Category: Cockpit project

Screen rebuild – update

January 14, 2017

I started work on my screen rebuild this weekend, but it quickly became apparent that it’s really hard to cut decent, accurate curves with a simple jigsaw and my limited cut supports and space. I really want this to work properly so I never have to consider building the screen again.

Having taken down the existing screen surface, I’ve decided that the underlying frame is itself not fit for purpose. Specifically, it’s a bit wonky. It’s the best I could do with my limited skills, but it’s just not good enough.

So (deep breath), I broke out the CAD program and drew up a set of parts for a completely new frame and screen assembly, calculated to be millimetre-perfect for the projectors that I’m using. I’ve just sent the CAD drawing off to a CNC cutting house for a quote to cut the parts. Provided it’s not super-expensive – and there’s no reason it should be – then I’ll have the parts cut and delivered to me, and from those I can build a new screen assembly and projector gantry.

I’ll update you when I know more…

UPDATE 23/01/17: I’ve commissioned a local design firm with the right CNC cutting equipment to cut the parts for me. Hopefully they’ll be ready this week. In which case, a build log will be forthcoming after the weekend…

UPDATE 25/01/17: Nope. The parts will not be coming until next week. So building will have to wait until next weekend. Sorry!

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Screen / gantry rebuild

January 5, 2017

What? Am I mad? Well, maybe, but since I got the sim running I’ve been plagued with display problems and these come down to two main things:

  1. The screen has multiple distortions on it due to joins and flexing, and is not properly semi-circular.
  2. The projectors are badly aligned and keep moving.

These leave me with a sub-optimal experience and it’s only really become obvious since I started using the sim.

So – I’m going to rebuild the screen yet again, and also re-mount the projectors.

I’m going to cut four semi-circular support rings which will be mounted to the original frame and will leave a properly circular guide against which to attach the screen material. I will replace the hardboard with new board. With the continuous circular guide, rather than relying on four mounting points, the board should conform properly to the shape and have no dips and bumps. Then I’ll paint it with the long-awaited Screen Goo paint.

I’m also going to re-mount the projectors. To do this, I’m going to take down the current gantry and replace the wooden cross-bars – which, like all wood I can get from a DIY store, is warped and not completely straight – with square-section steel tubes. This will not only get me a dead straight run, but also improve the structural rigidity of the whole system.

Then I’m going to make my own projector mounts. The current mounts are meant for AV systems and are fire-and-forget – that is, you set them up and leave them; but they don’t do well being adjusted on-the-fly as I’ve been having to do, and it’s impossible to tighten then up enough to stop any movement without losing the careful positioning I’ve already done. I will replace them with my own design which will be rigid and allow for adjustment using bolts. I can get them into place and adjust them in-situ without losing the other settings I’ve made.

I’ll do a video / entry on this whole process and show you how I do it. I hope to have the sim back up and running by next week, the week after at the latest. With a stable and properly aligned visual system, the software tasks of blending the views etc should get a lot easier.

The big 2016 update!

December 31, 2016

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So, when I last left you – bar my recent video – I was happily building consoles and pedestals and integrating my hardware.

I decided some months ago to go down the multi-channel route with Prepar3d; using multiple PCs networked together to render my outside views, primarily for performance reasons. Standalone image-generator PCs will always out-perform a single-PC system rendering multiple outside views. Since I needed a 180 degree view and this can’t be achieved with P3D (or FSX) because of the way that the view rendering works, I would have needed multiple side-by-side sectional windows to get a full outside view.
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Blog name change

December 23, 2016

I’ve changed the name of this blog to The Back Bedroom Pilot, to better reflect my project and its current status. After all, I’m building a sim in my back bedroom!

I’m also preparing content for a new YouTube channel of the same name where I will be keeping up to speed with the project progress. I expect to do more videos than blog posts going forward, but I’ll put links to all the videos on the blog too, so if you’ve already subscribed, you’ll still get all the news.

Merry Christmas to my vanishingly small audience, and I’ll see you in the New Year with lots more content… because the sim is up and running!

The update before the update

December 11, 2016

A super-quick update before a much longer post – or series of posts – that will follow in the lead-up to Christmas.

It’s been a few months since I last posted, but I haven’t been idle in the meantime. I’ve completed the console and screen, mounted all the electronics and components, assembled all the PCs, wired the whole thing up, and I’m now installing and testing all the software that’s needed for the simulator. I should have first flight – in a very early version of the sim – before Christmas. Probably this coming week, in fact.

I’ll do a post bringing things up to date, and then I’ll document the running up of the sim up to the point of first flight. I’ll probably do several of these updates in the form of video blogs which will be posted on YouTube but available from this site.

This is a major milestone for me. It’s not the full, enclosed-cockpit sim that I was aiming for and still want to do, and it’s certainly only the start of a much longer project that will run for as long as I care about this hobby, but it will be the first time since I started this project back in 2009 (yes, it’s been that long!) that I’ll have something complete that I can fly without compromises. And that’s a very nice Christmas present for me, and my intrepid readers. All three of you.

A couple of photos to whet your appetite:

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Fairly brief update

August 4, 2016

There’s a much longer update coming in a few days, hopefully. But as a summary, I’ve been working on the pedestal and console and the various panels that will fit on each.

I’ve abandoned the previous pedestal frame and built a new mini-pedestal that only holds my Throttletek flightbox. Why? Well, the pedestal I had built was quite large and frankly I didn’t need something that big in the space I have available. Also, my plan to put a screen in there to use as CDUs and weather radar was compromised when I decided to go down the G1000 glass cockpit route – I wanted a large central touch-screen for an enhanced G1000 setup that could do double-duty as Boeing or Airbus or Avidyne avionics. I decided to separate the CDU part from the main pedestal, and to use the two 7″ touch-screen displays I had originally planned to make radio panels from as the CDU panels instead.

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Quick progress update

May 8, 2016

This will be super-quick, in fact. I’m continuing to work on the pedestal – a couple of photos follow – and I hope this will be ready to go soon.

I’ve been having a think (and yes, I know that’s always a dangerous thing for me) and I’ve decided to make some changes to the projection screen frame. Specifically, I’m going to re-build the gantry part. I’ve never really been happy with the compromise solution I came up with for mounting the projectors. They hang out in space on wooden arms that flex and let them bounce up and down, and once the fans get going they reach some kind of resonant frequency and the whole image starts to vibrate subtly.

So I’ll build a new gantry arrangement that will allow me to mount the projectors directly to the gantry beam. I now have a few spare bits of sturdy timber that can be used for such a purpose. But I still think the gantry will need bracing, and I don’t want to put a support that goes to the floor as I think it will get in the way of the seats. I’m going to put in some kind of mount for an overhead touch-screen which is reasonably heavy, so the whole artifice will need quite a lot of support. I may end up bracing stuff up to the ceiling and screwing into the roof joists. Not 100% sure about that, so I’ll have a longer think before I actually do anything.

More news when I have it.

 

Consoling myself

April 24, 2016

WP_20160423_17_57_17_RichYou always get the punniest titles with this blog. It must be the old sub-editor in me coming out. Anyway, it’s been a while since the last update and I have gotten a few things done, so I wanted to share progress notes with you (though I’m also live-tweeting the build as it goes at @neilhewitt, if you want to follow along).

With the replacement screen more or less finished – it still needs trimming, and I haven’t put the final coat of Screen Goo on it because I want to be ultra-sure this is the one before I open that expensive tin – I moved on to the rest of the mini-pit. I mentioned the console I was building in my last update, by which time I had just built a console frame and was talking about swappable modules to mount on it.

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