Category: Pedestal

The big 2016 update!

December 31, 2016

img_0149

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.
Read More

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.

Read More

A weighty decision

April 8, 2010

Today I have made a very important, and significant, decision on the project. I am, basically, going to throw out everything I’ve built so far and start again from scratch.

Lest you think I am mad, there is method to my madness. It all stems from the change in focus of the project to add an enclosure. Having planned it out, it became obvious that the existing console I have built is not ideally constructed to fit into the enclosure I am planning. So I got to thinking about replacing it or at least heavily modifying it. This started me off on a course of thinking, but what really got me was when I worked out how much the enclosure (plus equipment plus people) would weigh. Which is to say, a lot.

Read More

Pedestal interlude

November 2, 2009

As part of my initial build some months back, I put together the shell of the pedestal. This is the bit of any cockpit that sits on the floor between the seats and is usually integrated into the MIP. It’s roughly analagous to the corresponding bit on a car where the gear lever is (on a European-style, rather than US stick-shift style, vehicle). Controls you’ll usually find there include the thottle quadrant, flaps, speedbrake, CDU and radio stack. Other stuff can go there too depending on whether this is a Boeing or an Airbus or Some Other Kind Of Plane. Indeed, the pedestal on a big Boeing or Airbus is a very large thing with many switches and buttons. Just ripe for the sim nut to have all kinds of fun with.

Airbus A340 pedestal

Read More