New toy for simmers?

[metalnwood]

It might be, only you guys will know

I am posting this on a few forums as I will be making a couple of these and thought it may be of wider interest. The idea has come from the racing side of things where I wanted a 4th monitor displaying telemetry and other information. The layout of the buttons is orientated around controlling what is on screen but all buttons will act as joystick buttons.

While the layout is not finalised there are 12 buttons around the screen, four rotaries which can be used for OBS, tuning radios etc. Also toggles. In total 32 buttons are available to map in the sim. The screen is an 8" 4:3. The device will have one VGA port, one power port and a USB port.

In FSX you could as an example create the GPS in a window and configure it to display on the screen. Similarly you could for a radio panel etc. I will get FSX going soon to check the viability of a couple other things, I.e. a multi position switch that would allow you to switch from radio to gps, etc.

The scrren could also be supplied as a touchscreen version allowing you to put other panels like autopilot on it to have access to all the functions.

At this point I am just seeing if there is any interest, if there is enough I may order additional screens to what I require and make some more.

Right now, its obviously just a drawing and when I get some exact specifications for a couple components then I will get the CNC and laser to work. There is no writing on the panel itself, e.g. button text. I plan to create laser engraved templates to mount on top or supply clear templates so you can attach your own labels.

I have no final price as for me and the couple others I am making it for dont care about the price so it has not been priced up but I will be ordering parts soon. It could be in the area of $500nzd as some of the parts are not cheap

[Ian Warren]

Excuse the pun , 'Looks like one hell of a ride' .. so this is independent from you FS module or you have grab part and bits and pieces for car racing .. was wondering what the third pedal on the floor may have been .... AIR BRAKES ....

No serious , looks brilliant , good idea to build a complex aircraft cockpit or as showen here a racing car setup

[metalnwood]

Hi Ian, this rig is strictly for racing

My pit is coming along and a couple lucky other guys have their a10's almost done. One cut earlier this week and another next week.

This is a different project which is completely stand alone and just looks like a joystick to windows. No drivers or other software, just map the buttons in game, whatever game. While I had racing in mind I think it would work very well for flight simming as well. The price may put people off so only some would look at it but when you price up the parts independently, like buying a small screen, a controller for a diy panel and the buttons etc then the price start to get put in to perspective.

[Ian Warren]

I have to admit .. Racing car games really can grab the real flyers .. many years back my brother rode back from the airport after his flying lessons .. always stopped in at my place on his return home .. not to relive flying but to go car racing , Rally driving more the preferred .. so much for the aviator