Duality Pit - work and play, all in one

[mhe]

I used a rather unconventional way to create my pit, it should lend itself to many purposes from work to playing FPS games up to a really nice sim solution. After a lot of research I came up with the idea that an Obutto pit will suit my needs if I mod it a bit.

 

Of course it's nowhere near as impressive as some of the projects that can be seen here, but I'm still a bit proud of it, given I have very little space to work with and don't have access to workshops or many of the tools I'd like to have access to...

 

Here are a few pics of the pit's evolution into what it is today.

 

 

The box arrives!

 

Unpacking...

 

 

All unwrapped

 

First somewhat basic build...

 

Then came the triple screens :D

 

Simple DIY speaker mounts:

 

Front with speakers

 

Ready to mod the stick platform...

 

Warthog mounted, rock solid

 

Some time later, I added a touchscreen, it simply stood on the small table :doh:

 

After some time I got fed up with the touchscreen on the table, a more practical solution had to be found, also the viewing angle with the TN panel was really bad, so I created a mounting solution...

 

Now everything was where I want it, touchscreen adjustable around all axes with an Ergotron LX arm mounted to the wooden plate fixed to the vertical bars.

 

When not in use, the touchscreen can be hidden behind the mounting plate.

 

It only takes a minute to transform the pit into a pretty decent working and "normal" gaming table. Looks like this when not simming:

 

And in the end, to tidy things up, I mounted some power splitters on the rear side of the wooden plate.

 

And to spare myself from having to crawl back behind my rather big computer case everytime I want to connect a yoke for example (doing civilian simming as well from time to time), I put a USB hub directly behind the front speaker.

 

 

Hope you like it, folks! :thumbup:

 

Greetings from Austria :smilewink:

[cichlidfan]

I have the same arm your touch screen is on. I have only had it for a couple of months and so far so good. How long have you had yours and how is it holding up?

 

It seemed to be one of the better ones that I could find.

 

Thanks.

[mhe]

The arm is about 9 months old, so far no problems. I tightened every screw I could find on it when installing and it has held up fine.

 

I have read a lot of reviews on screen mounting arms prior to purchase. From what I read, I'm pretty confident that the thing will hold up for a very long time...

[reactorone]

:thumbup:

 

R1

[cichlidfan]

The arm is about 9 months old, so far no problems. I tightened every screw I could find on it when installing and it has held up fine.

 

I have read a lot of reviews on screen mounting arms prior to purchase. From what I read, I'm pretty confident that the thing will hold up for a very long time...

 

I did the same at install and got about the same from the reviews. It's just nice to 'hear it from a real person' as it were!:)

 

The pit is excellent, BTW!!:thumbup:

[PeterP]

Nice and clean setup!

 

Looking at the in-game screen I want to pass this info to you:

 

Tweaked Cockpit view for DCS A-10C << You may want to use a variant that centers the HUD - so you don't have a copy of the instruments always at the top screen.

 

Fix for misplaced/stretched MP and Mission Gui - also for BS <<< this whole thread is just made for you!

 

I don't know if you aware of all this stuff - but it sure come handy if not.

 

 

...hmm ... Obutto... maybe some day we have to meet...

Edited May 9, 2012 by PeterP

[mhe]

Thanks! :D

 

I'm already considering adding 2 more touchscreens on the sides, but so far finding a decent 6-port Single-GPU card has proven problematic. The few available are simply too weak in terms of processing power and memory, so I think I'll have to wait for GK110 and hope somebody will make a 6-screen version with 4GB+ on it.

 

Also, I'm wondering how i should mount the screens on the sides. To use the same arms seems like the obvious thing to do, but I haven't figured out how to mount them to the frame yet. The wall mount plate is a bit higher than the space between the bottom seat surface and the floor, so this option doesn't seem like one. Any ideas? :ermm:

[Pikey]

It's a lovely setup, i'm very envious. Clean, minimal, practical, not overdoing it (as far as that thing goes). May your chair feel the thunder and wrath of your evening meal with Hands on stick and throttle :)

[mhe]

PeterP: Thanks for all the infos, I'll look into it. The stretched elements in the menu GUI are a bit uncomfortable. But really bothersome is only the extremely stretched Kneepad overlay when starting a mission. I can barely recognize the close buttons on that one. Does this fix of yours interfere with the Clickable Radio Mod? I'm kinda curious because in your config file, the UI Main View is also changed (if I remember correctly, I have that one on "main").

 

I kinda like the complete panel in the top screen. I use TrackIR, so I tend to look at the indications in the 3D screen unless I have to push a button, then I look down to the touchscreen. I even modified the render_purpose variables so the info is displayed on both the top and the bottom screen. But perhaps I'll like the new few better once I tried it, I'll sure give it a shot. :)

 

Pikey: Thank you! :smilewink: The stick mount already faced the wrath of coffee spill prior to being cut to shape, hence the stains... :lol:

Edited May 9, 2012 by mhe

[PeterP]

I kinda like the complete panel in the top screen. I use TrackIR, so I tend to look at the indications in the 3D screen unless I have to push a button, then I look down to the touchscreen.

