neema_t's cockpit build - updated 21/07
- Thread starter sesselpupser
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- neema_t
I've made a slight adjustment:
I probably don't need to go into too much detail regarding these photos, but this is just a quick fix at the moment. The VESA mount I'm using isn't particularly good, there's far too much play in it as you can see in this quick video (which Imageshack has lovingly rotated 90 degrees for me so it looks like I don't know how to use a phone camera, but you get the idea):
http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/716/file20787.mp4/
So I don't think this resembles what I will have when it's finished in any way at all, really. I can't find any other mounts similar to this one with a slim mounting base, so if I were to use this sort of thing I'd have to extend the 'wall' more to the right, beyond the end of the cockpit. I'm not too sure if the MDF would take the weight of three of these, either, they're 7.7kg each with the mount and the board would feel more than that as the bulk of the weight isn't flush, it over hangs by about an inch or two. Also the monitor feels too close right now, I measured 64cm between my eye and the monitor (nearly scratching the monitor whilst almost poking my eye out at the same time), sitting at my desk I'm typically 85cm from the monitor so I'd like to move it back quite far.
That, then, begs the question of just how exactly I can mount the monitors in such a way that they're high enough, far enough away, straight enough and sturdy enough.
I don't think the aluminium I've used so far is strong enough for such a task, but the problem is the thicker stuff scales in price directly. That is to say a 1m length of 22x22mm is £6.40, 1m of 22x44mm is £12.80 and so on. I would want the mount to be made of two vertical 1.02 metre lengths of 22x66mm, supported by an A-frame of 22x22mm to make sure it doesn't fall over either way, as I imagine it would be free standing (because the alternative to free standing is mounting it to the rig, and that would make the monitors too close), so that would be pretty bloody expensive, probably more so than what the aluminium I've used to make the rest of it cost in the first place.
The other alternative is to extend the depth of the rig and use three of these:
The problem with this idea is simply that each one of these costs £32, so three would be getting on for £100. Add to that extending the rig would cost at least £24, and once again it's ridiculously expensive.
I could possibly combine these, though. I could extend the rig and use an MDF 'wall' or aluminium again, maybe if it weren't free standing I could just use 22x22mm because the extension wouldn't be quite as high, but both of those options still raise the question of exactly how to mount the monitors. Maybe if I made the mount out of aluminium I could use the 90 degree brackets I've got elsewhere and not drill any holes, because I've found it impossible to drill a straight hole; the pillar drill I've got just will not drill straight, and it's always different.
In other news, adding monitors to the cockpit does mean I can't play GT5 properly any more. The monitors I have don't really support 1080p nor 720p, but I can use them... It just means I have to choose between a stretched image and having to press a button to dismiss a warning or having a correctly proportioned, pixelated image which has the edges cropped off, which you might be able to spot if you look at the left hand side of the monitor in the first photo. Not a huge loss, particularly as I don't have two other PS3s to play GT5 in triple monitor and the cost of upgrading my PC to play in triple monitor will make me far more inclined to use it more often, but it's still a little irritating. The plan, then, is to leave the PS3 where it is and then possibly think about changing the monitors to sub-£200 22" 1080p ones and get two more PS3s when my bank account has healed from the 24" monitor, GTX 680, TrackIR (possibly), the huge amount of buttons and switches, some laser cut acrylic and who knows what else.
Long story short, I'm not too bothered about not being able to play GT5 with my wheel so buying the stuff I need to play it properly is way down on my list. I think rFactor is better anyway.
I've made no progress on anything else, except maybe for reconsidering Left and HoiHman's suggestions to get a 4GB GTX 680 rather than a 2GB, if that counts as progress. Oh and I think I've found a fairly easy quadrature decoder circuit, but I need two MOSFETs before I can build and test it and I can't place an order just yet because the weight of the shopping list is too much for my bank balance to bear just yet... Next week I should have more to show or talk about.
Edit: I really don't know why but I appear to be completely incapable of making any sense today, parts of this post are really oddly written. I apologise but there's no point in trying to fix it now, it might be because I haven't eaten for a good, oh, 12 hours!
