Obsessive hobbies....

[RCHeliGuy]

Super nice evolution of the gaming rig, love the new transducer addition. Great job Mark.

Every time I read this thread I get tempted to go big on a Sim setup, but I struggle to find the time to play with the toys I already have.
Spent several hours today messing with the Smyth Realizer A16 (Atmos over headphones box), and still have more to do.

I fully expect the Smyth tech (or very similar) to show up in future VR systems. It works quite well if you map out your own impulse response and headphone EQ. But right now, that's a very, very complicated process.
I'll also be creating a mapping of my HT to upload to the Realizer exchange someday. That way those of you with Realizers can 'hear' my room.

I barely have time to use my rig lately, so I'm in the same boat. I've been working 60 hour work weeks against 2 customers for the last almost 2 months now. Between that and my small production run of wheel hangars, I have just barely enough time to spend with my wife and very little time to play. The good news is that I'm having record months in terms of income over my last 12 years of being self employed. I'm currently saving up for a new home with a large dedicated shop space and a dedicated VR play area.

My NX4-6000 is coming back from repair on Tuesday and I'm trying to get my rig ready by then with all my recent ideas. I'm also molding a clutch pedal face out of epoxy to attach to my existing clutch pedal to give it more arc since my toes bend backwards too far since I inverted the pedals. That should be ready by Tuesday as well.

I made a silicone mold of bottom surface of my clutch pedal This is a thick pour epoxy that takes about 3 days to cure, but tomorrow morning I'll be able to take it out of the mold and press it firmly against the clutch plate until it is fully cured and then I'll shape it with a sander. So it will start out as a block with a curved bottom and then I'll shape it to be closer to the VERY ROUGHLY CUT adhesive backed neoprene on edge to the right of the pedal plate.

The next morning.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Just to finish where I left off. I got this mounted, but it's not pretty yet.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Been busy with my 3D printer lately. These are all my from scratch designs.

I started out with a hydration solution.

Then I printed one with a little attitude

Then I thought the bolts holding my direct drive wheelbase in place could use a beauty ring so I created this.

While I had a rough plywood fan mount working, I thought it might be nice to clean things up with a 3D printed version.

Then I thought I might be able to come up with a better way to mount my wheel's USB connector and came up with this.

Now I'm reworking my tactile isolators and I have this printing.
It sandwiches two pieces of Sorbothane around a 1/4" aluminum plate with two transducers mounted under it.
My current solution has a couple noise issues which this should solve.

 

[Robert D]

Great work! Looks professional.

I've got a friend that has his own IT business and he printed a 3d plague mask. Lol.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Professional only means you got paid for it and this is all labor of love stuff, but I am an engineer and I did TA a computer aided design class way way back.

This first draft came out pretty well
I'm elongating the bolt holes by 3mm so I have a bit of wiggle room and a tweaked a couple other things.
The correct bolts arrive tomorrow.

 

[Robert D]

Hopefully the material used for the printer isn't too expensive so that you can have affordable prototypes

 

[RCHeliGuy]

It's dirt cheap as far as I'm concerned. The two parts above cost a combined $1.10 in filament. So a full set of four pairs is $4.40.

A 1kg roll of filament is about $25 and I've yet to run through a roll of anything yet.

I've typically ended up with one prototype, followed by a final version. I'm actually amazed that all the prints are working so well with so little rework.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

BTW I've seen a number of 3D printed speakers now. Think about that for a minute. There are HUNDREDS of designs out there. Some are very interesting looking.

 

[Robert D]

BTW I've seen a number of 3D printed speakers now. Think about that for a minute. There are HUNDREDS of designs out there. Some are very interesting looking.

How do they do that with how large speakers are? Do the make the cabinet out of a bunch of pieces? Wouldn't think it would be very vibration proof.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

My latest 3D printed design was a doozy! I've been working on it for almost 2 months.

Below is the final product and I'm very happy with it.
There are lots of 5x2mm rare earth magnets mostly hidden just under the surface of the control panels.
I still need to 3D print all the labels, but they will be interchangeable helping to make this more flexible.

