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The unit has adjustable clamping diameter that clamps onto what ever extension you're using.

And again I forget the most important part. No, for now. MFG Milan is making extensions now so I'll see what kind of a deal we can make to bundle it together.

*this has 'nothing' to do with warthog replacement grips, but I'll open a gimbal dedicated thread when I get the final version of the product, and leave it in here for now This is an almost final, but very roughly assembled prototype, basic and pro version, everything is functional but nothing is aligned yet. Shock dampers are skewed because they're missing correct length spacers, bolts are not correct length, colors are wrong etc. But this is the design. Warthog spring is removed in 2min with no modifications, it comes out by itself when you unscrew the top 8 bolts deactivating the original gimbal completely, and this is bolted on your extension in another 5min. I have also a design for stock Warthog without an extension. Everything will be anodized aluminum with some really sick color options. This completely eliminates the ridiculous hard center detent and overpowers the sticktion problem. I am making tweaks daily. They should be for sale by the next month which would be August. I am hoping for 30 - 75 dollar price mark, depending on the version you need. Usually I would go for sub 30 dollars tops, but this is my very own kickstarter. You buy this, you get on the Replika Simulation Gear founders list. This and a couple of other simple products is going to fuel the development of everything else. The pro version with shocks has replacable springs for different forces, replacable shock oil and piston rings for different damping effects, adjustable spring pre-tension, and the whole unit has adjustable height. So you can have different strength force and damping on pitch up, pitch down, and roll, just like in a real aircraft. I wouldn't even show this mess, but you asked for it :) In a week or two I'll have the final version with some really bad-ass color options and all the matching components. IR tracking unit will be prototyped right after this. I have MFCDs and everything else designed, but every component need a couple hundred $$$ for prototyping and tweaks. I have more than a 100 components developed by now so I need to start selling something to fund the rest, but rest assured the final goal is full blown cockpits. Save

Nah, that was my fault, as usual :) I try to offer a more detailed explanation in a hurry but don't re-read before posting and some of my views get misunderstood. Reading some of the posts back to myself, I totally see how it can seem hostile and disrespectful when I talk about other small manufacturers and such. Which is not at all what I am about, it just comes out wrong. Pictures of the gimbal prototype tomorrow I think. I made a few today but they need some tweaks. Save

I am making several units for testing tomorrow. After a quick test, I only need to cut more, it's a simple kit, like an extension so they don't require workers for assemlby or extra time from me. There should be no delays on that one. This month or the next. It's No.1 priority for me at this point. I'll be happiest if I can start selling them tomorrow.

A bolt-on replacement gimbal for the Warthog, you guessed it! :) In addition to that, the trackir unit and some other small but very important stuff. It'll be clearer in the upcoming days. The grips will move in as soon as there are 2-3 of this less complex products for sale. Especially something like the bolt-on Warthog gimbal kit, as it doesn't require any post-manufacturing work from me, or customer support with firmware and such. Save

Doing some last minute inventory, it's a very small part of probably every kind of switch/push button/lcd/duino/display there is. My machinery/tooling is packed up to make room for testing and assembling. I have scheduled industrial machine time in a local entrepreneur center, and will be doing my machining there, daily, so I should be posting progress pictures of actual prototypes every day. I'm just waiting on my large order of acrylic and I'll be on my way. I have some on stock so I will post some pics first thing this week, but most of it is either wrong thickness or wrong color so I need the new order to come in. The real influx of stuff will happen after that. All of the renders are actually cad files ready for machining, and all the electronics I have been collecting for a year now, so as soon as my acrylic comes in, I go supercharged. There are several simple products that I will put up for sale first, before moving on to more complex stuff. And that's how I plan to move forward, manufacture the prototypes in order of less complexity so that they can go for sale asap and fuel further progress. That's why the grips had to move a few steps down in the priority list, there are far less complex things missing on the market and they are a great opportunity for quick and steady income, to fuel further growth of the more complex stuff, and to make the more complex stuff cheaper. All this stuff will need arduino/dcs-bios programming so I'll need big help on that front. I'm already in contact with several members of this community and I'll open threads for certain prototypes so be ready to join in. I will of course reward any effort to help. Let's do this! :pilotfly: Save