I probably don't need to go into too much detail regarding these photos, but this is just a quick fix at the moment. The VESA mount I'm using isn't particularly good, there's far too much play in it as you can see in this quick video (which Imageshack has lovingly rotated 90 degrees for me so it looks like I don't know how to use a phone camera, but you get the idea):
http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/716/file20787.mp4/
So I don't think this resembles what I will have when it's finished in any way at all, really. I can't find any other mounts similar to this one with a slim mounting base, so if I were to use this sort of thing I'd have to extend the 'wall' more to the right, beyond the end of the cockpit. I'm not too sure if the MDF would take the weight of three of these, either, they're 7.7kg each with the mount and the board would feel more than that as the bulk of the weight isn't flush, it over hangs by about an inch or two. Also the monitor feels too close right now, I measured 64cm between my eye and the monitor (nearly scratching the monitor whilst almost poking my eye out at the same time), sitting at my desk I'm typically 85cm from the monitor so I'd like to move it back quite far.
That, then, begs the question of just how exactly I can mount the monitors in such a way that they're high enough, far enough away, straight enough and sturdy enough.
I don't think the aluminium I've used so far is strong enough for such a task, but the problem is the thicker stuff scales in price directly. That is to say a 1m length of 22x22mm is £6.40, 1m of 22x44mm is £12.80 and so on. I would want the mount to be made of two vertical 1.02 metre lengths of 22x66mm, supported by an A-frame of 22x22mm to make sure it doesn't fall over either way, as I imagine it would be free standing (because the alternative to free standing is mounting it to the rig, and that would make the monitors too close), so that would be pretty bloody expensive, probably more so than what the aluminium I've used to make the rest of it cost in the first place.
The other alternative is to extend the depth of the rig and use three of these:
The problem with this idea is simply that each one of these costs £32, so three would be getting on for £100. Add to that extending the rig would cost at least £24, and once again it's ridiculously expensive.
I could possibly combine these, though. I could extend the rig and use an MDF 'wall' or aluminium again, maybe if it weren't free standing I could just use 22x22mm because the extension wouldn't be quite as high, but both of those options still raise the question of exactly how to mount the monitors. Maybe if I made the mount out of aluminium I could use the 90 degree brackets I've got elsewhere and not drill any holes, because I've found it impossible to drill a straight hole; the pillar drill I've got just will not drill straight, and it's always different.
In other news, adding monitors to the cockpit does mean I can't play GT5 properly any more. The monitors I have don't really support 1080p nor 720p, but I can use them... It just means I have to choose between a stretched image and having to press a button to dismiss a warning or having a correctly proportioned, pixelated image which has the edges cropped off, which you might be able to spot if you look at the left hand side of the monitor in the first photo. Not a huge loss, particularly as I don't have two other PS3s to play GT5 in triple monitor and the cost of upgrading my PC to play in triple monitor will make me far more inclined to use it more often, but it's still a little irritating. The plan, then, is to leave the PS3 where it is and then possibly think about changing the monitors to sub-£200 22" 1080p ones and get two more PS3s when my bank account has healed from the 24" monitor, GTX 680, TrackIR (possibly), the huge amount of buttons and switches, some laser cut acrylic and who knows what else.
Long story short, I'm not too bothered about not being able to play GT5 with my wheel so buying the stuff I need to play it properly is way down on my list. I think rFactor is better anyway.
I've made no progress on anything else, except maybe for reconsidering Left and HoiHman's suggestions to get a 4GB GTX 680 rather than a 2GB, if that counts as progress. Oh and I think I've found a fairly easy quadrature decoder circuit, but I need two MOSFETs before I can build and test it and I can't place an order just yet because the weight of the shopping list is too much for my bank balance to bear just yet... Next week I should have more to show or talk about.
Edit: I really don't know why but I appear to be completely incapable of making any sense today, parts of this post are really oddly written. I apologise but there's no point in trying to fix it now, it might be because I haven't eaten for a good, oh, 12 hours!
