Obsessive hobbies....

[RCHeliGuy]

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!

iRacing has a configurable Wiper On and a single wipe. The lights have a configurable On and a Flash of high beams for passing.
Dirt Racing has Wipers and Lights as both manual or automatic.

Realistically that doesn't really come into play except for endurance races when the weather can change.

It just depends on how much control you want.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Can't leave my 3D printer alone.

In Fusion 360 I imported an image "canvas", then drew a spline line around the edges that I tweaked and created a body out of that to become a trackball mouse tray.

Melted threaded inserts into a mount for the tray. Used 3/4" velcro coins to hold the mouse to the tray.

Got a pretty good fit for the mouse.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Created some aluminum mounts for more sturdy retractable casters and then created 3D printed covers for them.

DCS just announced that they are working on an DCS: AH-64D ( Apache Attack Helicopter ) and that got me a bit excited so I had an impulse buy for a Helicopter collective/throttle stick that I'll mount to the side of my seat. Really looking forward to trying this out! I currently have the DCS Huey.

 

[Robert D]

Created some aluminum mounts for more sturdy retractable casters and then created 3D printed covers for them.

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DCS just announced that they are working on an DCS: AH-64D ( Apache Attack Helicopter ) and that got me a bit excited so I had an impulse buy for a Helicopter collective/throttle stick that I'll mount to the side of my seat. Really looking forward to trying this out! I currently have the DCS Huey.


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Ive got that DCS program on Steam and tried it once. I tried playing it on the realistic setting and I couldnt even figure out how to get the helicopter to lift off the ground! Too many buttons. I was able to start the engine at least. I saw that the manual is like 600 pages long or at least really long. They really took that game to the extreme. I havent looked, have they made it compatible with VR on the pc? I see there is a plane simulator on Steam that is VR compatible. Ive got the HTC Vive.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Ive got that DCS program on Steam and tried it once. I tried playing it on the realistic setting and I couldnt even figure out how to get the helicopter to lift off the ground! Too many buttons. I was able to start the engine at least. I saw that the manual is like 600 pages long or at least really long. They really took that game to the extreme. I havent looked, have they made it compatible with VR on the pc? I see there is a plane simulator on Steam that is VR compatible. Ive got the HTC Vive.

I've only run DCS in VR first with my Rift and now with my Index.

It is a full simulation, but they also have the option to jump into a flying aircraft. For the Huey they will start you with the engine running on the ground and you just spool up the turbines and give it some positive collective to take off.

Otherwise you will have to study the manual and learn how to give the vehicle a preflight and taxi out if necessary and take off.

I have flight instruction in a few aircraft, but not in a helicopter. However my RC helicopter experience translates over surprisingly well at least for flight.

DCS 2.5 comes with 2 planes for free and support for VR. Additional aircraft and missions cost you.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/223750/DCS_World_Steam_Edition/

 

[JonFo]

Created some aluminum mounts for more sturdy retractable casters and then created 3D printed covers for them.

Your skills in the physical world constructing these well-designed and built elements of your gaming rig are beyond impressive. Those are works of art.

I really wish I had a buddy living down the street from me with these skills, I'd keep them really busy

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Your skills in the physical world constructing these well-designed and built elements of your gaming rig are beyond impressive. Those are works of art.

I really wish I had a buddy living down the street from me with these skills, I'd keep them really busy

I've had many people ask to pay me to make things for them, and I've almost without exception turned them all down. I'm happy to share my 3D designs on Thingaverse and I usually document my builds. I frequently get comments from people who used my ideas, so I help in that way. I just keep my self pretty busy either with work, my wife or my next project. I broke down and made a production run of those Delrin wheel hangars which was fun.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

This is an example of designing something that I won't be using.
I'm very happy with my aluminum solution for my retractable casters, but I've had many people complain that they aren't comfortable working with aluminum.

So I designed a 3D printed PETG caster bracket.

It works well enough, but it does flex a tiny bit which it probably not good long term.

I've run this through 10 up down cycles and dragging my rig around the floor between them and left this caster supporting the entire left side over night and it hasn't flexed past where it started.

Since flexing will lead to fatigue, I've redesigned this mount with two additional M8 bolts near the bottom of the caster plate where the maximum force pulling away is located. I've been testing with only 30% infill, but will recommend 60% infill for people who decide to use this.

