DIY Simulators. Simracing, Flight simulators and more

Got some help carrying the ViperPit from the basement into my man cave today and since I got the peripherals operational again already, and got Ace Combat 7 on a sale, which seemed to be a good fit, I decided to play that first: https://makertube.net/w/wiKFYNPaKhhCmrrz3aGLYb / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEPK0lHX_3s

Little did I know what a pain in the neck it would be to get this running. No, Linux wasn't the problem. That was just Press Play, as usual.

There is however no settings menu for HOTAS joysticks so any mapping has to be done by manually editing the Input.ini of the game in an text editor, which is a guessing game. Head tracking is also a no go. I pulled the old trick to map the head tracker to a virtual XBOX controller but the game comes with an annoying deadzone where the camera snaps to the center.

Ah well, got it all working okay-ish in the end and enjoyed some pew pew in the skies. There seem to be plenty of Macross mods too so trying that will be next 🤘

This is just using a sheet of foam core board from the dollar store. It's almost done. I have the lower panel, parking brake and trim wheel still to work out. It's coming along

Interview: In depth walkthrough of my insane home cockpit panel with BekoPharm and Ozoned

https://makertube.net/w/bufv9BJv2vcXDb3KUaksB7 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpP7KS1fbrY

@ozoned@video.thepolarbear.co.uk interviewed me on my #homeCockpit on a live stream via his #Owncast instance at https://stream.ozoned.net/. This is a more condensed version of the stream that is still just 1h shy. We're going over almost every feature of my Primary Buffer Panel and I explain how everything works. I also decided to add various photos, slideshows or video snippets during the talk only sections so things don't get too boring. Sometimes that even complements the talks 😄

Ever wondered how to start your own DIY cockpit / SimPit? It's easy. Just watch this stream 🤓

Dedicated project website: https://simpit.dev/

Check out the original recording if you want to see more or the full stream with more [dirty] details: https://video.thepolarbear.co.uk/w/9zNcweVw2fxxpSrmBnaQJa

https://makertube.net/w/2kXhAFoRsXH6EYfyyZtLJ5

This is how I modified my ancient ThrustMaster RCS (Rudder Pedals) of my ViperPit and made it work again with the help of an Arduino Pro Micro. The pedals (and also the other peripherals) do belong in a museum but where's the fun in that? Now it's a generic USB joystick that works on any recent system. I focus mostly on the programming with VSCode and Platform IO this time and show the complete setup and programming of the Arduino after I make the required hardware changes to the pedals.

Testdrive of the pedals: https://makertube.net/w/3h8jcaxfoT8we17J7n5i3f

https://makertube.net/w/3h8jcaxfoT8we17J7n5i3f

This is me testing out my revived Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick, rudder pedals and Cougar throttle quadrant of my ViperPit. All 3 were refitted for USB-C with Arduino Pro Micros. I also recently got the VITURE Pro XR glasses that I'm also trying here. They work just awesome on Linux especially with the [optional] Breezy Desktop project https://github.com/wheaney/breezy-desktop by https://www.youtube.com/@WayneHeaney. The game is X4: Foundations with the Battlestar Galactica mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1167

The cockpit panel is part of my VF-1 inspired home cockpit which interfaces with X4 via a homebrew Lua socket I programmed. You can read more of this on the dedicated project page at https://simpit.dev/

This is just the testing part (with the Viture XR on top as extra). The making part takes another day and video kinda became too long so I decided to release this as standalone - show casing what can be done.

If you enjoy SimPit|s (or any home cockpit / simulated cockpit) and Battlestar Galactica make sure to also check the awesome Colonial Viper builds of https://www.youtube.com/@projectcolonialviper2094 and https://www.youtube.com/@BuildsByBaz 🤘

This is one of the cockpits that inspired me to start working on my own: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1gNmbLAhjw

The topic came up so I had to look up the channel and I think this deserves some more attention. I really hope that we'll see one day some updates on this project ❤️

This is a heavily cut playtest of my revived Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick and Cougar throttle quadrant of my ViperPit. Both were refitted for USB-C with Arduino Pro Micros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

The cockpit panel is part of my VF-1 inspired home cockpit which interfaces with X4 via a homebrew Lua socket I programmed. You can read more of this on the dedicated project page at https://simpit.dev/

The game is X4: Foundations with the Battlestar Galactica mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1167

If you enjoy SimPit|s (or any home cockpit / simulated cockpit) and Battlestar Galactica make sure to also check the awesome Colonial Viper builds of https://www.youtube.com/@projectcolonialviper2094 and https://www.youtube.com/@BuildsByBaz 🤘

This video is how I gutted my already modified old Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick of my ViperPit and made it work again with the help of an Arduino Pro Micro. This flight stick (and also the other peripherals) do belong in a museum but where’s the fun in that? I modified it and now it’s a generic USB joystick that works on any recent system. I focus mostly on the 5x5 button matrix since this is the hardest part to understand. In the end are a few minutes of playing X4 Foundations with it to give it a good test run. Now it just needs some oil for the creaking 😅

https://makertube.net/w/qrqqZLr2QvJFjCwyNzzAmp / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

I made a snap purchase. Kinda a shame that the seller gave up this hobby. Sold everything for an apple and an egg. It's a ViperPit loosely based on a F-16 with a wild mix of panels and hardware. Nothing of this is functional though. Yet.

Winter may come! I wonder if I can convert it into a VF-0 (or mount my VF-1 panel on the frame) 🤔

Man… the feel of those lovely switches and dials alone ❤️

I hope this isn't too far outside the scope of this community; I just thought the people here would find it interesting how the same engineering problems were solved before computers were ubiquitous.

This works way better than I expected. This is a static image test for a HUD on my home cockpit using a dead cheap beamsplitter made of plexiglass and a smartphone.

This works by placing a smartphone (or really any kind of fitting display) below it. The beansplitting characteristic allows some of the light to pass through and will mirror whatever is on the phone display below it. The image is inverted though so a HUD mode requires an already mirrored display mode. There are apps for this but since I use HTML for all my GUI stuff I can probably just use CSS for this task. Most of the work was finding out how to get Firefox to do fullscreen (which can be requested via JS from a user interaction - so it has to be some sort of clickable element) and get it to keep the display always on.

A more advanced build would use a beamsplitter glass. This thing here is "designed" for cars and is according to the review a really bad product because it doesn't work well with day light or likes to slide around. All problems my desk does not have, of course, so I got this on a whim to see how it would look and I'm mind-blown with the result already 🤓 What do you think?

Originally noted at https://beko.famkos.net/2024/09/06/15629330/