- 9,144
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- neema_t
I did end up buying one of those mounts pictured above, and the thing is huge and very sturdy, much, much more so than the £10 mount (as you'd hope). I want to go ahead and buy three but I've hit a slight snag; my cockpit is too narrow. I can set the left and centre monitors in the right place with the mount, but on the right hand monitor there's not enough room with it clamped to the very end of the horizontal surface so it would overlap the centre monitor. I much prefer these mounts to any other option, though, despite the cost, so I think I'll make the rig a full metre wide and re-use the 850mm beams to provide extra support for the additional length. This will probably also motivate me to go and get a metre square of 15mm MDF to mount the entire rig on, just for extra support and self-containment if nothing else. I moved it across the room and had to sort of push the seat with one hand and the rest of it with the other because it wasn't all moving as one unit, if you get what I mean, so having it all on one board would be a good thing if I had or wanted to move it again.
I've had a firm offer of £220 for my GTX 580 which is what I was hoping for, making a high-ish end air cooled 680 about £250, but I'm thinking I might go to the tier above that and get an EVGA Signature 2GB for £490 (the EVGA Superclocked is £468)... It's just a question of having the cash, and I'm waiting on a not insignificant sum I lent to someone back in February, so hopefully that materialises sooner rather than later. I don't know when the 4GB cards will be in stock in the UK and I haven't seen particularly promising results compared to overclocked 2GB cards, which would basically mean I'd end up waiting for overclocked 4GB cards which would be squarely out of my price range, rather than simply almost out of my price range.
As for progress on the button panel, there has been none beyond mocking up the cardboard with real buttons, none of which are wired up, and even if they were, the cardboard (predictably) bends under the force of pressing them anyway! I still need to test a few other things, and frankly I know it's going to be a massive pain in the arse so I'm procrastinating by sorting out the monitors first.
Apart from all that, the rig is out of commission for now anyway because it's nowhere near any power sockets, which are somewhat important. I also received my 24" Dell IPS monitor today which is just stunning, and now I've got a quiet voice in my head telling me to buy three more for the cockpit, which is bloody annoying. Also I was going to keep track of how much this is all costing me as a resource for people looking to build their own, but it has gotten to the point where if I realised how much I've spent so far I'd probably suffer a huge amount of remorse. It's much easier to think of it as £30 here, £80 there, rather than what is probably getting on for £300-400 already and that's forgetting the work that is still to come. I think I'm going to need something like 40 buttons, at a few quid each that's not going to be cheap either, but luckily I can do that bit-by-bit too.
On an unrelated note, I'm just off to check my bank balance. Then I'll probably be off to get a stiff drink.
I've had a firm offer of £220 for my GTX 580 which is what I was hoping for, making a high-ish end air cooled 680 about £250, but I'm thinking I might go to the tier above that and get an EVGA Signature 2GB for £490 (the EVGA Superclocked is £468)... It's just a question of having the cash, and I'm waiting on a not insignificant sum I lent to someone back in February, so hopefully that materialises sooner rather than later. I don't know when the 4GB cards will be in stock in the UK and I haven't seen particularly promising results compared to overclocked 2GB cards, which would basically mean I'd end up waiting for overclocked 4GB cards which would be squarely out of my price range, rather than simply almost out of my price range.
As for progress on the button panel, there has been none beyond mocking up the cardboard with real buttons, none of which are wired up, and even if they were, the cardboard (predictably) bends under the force of pressing them anyway! I still need to test a few other things, and frankly I know it's going to be a massive pain in the arse so I'm procrastinating by sorting out the monitors first.
Apart from all that, the rig is out of commission for now anyway because it's nowhere near any power sockets, which are somewhat important. I also received my 24" Dell IPS monitor today which is just stunning, and now I've got a quiet voice in my head telling me to buy three more for the cockpit, which is bloody annoying. Also I was going to keep track of how much this is all costing me as a resource for people looking to build their own, but it has gotten to the point where if I realised how much I've spent so far I'd probably suffer a huge amount of remorse. It's much easier to think of it as £30 here, £80 there, rather than what is probably getting on for £300-400 already and that's forgetting the work that is still to come. I think I'm going to need something like 40 buttons, at a few quid each that's not going to be cheap either, but luckily I can do that bit-by-bit too.
On an unrelated note, I'm just off to check my bank balance. Then I'll probably be off to get a stiff drink.
JogoAsobi
Premium
- 2,578
I really like the way you made the structure on the left of the seat for the Logitech shifter.