Not outside US, it's closer to 3.500$, and I'm talking only left/right side panels and in the F-18 those are nothing but 2 switch boxes. A-10 on the other hand, has instruments, lcd displays and a bunch of mechanical digit counters AND double row panels on each side and those side panels would have to be at least 4x as much. But again, if I'm doing dozen of other products I would rather sell the A-10 side panels at 2x199$, even at a loss, because I have other products and because I want to fly with people in real simpits

That is stretching it, but with some conditions very much possible for the F-18 (if other fighters have such simple panels, great): 1) Panels only. No mfd's, no instruments, no throttle and stick. 2) Non backlit. Because in that case I have no painting work whatsoever, not even for the engravings. If that's a deal breaker, increase your price point to 299$ and it's again possible. Still a bit stretched but possible with all the other extra products. 3) I do not charge profit for the aluminum extrusion clamps (which sell for 100$+ now, because it's the only product the company sells). I am willing to do that but you have to wait until i develop other product too, so I can make up for lost profit or free work. 4) I do not charge profit for custom printed replica knobs. Can be non backlit or backlit. Which I will do because the knobs are not a product anymore, they are a component, just like toggles. I could have started selling replica knobs a year ago at 200$ and what good would that do. So when you take the time to research and develop a larger picture like this, things that seemed totally impossible become very much within reach. On top of that, I want replica cockpits for myself regardless, and if full blown cockpit replicas fail I'll just make them as a hobby, just to fly with a squadron of people with full blown cockpits, and sell them at 0 profit and make my money on hotas units and other simple stuff.

Why would I want to sell a ton more then them. They probably sold more than 100,000 units, probably several times that. You're assuming I'm trying to become a multi millionaire or something over this which couldn't be farther from the truth. All I need is 50+ units per month, and since I have dozens of other planned, I can't go under if sales of one drop, because there will always be something else to manufacture. Do I make it seem like I want to take over the world with this? I'm sorry maybe I should take more time to re-read my own posts before posting. Or maybe you should just tone down what ever you think after reading my posts, by 80% and you will come to a more accurate depiction of what I really mean. I'm just a guy trying to get my fellow simmers some affordable and innovative products, and not disappear in a year or two, or be in the same place I was when I started selling.

Oh I see. Well alright, point proven. You still have to consider that your cockpit probably took you years custom make, takes up a huge amount of space and I don't even want to ask how much money. And just go by logic, any kind of totally exclusive claims about anything in the past, have been wrong. This will end that, that will kill this etc. The world just isn't that black and white. If I were planning a multi billion dollar product then yes, but I'm targeting an almost minuscule portion of the sim market really, with the full blown cockpits. The generic $99 panels are in no way competing with rift, and hotas is never going away, which is still my No.1 priority, it just can't be the only one. Edit: Is there really every single switch/knob/button in your simpit? I don't know if the mouse pad is just covering the right side, but doesn't look like a full blown simpit. Because that's what I'm talking about. A full blown, every knob/switch/button left, right and front consoles, desktop mounted for less than 1/10 of the price of a VR setup and the PC needed to run it.

It's not a problem. My original post and thread title doesn't have anything at all to do with the current subject anymore anyway so... As soon as I have pictures of a first prototypes I will open a relevant thread for each cockpit. You'd just like to see the world burn :) By this point it'll take me less time to machine and assemble actual prototypes then it would to set up renders, the ones shown are from 6 months ago. Save

Don't get offended but calling a gaming accessory priced at 230$ not that expensive when alternative can be made for less than half price is just not logical or serious. This is just casual opinion talk and I'm very serious about this. Markets are won by 10% price reductions. If you're telling me that a potential product that skips several pricing levels is not really needed, I cannot waste time on such casual back and forth completely baseless opinion exchange. That can be said for any new product ever, and we don't really need anything in the future, things are just not that expensive so why even try, right?

