The Motion Integrated G-Seat

[DutchCoolHand]

Have you considered a kickstarter/Indogogo campaign?

[Snake122]

Video is great, explains why especially for fighters why this is better than a traditional motion platform and the belt system, as you know, is actually a very important aspect.

 

If that's what you expect the final product to look like, it looks excellent! However that is also part of my concern. I've been following your project for years and know it was very DIY but was actually very affordable due to that. That does not look that affordable and shipping to me will be brutal. I had been hoping for the DIY instructions that were discussed in the beginning. I understand that your priorities on the project have probably changed because a commercial product has different needs. But any chance of a DIY kits or licensed plans (I understand that the later is problematic though)? Again, I really believe your G-Seat design and do wish you success with it and hope I can be part of it.

 

Edit to add:

Are you still using Open Source software? If not, could that be part of the DIY answer to still making it profitable/controllable to you, full G-Seat buyers get free software license, DIY kit/plan has to buy a software license?

Edited May 14, 2020 by Snake122

[BMGZ06]

This is for sure what I have been looking for. I would be interested in getting one if you are able to produce them at some point but my concern would be about the mechanics and their durability. Along with that I would be curious about how easy it would be to get replacement parts. Anything that moves will break. That is a given. It is just a question of when and how bad it will be.lol

[Chicki]

Very interesting. The more I watch your video, the more I want one. Any idea what it might cost? Think you might have a winner here if it's not too expensive. Good luck.

[DutchCoolHand]

Very interesting. The more I watch your video, the more I want one. Any idea what it might cost? Think you might have a winner here if it's not too expensive. Good luck.

 

Not too expensive is relative.. your not too expensive might be my too expensive. We have to give him an idea of how much we would be willing to pay. Personally, for a kit $750 to $1000 for the finished product $1,500. It will probably be more but I can't justify more for a very cool flight sim tool.

 

Dutch

[Chicki]

You're right Dutch. It's all relative. The prices you mention are about what I was hoping for. If it's more than $2000, I'd have to pass. I wouldn't expect it to be cheap though.

[clayvt]

Below $2K is my buy point. If it's over that I'll just keep drooling.

[RabidRider]

Simxperience's G-seat is 2999. 1000-1500 I would guess is not doable, considering it has to have high quality components, good manufacturing. Cheap and durable is not always possible I think.

[DutchCoolHand]

Simxperience's G-seat is 2999. 1000-1500 I would guess is not doable, considering it has to have high quality components, good manufacturing. Cheap and durable is not always possible I think.

 

that could be very well true but I can't justify to myself. I was about to buy a seat to attach to my Next Level Racing setup that I use for VR. And then add one of Andre's seat pad to it for feedback. I stopped this as this tread became active again. So I can wait and see.

[clayvt]

somewhere I read that bergison spent about $1500 on parts to build his seat. He was buying individual parts so if this goes into production, large part orders may bring the actual part cost down, then there's labor which he did not account for. Then there's also the software side of things.

 

I can see this being right around the $2K mark or possibly slightly above...

[Snake122]

Simxperience's G-seat is 2999. 1000-1500 I would guess is not doable, considering it has to have high quality components, good manufacturing. Cheap and durable is not always possible I think.

Does that include their G-Belt system like Bergison's has had almost since the beginning? Those are a super important part in this project.

 

somewhere I read that bergison spent about $1500 on parts to build his seat. He was buying individual parts so if this goes into production, large part orders may bring the actual part cost down, then there's labor which he did not account for. Then there's also the software side of things.

 

I can see this being right around the $2K mark or possibly slightly above...

Yes that's the current listed cost in Euros for his DIY version. I believe the first version that didn't have as much of a motion platform on the base, didn't look quite as close to an ACES seat, and was just the seat flaps and belt tenison we was more like €500. If you have been following this from the beginning there was the idea this is surprisingly affordable to DIY. I almost made my own but found the JetSeat and decided that then that fell into the 80/20 rule and that was good enough for now. My bet is €3000 in a production model with shipping going to be probably a lot, especially to those of us not in Europe.

[clayvt]

Does that include their G-Belt system like Bergison's has had almost since the beginning? Those are a super important part in this project.

 

 

Yes that's the current listed cost in Euros for his DIY version. I believe the first version that didn't have as much of a motion platform on the base, didn't look quite as close to an ACES seat, and was just the seat flaps and belt tenison we was more like €500. If you have been following this from the beginning there was the idea this is surprisingly affordable to DIY. I almost made my own but found the JetSeat and decided that then that fell into the 80/20 rule and that was good enough for now. My bet is €3000 in a production model with shipping going to be probably a lot, especially to those of us not in Europe.

 

Shipping is going to be more for those in Europe i think. He said the company he's working with is in the U.S.

[markturner1960]

Any update on this?

[Bergison]

So here's a little update on this project. Although I don't have "the breaking news" unfortunately. All involved companies which were interested in a production partnership either cancelled their intentions (some are struggling with economic losses due to the COVID pandemic, some moved on to other projects), or turned out to be way too expensive for a commercial audience (think +10.000 € per unit).

 

But there still is some progress: we teamed up with a company in Germany offering flight simulator rides to the general public. They built a Motion Integrated G-Seat prototype to our specifications over the summer and are now promoting it in a VR type jet simulator.

 

This means the seat can finally be checked out publicly and is available for booking as of now! The company is called FLUGSIMULATOR FRANKFURT, they are located near the Frankfurt international airport (EDDF).

 

I am also going to post new updates as they come along on my website: https://bergisons.simpit.info/motion-integrated-g-seat.

 

Stay tuned, cheers! Bergison

[Bergison]

Hi everyone!

Finally, I can share some very good news regarding the Motion Integrated G-Seat project!