 

Than you should have a look at SoftTH and maybe bring the virtual pit on your Touch-sceenn, and drop Helios. This can look like this:http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1450509#post1450509

I do it this way and only have to search for the mouse when entering new frequencies(as this can be very fussy with the touch-screen). I have set-up the touch-function like this:

left click on touch /right click if holding at a single point longer than 0,3 seconds. Works very nice and intuitive.

 

Sorry for the information spamming/overload :P.

Edited May 9, 2012 by PeterP

[mhe]

No problem, I'm rather thankful for all the input! ;)

 

I really dig Helios because of all the intuitive functions like gestures to use all the switches and dials. Swiping etc is far superior to emulating left and right clicks all the time for me. But the 3D pit sure is where it's at in terms of looks, I'll give you that... :D

 

But the 3D Pit on touchscreen gives me ideas for some problems I've had so far with other sims getting to work properly with the touch interface, thanks! :thumbup:

[104th_Taipan]

Great RIG!

Edited May 9, 2012 by 104th_Taipan

[Gadroc]

Nice looking setup!

 

Keep in mind that you can add a second video card to run the side screens. As long as you don't expand the DCS window to display on them there is little to know performance hit to display Helios only screens on them.

[mhe]

Thanks, Taipan! :)

 

Gadroc, thanks a lot! Without you and Loz this pit wouldn't be what it is today... :worthy:

I knew about the almost-zero performance hit if running from a separate graphics card, the problem is I would really love to have the side screens as real as it gets - CDU screen, UHF channel display, simply everything.

 

As far as I know, performance drops severely as soon as DCS has to render across multiple card outputs (see the SLI/crossfire problems elsewhere).

 

What wouldn't I do for DCS to make networked display rendering possible... :music_whistling:

Edited May 9, 2012 by mhe

[metalnwood]

I think one of the current 7970's with 6 outputs will run things OK for you.

 

As long as you do not stretch the DCS screen over the additional 2 screens and just use them for helios (i.e. no exporting dcs stuff to them) then you should not drop FPS.

 

As for the current state of 7970's and dcs performance I am not sure though..

[mhe]

Thanks, I already considered getting the 7970, but I though I'd wait for the GK110 GPUs which should be out in Autumn.

 

Problem is that I really really want to use all the screens for exports and Helios together. If I wouldn't want some exports on all the screens, I'd simply slap in a second card and be done with it. But from what I've read so far in the SLI/Crossfire threads, performance in Crossfire drops dramatically if the screens are not all connected to the same card. Not sure how things are with SLI though. My next card should be an nVidia again since they offer the same features as Eyefinitiy now with the new 30x drivers.

[seldridge1960]

I was checking those Obutto setups out over the weekend. They look sturdier than the Playseat setups. Now that you have one, and used it for a bit, what do you think of them?

[mhe]

I have never used a playseat setup, but I can assure you that the Obuttos are built like tanks. 2,8mm thick carbon steel for everything. The only thing are some tolerances in the parts, for example it took me some time to get the screen arms properly aligned, but once everything is set up, stability-wise it leaves nothing to be desired.

[Sov13t]

mhe, do you think the Obutto can in theory be used with an extended stick instead of a short stick on the warthog?

 

I notice that the joystick sits on top of the chair, so there is no room to move the base further down or is there?

[mhe]

Not in its current state. The vertical pipe where the center stick would normally be inserted is long enough to be about level with the seating surface on its upper end. But it shouldn't be a problem to build yourself a small mounting platform for the stick base and fix it to the point where you normally mount the original stick pipe.

 

The original stick mount simply is held by the screws that also hold the front and aft lower frames of the build together.

 

Problem that could arise is an awkwardly forward stick position. The seating surface hasn't got a cutout in the stick are, so the longer stick might interfere with that. I considered such a mod for a short while, but once I had the original mount cut to exactly fit the Warthog, I didn't bother anymore because it's very comfortable as it is and it also allows very precise stick inputs.

 

Workaround could be to use a curved stick extension so that it clears the seat and can also be positioned where you want it. Or use another seat - as far as I know the space between the seating rails should be a normed measurement, meaning you could replace the seat with another model, perhaps one with the cutout for the stick.

Edited May 18, 2012 by mhe

[-Hammer-]

Greetings from one Austrian to another :pilotfly: , Hello mhe!

 

I'm considering to invest into the new Obutto R3volution. Now that I saw your pics it is a must have. Unfortunatly its sold out at moment :(

 

I have a few questions:

 

How long did it take from ordering to receiving your cockpit?

I like to play some FPS (BF3,L4D2,...). is this possible with the Obutto?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Stefan

Edited July 26, 2012 by -Hammer-

[mhe]

Hi!

 

I'm also considering an upgrade to the R3volution, it is superior in almost any aspect. It is possible to play every other game apart from simulations without any problems. It feels much better than a regular desk.

 

It took about 4 weeks until it arrived, but this depends very much on how the shipments from Asia arrive at the European distributor's store. The guy is named Tiago and he is very nice, contact him and ask him if you like. :)

[Machinegun417]

 

Thanks for showing how to make the pit. Mine came out just like I wanted.

:thumbup::pilotfly:

[mhe]

You're welcome!

 

Great looking pit, did you use an arm to mount the touchscreen? :)

[tintifaxl]

939 EUR for the full flight sim setup seems pretty steep. Is it really worth that much money?