Mt5_Roie

Well I found a solution I hope to test this weekend. I found an old throttle from an x65 that the flight stick went bad on. I attached it and so far it seems to work a lot nicer. Because it has some tension on it the box can stay on. So I think the lesson learned here is joysticks aren't designed to stay in a non-centered way for long periods of time. Will lost video when I get a chance.

The collective bummed me out as well. I've seen people using throttle connected in a similar manner to do it. So we'll see if I can find a throttle somewhere to try it out. Installing all the modules now on there and hoping to do some testing this weekend.

So kind of good and bad day today as far as the pit goes. I spent the morning wiring up the radio panels and testing them on the test machine. They worked fine. I then tried to modify the collective to be a little more useful. You can see both things in the video. While the collective looked good in practice, in the sim it lacked a bit. First the joystick I was using wouldn't do full range of up and down, even after calibration. So I ended up re-doing it to use left and right. While the connection to the collective was good, the action wasn't as smooth as I like it. Not only that, the angle of the collective was quite high and hard to hold. So I made some modifications again and tested it. While it works, there seems to be little dead spots during the action of the collective that make it hard to use in the sim properly. So for now, I'm going to have to abandon the collective side of it. I think I'm going to start looking at how to mount a poteniometer to it or maybe a hall effect sensor. Also, the box I got for the front of the collective made it too heavy for the tension of the bolt to support it by itself, so had to scrap that part for now as well. I did finally get the new monitor our and get everything up and running. I found that I need a USB hub in order to get everything plugged in. I did a quick flight trying to get used to the X-52 Pro and was able to get some good hovering done. I need a lot more practice with the new controls to feel confident with them. I did test the right panel again and everything is still working fine. I'm hoping this weekend to do a mass testing of all the systems so I can start soldering things in place next week so they don't keep falling. I was hoping to do a paint test as well, but seems like we got a lot of rain here in PA today. Here's some pictures: Daughter helping me build the box: The pit as she looks now. Still need to test all switches/buttons...solder...test again...and paint

Same thing happen to me when I tried to land on the jetways at Tbisli airport.

I think there should be a Huey flying tour of Russia and Georgia. I'm sure the BS folks already know some interesting places for heli's to go.

Wonder is we'll get a DCS: Reaper module. Would be kind of cool to have a drone command unit to fly from.

So yesterday was a mini holiday for me. SSD hard drive arrived, X52 Pro arrived, and USB controller arrived. So I spent last night putting Windows 7 on the SSD hard drive. The drive was an odd fit in the computer so I built a brace for it so it'll work. I got the OS installed, DCS World installed, the Huey, Tars, Teamspeak, and FRAPs. Tomorrow I'm working from home so I'm going to wire up the rest of the left panel. I also stopped by Home Depot today to get the stuff to fix the collective. Also picked up some green spray can to do a test on painting. Will have pictures up sometime tomorrow after things are done, maybe even a video.

Very nice. We need to find some more odd objects to land on.

So I've been working on some panels overlays to use on this pit. My idea is that the pit will be Huey at the base. But with the overlays you can use it for the A-10C and the P-51. Original Huey Panels: A-10C Panels: I need to spend a little more time in the P-51 before I can design the panel overlay for it.

Sweet looking! gauges seem to be a little pricey but if they work I think it would be a good investment.

Plus the F-15 is pretty rugged:

Somewhere there is a crew chief picking a screw off the hangar floor going, "I wonder what this belongs to."

This weekend I'll have a to set up some big planes on the tarmac to land on. Keep em coming guys!

I did a "Mygver" job on the collective tonight to see if my theory would work. Tried wooden dowel with rubber bands and a lot of tape. It works, but going to get something better this weekeind. Used my laptop to test since I haven't set up the computer for the pit yet (waiting on the SSD).

Ask and ye shall receive. Although right now I've only done the right panel and some of the left panel. Waiting for another GP-Wiz40 to finish the left panel. Keep in mind that these are what I consider phase one panels. That means they work, but aren't soldered connections yet. Once phase one is all done (all panels wired up), I test them like hell. Make sure everything works. That's phase 2. Phase 3 is soldering all the connections and testing again. Being in phase one I still might make some big changes to them, but that only comes after testing. Here's the right panel which uses a GP-Wiz40. I tend to favor 16 gauge wiring, but thats really an overkill: Here's the GP-Wiz40 unit close: This is the left panel which has the light section done and the front small panel connected. It uses a Leo Bondar BU0836 unit I had from a long time ago: The unit is really small. If you just have momentary switches you can do up to 32 on it, but I choose to use it with 12 switches which can stay on or off all the time: Here's the back of the small from panel:

Yeah I had a metal bar I tested by it didn't work the full range. I"ve been looking at different collectives online and I think I can do it with a wooden dowel and some aquirium tubing. Will try to go to walmart tonight and get the tubing. I"ll post pictures when it's ready. Hopefully the SSD hard drive arrives this week so I can get the machine up and running. Been testing my the panels on my test machine for now.

I started working on the collective. Need to get some parts this week to link them up... I tightened it enough so it can stay put: Here's the joystick I'm going to hook it up with.

I know I've had issues landing on moving ships where it seems to slip a little. Not too bad on the carrier with lots of room, but on the smaller ship you run into things real quick. Will try to land on some of the bigger planes. Challenge accepted!

Can we start a crazy place to land thread? Sure we've all landed on carriers and ships...but get more adventerous. Carrier landing: Top of buildings: More buildings: Stadium landing: Top of hangar landing: Barrack landing:

Here's some pictures I took of a Huey at a Museum I volunteer at: While I'm not going for exact replica, I've started work on mine: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=107533

I wonder if it's more cost effective to find a CNC shop in the area to do the cutting and engraving vs buying a machine.

Not sure if were off topic with these discussion since the original poll just asked if we want DCS or FC quality stuff. For me, DCS quality stuff is where my love is. I love having to take several minutes to get the aircraft started and warmed up. Many of my friends who come over to fly my pit just want to start in the air with targets nicely marked. As far as price goes, It's hard to judge. I've payed 80-100 for X-plane every version that it came out. I"ve also payed anywhere from 20-60 dollars on a single aircraft for it that was nowhere near DCS level. If an aircraft that I had great interest in was developed with the DCS quality that I like, I would pay 100 easy for it. We saw a huge debate when the Huey came out for 50 dollars, I think we'll always see those kind of debates. But if you don't want to spend the money - then don't. I also have understood that ED is a company and as such, needs to make money to remain open. While there are lots of DCS level guys here, there are a lot more FC level people out there. So it would make business sense for them to develop those sims as well. So polling wise, I want more DCS level...but from a business side I would be ok if they released FC level aircraft and let the third party guys take on the DCS level sims. Personally I love Falcon BMS as well. I think it would be awesome to see the F-16 in the DCS world with DCS level.

More panels wired: I'm waiting for a GP-WIZ USB controller to come in so I can do the rest of the panels. Also ordered a SSD hard drive, 24" monitor, and X52 Pro system for it. I have an idea how to create a collective as well, but need to test some stuff with that when my spare joystick comes in