Whether you like it or not, TrackIr alternative, WWII sticks and panels are 5x less complex than modern jet stuff and it's 100x more popular. The TrackIr alternative especially! It's for racing, civilian flight sims, military flight sims, FPS, RPG even RTS... that alone can drive the prices of everything else down to where I would like them to be, and fuel the development of everything else. Ok so points like these that are actually backed up and explained by some reasoning I don't mind at all, I welcome it and I'll gladly address it with reasoning of my own. And to anyone else, there's no reason to turn this into a pro camp vs critics. If you have points backed up by logic, we can discuss either pro or con. So let my try to address your points with reasoning of my own: 1) Oculus rift and other VR Why should they exclude each other completely? Did Playstation kill PC or vice versa? Did disel kill the gass engine? And what about twist grip joysticks, did they kill rudder pedals or even non twist grip sticks?? VR and physical cockpit are 2 completely different worlds, if you don't feel like that than you do not have that cockpit itch. I cannot wait to try Oculus, that is the only thing that can provide a true illusion of flight. But there are people like me who are interested in procedures and checklists. It's way more than just flicking switches, especially if you can have a complete replica cockpit. So a cockpit replica will never give you a true illusion of flying, but Oculus will never give you a true illusion of being a pilot. I will certainly use both. When you couple that with the fact that oculus is 800$ + the highest end computer (and how many gamers have that??), and my FC3 style panel is targeted for $99 and there will be one cool generic panel like that for each DCS level aircraft, I'm working on my WWII cockpits to be in the 299$ range, and jet cockpits in the 599$ range, I think I'm ok either way. You also have to think further than the gaming market. There are professionals who could very much use a full blown simulator that does not cost 30 million dollars. Flight schools, museums, private operators, you name it. If this market doesn't want this, I'll just go make construction equipment simulators for professional operator training and I can raise my prices 30x. 2) Yes warthog base if fine, true. But it is also true that it has problems, and it is true that many things can be better than fine. The problem is, it's fine for 450$, 600$ if you're outside US. VKB wouldn't sell several tens of thousands units of joystick only if this wasn't the case. 3) This is your reason because I still haven't explained the whole picture. I'd like to do that with prototypes, not words and renders. For starters, the TrackIr alternative would be an even better bet, much better. But what if I can replicate the Warthog HOTAS with a gimbal base, replacement grips and throttle with 72 switches in total for half the price and minus all the problems Warthog has? And keep in mind TrackIr alternative and WWII stuff is the reason for the price reduction, not because I'm superman, I can't do magic. But I can work around a certain problem and think outside of the box. We will see if I can do that in the upcoming months. If I wanted to do that, I would go directly to the professional simulator market and watch 100x the dollar amount roll in. Don't tempt me :) But again, even with the new update I still haven't painted the whole picture. What if I can make my own hotas with all the improvements and minus all the problems, for half the price? We will see in the upcoming months. Save

I really shouldn't throw any more gasoline on the fire :) Let's see about these prototypes first and how fast I can make them. But in theory, yes. Especially if I can find partners interested in manufacturing them. Which is my plan B, if I can't make it fast enough, give the designs and the technology to the already exiting small manufacturers. Actually it's more likely plan A for civil aviation and other stuff like helicopters. There's too much, so yeah, design them and send them away to whoever is interested in making them. And let me just address again what I said earlier as I see how it is misread. When I "complain/criticize" other small manufacturers I am not criticizing them or their products. I'm criticizing the situation they are in. Situation I am in. Situation we as a relatively small community of military aviation study sim enthusiasts are. That is you can have the best talent, the best product, the best sales and your growth will still be very limited and slow. Hell there is a very good chance you might even go out of business. That's my problem. I cheer for each and every one of those guys and I hate it that they have to struggle this hard despite all their success. Someone has to go think outside the box. To change that, we need a different way of manufacturing products and much bigger product range, more than we need a new grip, or grips. Save

Of course not. I'm fine with questions and skepticism and it's all probably my fault, I try to explain and address them in detail but don't take the time and it comes out wrong, maybe I should be much shorter in my answers: Q: Why no grip sales? A: Everyone else I looked at is selling great and still not growing, I am skeptical of this usual way. I'll try to do things differently. No promises though, just updates on the progress. If I fail, we take the usual way.