It is designed to be modular so I can modify the controls I want fairly easily. There are ribbon connectors that plug into each panel and then to a connector in the main wiring enclosure that are then connected to the button controller card.

 

[BigGuy]

My latest 3D printed design was a doozy! I've been working on it for almost 2 months.

Below is the final product and I'm very happy with it.
There are lots of 5x2mm rare earth magnets mostly hidden just under the surface of the control panels.
I still need to 3D print all the labels, but they will be interchangeable helping to make this more flexible.

It is designed to be modular so I can modify the controls I want fairly easily. There are ribbon connectors that plug into each panel and then to a connector in the main wiring enclosure that are then connected to the button controller card.

View attachment 21240
View attachment 21239

One hell of an AV remote controller! ;-)

 

[spkrdctr]

RCHeliGuy, you do realize you have the talent to start your own high end speaker company. Speakers are the easiest product to make and you could easily do it.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

RCHeliGuy, you do realize you have the talent to start your own high end speaker company. Speakers are the easiest product to make and you could easily do it.

I like to solve problems and design things that have never been solved or designed before and that serves a need that I have. I don't see the point in reinventing the wheel on a product like a speaker.

I have surround sound speakers in my media room that work well, monitor speakers in my office that work well, ML's in my den that sound great!, a portable battery operated BT speaker that my wife totes everywhere with her, speakers in my car that do a good job, etc.. etc...

I see no need, certainly my needs are met.

If a product already exists I'll buy it. I only build when there is something I can imagine that doesn't exist yet.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

FWIW today I was playing with labels.
I decided that the right sized label is MENU 1 below. I reduced the print height from 1mm down to 0.6mm and the fonts size down. Now I just need to recreate all the labels the right size.

The labels are all magnetic with standardized offset. I also used a master label to set the magnets just below the surface so all the polarities match to make sure everything was interchangeable.

I had to hammer just a bit too hard to get the magnets into the backs of the labels, so I slightly opened the holes for the magnets.

 

[spkrdctr]

I salute your talents sir!

 

[Russr]

FWIW today I was playing with labels.
I decided that the right sized label is MENU 1 below. I reduced the print height from 1mm down to 0.6mm and the fonts size down. Now I just need to recreate all the labels the right size.



View attachment 21243

The labels are all magnetic with standardized offset. I also used a master label to set the magnets just below the surface so all the polarities match to make sure everything was interchangeable.

I had to hammer just a bit too hard to get the magnets into the backs of the labels, so I slightly opened the holes for the magnets.

View attachment 21244

Are you 3D printing 2 color, or painting raised letters after printing?
Never had much luck with dual-extruder, multi-color printing... always got a bit "smudgy"!

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Are you 3D printing 2 color, or painting raised letters after printing?
Never had much luck with dual-extruder, multi-color printing... always got a bit "smudgy"!

I'm 3D printing 2 colors by simply picking a layer and adding a filament change.

When it gets to that layer the printer beeps at me and I press a button to unload the filament and then reload the new color.
It's worked very well for me. This is also doing ironing on the top most layer to smooth the letters out.

You can see the Color change 14 minutes from the end of this print.
That is when it prompts you to change filament.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

This is with the new smaller font size used across all the buttons.
Other than wiring 12V to the lighted buttons and fan PWM controller, this is done.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I'm beating a dead horse at this point, but here it is in final form if there is such a thing.
A small round BMW clock arrives tomorrow, a grab handle in a couple weeks( to help get in and out of rig when it is in flight mode) Right now I have a new right front fascia printing that doesn't protrude as much into the cockpit as much so I could mount my sequential shifter again. The plan is to 3D print a base and stitch a leather boot for both the sequential shift and hand brake. Always something.

That said, today I started practicing this week's course for the series I want to race in right now in iRacing. I'm done having my rig out of commission. It's time to use it for a while

I've been ignoring the flight side of the fence.

 

[Robert D]

Wipers work in the game? I see a switch for that. Ive done some driving sims but dont recall seeing wipers that are controlled. Youve got some serious hardware there!