Obsessive hobbies....

[twodogs112]

That’s what happens today. Most watches built today use a throwaway movement that costs less than $10. Exceptions abound however they are very expensive. Look at products like Rolex, panerai, Patek Philippe, blancpan, and several others. The upshot with a fine timepiece is that it will last for generations. I have several fine timepieces in my collection. Now that I’m retired I can’t afford to purchase one of these new. But my son will inherit a killer collection. Thanks for your interest. Twodogs112.

 

[amey01]

Yes, I've been collecting a few over the years too - IWC Portugieser, PAM050 and Meistersinger Circularis.

Next on the list is a Lange I think. But it will have to be when prices return to a more normal level. (I paid just over $2,000 (AUD) for the PAM back in 2009) - haha, I should have bought 100 of them

Look at products like Rolex, panerai, Patek Philippe, blancpan, and several others.

I never thought Panerai made their own movements?

 

[twodogs112]

You are right about panerai. They used modified Swiss and other movements in most of their watches. However, in some of their “works of art” they made their own. You are lucky to have a Pam 50. The prices were at their low about 3 years ago. I almost bought a Pam sub. But got talked out of if by my wife. She wanted to replace one of my Rolexes with a new one, then Covid hit. Now Rolex is impossible to find(at a good price). Your Pam 50 has increased in value by about 25+% in the resale market.
Your choice of a Lange is exceptional. My most recent addition was a new ball gmt marine model. It is #17 of 1000 to be made. Not expensive, but fun and I won’t cry to much if it gets lost while traveling. My vintage explorer Rolex can’t be replaced.
It’s nice to hear from someone who appreciates timepieces as much as fine audio!! Twodogs112.

 

[amey01]

It’s nice to hear from someone who appreciates timepieces as much as fine audio!! Twodogs112.

A lot of my audio buddies are the same. The two go hand-in-hand I think. I'm surprised there are not more of us here.

 

[amey01]

Your choice of a Lange is exceptional. My most recent addition was a new ball gmt marine model. It is #17 of 1000 to be made. Not expensive, but fun and I won’t cry to much if it gets lost while traveling. My vintage explorer Rolex can’t be replaced.

At that level, I've always wanted an ORIS Artelier chrono.......again, not expensive but fun

I've never bothered to get one though - I don't think I would wear it much.

 

[Robert D]

The Omega "moon" watch is cool too. I've got a buddy that has a good collection. I don't spend more than $800 on mine. I've got a cool Hamilton Elvis watch.

 

[twich54]

Fascinating to me. There are very few people today that can even service watches. The cost to repair or just do routine work on them is fairly high. I've got a Hamilton that needs to be repaired but the cost is prohibitive because it wasn't real expensive to buy new. I just bought another one.

Robert, my grandfather was a horologist, attended the Hamilton school in Lancaster, Pa between the wars. While I had a few Timex's when I was quite young, 55 years ago my grandparents gave me a Rodania 17 jewel wrist watch that still runs superb to this day.

My pride and joy in my collection is my great grandfather's 1888 Waltham / Appleton Tracy, full hunting case, solid gold beauty .....

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I just removed my NLRv3 seat mover and installed the tactile plate and brackets I designed last fall.

So far I like having the seat more solidly mounted to the chassis. It gives me more of a feeling of confidence driving. I also like having a seat slider again. I got the higher end Sparco double latching track sliders. They are like a bear trap and absolutely do not rattle with a tactile load. With the NLRv3 the seat was centered on a universal joint so I didn't feel that having seat sliders made sense.
The tactile effects are better as well. My BK-CT was cantilevered and as a results had a certain frequency range that worked for it with the old configuration. However on the plate the BK is better dampened and while I need to give it a bit more power, I'm getting a wider range of effective frequencies out of it.

This plate is designed to take up to 4 x BK's and 2 x TST's. So there is room for future upgrades.

On the track, with wheel FFB and tactile and G-Belt, the car still feels a live on the track and I could easily get used to that. For Rally and flight, not so much.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

So my tactile system is better, and I removed my motion system, but that's only in preparation for what is coming next.

First I wanted to stiffen up my chassis.

Then I wanted to deal with cable support relief.

Now I wait until next Wednesday for my D-Box Gen 5 full chassis motion system to arrive.

 

[Robert D]

Very professional looking. Nice work. Everything is more rewarding too when you do it yourself. Id also hate to think about how much I would have to pay someone to make that for me. Its great that you can do that all on your own.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Have the D-Box Gen5 bolted up. Unfortunately after an hour with tech support, it appears I may end up needing some RMA services

 

[RCHeliGuy]

D-Box declared everything DOA and shipped all new equipment that arrives today.

In the mean time, I got larger furniture sliders, reinforced them with 3/4" maple velcro'd to the bottom and 3D printed some retaining rings to hold the feed in place while I slide it around the floor. These 5.5x9.5 sliders work much better than the original 4.5" circles.

