Orbitor simpit build

[BHawthorne]

I'm thinking on doing an orbitor simpit. I'm looking for any ideas or suggestions. I'm leaning towards a custom DG variant build at the moment. I like the DG but I'd like to design the cockpit to fit the hardware I have available. I want to have the simpit be as immersive as possable with the hardware I have sitting around.

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13817

 

[tl8]

Good Luck, I haven't seen any completed projects yet, but I hope too soon

 

[yagni01]

Check out the cockpit page on the Orbiter wiki: http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/Orbiter_cockpits

 

[estar]

I would love it if somebody could find a joystick that could serve as a translation controls. Basically the problem is that it needs to be either

Push in and out
Up down
Left Right
Apollo needs also to twist left and right.

 

[yagni01]

I would love it if somebody could find a joystick that could serve as a translation controls. Basically the problem is that it needs to be either

Push in and out
Up down
Left Right
Apollo needs also to twist left and right.

There are two ways to do it with common joysticks. Use a joystick with a throttle lever as third axis, or an actual 3-axis (twist) joystick. Logitech and Saitek both make one. A translation controller using push/pull ala shuttle would have to be a home-build, as there is nothing available that I could find commercially.

If anyone does find one, share the good news.

 

[lockingtoggle]

I plan to use an arcade joystick and have it switched rot/lin with a switch. I don't se why it wouldn't work. Any thoughts?

 

[Hielor]

I plan to use an arcade joystick and have it switched rot/lin with a switch. I don't se why it wouldn't work. Any thoughts?

The problem with using a normal 2- or 3-axis (twist) stick for a THC is that there's no "natural" way to map rcs up/down. If you map stick forward/back to rcs forward/back and stick left/right to rcs left/right, you're left with stick twist for rcs up/down which doesn't feel right.

 

[lockingtoggle]

The push and pull should be rather easy to add to a arcade joystic. I'll give it a try soon.

 

[BHawthorne]

I have settled on doing a SpaceShipOne simpit instead of DG. There are others doing a DG, so I wanted to do something new. Anyone have any suggestions for reference resources? I'd like to get the shape pretty accurate on the build. Doing tentative math on it the widest part of the cockpit section is only 4.5ft across and the interior is around 8-9ft deep. I might shorten that a bit and leave out the back 2 seats area. Without the passenger seat area the size is pretty ideal for a build. My plan is to do an accurate and detailed CAD model of the build before I start. I'm trained in CATIA, SolidWorks and AutoCAD.


-----Posted Added-----

Good Luck, I haven't seen any completed projects yet, but I hope too soon

I'm pretty confident that I'll complete the build. I also own a real F-84F fuselage I'm converting into a simpit too. That's my big project at the moment.

 

[Redburne]

I would love it if somebody could find a joystick that could serve as a translation controls. Basically the problem is that it needs to be either

Push in and out
Up down
Left Right
Apollo needs also to twist left and right.

There is one: SpaceNavigator
And in addition to what their picture shows, it even twists left or right (full 6DOF).

There are, however two (minor) problems.
First, it does not normally register as a game device. As a workaround, there is a somewhat hackish third party driver which overcomes that problem.
And second, it is not very precise (little wonder, given the size). I had to use very large deadzones in Fly-By-Wire to use it without accidentally activating unwanted RCS thrusters.

 

[AstroCam]

Hmmm, maybe getting two old joystick, and mounting one on top of another - one will have to be hacked up. If you end up making Lifelike RCS controllers, please post lots of screenies - i'd like some as well

 

[yagni01]

There is one: SpaceNavigator
And in addition to what their picture shows, it even twists left or right (full 6DOF).

There are, however two (minor) problems.
First, it does not normally register as a game device. As a workaround, there is a somewhat hackish third party driver which overcomes that problem.
And second, it is not very precise (little wonder, given the size). I had to use very large deadzones in Fly-By-Wire to use it without accidentally activating unwanted RCS thrusters.

I had looked at it and discounted it for those reasons. So do you still use it, or was it just experimental? If FBW had the rate and pulse modes we discussed before, would it be more useable?


-----Posted Added-----

Hmmm, maybe getting two old joystick, and mounting one on top of another - one will have to be hacked up. If you end up making Lifelike RCS controllers, please post lots of screenies - i'd like some as well

I was thinking not so much two joysticks as cannablizing a single two-axis joystick that had a z-axis lever, mounted on a traveller of some kind that was rewired to a separate pot connected to the z-axis input. It would need to be spring loaded to be self-centering.