I am getting ready to add an H-shifter mount made of 80/20 to the 80/20 frame my seat is attached to myself.
I built a dual shifter mount onto the Rennsport stand so I can change my sequential shifters from right to left, but I would like to do the same for the H-shifter down next to the seat as well.
See: http://f-wheel.com/forums/index.php/topic,1746.0.html
Nice setup, food for thought!
I am getting ready to add an H-shifter mount made of 80/20 to the 80/20 frame my seat is attached to myself.
I built a dual shifter mount onto the Rennsport stand so I can change my sequential shifters from right to left, but I would like to do the same for the H-shifter down next to the seat as well.
See: http://f-wheel.com/forums/index.php/topic,1746.0.html
Nice setup, food for thought!
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- neema_t
Thank you kindly young man, you could easily build a small frame to go down next to the seat which would be awesome, that's the great thing about this profile stuff, it's so easy to build on which is important when you're making something as modular as a sim rig. The sequential shifter on the right, for example, was a complete after-thought but I think it ended up alright.
But yeah, I'm glad to have inspired you, that's pretty much what I was hoping this thread would accomplish! Keep us (or just me) posted on what you come up with.
But yeah, I'm glad to have inspired you, that's pretty much what I was hoping this thread would accomplish! Keep us (or just me) posted on what you come up with.
- 9,144
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- neema_t
Just a quick update:
- I'm too busy with college work and can't spare any money as I'm saving for the GTX 680 at the moment to really do anything with the rig. It's not even in a usable state right now for two reasons: I should be working instead of racing and because it's nowhere near a power socket.
- I've found the perfect monitor mount, predictably they've just sold out on Amazon but I should be able to find it elsewhere. It's a dual monitor, two section arm version of the one I bought last, but it's £60 so I can't buy it yet. I won't need it anyway until I've got the 680.
- I think my rig will end up being 10 metres away from where my PC is now, so I think I'll keep the PC with the rig and use long DVI, USB, TOSLINK and normal audio cables (for headphones and mic) with the necessary accoutrements such as switches, repeaters and hubs. I just hope I won't need a wi-fi bridge because I hate anything to do with wi-fi, it only just works as it is. It would be easier to run an ethernet cable around the outside of the house and back in through the window... I might actually look into doing that.
Hopefully I'll have the 680 and dual monitor mount by the end of the month, but I suspect that's being maybe a little optimistic.
- I'm too busy with college work and can't spare any money as I'm saving for the GTX 680 at the moment to really do anything with the rig. It's not even in a usable state right now for two reasons: I should be working instead of racing and because it's nowhere near a power socket.
- I've found the perfect monitor mount, predictably they've just sold out on Amazon but I should be able to find it elsewhere. It's a dual monitor, two section arm version of the one I bought last, but it's £60 so I can't buy it yet. I won't need it anyway until I've got the 680.
- I think my rig will end up being 10 metres away from where my PC is now, so I think I'll keep the PC with the rig and use long DVI, USB, TOSLINK and normal audio cables (for headphones and mic) with the necessary accoutrements such as switches, repeaters and hubs. I just hope I won't need a wi-fi bridge because I hate anything to do with wi-fi, it only just works as it is. It would be easier to run an ethernet cable around the outside of the house and back in through the window... I might actually look into doing that.
Hopefully I'll have the 680 and dual monitor mount by the end of the month, but I suspect that's being maybe a little optimistic.
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- neema_t
Well well, long time no post!
I got the GTX 680 and a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor to replace the two monitors I took from my desk for the cockpit at the start of June. This meant I had absolutely no money for a long time, I only just got my dual monitor mount a couple of weeks ago so now all three monitors are at eye level. Nothing else has changed, I've made no modifications to the frame, except now I've decided that this is no longer just a sim racing rig, it's my primary PC chair now. That means I need to add a keyboard tray under the wheel (my wrists are hurting from having the keyboard on my lap all the time) and a mouse tray to my right.
I still need to buy an MDF board to mount everything on and I think I'll add some lateral bracing because it still wobbles from side to side a bit but that might just be because there's nothing anchoring it to the floor, I doubt it though.