My post #417 from February 2015 is a picture of a first 3d printed mockup prototype, from my own 3d printer which proved to be above expectations. Which is when I realized I really could manufacture these grips myself. Yes I had people contributing drawings and firmware/electronics ideas. I picked up a name and designed a logo. No company, no team and no announcements. It's been even less then a year, I still worked on the grip for several months after that. Then I looked at all the other small manufacturers and realized they're still on their first product with great sales, but no new categories. And I said I'm gonna see if things can be done differently. It has been less than a year from that point. People ask for explanations I explain myself. I do get why developers go quiet now. You give updates it's bad, you don't it's bad :) And why am I being called out for promising stuff, I'm just a guy letting you know of his lonely progress trying to figure out a different way to get some products for us all. When I ask for your credit card number, you can raise some noise. Those other companies you think I'm bashing on, they will be the first ones to benefit from my work and my sacrifice. I could have been just another competitor in this small market, instead I am trying to change the game for everyone. I can't manufacture all this myself fast enough and I'm not gonna go look inexperienced partners. They, all the other small manufacturers will be the first ones to get the designs that I don't have time for, they can even copy me from day one I don't have millions for patents, most of it is gonna be open source anyway. Save

Did I not say all these companies have great products? I specifically used that word. Great product and great sales. But that's exactly my point. They did such great work there should be even greater growth and success. I mean it. I feel like a black sheep here, like I just told you that the earth is not the center of universe and I'm gonna get burned at the stake just for explaining my view. It's my view, it's the way I'm gonna go, for the reasons and examples I mentioned. That's it. No arrogance, no bashing on others, no greatness. Just a guy trying to go a different way.

Sorry :) As I said, the usual way works for manufacturing tosters (or smartphones) for the very reason that you're market is 7 billion people. It doesn't work here. That is, it works, but barely.

Oh come on :lol: Really? That's what we're gonna compare study level military simulation products to? An iPhone :D Show me a market of a few billion study level military flight enthusiasts and sure I'll go with a single grip. Save

I started making plans for a company with a palette of products in February last year, 2015. So not even a full year has gone by. The 3d shell model I offered for online printing in the first post of this thread was nothing more than a side project of a student engineer and has nothing at all to do with the situation now. Which is why I don't like this thread. It is completely misleading.

That would be common knowledge and something very obvious. I don't think Computer Aided Design falls into that category. But I'm all facts guys, show me that company that started with 1 product a few years ago, and grew to 10+ different categories and I'll drop all my nonsense and go their way. VKB Stratojet? Slew Device? MFG? Mamba? BRD? Comodo Sim? TrackHat? DelanClip? They're all stuck with their one or two products and months on the waiting list. Once you go sales, there's no going back to development unless you have a team of 10 engineers, product designers and a separate sales and support team. The company that accomplished the most has all their stuff either in "limited quantities" or "Out of stock". Why? They're selling like crazy, their growth should be exponential each year, yet they struggle to replace their product with another one of the same category, and each of their last year models goes out of production despite being a huge hit. They are stagnating despite great sales. Why? And what about those with amazing products but are not around anymore like Tarmac Aces and Galactic Pancakes? Amazing products, yet companies are out of business. Why no replacement grips from TM or another hotas? Because there is something wrong with the usual way of doing things. It clearly doesn't work. It might work for manufacturing tosters, but it doesn't work here. Whether you like it or not I am not going that way, not even for a try. Opinions without backed up facts are of no interest to me. I gave you every small company out there today and they're all struggling despite their product being highly in demand. Show me one example of fact that disproves me, otherwise don't even waste your time to comment on my hilarious renders.

And of course, take it with a bit of logic, or a grain of salt. This is a huge amount of work, I'll start with the simplest stuff, single product, obviously teams will be needed for certain areas, prices might be higher for early adopters to help speed up production. But you asked for updates, and this is what is being worked on. Worst case scenario I make 5% of it in the next year and it'll still be huge. So sit, relax, enjoy the free show.