I have a hand jack that can easily lift the left and right side of my rig so I can remove the sliders when my rig is in place. It's not quite as nice as the retractable casters, but it works pretty well.

Also 3D printed a mounting plate that matches my 40 series profile with some cable supports so the downward facing cables don't work free under a strong haptic load.

There was a bit of wiggle in the USB connection going to this, so I adding zip tie support for this cable as well.

And I added a lanyard to hold the water bottle in place.

The reason for battening down the hatches is that the haptic effects from this system are supposed to shake the rig a bit and I want to make sure nothing comes loose or rattles, etc..

 

[Robert D]

How much does the entire assembled rig weigh you think? I bet it is quite heavy.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

It's about 320lbs now.

I received a full replacement set of equipment from D-Box yesterday and it is all tested first than installed and working properly.
It now feels like I'm in a sprung chassis. Very nice! Very quiet, very precise, no lag.

 

[Robert D]

It's about 320lbs now.

I received a full replacement set of equipment from D-Box yesterday and it is all tested first than installed and working properly.
It now feels like I'm in a sprung chassis. Very nice! Very quiet, very precise, no lag.

View attachment 23208View attachment 23209

And you do it mostly in VR, right? I think you said you feel like the motion of everything helps with motion sickness?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

And you do it mostly in VR, right? I think you said you feel like the motion of everything helps with motion sickness?

That has been my experience with guests who have no VR experience.

Without motion most people get nausea in driving sims in a short period of time especially in something like a Rally game. Dirt Rally 2.0 is a vomit comet without motion. With motion some people with no VR experience can go maybe 15-20 minutes without any discomfort. Track racing is easier. Basically you need to trick your brain into believing the experience. If your brain has a disconnect and feels out of sync with what you are seeing your stomach lets you know.

There is still typically a period where people earn their VR legs and get to the point where they can handle sim games for extended periods of time even with motion, but motion makes it much easier to get over that hill.

FWIW the latency with the D-Box is very tight. I can't feel any lag, but everything needs to work together.
For example right now when there is gear shift, the tactile system has a thunk effect that you can feel, the motion system rocks you and the seat belt tensioner pulls at you. It's all synchronized and feels very natural.

 

[Robert D]

That has been my experience with guests who have no VR experience.

Without motion most people get nausea in driving sims in a short period of time especially in something like a Rally game. Dirt Rally 2.0 is a vomit comet without motion. With motion some people with no VR experience can go maybe 15-20 minutes without any discomfort. Track racing is easier. Basically you need to trick your brain into believing the experience. If your brain has a disconnect and feels out of sync with what you are seeing your stomach lets you know.

There is still typically a period where people earn their VR legs and get to the point where they can handle sim games for extended periods of time even with motion, but motion makes it much easier to get over that hill.

FWIW the latency with the D-Box is very tight. I can't feel any lag, but everything needs to work together.
For example right now when there is gear shift, the tactile system has a thunk effect that you can feel, the motion system rocks you and the seat belt tensioner pulls at you. It's all synchronized and feels very natural.

Nice! The gear shift effect really adds realism. I think many of the games even have bumps built into the game? Can you feel when you run up on the curbs and use them to corner?

When I run Mid Ohio, I can feel the curbs and other imperfections in the road. Being able to recreate that would be incredible. We all use the curb a lot there on that track. It's the only one I've ever driven. Done about 7 weekends there. Would be fun to simulate that track. Any good games that have Mid Ohio done well?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I can feel road texture, expansion joints, rumble strips and curbs with EXTREME fidelity. iRacing laser scans their tracks extremely accurately and what I'm feeling is from telemetry based on those scans.

It's very realistic. You can feel speed mounting as well.
I'll have to try out the Porsche GT3 at Mid Ohio sometime so I can comment about this.



The only let down I've had with this system is flight. It doesn't have enough motion to handle that in a gratifying way. My previous NLRv3 with 20 degrees of motion actually managed to pull off motion in VR very convincingly. It's not horrible, but it isn't satisfying in flight.

 

[Robert D]

I can feel road texture, expansion joints, rumble strips and curbs with EXTREME fidelity. iRacing laser scans their tracks extremely accurately and what I'm feeling is from telemetry based on those scans.

It's very realistic. You can feel speed mounting as well.
I'll have to try out the Porsche GT3 at Mid Ohio sometime so I can comment about this.



The only let down I've had with this system is flight. It doesn't have enough motion to handle that in a gratifying way. My previous NLRv3 with 20 degrees of motion actually managed to pull off motion in VR very convincingly. It's not horrible, but it isn't satisfying in flight.

View attachment 23212

Wow, that video looks very accurate! The back straight is where you can get going the fastest. A guy in our local PCA club owns a Porsche 918 and had it up to around 190 mph there. Seems iracing has a lot of tracks.

Does it have weather conditions too, like rain and even snow? One October it snowed at the track, but I don't think many ran in that. Driving in the rain is hard enough. We had more than a dozen cars spin off the track in rain.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Historically iRacing hasn't had bad weather. They are preparing to release rain.