Oh and I'm also getting into flight sims as well now so I want to add a Saitek X52 Pro as well, that'll probably mean moving the sequential shifter up and the G27 shifter forward (it's too far back for my taste now anyway) but I have no idea how big the bases for the stick and throttle are, nor how much clearance the throttle needs nor roughly how high both should be for comfortable use. I guess I just have to buy it and work around it, but that won't be for a little while either, my bank account needs time to heal.
Finally, I still haven't started working on the button panel because I know how much it'll cost. I feel like I should make some sort of prototype or something but it's just so much money! I mean I knew it wouldn't be cheap but this is just ridiculous.
I got the GTX 680 and a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor to replace the two monitors I took from my desk for the cockpit at the start of June. This meant I had absolutely no money for a long time, I only just got my dual monitor mount a couple of weeks ago so now all three monitors are at eye level. Nothing else has changed, I've made no modifications to the frame, except now I've decided that this is no longer just a sim racing rig, it's my primary PC chair now. That means I need to add a keyboard tray under the wheel (my wrists are hurting from having the keyboard on my lap all the time) and a mouse tray to my right.
I still need to buy an MDF board to mount everything on and I think I'll add some lateral bracing because it still wobbles from side to side a bit but that might just be because there's nothing anchoring it to the floor, I doubt it though.
Oh and I'm also getting into flight sims as well now so I want to add a Saitek X52 Pro as well, that'll probably mean moving the sequential shifter up and the G27 shifter forward (it's too far back for my taste now anyway) but I have no idea how big the bases for the stick and throttle are, nor how much clearance the throttle needs nor roughly how high both should be for comfortable use. I guess I just have to buy it and work around it, but that won't be for a little while either, my bank account needs time to heal.
Finally, I still haven't started working on the button panel because I know how much it'll cost. I feel like I should make some sort of prototype or something but it's just so much money! I mean I knew it wouldn't be cheap but this is just ridiculous.
- 1,818
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- left888
I can understand your frustration, it seems perhaps maybe you have bitten off more then you can chew. I remember thinking about what I wanted for my rig and how could I obtain it. I think you are on the right track except the flight sim, as good as it would be is going to steer you in the wrong direction.
One thing at a time, get your basic frame sorted. If it wobbles you need to address that first. Next get your monitors mounted, then you need to get two tops, one for your rig and another with side supports for your flight simulator. Plan your dash, button boxes shifters etc.. You need to do this in stages, don't look at the whole ball of wax right now, it will seem unattainable. One small step at a time. What do you want first? BTW, if you could afford it I would suggest 27" monitors.
One thing at a time, get your basic frame sorted. If it wobbles you need to address that first. Next get your monitors mounted, then you need to get two tops, one for your rig and another with side supports for your flight simulator. Plan your dash, button boxes shifters etc.. You need to do this in stages, don't look at the whole ball of wax right now, it will seem unattainable. One small step at a time. What do you want first? BTW, if you could afford it I would suggest 27" monitors.
- 9,144
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- neema_t
That's good advice, thank you, I think I needed someone to tell me to be sensible!
Long story short, I'm going to get it mounted on a base next week and see what it needs for extra stability, if anything. Then I'll work out how to feasibly add a flight stick (sorry, but it just has to be done!), but I won't actually add it for a couple of months, probably. Now that I'm finished at college until September I've got some time to think about and work on it again so hopefully I'll have something to show soon.
Long story short, I'm going to get it mounted on a base next week and see what it needs for extra stability, if anything. Then I'll work out how to feasibly add a flight stick (sorry, but it just has to be done!), but I won't actually add it for a couple of months, probably. Now that I'm finished at college until September I've got some time to think about and work on it again so hopefully I'll have something to show soon.
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- neema_t
I had a GTX 580 (specifically an MSI Twin Frozr II/OC), and the difference is huge; the 580 couldn't run Battlefield 3 on Ultra settings at 1680x1050 above about 50fps but the 680 (an MSI Twin Frozr III/OC, 2GB) could run it on Ultra at 1920x1200 at nearly 80-90fps. I get about the same frame rates in Arma II (which uses a notoriously poorly optimised engine) as I did before, except instead of running at 1680x1050 I'm now running it at 5040x1050. The temperatures, too; the 580 sometimes got as hot as 75C, the 680 has never been above 60C, and it's a lot quieter as a result. All in all, I had been worried it wouldn't be enough of an upgrade from the 580 but I was wrong, it's incredible!
