or powerful but the trade-off is space,

[stevehookem]

Thanks for the info.

OK, what do you use for the actual glare shield, panel, screens, etc.? If I wanted to make my sim look like this, can you put the pieces down on paper or is it too much?

I am a little overwhelmed by all the different places to get parts, gauges, panels, racks, etc. I don't really even know where to start.

I have the fast computer to run FSX. I have another "medium" fast computer to run the glass software. I just ordered the full set of software (captain/FO) from http://www.sim-avionics.com so I guess I am leaning towards the 777 (but really want more of a generic two engine commercial jet.)

What's the first step towards getting something that I "touch" to control something that I "see"? If that makes sense.....

[stevehookem]

One more quick question: who has hardware FMC's? If you have dummies, how do you set the info in the FS? Do you still have a keyboard there?

[BAW19]

I don't use hardware FMCs - far far too expensive! Most people build their own with components from companies like Hispapanels to bring the cost down from something like

[BAW19]

OK, what do you use for the actual glare shield, panel, screens, etc.? If I wanted to make my sim look like this, can you put...

Ah - sorry! I'm afraid the challenge of building is figuring it all out and I really don't have any plans - it's all done on the back of beer mats so I have nothing I can pass on sorry
If it helps there are webstiese all over the net that hint at measurements and dimensions - I just surfed and surfed until I found the rough sizes and then worked out the rest. The pedestal and main panels are MDF and the glareshield is hardboard over pine battons.

I am a little overwhelmed by all the different places to get parts, gauges, panels, racks, etc. I don't really even know where to start.
If your're a newebie all you can really do is Google what you need and surf forums like these for tips. I've put some links at the foot of this topic - don't know if they'll help.

What's the first step towards getting something that I "touch" to control something that I "see"? If that makes sense.....
I started buy taking an old joystick apart and putting longer wires and bigger switches on the oneose I found inside. When I boxed it up I had a little panel I used to turn the autopilot funtions on and off. Once I'd done that I bought a

[Mictheslik]

That looks very nice.......how about a UK SimV meetup....I know where

.mic