Building your own simulator

[Daddy O]

Ten years ago you practically had to be an electrical engineer with a minor in software development to build a decent aircraft simulator, but those days are gone. In this day and age there are so many really great off-the-shelf products that can be dropped into a home-made panel and build a really great simulator. Here is a quick referance of some of those products.


Saitek not only offers throttles, yokes, and pedals, but now they have USB easy to install panels for your simulator.
Radio & transponder panel: www.saitek.com/uk/prod/radio.html
FMS & Flaps: www.saitek.com/uk/prod/multi.html
switch panel: www.saitek.com/uk/prod/switch.html
LCD six-pack instruments: www.saitek.com/uk/blog/

Although Saitek does not offer drivers for Xplane9, you can find drivers on the c-plane.org forums. An avid user made some that work pretty well.


Uhid is a neat little product that allows you connect up to 52 switches, knobs, axis, and even LEDs. USB powered, software is not too difficult to configure, but you will want to buy the wiring harnesses for it. What is neat about this device is that you can make a standard single pole-single throw switch into a dual function switch. A standard toggle switch can raise or lower your gear, be set for continuous or momentary. Pretty cool little device. Compatible with pretty much any software simulator.

www.u-hid.com/home/u_config_utils.php


I have not used this product (primarily because I prefer to achieve this effect with a projector) but if you are a FSX enthusiast then you may consider this. It gives you multi monitor, wideview. Sort of like a bunch of windows.

www.wideview.it/wideview.htm



SimKits offers some really slick steam guages, flight yokes, and even complete control panels that authentically recreate the Cessna 172 panel. These are not cheap though. Each of the servo-driven instruments runs over a hundred dollars, an artificial horizon almost $300. The completed panel about $20k or more But if you have the money, and you want real steam guages (as opposed to instruments rendered on a monitor) then these guys are for you. At this time I don;t think they offer drivers for anything but FSX, but that could change soon.

www.simkits.com/products.php


Oh, I almost forgot. SimKits also offers a real Garmin G1000 glass panel simulator.

www.simkits.com/

Not sure if this will work in X-planes, but under special devices there is an option in X-planes to enable a G1000 simulator. Only $9k. The real thing will run you $40k+



Go Flight makes some really great, affordable panels for your sim. I have not bought any of these, but I have heard from those that did that they worked well enough.
http://www.fspilotshop.com/index.php?ma ... gwodCCcVeg

[Daddy O]

These are some of the sims people have built out there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfR5VNYI2i8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n534e-OL ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yT6OuGX ... ure=fvwrel ---this monitor is rreally nice!

http://www.avsim.com/project757/home2.html ----this one is really spectacular

http://gizmodo.com/#!312735/man-builds- ... is-bedroom

[Charan Kumar]

I was using GoFlight modules and the saitek switch and throttle with XPLane until recently when I had those interesting flights you read in the other post. Turned out that some of them are causing conflict. I don't plan to build a full cockpit as I also control and I want one station for both, but it having those certainly helps with radios/AP/and all other needed switcha-ma-thingys. The reason I chose Go-Flight over Saitek for radios was for XPlane as there is support from GoFlight itself, but the free support for Saitek hasn't fallen short either.

[Daddy O]

This last week I was at SouthWest's training facility in DFW and had a chance to spend 4 hours doing touch and go's in a 737-300 and the newed 737-700. I have mentioned in other posts the possibility of using the new generation of affordable touchscreens in your home simulator. Attached is a photo of a simulator used by airlines to familiarize pilots with the layout of the cockpit. It uses 7 or 8 different touchscreens with photo realistic panels. The rig is dynamic so they can switch it to steam guages if they need to.

touchscreen simulator.jpg (91.73 KiB) Viewed 10132 times

[Daddy O]

Here is a nice pic of the olkder 737-300 simulator built by CAE. I ran about 12 baby-soft landings with this simulator. A lot of fun to fly, but there are a ton of controls to learn on a plane of this size.

adam in a 737-300.jpg (103.69 KiB) Viewed 10132 times

[ianbennett]

Hi,

Here is my simulator, I can help anybody with the construction drawings and spec if needed, just send me a message,

photo:
http://cid-4eb7107445160f4e.skydrive.li ... 160F4E!105

video:
http://cid-4eb7107445160f4e.skydrive.li ... 160F4E!113

Cheers,

[c.b.powell]

Hi,
Here is my simulator, I can help anybody with the construction drawings and spec if needed, just send me a message,

Good grief, that is very very cool. You're a lucky guy to have such an environment!

Chris

[Daddy O]

Here is another product to consider. Sim Avio makes a software program that allows you to build custom control panels, similar to EFIS app but without having to buy a $500 dongle (EFIS app is free but only works with the pro USB key) The software allows you to use multiple monitors, or stetch a panel across multiple screens. The app is only 30mb in size so I would venture to say that it demands a lot less processing power than a full copy of Xplanes. I have not used this software yet, and would be interested in feedback from those that may have.

http://www.flythissim.com/products.aspx

PS: Check out their customer gallery. Always nice to see what other people have put together. One of our very own PE members has his rig on display there.

[Daddy O]

These atre the guys who make some of the hardware in Ian's simulator. Very pretty website, but no links to individual products. I guess they have no need to sell stuff to stay in business.
http://www.vmaxsimulations.com/#!


MadCats bought Vmax recently, so essentially they are Saitek now. Their <Vmax> products are hard to find. According to the site they make some interesting cockpits. But I would expect to pay $5k+ for one.

[steve.huff]

I have a number of their panels. It is a great way to add G1000 or Avidyne glass to a AATD system. each .FTS file is a txt file that is rendered and animated by simAvio software. you can re-size or move the different gauges around. you can than save the new file. In my humble opinion the most versatile cockpit is made by using monitors to render the instruments. I have modified a G1000 spread across 2 screens for the PFD and MFD. It looks great. I hope to change the regular monitors to touch screens at some point.