The only problem is I can't play Grand Prix Legends any more and I have no idea why, but I haven't tried to fix it yet so I can't really complain.
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- neema_t
Seems like a real "labour of love" you have got going on here... 👍
Problem with something like this, is you will NEVER quite be finished with it and NEVER quite be happy with it ...
Don't I know it! I've got some stuff 'in the pipeline' but I won't be able to really get started until I've recovered from my tonsillectomy (which is on Tuesday), too much dust and stress involved.
Also, sorry Left but I went ahead and ordered one of these... It was late, I'd been playing Wings of Prey and I couldn't really help myself. I figured I'd need something to cheer me up after my throat is eviscerated and I'm unable to eat... Yeah, that's a good enough excuse, right?
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I wonder if you could program the G27 to act as a jumbo jet controller, you have 2 pedals for rudder (not quite the same style), and a wheel. Sure it doesn't go in/out to ascend/descend, but maybe you could program 2 wheel buttons to do that? Then use the throttle control as well.
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- neema_t
gordie44
That would be interesting, particularly as I mostly fly helicopters and WWII planes! If the stick wasn't supposed to arrive tomorrow I probably would've tried it.
- 9,144
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- neema_t
Just a quick update, I found two pieces of MDF in my garage that I forgot I had earlier today and cut some bits out; a top surface to mount my G27 onto, two small bits to go underneath the top to provide a good solid surface for my monitor mounts to clamp on to (at the moment they're a little precariously clamped to the aluminium), a piece to go on the left of me to mount the X52 throttle on (going to have to re-do it though, I might make it so I can bolt the shifter on too even though it's perfectly solid as it is) and a huge board to go on my right for the X52 stick, mouse, drinks, food, arm... It's pretty cool but the size of the rig has ballooned as a result. I've also got a sliding keyboard tray, I had a crap one before that slid all of about 2cm because I only had tiny alu offcuts but after widening the rig I have the old top lengths to play with.
All in all it's coming on nicely, I've had to relocate to a different, darker corner though so I'm thinking I might get an uplighting lamp just to brighten it up a little but at least now I'm away from the heat of the lizard's vivarium and next to the window... But also directly next to the radiator, so we'll see how that turns out. It's a very tight fit in it's new home so working on it will be tricky, but there's very little left to do now anyway; still need to mount it on a board, I may now consider speakers too. I have no idea where my PC will go, I think I'll make a platform for it to raise it up off the ground for better air circulation and less dust consumption. Then when all that's done I can start trying to remember what I was doing with that button panel...
This wasn't a quick update at all. Pictures when there's actually something to look at, I need yet another bag of the ludicrously expensive bolts to fit the MDF panels on and it's a bank holiday tomorrow so I won't get them until Wednesday now, and I'm starting a new job on Tuesday so it may end up waiting until the weekend.
All in all it's coming on nicely, I've had to relocate to a different, darker corner though so I'm thinking I might get an uplighting lamp just to brighten it up a little but at least now I'm away from the heat of the lizard's vivarium and next to the window... But also directly next to the radiator, so we'll see how that turns out. It's a very tight fit in it's new home so working on it will be tricky, but there's very little left to do now anyway; still need to mount it on a board, I may now consider speakers too. I have no idea where my PC will go, I think I'll make a platform for it to raise it up off the ground for better air circulation and less dust consumption. Then when all that's done I can start trying to remember what I was doing with that button panel...
This wasn't a quick update at all. Pictures when there's actually something to look at, I need yet another bag of the ludicrously expensive bolts to fit the MDF panels on and it's a bank holiday tomorrow so I won't get them until Wednesday now, and I'm starting a new job on Tuesday so it may end up waiting until the weekend.
- 9,144
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- neema_t
Pictures! I had no idea these are as blurry as they are but they'll do:
So as you can see, it's all a bit haphazard and bodged at the moment (note the G-clamp holding the right hand side arm rest on) and I've left out the three bits of MDF that'll sit on and underneath the wheel deck part as well as the keyboard tray I made, which is a little on the high side right now as I only got round to trimming the profile yesterday and haven't had time to adjust it.
