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I am from europe All the parts will be available separately Warranty is one of the major reasons why I am working on the production process more than the grips themselves. When you're able to manufacture thousands per week, replacing a few dozen bad apples is no problem. Oh I was ready way before LN announcement I wouldn't count on it. Warthog didn't prove to be a success (in the eyes of accountants and financial decision makers, not ours), I can say that because if it did, we would have seen rudder pedals or replacement grips the very next year. You can see for yourself that TM shifted it's attention to racing/driving segment. As to my update, the first prototype turned out so good that I went straight to building a larger 3d printer that will allow me to manufacture plastic resin grips by the thousands per week. So good in fact, that I have to keep it by my bed, so when I wake up thinking it was all just a good dream, I can grab it and confirm it's real :) I'll post pictures of the first few dozen grips as soon as their out of the oven

Shame on you Extranajero :D how could you. We are now all under the impression that Deadman has no clue whatsoever when speaking about the amount of cockpits built for specific airframes. You single-handedly ruined the man's reputation. I am appalled. You should have your mouth washed with soap. :D

Fixed that for you :music_whistling:

I was referring to the "daydreamers". They want cockpits, but they're not building cockpits, and they would have never built one anyway. That's cockpit building that doesn't even exist, and would never come to life, and you can't kill that. But they'll surely go for the rift because it's cheap and hassle free. And that is what is reffered to as "killing cockpit building" here. The cockpit building that is alive, is of the most hardoce type, and no amount of visuals can replace that felling for them. So oculus won't kill cockpit building, but it will surely kill daydreaming about cockpit building, by people that really don't want the trouble of building a cockpit. Edit: By the way, there's nothing wrong with not wanting to go through the trouble, and settling with the oculus rift. I myself plan on buying several or them, so I can put passengers in "the back seat" and offer them a thrilling ride. And so I can enjoy the visual simulation my self from time to time.

Still not convinced. I mean, there's guys here who bought real aircraft trainers, one that boarded up his swimming pool and put a real freaking airplane in it to use it as a simulator :D Guys who don't blink to invest thousands into physical simulation. You really think a headset and a pair of gloves can replace their level of immersion? Sure, all the hundreds and thousands of people that are just thinking "oh how nice it would be to have a real trainer", they will definitely go for the rift, but those are not cockpit builders. They're just daydreaming. Real cockpit builders want real cockpits, it's a s simple as that. You can't kill cockpit building that doesn't even exist right now. Not even with CastAR will you see hardcore cockpit builders flipping virtual switches: They would still only use it for visual world simulation, while keeping their cockpit physical.

This is a perfectly good assumption. If you assume that cockpit building is done by people who don't really want to build cockpits :D

You can't kill something that's already dead It's like saying "The car will kill the bicycle" If oculus changed your mind about building a physical cockpit, then you were never really serious about building it in the first place. It's like saying I really like the wind in my hair, can't wait to ride that bicycle.. oh wait, they have cars now? Screw that, I'm driving! You got your riders, and you got your drivers, many do both. And it'll always be like that.

