JaseGill

Mine just arrived. Fitted and I have to say its a revelation. 100mm I got and it feels just right and gives a really good feel for everything Ive tried with it. Cant wait to try it on a Heli or two. As a RL pilot, although of light aircraft, I like the fact that the longer 'throw' allows more precise control, particularly around the centre. Its great, well recommended.

Thats a hell of a return mate. Looking forward to seeing the price. Cheers, J.

Yup, I'm only an Advanced Open Water (PADI) with Nitrox Certification too. I started on my 1st visit to the Maldives and have dived there now on 3 trips. Also done Egypt up North in Dahab, and further south in Hurghada and Marsa Alam, The British Virgin Islands around Virgin Gorda and Necker and in the Caribbean too (Jamaica and Tobago). Ive done 1 dive in the UK (too cold) and a few in Menorca (not enough to see). The best all round is probably Egypt, especially since its now quieter or for pure ease you cant beat the Maldives, though I loved the ruggedness and the wrecks in the BVI. J.

Welcome back buddy. I hope all is on the mend and you and yours are well. Looking forward to seeing whats to come. J.

Enjoy :)

Hi all, Even with my oldish rig, other than the new MSI GTX970 Gaming OC, this card flies. I haven't had any chance to beat it up but from what I have seen in DCS and Elite: Dangerous I'd be surprised if anyone is disappointed with it. In Elite: Dangerous the FPS at maxed out settings went from 30ish to a flat 100 with no stuttering. DCS I need to really have a go with and run some harder testing. Granted I moved up from another MSI card, the GTX670 OC, I should see a major change but on 2 screens with everything maxed I havent seen a stutter yet. In DCS I guess that's down to the extra memory, my old card only had 2GB whilst this has 4GB, as I think DCS is very graphics memory hungry. I cant wait to see what EDGE is like and given I got it for just under £250 a 2nd one for SLI could be on the cards if anyone shows its worth. As an upside the 670 screamed under load though I never saw it overheat and sucked power like mad, this one is still silent even maxed and is supposed to be more energy efficient so I guess thats all good too. Worth a go I think. J.

An O.B.E Does not make you a Knight and therefore Sir. he is David Braben O.B.E. Its Order of the British Empire, he hasn't been Knighted. Still an honour though.

If you think about it the load out kind of makes sense. Storm Shadow is Standoff so why carry big jugs (fuel tanks) to get to the target. You don't want to be anywhere near the target as that's the point of a standoff weapon, hence you don't need the fuel. Then you can put a big jug on the centreline (jettisonable) to get any extra duration you may need. With a centreline pod you can either put a lot of weapons on or a few less (but still plenty) and jugs as well. We all assume that aircraft (and crews) want to carry as many weapons as they can and have the ability to hit lots of targets. In the modern world the mission is specified so tightly that you carry only the weapons you need for the given tasking and no one wants to carry extra weight and then have to jettison expensive weapons if theres a knife fight coming. No one runs around any more with big multi-ejector racks and tens of bombs Vietnam style. With PGM's on the wings and a centreline pod you can do all you need for a given tasking. Everyone carried loads of weapons (think F4's over Vietnam) because the probability of kill was so low they dropped loads just to hit one target. Now its 1 target 1 weapon and the taskings themselves are more tightly constrained too. Just my two penworth.

Gentlemen, I applaud your efforts and look forward to hopefully contributing in whatever way I can. If you need a Professional Project Manager and Systems Enginner/Software guy on the case anywhere then let me know and I'd be happy to contribute even if its just to help out on the boring back end stuff. Other than that I wish you all the luck in the world and anyone who bemoans there being even more useful information on the internet for those of us who like to tinker, play, contribute and not necessarily make a living out of it may well have an ulterior motive I think - no offence to anyone in particular. This is after all a Flight Simulator Community with a capital C IMHO. J.

Welcome back buddy. Its good to see you back after all you have been through. Looking forward to seeing the new gear. Just got a Shapeoko2 myself :) Great toy.

Mine is now mechanically built. Electronics next. Pretty easy to put together and looking forward to the tweaks now before getting it up and running properly. Takes about 10 hours to mechanics built if you take it steady, read read and then re-read the instructions :) J.

Gadroc, Thanks for that, its much appreciated. Its clear to me that I'm going to have to do a lot of research and some trial and error I'm sure. Still whats the point of doing it of it isn't a challenge ;) I need to look at what i want to do with it. I'm thinking some engraving, some PCB production (maybe) and definitely some panel work. I know that the engraving and some other elements aren't as clean as a laser but Im thinking I may go and do a laser upgrade sometime when I get to the limits of the milling tools. Its really good to have a community here to bounce ideas off and the same in the Shapeoko community too. Rgds, J.

Guys, Thanks for the support. I think we can probably help each other out a lot here. I've been following the YouTube guy too Jimbo as I don't want to muck it up too much. Did you manage to build it pretty painlessly? I've been reading the Wiki a LOT :) As far as software I guess I need to work that out next. Do you have an idea to use anything other than the usual freeware Stevos? J.