All in all it may not look like much but that huge piece of MDF has improved the comfort tenfold, if not more. Before I had been using the other end of the sofa you can see to the left as an armrest and that's just under my shoulder height, and I couldn't get right next to it either so I was always kind of stretching. This MDF is exactly the height of my elbow in a relaxed position so it's very much more comfortable when using the mouse, but I'd like to coat it in some sort of glossy... stuff to reduce the friction of my forearm moving around on it, but before I do that I have to make sure it's perfect before putting more effort in. Edges need to be rounded off, too; I ripped my shorts on the piece of profile to the right of the seat more than once yesterday, so until I can be bothered to do something about it I'm just being more careful when I sit down.
And yes, my £1,500 PC is sitting on a piece of MDF which in turn is sitting on an old Driving Force Pro box which is on it's side, for now anyway. Must get round to sorting that out soon.
Oh and my desktop image is a triptych (I guess?) of cutaway illustrations, from left to right they are a Honda RA300, Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R (KPGC-10) and Toyota 2000GT. I made it out of some images that I actually took a few days to find, it's a bit awkward because the Nissan and Toyota were by the same artist but the Honda isn't, but it was the only Honda cutaway I could find that looked similar to the first two and was a high enough resolution. Here it is without stuff and bezels in the way: It's big though.
Edit: The cable routing is terrible at the moment, I haven't had a chance to reapply my cable ties nor have I put much (or indeed any) thought into how to actually go about routing them. And can't leave my G27, X52 nor 360 pad plugged in because they conflict with one another so I swap them around as needed on the front panel, when I get round to making my button panel (which will be interesting as I don't have much space now!) it'll have toggles to switch all three devices on and off, as well as toggles for the monitors just because I think that would be 'cool'...
So as you can see, it's all a bit haphazard and bodged at the moment (note the G-clamp holding the right hand side arm rest on) and I've left out the three bits of MDF that'll sit on and underneath the wheel deck part as well as the keyboard tray I made, which is a little on the high side right now as I only got round to trimming the profile yesterday and haven't had time to adjust it.
All in all it may not look like much but that huge piece of MDF has improved the comfort tenfold, if not more. Before I had been using the other end of the sofa you can see to the left as an armrest and that's just under my shoulder height, and I couldn't get right next to it either so I was always kind of stretching. This MDF is exactly the height of my elbow in a relaxed position so it's very much more comfortable when using the mouse, but I'd like to coat it in some sort of glossy... stuff to reduce the friction of my forearm moving around on it, but before I do that I have to make sure it's perfect before putting more effort in. Edges need to be rounded off, too; I ripped my shorts on the piece of profile to the right of the seat more than once yesterday, so until I can be bothered to do something about it I'm just being more careful when I sit down.
And yes, my £1,500 PC is sitting on a piece of MDF which in turn is sitting on an old Driving Force Pro box which is on it's side, for now anyway. Must get round to sorting that out soon.
Oh and my desktop image is a triptych (I guess?) of cutaway illustrations, from left to right they are a Honda RA300, Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R (KPGC-10) and Toyota 2000GT. I made it out of some images that I actually took a few days to find, it's a bit awkward because the Nissan and Toyota were by the same artist but the Honda isn't, but it was the only Honda cutaway I could find that looked similar to the first two and was a high enough resolution. Here it is without stuff and bezels in the way: It's big though.
Edit: The cable routing is terrible at the moment, I haven't had a chance to reapply my cable ties nor have I put much (or indeed any) thought into how to actually go about routing them. And can't leave my G27, X52 nor 360 pad plugged in because they conflict with one another so I swap them around as needed on the front panel, when I get round to making my button panel (which will be interesting as I don't have much space now!) it'll have toggles to switch all three devices on and off, as well as toggles for the monitors just because I think that would be 'cool'...
- 1,818
- Alberta
- left888
You have progressed a lot since last time I visited. The flight gear you purchased looks very good and reasonably priced as well, although I don't know much about flight. I have looked at the stuff previously and every time I do my wallet runs and hides.