Since most of this is sheer and the bolts are compressing the layer lines, I don't expect it to come apart at the layer lines. PETG has some give but handles higher temperatures, so I think it stands a good chance of working for a very long time. PLA is stiffer, but more brittle and it tends to conform over time especially in warmer temperatures. So I think PLA would tend to fail by cracking and bolt holes would elongate over time.

I'll continue to stress test the weaker mount for a little while longer and then verify that the new beefier design is solid with only 30% infill. This is the first time I've tried to use 3D printed material in a structural capacity. Hopefully it will work well for some people.

 

[Lightloopy]

Amazing talent. Pratt and Whitney should be consulting you for future design. Thanks to you and JonFo for giving us a glimpse into this immense knowledge pool.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Started on a video to show the operation of my rig.

 

[18000rpm]

Started on a video to show the operation of my rig.

Super cool setup! I just have a simple Logitech G27 and stand.

 

[Jazzman53]

Building wire-stator hybrid ESL's is a psychosis that afflicted me 13 years ago... but I'm trying to break the addiction.

The four pairs shown below are flat panel ESL's that bend the wave front electronically, and function as a line source projecting a cylindrical wave front.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Just created a mount for my new Collective Stick. This mount easily attaches in the same place as my Virpil flight throttle. I just reverse the side that I bolt from.

It feels pretty good where I have it which is very close to where an actual Helicopter collective stick tends to come out of the floor next to the seat.

 

[JonFo]

Started on a video to show the operation of my rig.
...

Wow, even more impressive when seen like this. Love the in-game motion.

Good video, but might benefit from a PIP showing the video from the game.

Now I feel the need for speed and will go deploy my modest (punny by contrast) steering wheel rig and play some Forza before watching the F1 race today.

 

[JonFo]

Building wire-stator hybrid ESL's is a psychosis that afflicted me 13 years ago... but I'm trying to break the addiction.

The four pairs shown below are flat panel ESL's that bend the wave front electronically, and function as a line source projecting a cylindrical wave front.
...

An awesome disease I say

Looking forward to hearing those sometime this year.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Wow, even more impressive when seen like this. Love the in-game motion.

Good video, but might benefit from a PIP showing the video from the game.

Now I feel the need for speed and will go deploy my modest (punny by contrast) steering wheel rig and play some Forza before watching the F1 race today.

I was keeping this very simple with a single camera and just showing the operation of the rig. I put that together very quickly.

I'm putting together a video that documents the journey of this rig over a couple years. I still need to cover the flight side of this and a lot more details while hopefully keeping the video moving along at a pretty good clip so people don't get bored.

I decided that just lifting the pedal deck off may be easier going into flight mode than sliding it back, so I decided to add a couple 2 pole Neutrik connectors. The reason I didn't go with a 4 pole for my left and right transducers are that I had four 2 pole connectors left and just needed the 2 pole receivers. Also I don't do this remotely as often as plugging in the 8 pole connector, so it's not a big deal.

What's cool about this design is that Neutrik actually provides 3D files for their connectors and I was able to pull that into Fusion 360 and design the mount for it around the part. So it only took me about 20 minutes to design the mounts which are printing right now.

Just need the Neutrik receivers to show up.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Designed a 3D printed mount for my flight pedals with height adjustment.

It used a lot of M6 bolts, threaded inserts and locknuts.

One very cool thing is that my flight pedals now fit under my driving pedals so they can stay on the rig all the time.

Also printed 105mm Bar Pedals which are much more realistic for flying helicopters.

Just installed a damper on it, so that for helicopters I can remove the centering spring entirely. That makes no sense on a helicopter, but the damper keeps the anti-rotation pedal operation smooth. Also visible on the back left side of the flight pedal base is a USB Hub holder that bolts to a couple unused holes on the back of the pedal base.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Made my flight stick a lot less bulky and easier on the eyes.

 

[Phil in Ocala]

Looks like you have been held up in your home far too long.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Looks like you have been held up in your home far too long.

There's that, but I frequently wake up in the morning and have an idea, so I design it out.
After making a pretty looking more compact mount for my stick, I felt the need to clean up the mount for my throttle.

Here is a video showing how my rig converts from a racing rig to a flight rig.