Hi all. Getting back up to speed after a 6 month absence so forgive for the last renders instead of prototypes. But I have dozens of different product prototypes to assemble and I'd rather spend the time actually assembling them, then taking pictures of parts or semi finished units. You all know I've been blabbering on and on about the importance of developing a bunch of stuff simultaneously instead of a single product, and I've done just that. Still I don't see other small companies producing their completely new additions to their lineup of products. They all have great stuff, but it's either pedals, extensions, joysticks etc. Great stuff, sells like cupcakes but several years later, still the same lineup, only modifications and improvements. I am not bashing, just explaining my way, and regardless of anyone's opinion, I plan my business on facts, and the facts told me go this way, or forever be a guy making F-18 sticks, in a garage, for a hotas base that is bound to be outdated at a certain point. So, before my 6 month planned absence, I've been very busy prototyping everything. The list is too long, I'll post as many renders I can find. These renders are the last 5% of the work before machining, what you're not seeing is the 95% of the work I have to do to keep it cheap and even more important manufacturable, so don't think these are just pretty graphics. All I have to do is press machine start and an hour later I have that very product in hand. So here's what you'll see from me in the next 6-12 months, piece by piece (not all at once!): F-18 grips You know everything, they're ready to go, I just need to see how I can couple them up with my own hotas, again to unify the parts and processes. They are going to be cheap, If you had to take a guess you'd be waay over. However, after simplifying every other manufacturing process, turns out these grips are the most complex thing here. Don't be mad if there'll be other products for sale before them because other products is exactly what will pay for your cheap grips. General purpose aviation panel (for FC3) Excuse the missing landing gear and tail hook levers. Just another example of why I do multiple developments at once. It took several other products to develop a unified lever mechanism for them all, which speeds up manufacturing, which brings down pricing and drives volume up. Now I'm not the only one who can do this, but you might be farmiliar that single panels/buttons boxes go for 200-300$, I am aiming for 99$, again not really possible on it's own, but with a dozen other products, very possible. With some help from developers, we can make it truly plug'n'play like the warthog. PRO aviation panels (for DCS) I started on the A-10 but that thing is a monster, I may have to switch to the F-18 or any other available model because they're at least 4x less complex. And again, you A-10 guys would have to pay a gazillion bucks for something like this if I only did the A-10, but other modules are what's going to pay for your cheap A-10 panels, even if I make them at a slight loss. General WWII aviation panels These will be toned down versions of the pro WWII panels. (see example below) PRO WWII aviation panels These will be full blown left/right panels, every single command functional even the rolling canopy open/close, clamp to your desk, put on a stand once you're finished and be the coolest friend to come over for a beer to. Each side will be cheaper then a couple generic button boxes available today. Started with P-51 because it's at least 4x more complex than any other WWII cockpit I looked at, so it gives me the worst case scenario pricing. WWII plane specific 'hotas' Hotas units for those who are on the budget and can't afford the whole deal. Joystick+throttle. Dirt cheap (compared to what's available today), full replica, industrial quality.Plug'n'play. Instruments, for everything eventually. Working mechanical instruments, including digit counters for modern jets. I think I'll stop now because there's too much. And before all the questions will you make this or that, or how are you going to make them plug'n'play etc. I haven't taken any money, just let me work and we both reap the benefits for the next 10 years. My road as a one man show are over, I'm getting a manufacturing partner and involving other people so I might go quiet for a month or two again, BUT I'll be assembling and testing prototypes instead of making pretty pictures so you won't be disappointed. Save Save

There will be many updates, news and pictures throughout this month, as promised. No sales yet though. I have been away from my projects for 6 months because I had some health issues to take care of. I've been putting it off all this time but I needed to deal with them now so they don't become a problem in the middle of production. In the months before that I have done more work than ever so you won't be disappointed. This is not a 3 year old project, I should have started a new thread after I decided to manufacture my own grips, and that was in February 2015 after the first successful 3d printed prototype. Discard the last 6 months that I've been away and you have a 10-month old project. To further explain why it takes even this long, imagine what happened to computers/cellphones in the last 20 years, compact that progress into 2 years and you can get a glimpse of what the 3d printing development is going through. Last year was the dawn of rapid manufacturing (industrial 3d printing) and each month there were giant leaps in the technology, so anything I designed to be 3d printed was outdated by the next month. Things have settled down now. Building these machines is 10x cheaper than what it was last year, they are fast enough now, with reliable and repeatable results and a wide range of materials. So now we pick up where we left off in February 2015 regarding the grips, and December 2015 regarding the head tracking unit and panels/instruments.