Hi all, I know its not a perfect platform but I have decided to finnaly bite the bullet and have ordered a Shapeoko 2. Really its my 1st dabble at CNC and I'm looking forward to it a lot. Not a massive bed, not as clean as a laser but also not as expensive either. Has anyone here ever used one in anger? Do you think I will be able to make decent panels with it? Any pointers from those who know these things would be very appreciated. J.

I cant say it was fun to put together, but it was rewarding to see and use the final result. The bits for my Saitek Throttle Quadrant arrive tomorrow at work. Sadly I'm off sick with Norovirus so wont pick it up or gut to build it until next week probably. I will put pics up as soon as I can though. J.

Nerves, This is the List: 1. Base Long Sides = 2 of 45x90 at 1800mm 2. Base Short Sides = 2 of 45x90 at 500mm Small Feet x 8 to allow it to sit on wooden floor. 3. U-Frame behind Monitor = 3 of 45x90 at 500mm To this I mounted a Monitor Arm that I had lying around from another project. 4. Seat Leg Uprights = 4 x 45x90 at 400mm 5. Seat Horizontals to add Mouse/Throttle Arms to = 2 x 45x45 at 1000mm 5. Seat Arms/Throttle and Mouse Base = 4 x 45x45 at 400mm. To this I mounted an MDF shelf for the mouse and an Offfice chair with the gas struts removed. Screwed to the Aluminium Extrude using KJN's own mounting kits for shelves. To bolt it all together I ordered 30 of 45x45 right angle brackets and slide fittings. I tidied the cables by using KJN's own slides for cable ties that slot into the frame and standard zip locks to attach cables to these. Next to come is the mount for the Saitek Throttle Quadrant thats yet to arrive and then I will probably order the parts to mount the joystick on proper extruded lengths to stop the play in the Plastic Pipe issues. At that point its done, I hope. All my extrudes were ordered from KJN in the UK and I must say they were very fast delivering it all, 3 days from order to it arriving at my office. Cant recommend them enough if you're in the UK. I hope all that's useful. If you need more just ask. I don't have any diagrams as I kind of designed it in my head and then on paper. It fits me just fine and I'm 6ft 3in tall and as you can see from the pics there is plenty space behind (I might mount my surround speakers behind the seat but that's for another time). Rgds, J.

Sure nerves. I will have to find the original order but will do so soonest :) Rgds, J.

Hi all, Thanks for the comments. Hans: Yes the stuff is damn expensive but given it can be moved around, and placed differently I think in the end its worth it. Great stuff and just kind of Geek Cool :) Thick8: The Panels came from here. They were produced by Glider_UK who is on a break as he has had some personal stuff going on. I have a Landing Gear Handle from TomDK to fit but just haven't got to it yet. Also I'm looking for a Flaps Gauge or I might play with an Arduino and see if I can sort one myself one day. Cali and WildBill. Thanks guys. The Alu Extrude is so much fun its difficult to make it not look clean and neat. The only stuff I have added is a custom MDF mouse mat tray that's cut to the shape if the mat itself for a few curves as the rest has a lot of right angles in it ;) It needs painting but I'm at odds to remove it and wait for it to dry as I can finally get some flying in on this too and I don't want to interrupt that :) J.

I've been thinking of updating my Office Pit for quite some time. It was MDF and wood and looked a bit naff if Im honest. I've thought about Extruded Aluminium before and finally bit the bullet and spend just under £400 on some 45x90 and 45x45 pieces to build a multi-purpose Office/Pit set-up. The shield on the touch-screen is removable for when I want to use the whole touch-screen for other things. All my other stuff is as per the signature so I wont bore you with all that. I cant recommend Extruded Aluminium enough and though expensive it was worth the spend I think. Next coming is some more extrusions for the Joystick (Waste pipe wobbles a bit and I want it more stable and another side to the front and right fro a Saitek Throttle quadrant I have. I guess I will post more when they arrive. Cheers, J.

Still the game is crappy even when you do get beyond the "USB Limit". Piece of crap and all the reviews say the same. A missed opportunity methinks. Bring on Elite: Dangerous. J.

THis looks good. 99 I/O Pins too. Could be useful, if a little more expensive than your usual Arduino... Thought I'd share anyway. J. http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/digix.html?utm_source=Newsletter+List&utm_campaign=327dad4fd9-February2014_12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6b382bce70-327dad4fd9-408631171&mc_cid=327dad4fd9&mc_eid=fc2a6aa904

Stevos, I can do the electronics side myself. That said, if you have the electronics and its not a major price difference I might decide to buy the whole caboodle. Let me know what you have... Rgds, J.

Stevos, Basically I'd be after the base alone that you have shown there and tensioner. I guess it takes standard gague pipework available in the usual suspect hardware stores? I also guess its not too heavy for acceptable price limits in the mail from the US to the UK? I'll see if I can work something up for the gear handle too... Cheers, J.

Stevos, I like your collective there. Do you have a price in mind for the 3D printed parts for that? I'd also like a mount for TomDK's gear handle that could be attached to the gear panel backing plate I have from Glider_UK if youre doing a batch... Cheers, J.

This is brilliant DC. No more trying to sync up in active pause is a major boon for most I would say. Personally I'll never get to a full pit but being able to read things like UFC and some of the other LED states is good enough for me :) J.