I do feel that you are much too crowded in that corner, don't tell me there was a women involved in this decision?
Overall it doesn't really matter that much on the looks of your rig, as long as it is functional for you. Getting things set up takes time as you well know. I have been working on my rig for nearly 2 years now and I can't stop.
Keep at it neema, your rig is looking fine with those triples. Great work.
I do feel that you are much too crowded in that corner, don't tell me there was a women involved in this decision?
Overall it doesn't really matter that much on the looks of your rig, as long as it is functional for you. Getting things set up takes time as you well know. I have been working on my rig for nearly 2 years now and I can't stop.Keep at it neema, your rig is looking fine with those triples. Great work.
- 9,144
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
You have progressed a lot since last time I visited. The flight gear you purchased looks very good and reasonably priced as well, although I don't know much about flight. I have looked at the stuff previously and every time I do my wallet runs and hides.
I do feel that you are much too crowded in that corner, don't tell me there was a women involved in this decision?
Keep at it neema, your rig is looking fine with those triples. Great work.
Yeah, it is a little tight where it is but it doesn't bother me too much, I've got enough room to get in and out and once you're sitting down that's all you need, it's unlikely I'll ever make it a motion rig though! And yeah, the X52 Pro is great, but I would advise you stay away from the X52 (the silver one); the X52 Pro is supposed to have far superior centring springs but it still feels a little vague so I can't imagine how bad the X52 is! Build quality is a bit off but there's a lot of features for a £120 HOTAS; no fewer than three 8-way hats for crying out loud!
- 9,144
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
Slight necro to ask a question:
So my rig has been slowly built up since last year and is now pretty much finished, I think, there's not a whole lot more to be done to it. I realised yesterday that I missed a great trick that would've saved me a lot of money so I'm addressing that now, also in attempting to finally add vertical legs to the left armrest I've come to a stage where I think I have to mount the frame on a base; I unbolted the left side from the seat and now I can't get it to bolt back in because the springs on the slot nuts have broken off, so gravity is making them sag and me swear. I need 1m^2 of 18mm chipboard and enough time to drill mounting holes in all of the profile that touches the floor (that alone is probably going to kill progress on this mod for a long time), and I think I'll need to finally address the terrible cuts I made on the profile in the first place.
My question is this: I've used 22mm^2 aluminium profile for the whole frame and not a single cut I made was straight or smooth and no two pieces are the same length, so when the frame is bolted together the top part is nowhere near what the bottom part looks like. Up to now it hasn't been a problem but I imagine when it's all bolted to a solid foundation it will become an issue. I can't use a bench grinder to straighten them out since aluminium is soft and will ruin it, so what do I do? Maybe use a power sander?
So my rig has been slowly built up since last year and is now pretty much finished, I think, there's not a whole lot more to be done to it. I realised yesterday that I missed a great trick that would've saved me a lot of money so I'm addressing that now, also in attempting to finally add vertical legs to the left armrest I've come to a stage where I think I have to mount the frame on a base; I unbolted the left side from the seat and now I can't get it to bolt back in because the springs on the slot nuts have broken off, so gravity is making them sag and me swear. I need 1m^2 of 18mm chipboard and enough time to drill mounting holes in all of the profile that touches the floor (that alone is probably going to kill progress on this mod for a long time), and I think I'll need to finally address the terrible cuts I made on the profile in the first place.
My question is this: I've used 22mm^2 aluminium profile for the whole frame and not a single cut I made was straight or smooth and no two pieces are the same length, so when the frame is bolted together the top part is nowhere near what the bottom part looks like. Up to now it hasn't been a problem but I imagine when it's all bolted to a solid foundation it will become an issue. I can't use a bench grinder to straighten them out since aluminium is soft and will ruin it, so what do I do? Maybe use a power sander?
- 9,144
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
- 1,818
- Alberta
- left888
Luckily I have a well equipped shop, welder, chop saw. drill press and grinders and all the necessary tools. I just need more money and motivation. I used metal tubing, the square stuff, I like the aluminum profile and it looks cool but I don't care for all those tiny fasteners and such. I like to weld and then powder coat it, then it becomes indestructible.