Kit Carson Best of breed comments on the 109 *a brief text I have saved, I don't have the book or know the author "A series of mock dogfights were conducted by the British in addition to the flight test and the following was revealed: If the airplane was trimmed for level flight, a heavy push on the stick was needed to hold it in a dive at 400 mph. If it was trimmed into the dive, recovery was difficult unless the trim wheel was wound back, due to the excessive heaviness of the elevator forces. Ailerons At low speeds, the ailerons control was good, response brisk. As speed increased the ailerons became too heavy but the response was good up to 200 mph and 300 mph they became "unpleasant". Over 300 mph they became impossible. At 400 mph the stick felt like it was set in a bucket of cement. A pilot exerting all his strength could not apply more than one fifth aileron at 400 mph; that's 5 degrees up and 3 degrees down. The aileron situation at high combat speeds might be summarized in the following way: (1) Due to the cramped cockpit a pilot could only apply about 40 pounds side force on the stick as compared to 60 pounds or more possible if he had more elbow room. (2) Messerschmitt also penalized the pilot by designing in an unsually small stick top travel of plus or minus 4 inches, giving very poor mechanical advantage between pilot and aileron. (3) At 400 mph with 40 pounds side force and only one fifth aileron displaced, (1/5 of 4 inches is exactly 2cm) it required 4 seconds to get into a 45 degree roll or bank. That immediately classifies the airplane as being unmaneuverable and unacceptable as a fighter. Elevator This was a good control at slow speeds but became too heavy above 250 mph and at 400 mph it became so heavy that maneuverability became seriously restricted. When diving at 400 mph a pilot, pulling very hard could not pull enough "g" force to to black himself out. The stick force per "g" was an excess of 20 pounds in a high speed dive. To black out, as a limit to the human factor in high speed maneuvers, would require over 100 pounds pull on the stick. Rudder At low speeds the rudder was light but sluggish in response. At 200 mph the suggishness disappears, at 300 mph the absense of trim control in the cockpit became an acute problem. The pilot's leg force on the port rudder above 300 mph to prevent sideslip became excessive and unacceptable. Control Harmony At low speed, below 250 mph, control harmony was good, only a little spoiled by the suggishness of the rudder. At higher speeds the aileron and elevator forces were so high that the word "harmony" is inappropriate. Aerobatics Not easy to do. Loops had to be started from about 280 mph when the elevator forces were getting unduly heavy; there was also a tendency for the wing slats to bang open the top of the loop, resulting in aileron snatch and loss of direction. Below 250 mph the airplane would roll quickly but there was a strong tendency for the nose to fall through the horizon in the last half of the roll and the stick had to be moved well back to keep the nose up. Upward rolls were difficult, again because of elevator heaviness at the required starting speed. Due to this, only a moderate pull out from a dive to build up speed was possible and considerable speed was lost before the upward roll could be started. The very bad maneuverability at high speed of the Me-109 quickly became known to the RAF pilots in 1940. On many occasions 109 pilots were led to self destruction when on the tail of a Hurricane or Spitfire at moderate or low altitudes. The RAF pilot would do a snappy half roll and "split ess" pull out, from say 3,000 feet. In the heat and confusion of the moment the 109 pilot would follow, only to discover that he didn't have enough altitude to recover due to his heavy elevator forces and go straight into the ground or the Channel without a shot being fired."

Throttle grips are not finished yet, but they will have all the required inputs. There's testing to be done still. For the antenna to be an axis, I can disable the slider on the throttle base and wire it to that

It's a bit early for that, but it will have individual gimbals for x and y, instead of direct contact and friction like warthog. Both tension and oil damping adjustments, adjustable extension built in just like this grip and yes, mounting holes to match the warthog's. The throttles will come with replacement levers, once you install those, you can connect and disconnect the exchangeable throttle grips as you wish. Installing the replacement levers would be a 5 step, 10 min job with detailed instructions. I've done this about 20 times now and there's really nothing to damage. Just unplug and replug a few wires. Piece of cake, especially with a detailed picture guide explaining what everything is/does so you don't go in blind.

Each grip will come with a nice thick embroidered "remove before flight tag" that will be hooked to a snap lock on the shaft between the warthog base and the grip, so the grip won't be able to move until you pull on the tag and remove the lock: I'm still working on the dust covers.

Yes :) aluminum, resin plastic. I could do that. But wouldn't it be possible to add modifiers. Like, pinky button or lever + castle hat = view All of the DCS planes will be covered. I already have 80% of the models ready. Just need to produce the F-18 ones as proof of concept first. A quick glued mockup to check the fit:

Soon:

As of today, I have access to laser cutting and engraving services locally, so this project is starting up again. Thanks to DCS-bios, looks like motor and led control will be a breeze with a single arduino and that puts things in a whole different perpective. My first estimate was 500$, well now you can cut that in half. And after my own laser cutter arrives, sub 150$ is looking very much doable. Prototyping starts next month.

