Bubbles A10C Home Cockpit

Hallo all,

I keep busy with flight simulations since 15 years but until now, mostly in winter time. I started with Apache Havoc, Falcon 4.0, Flanker 2, IL2 and so on.

But at my Eastern holidays this year, I started to build my own A10 C cockpit. Please excuse my bad school English. I left school more than 30 years ago and beyond, this is my first treat in a forum.

My plan is to build:

A10 C Cockpit out of 1.5 mm (0,59”) ply wood.

Thank you very much „y2kiah” for your excellent and impressively plans. They have been a great inspiration and the base of my work.

An 270 degree cylindric screen, with a diameter of 3.0 m (118,1”) and a height of 1.9 m (74,8”).

At the first the pit will work with a touch screen and Helios and gradually with custom made panels.

„Gradoc”, “Cap Loz” and “Capt Zeen”, thank you very much for your excellent work.

All the wood work is- and will be done by common tools, unfortunately without a CNC Router. So I have to work with an jig saw, patterns and a common hand-guided router to get satisfying results (I´ve an abnormal demand for accuracy ;)).

If there is interest, I will introduce you my previous work and the method of operation the next days.

Here are the first pictures of the beginning of my work.

Oh this is so grand! Love that screen, really curious to see the visual projected on it.

Good luck on your build, subscribed.

That is awesome.

I think your demand for accuracy is in your nature being German, I worked in Manching at DASA.

That is a really big screen you've build there. Nice :thumbup: Looking forward for the progress and more pictures as you come along.

Cheers

Hans

Hello, thank you for your feed back.

I think that I can show you some pictures with an projectin ot the screen in a view days.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the building of the cockpit frame.

Very, very nice and welcome to the forum!!

:)

Thank you!

Brilliant. I wish I had room in my house for a projector set up like that! Well done.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Hi bubbles. Now I see your first pictures from your cockpit project...just impressive. Progress is far easier when you have a clear

view about final size, projection and other general items. Your way is clear right from the beginning

Wow! What a setup! Very nice.

Buttons aren't toys! :smilewink:

My Pit so far: A-10C Simulator Pit "The TARDIS."

Dzus Fastener tutorial, on the inexpensive side: DIY Dzus Fastener

Hello,

here is a little update of my project. I reworked my Instrument Panel to intergrate my Touchscreen and to have the opportunity to install Panels at both sides.

Now I have also both sideframes in my Screen and I added the first two pictures with projections.

I will do the warping and blending to get a nearly seamless picture in the next days. The actual overlap between the 3 Pictures you can see is not very big, so it would be a compromise between seamlesity, the length of the picture and the degrees I can realice (I want nearly 270 degree).

I wish you all a Happy Christmas :)

Which software do you intend to use for warping and edge blending?

Hello Retsilf,

I will use http://www.fly.elise-ng.net/immersivedisplaypro.

Fine. That's what I already had in mind.

Hello Retsilf,

 

I will use http://www.fly.elise-ng.net/immersivedisplaypro.

Looks great so far! :thumbup:

What are your system specs? I was wondering because of the 3 beamers

Awesome!

This is major motivation to get mine running!

I'm doing pit first, screen last.

I regret that decision...

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What kind of beamers are you using? Short throw lens or standard?

Looks great so far! :thumbup:

 

What are your system specs? I was wondering because of the 3 beamers

My system is an i7-4770K CPU @3,5GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTx 780 Ti and the OS is WIN 7.

With DCS, HELIOS and the warping software I can get between 30 and 70 FPS with settings "high" in most cases. In low-altetude flight over the mainstreet of Las Vegas, the framrate brakes down to 19-20 FPS, but this is o.k. for me at this time. I think about an upgrade at the end of the year.

Meanwhile I will do some tests with Overclocking and running HELIOS from a seperate Computer.

What kind of beamers are you using? Short throw lens or standard?

I use HD Short Throw Beamers (BenQ TH682ST).

Awesome!

 

This is major motivation to get mine running!

 

I'm doing pit first, screen last.

I regret that decision...

 

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Hello RK,

if you want to change your decision and slip in the screen building between your amacing banel building, I can post some pictures of the very simple construction and the building of my screen. In Holidays I worked 5 days and the cost oft material was about 300 €.

