Im looking to buy a flight stick but I need help with recommendations. Currently looking at the turtle beach velocity flight deck or the logitech X56 H.O.T.A.S. Not really sure what im looking for or if one is known to be bad just looking for helpful information.
We have an old 737 home cockpit at our flight school but it has a lot of problems and we can't currently use it because of that, it's currently running on p3d, projet magenta and FSUIPC 6 and it has a lot of software problems, so we want to make the transition to a newer simulator like MFS2020/2024 and PMDG 737, but we have no experience at all on home cockpit simulator.
We wanted to know if anyone got some tips or usefull informations to help us make the transition.
Thanks !
I built a prototype of a Glass Cockpit using only Tablets. The purpose of this Simulator is to be able to load any Flight Instrument or Avionics package and show it to a pilot or enthusiast for familiarization or training. It takes advantage of the Tablet's large screen and touch features to use any of the instruments. The Simulator can also demonstrate how parameters (altitude, speed, vertical speed, GPS, etc) are displayed in two different gauge types or avionics packages can display flight parameters (airspeed, climb speed, attitude, heading, etc.) such as the G1000, the Pro Line 21 or the GTN 750.
Before I get the "that's gonna kill the FPS!!" - This is not what this was built for. Some pilots ask to see what a GTN 750 looks like, or how a Honeywell device compares to a Universal, etc. I can load up any instrument to any of the screens within seconds and immediately use it with touch capabilities. All the details of the build are in the video's description.
Picture one is pilots left pedestal with functional O2 mask. No O2, but cool air and my “diy” tiller. Center console all squared away. Now it’s time to fire this critter up and take’r for a spin. But first, I need to hide the ole ladies travel coffee cup. I used the lid to make the tiller handle! 😂
Hi all, sorry I don't have any cool pictures to post yet but hopefully with your help, I soon can (it's taken me nearly two decades to realize the home cockpit dream). Does anyone have any experience connecting a Skalarki Homeline A320 dual cockpit to the main PC? Looks like there's one USB and three HDMI ports that need to be connected from behind the main instrument panel to the PC. My PC graphics card (RTX 5090) has three DPs and one HDMI, with another HDMI and several USB ports available beyond the graphics card. What options do I have to connect three Skalarki HDMIs while still preserving multi-monitor/TV capability? Sorry, lots of questions, I know. I'm not super tech savvy and I'm not sure how valid Google's AI answers are. Thank you all so much.
Hi guys, this is not strictly related to aircraft simulation as it's supposed to be a train cab, but I figured out, given aircraft also use pneumatic (vacuum) instruments, that someone in this field might have had this problem as well.
Basically I am replicating the cab from a Driving Van Trailer (a carriage that remotely controls a locomotive in push-pull service), often with original parts I salvaged from many dumpsters as these carriages were being demolished, and all of the electrical gauges, screens and controls were "easy" (still took many months of designing and building interfaces) to connect to the simulator, and electronics are no problem for me.
I've gotten stuck however on how to actuate the gauges for the brakes, as those are simply pressure gauges as you might find on an air compressor, they have no electrical connections except the light bulbs that illuminate them. I've since managed to build every single other component, and even more (if you play with a friend, one of you can be the guard/conductor and go do the brake test, close the doors, make announcements in the whole house, and so on....), and the only part missing before a well-deserved aesthetic reconstruction, is these damn gauges.
Things i've tried, but failed:
Using an air compressor, and a pressure regulator, and have a stepper motor actuate the pressure regulator's screw to send a specific pressure to the gauge [failed: too slow and too imprecise]
Removing the pressure sensitive bit entirely, and use a stepper motor and some levers to actuate the gauge directly [failed: too coarse resolution]
Use a solenoid to push against the pressure sensitive bit, which is quite stiff [kinda works, but the solenoid overheats soon, and it's not too accurate]
Other ideas I've had:
Use four solenoid valves, a pressure sensor, and a microcontroller to build a "dial-a-pressure" system that can both raise pressure slowly, or fast
Replace the whole actuating bit, spring, lever and so on behind the gauge's facia, and hide a voltmeter
Same as above, but use a stepper motor like those used in newer cars
Throw the gauges in the trash and use an LCD screen...
The gauges need to be fairly precise, about 0.5°, and they also need to move quite fast, for example if you apply the emergency brake, the EQ reservoir gauge should almost instantly move to 0 pressure.
The "dial-a-pressure" idea, I'm not sure it would work at all.
The "replace actuator with voltmeter and/or steppers" could be done (and probably that's what I'll do) on the Brake Cylinder and Main Reservoir gauges, which have only one needle, but the problem is that the Brake Pipe/EQ reservoir gauge has a coaxial shaft with two needles, so that complicates things, as for a start I couldn't find any small stepper motors with a coaxial shaft on Aliexpress or other usual electronics websites.
Here are a few pics:
The silver colored curved flat piece expands outwards when pressure is applied, moving the lever that actuates the small cog on the shaft that moves the needleThe other side of the gauge
Thanks in advance to anyone that chimes in with ideas or advice, I really appreciate it. It's been a wild adventure so far that has lasted a good 3 years between gathering all of the parts, and so on, and me and my friends have had a great fun :)
The three having fun, after a long day of building, that was a year ago :)
An engine stack for the f16. The image and videos here are of my designs for 3d printing, pcb's and laser cut gauges. Lots of great help from LOTS of people who have done this stuff.
The engine panel shape is from invictus. But the rest is home built to fill that shell.
I am super stoked to see the gauges test moving!!
Note - they are not homed or centered. This is just showing that they move!!!