So, I was about to throw it into the trash, as I'm not interested in anything less then perfect. But decided to give it some cleaning, to rest my eyes from the computer screen. And what do you know, it's actually... fine. And that's with the machine at it's lowest quality, some wrong settings, no after treatment and no curing chamber. ( I sprayed some water on it because the damn camera picks up every single dust fiber and makes it look way worse then it actually is) That's a good start even at my standards. Can't wait for upgrades so I can ramp it up to the highest. And then.. aluminum baby! :D

Got me an F-18 grip :) Still far from perfect. No joy until I get my upgraded machine parts.

Thanks. Yes I know the basics about servos and steppers, but some of the gauges cannot be done by servos, like the altimeter. I did the calculations a year or two ago but if I remember correctly, after gear reduction each step of the servo would be 30 meters on the gauge? not much of a resolution. Steppers however are limitless and with a driver module and an optical zero switch it can do wonders. So if you guys figure out the software side of things, I will provide hardware beyond your wildest dreams, at student prices too. EDIT: So servo's are ready to go? Can I make my A-10 engine cluster and send it to someone for testing

Hi there. I don't have time to go through the entire thread as I am neck deep into my projects, but what's the situation on stepper/servo control? Can it control motors according to in-game outputs? Because in a few months my 30$ per instrument promise is coming true, possibly even way less then that. But I don't have time for coding and programing. I can provide basic logic for the motors, but someone would have to do the actual programing. So, can dcs bios do steppers and servos with arduino?

First successful print. With the last failed one, which I also managed to brake. The roughness is there because of some wrong settings and wrong orientation, and until I get my upgraded machine parts, and post print curing and treatment chamber. Still, to the naked eye it looks completely smooth. The main part, the biggest one, will have to wait until I get the settings just right. It's pretty close now.

Only pewter for direct casting. I'll print masters for green sand molds and cores, for aluminum castings.

Some progress. After wasting a whole week printing on wrong specifications I got from the manufacturer. Each of these prints is 3-6 hours so you can understand my frustration. and that's just what I got on the table, there's about 10X more in the workshop. Today was the first day I got some semi-usable prints, after figuring out the settings myself. Also, I have some crutial upgrade parts coming for the machine, that will allow me way more quality prints. And I have to do some modifications to the models. Everything looks fine enlarged on a 30" monitor, but once you print out a 20x30mm part you realize some details are microscopic in reality :doh: Prototype electronics are starting to arrive, also about 1/10 of whats actually clogging my room, I'm becoming a full blown hoarder :D Chinese new year is in full swing so there will be some delays with coming parts also. Actually molds for aluminum castings would be much easier to print, but since it's winter/snow time here for another month or so, that will have to wait. Molten metal and moisture don't mix well.

Right now I'm financing everything myself, so I kinda need my day job. But as soon as this becomes self sustainable, out with the day job, and in with the simulation gear. I'm a professional freelancer so it wouldn't be a big change. I can quit and get back to it any time I want. Replacement parts is the major reason why this is taking longer then it should. I've made every single button, hat, cable, pcb, lever etc. detachable, replaceable and interchangeable. And don't worry about me quitting this job. If I were to hit the mega jackpot tomorrow, first thing I'd do is buy more machines for this project. It's a passion and a creative outlet, I don't want to do this, I need to do this.

The stages are metal. Once the height is adjusted, every stage is tightened down with a hex screw. Absolutely no wiggle/flex at all. I actually copied the system from my 3d printer that has adjustable build platform height on the exact same principle. And that thing is doing 0.002 inches accuracy. Oh there's plenty more where those F-18 grips came from. I'll get your money, don't you worry about that :)

If you can make this for under 100$ my hat is off to you. And I don't say that often. Hell, I'll even buy one! But this needs some pro renders to really bring it to life.

But wait, there's more... The grip has a built in, two stage, fully adjustable 150 mm / 6 inch extension. That's "built in", as in "it's in the grip itself" :D Along with a 30 degree twist offset. Everything on detents and fully adjustable. And the throttles will be re-worked so that the levers are a standalone piece, so once you install the levers on the warthog throttle base, you can disconnect and reconnect the throttle grips as you wish, without the need to go into the base each time.