Hey Bubbles, got a couple questions for you if you don't mind. Been looking at your pics and great pit so far, and like to ask about your TM extension. You know, pretty much the usual. How did you make it, without springs, how does it return to center, how did you attach it to the Cougar, etc.

And on your screen setup, something I've always wanted to know but really never got around to asking anyone. (Always just thought I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, but this is a perfect opportunity.) How do you set up DCS to not show the cockpit? It's probably easily done, but I also noticed the HUD on yours Is missing that most others I've seen still show it. Is that just for the photos or do you not fly with it?

Anyway, thanks for the great ideas.

Wayne

Hey Bubbles, got a couple questions for you if you don't mind. Been looking at your pics and great pit so far, and like to ask about your TM extension. You know, pretty much the usual. How did you make it, without springs, how does it return to center, how did you attach it to the Cougar, etc.

And on your screen setup, something I've always wanted to know but really never got around to asking anyone. (Always just thought I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, but this is a perfect opportunity.) How do you set up DCS to not show the cockpit? It's probably easily done, but I also noticed the HUD on yours Is missing that most others I've seen still show it. Is that just for the photos or do you not fly with it?

Anyway, thanks for the great ideas.

Wayne

Hello Wayne,

at this time I can use the extension only on the base of my TM Cougar. For use on the base of my TM Warthog with it´s plastic mechanism the stick is to heavy and the lever is to long. The springs of the Cougar are strong enough to hold the Stick in the upright position but of course, they are not strong enough to retourn it to cender.

So I will build a more robust mechanism with ball-bearings under the cover plate of the floorsection of the cockpit.

For the retourn to cender I think about to use a weight in the balance point of the stick, maybe with one weak tencion spring in the middle for support.

At the moment I´m double-minded, if it´s better to use a new pair of hall sensors at the axes of the new machanism (a smart solution but I have no experience with that) or to use a machanical link to the warhog base. Maybe somebody can support me with know how (specification of useful sensors to work together with the card in the Warthog base ...).

The attach to the Cougar I built with several adapter parts which I´ve made out of aluminum and a screw joint for hydraulic systems witch hat the suitable metric screw thread (M36x2).

The first pictures show the original parts and my conversion to make the attach that it shows like the original.

I´ve a commercial, no technical education, so it was the only way I saw, to realice this with the tools in the old workshop of my father and the skills I learnd from him in my young days.

The stick is not ready. At the end it should look like this https://www.flickr.com/photos/klafaille/albums/72157627919445046the . A very important reference for me are the incredible photos of Keith LaFaille https://www.flickr.com/photos/klafaille/albums/72157626930907793, the best I ever seen from the A-10C Cockpit. Thank you very much Keith if you read this some day.

To the HUD:

The pictures I posted are in the HUD only view of the simulation. You cant´t see the HUD because I shot the photos from a distance of 4-5 meters.

Thanks for the info! One thing is for certain, that extension is really a work of art. Can't wait to see where you go from here.

Hallo,

the last months there was not very much time to continue the work on my cockpit, but in my summer holidays a view weeks ago, I startet again and here is a little update.

Still at the beginning of the year, I did the warping of my screen and some tests because the colour. On one of the screen pictures, you can see the test with white paper. At the moment the screen still has the brown colour of the wood, because I found no other satisfying solution.

In my holidays I startet the work with the front extention of the cockpit and the gimbal of my steering stick.

For the steering I want to use the original thrustmaster sensor an card.

Some weeks ago I got a Martin Baker MK10 seat from a Tornado. It is in a very good condition and complete, only the harness release box is missing.

Maybe somebody of you know, where I can buy one. On ebay there is actual no proper offer.

When I got the seat, it was adyusted at the highest potition to make the possible to store it in the upright position. But my height is 189 cm, so I had to find a way to adjust it down.

The actuator of the seat needs 115 V AC, 400 Hz. I didn´t know, how to get this for an economically justifiable price in Germany. The Voltage is not the problem, but the 400 Hz and I dont know, if I can use a lower frequency. In Germany we have 50 Hz, 230 V AC in the public network.

Maybe somebody has an idea, how to make the actuator electric adjustible.

For the first I found a way to drill the actuator down manually.

At this time I work on a frame to install the seat into my cockpit too.

Hello,

my project is still going on; here is a litte update.

Acually I do some tests about the dimensions of the canopy frame, to have no shadows on the screen.