homebuilt cockpit parts

[AcId]

Ok, so the dev...I mean beautiful wife has given me the green light on building a cockpit  (she has no idea what she's in for). I've settled on the basic dimensions, no canopy(yet), it'll be modular so I can easily move it in pieces but it will not be flat board construction tabbed together (too hoakey). Ofcourse I'll integrate my  X45 and chpeds but I want to do more than that. Afterall it's a cockpit, I'll have toggles and pushbuttons but I'd like to do more like include additional pots for stuff like rpm's, trim, and additional throttle levers for multi-engined aircraft. As far as the toggles & buttons are concerned I've got those covered, either with a keyboard emulator or I'll just by a USB keyboard and rip it apart. What I don't have a clue on is how to do the additional pots. Anyone have any info or links of relevance? I've been to simpits but most of their stuff seems outdated and other stuff they say you can do it but don't provide a step-by-step. I'm not building this as an experiment so stuff that actualy works would be desired.


Oh and it's not all just a pipe dream either....I'v already started cutting the joints into the 2x4's that'll make up the floor, and am actively producing sketches for the rest.

[Revvin]

Sounds like a nice project, try looking at the Hagstrom, X-Keys MAtrix or the EPIC interface boards.

[AcId]

Appreciate the links Revvin, have been considering using the X-keys (USB) for a while now but I'm not going to purchase that equipment until I'm ready to install and am 100% certain that's what I want. I considered the EPIC a while back but an EISA card is not an option for me. So I'm still stuck with no extra pots for axi. There was something about a USB EPIC in development in 2001, I wonder if they gave up.

[Eagler]

set aside $$ for one one these:

http://www.ivibe.com

they add a bunch to the game

[sprint]

I have had a seat for a long time now and I love it .. dont fly with out it.


sprint
*MOL*

[Chairboy]

Here's the keyboard encoder I use:

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

The I-PAC is very versatile and powerful.  It can be connected to via USB or PS/2, and it has a keyboard passthrough so you can hide a real keyboard somewhere for when working on the computer that drives your sim.

The I-Pac is a much better value then the Hagstrom stuff, it gives you the functionality of the KE-72 for half the cost.

The EPIC stuff is awesome, but it may be a bit overpowered for what you want to do.  For example, if you want to (in addition to getting keyboard inputs) measure voltage from a knob and drive physical instruments, it's perfect, but figure out your design and the scale of your construction before you start.

[minus]

heh, spend creazy time 1 years a go all around controlers,

have a tip for any 1 who like to have home build control panel or copkit, if you use  Win XP and any recent PC  just buy a second  usb keyboard  , open it  fix swithches in the way how you need

and it works fineee

[AcId]

Originally posted by minus
heh, spend creazy time 1 years a go all around controlers,

have a tip for any 1 who like to have home build control panel or copkit, if you use  Win XP and any recent PC  just buy a second  usb keyboard  , open it  fix swithches in the way how you need

and it works fineee

 lol, about 5 minutes ago I grabbed a USB keyboard that was 'broken' and took it apart. Plugged it into my desktop and started jumping connections with a wire while notepad was open, voila keystrokes hehehe.

   Also, I just found out about a nice little gadget from Radio Shack 'USB Gameport converter'. You can plug in a Gameport connection to this sucker and it's USB going out the back side. It supports 4 pots and 4 buttons, so I could wire the pots &buttions to a standard gameport connector and plug that into the USB converter