 

A french company (see update on my website) has finished their prototype and initial testing of the seat and they seem to like it a lot. We had a Zoom conference with them today and they intend to move ahead and start to build seats for commercial customers within the coming months! To cover the initial costs, they plan to launch a kickstarter campaign.

 

I'd now like to ask for your preference/valuation/opinion to help them figure out a realistic unit price and kickstarter goal.
If you want to help, please choose one of the options below that would suit your expectations and reply it to me via email: bergison@simpit.info

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: you do not enter into any obligation whatsoever with this! It is just your very apprechiated opinion to get a realistic understanding of interest. I will collect all replied options and price ranges and will forward them completely anonymized to the company.

 

Options for a kickstarter campaign (be among the first to get your own Motion Integrated G-Seat at a kickstarter discount):

A1) I would possibly buy a fully assembled and functional unit and am willing to pay up to _______ €/US$ for it.
A2) I'd rather save some money and go for a kit (including all parts) with instructions and assemble it myself. I'd pay up to _______ €/US$ for it.
A3) I do not want to buy a seat at the moment but would still support a kickstarter with _______ €/US$ to see where this is going.

B) Please include your country of residence, so they can start sorting our legal aspects to sell outside the EU.

C) You may of course also share your ideas and expectation for additional features that should be included in a commercial version (like mounts for controls, headrest, a cupholder ...). I will forward them to the company for consideration.

 

A note on DIY plans: I am aware that some of you would prefer to only get the plans and instructions for their own DIY build. As much as I'd like to share plans with the community, the company has requested us not to do so because of concerns this will facilitate knock-off production (in China or other low-wage countries), which would have a serious impact on a successful market launch. I hope for your understanding!

 

Feel free to forward this to other persons who might be interested in this project!

Many thanks in advance, looking forward to your replies!

 

Best regards,
Bergison

[RealDCSpilot]

@Bergison Great news! I'm really looking forward to this.

Completely out of the blue and wishful thinking:
A1) I would possibly buy a fully assembled and functional unit and am willing to pay up to 2.000 € for it.
B) EU
C) 1. support for mounts of Virpil/Fanatec gear and Forcefeel pads (Realtus Forcefeel, Gametrix Gameseat etc.)

2. integrated solution for VR motion compensation

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Alec Delorean

[Ratcatcher]

 

6 hours ago, Alec Delorean said:

Sorry to butt in, but I think he was asking for those details to be E-Mailed?

 

I think my main sticking point would come down to shipping cost/import duty that I may be hit with, so if any details regarding that could be shared further down the line would be very helpful.

 

Also if we could hear about the complexity of the kits and level of expertise required to put them together, etc. I would ideally go for a pre made seat (as my DIY skills suck) but again this would have to be factored into the total cost of a pre made seat including delivery and import duties/taxes.

 

Can we also expect to see some reviews of the seat at its current stage of development or are you wanting to further develop and tweak the design before 'putting it out there'?

 

Good luck! 

 

 

 

[RealDCSpilot]

Yeah, i posted it publicly because i want to read other opinions about price range.

[Ratcatcher]

@Alec Delorean Understood.

 

I think around the same figure as you but that would need to be total price as I mention in my post (shipping/taxes, etc).

[KWard]

The SimXperience g-seat without integrated motion is US $2999, so I assume this would retail for at least as much. It would take me a couple years to set aside that kind of money, but it would be worth it.

 

So for now, A3) I'll kick up whatever I can spare this year for the kickstarter, either just a few $$ to get updates or up to $100-200 if there's some sort of reward for doing so.
B) USA
C) In the introductory video the noise of the motors really stands out, so one "expectation or additional feature" that comes to mind is some kind of sound dampening or cushioning, if that's possible.

[RealDCSpilot]

The interesting thing about pricing is that engineering can make it possible to reduce costs for the final product. For prototyping you always tend to overengineering, simply to make sure everything is stable and working, even if you get past the limits of a certain part. For production you try to identify those parts and if a bit cheaper solution is able to do the same job, you get the chance to lower costs and meet a certain price range.
I find Bergison's approach is a true masterpiece right from the beginning, i've never seen such a feature-rich solution in a such compact form.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Alec Delorean

[RabidRider]

A1) Like I wrote in a previous reply, the price I expect to pay would be similar or more than simxperience GS-5, so 3-3500 EUR. I would even be willing to pay 5-6k too, seeing as the Bergison seat seems more complex than the GS-5, price would be similar then to nextlevelracing products. Maybe you could offer a less complex seat for 3k and a more expensive full option version.

B) Belgium

 

DIY kit with all parts, I´d be willing to pay 1500 EUR.  

[Bergison]

UPDATE 24.10.2022

Dear follower of the Motion Integrated G-Seat project,

after many struggles and countless hours of work put into this project, I am happy to announce the release of the non-commercial DIY license.
Individuals will finally be able to build their own copy of the seat for their private use.

Please visit https://makers.bergison.com for more information.
Thanks for your patience and determination up to this moment!

Best regards,
Chris

[j9murphy]

Well, I'd definitely like to build this!  couple of questions?

- has anyone done an independent review? would like to know what an independent source thought of it.

- what does the completed seat weigh and what are the power requirements?

 

[Bergison]

No independent review yet, as the sale of commercial units has just begun. The first commercial unit is located in Frankfurt, Germany at https://flugsimulatorfrankfurt.com/. They told me they get good feedback from customers, I'll have to ask if they want to write a review.

Merlins51, with whom I share the patent for the seat, has built his own unit. Although not not exactly 'independent', maybe he can provide his impressions.

I have not weighted the DIY version, but I was able to lift it up myself (with motors installed - which are the heaviest components). The seat requires two 1000W/24V PSUs or two 50A/12V batteries.