 

[Redburne]

So do you still use it, or was it just experimental?

My "justification" for buying it was Google Earth, and I still use it for that purpose.

For Orbiter, I found it a bit too clumsy for one-handed use, because it slides on the table surface. Besides, I'm quite happy with keyboard RCS control.

On the other hand, if I were building a simpit, I'd give it another chance. Mounted on a stable surface, an armrest, for example, it could work quite well.

[highlight]Edit: Just tried it again and could not get any decent configuration which would be usable. The "roll" axis did not work at all. Maybe I've accidentally messed up my SpaceNavigator config while experimenting with the game device drivers, months ago. But don't rush out and buy one, just now ...[/highlight]

If FBW had the rate and pulse modes we discussed before, would it be more useable?

Definitely, yes.

It might also benefit from a "one-command-at-a-time-only" mode. That is, if the controller settings are, say, 63% translate forward, 13% rotate right, and 3% down, all but the 63% forward would be discarded. This would allow for smaller deadzones but with the obvious downside that you could not command two separate RCS maneuvers at the same time.

For all I (do not) know, such a mode might actually be realistic for the space shuttle and Apollo.

 

[BHawthorne]

There are like 4-5 seperate active simpit threads in the general forums. I'd like to ask a moderator if we couldn't move all these to a new simpit subforum. It would be helpful as not to spam the general forums with a bunch of builder threads about specific simpit build questions. I'd be willing to help moderate it if noone else wanted to. Just a thought. It looks like there is enough interest that the sub-forum wouldn't be dead weight. A sub-forum for helping everyone with simpits would be useful. There is enough interest in the subject to make the sub-forum justified imho.

 

[yagni01]

There are like 4-5 seperate active simpit threads in the general forums. I'd like to ask a moderator if we couldn't move all these to a new simpit subforum. It would be helpful as not to spam the general forums with a bunch of builder threads about specific simpit build questions. I'd be willing to help moderate it if noone else wanted to. Just a thought. It looks like there is enough interest that the sub-forum wouldn't be dead weight. A sub-forum for helping everyone with simpits would be useful. There is enough interest in the subject to make the sub-forum justified imho.

Some of us tried to promote that on M6, and I brought it up to Tex a few months ago. Hopefully with more threads he will see the light What we came up with on M6 was to suggest everyone start any flightdeck threads with a HARDWARE: tag to make them easy for us to find. We could do that here until he decides.

I think what would be more useful is for those of us to continue populating the cockpits page on the wiki with more howto information.

I'll also ask Tex for a gallery subject for our images.

 

[TSPenguin]

What we came up with on M6 was to suggest everyone start any flightdeck threads with a HARDWARE: tag to make them easy for us to find.

Giving all threads a "simpit" tag might be a good start.
I doubt there will be a dedicated forum for simpit building, since these threads have the habbit of seeking an early death...

 

[BHawthorne]

Giving all threads a "simpit" tag might be a good start.
I doubt there will be a dedicated forum for simpit building, since these threads have the habbit of seeking an early death...

Worse case, I suppose I could run my own forum for space simpit builds. I plan on having a website for my simpits anyways. I'd rather not have to deal with the forum administration though. I would have prefered a subforum here.

 

[Hielor]

Giving all threads a "simpit" tag might be a good start.
I doubt there will be a dedicated forum for simpit building, since these threads have the habbit of seeking an early death...

There are subforums for specific addon developers that have less than 5 threads in them, total. In the last two weeks alone there have been more than 5 threads on simpits.

 

[BHawthorne]

I'd like to believe that there is enough interest to justify a simpit sub-forum. IMHO, the reason why simpit threads fizzle out is that they loose focus because they're thrown in with so many other general threads. A sub-forum could better focus help for simpit specific issues such as control interfacing, shell building and visualization/projection tricks. These kind of topics sort of lose themselves in the noise of a general forum. They would be best served with a sub-forum where topics like this could have thier own threads. Using the general sub-forum doesn't really allow for builders to make threads about such specific issues, and the topics end up getting burried 30 posts into some single simpit thread.

 

[TSPenguin]

Good Point

I'll talk to Tex about it.