Want to build a home cockpit ;)

[andyschoenfeldt]

Hy all, i want to build a home cockpit. beginning slowly, with instruments and then continue with the cockpit structure and so on. Can anyone know where to buy good and cheap products or someone who can give me good tips for building ? Anyone who has experience ?
Did anyone knows a cheap store in Germany ? The store i know is Aerosoft and they are very expansive.
Thanks and happy landings ;)

[MikePowell]

Andy,

So you want to build a

cheap

home cockpit.

Sorry, I just can't seem to get the word "cheap" on the same

line as the words "home cockpit".

There are two new companies that are just starting to sell simulated flight instruments to hobbyists: Sim Kits www.simkits.com and Sim Instruments www.sim-instruments.com .

A slightly more attractive approach, if cost is an issue, is to build them yourself. Take a look at recent postings by Ed "Capt. Slarty" Hanley who is currently converting a surplus ADI to stepping motors under PIC micro control. My own website has a section about making flight and engine instruments. Finally, take a look at Dirk Anderseck's site: www.fsbus.de . Dirk hasn't quite gotten to the instrument stage yet (as far as I am aware) but has developed and posted a great deal of very useful, low cost hardware and software for interfacing between controls/switches/servos and simulator.

Some interesting background material is Roland van Roy's "DIY Cockpit v1.0" write up posted both on FlightSim.com and Avsim.com, Kevin Saker's series "How to build Kev's Cockpit" posted on FlightSim, and (oh so modestly mentioned:) my own site.


Mike
www.mikesflightdeck.com

[Captain_Slarty]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Feb-21-03 AT 04:37PM (EST)[/font][p]I would concur..

you cant really mix 'cheap' and 'cockpit' in the same sentence..

A lot depends on your abilities.. what are you into ??
Electronics, Microprocessors, Woodwork, graphic design, Engineering, Programming ??

All the above are necessary to really make the results count...

when you can do ALL of the above, even to a basic level, the world is your crab (or was it Oyster lol ??)

when you CANT, you have to PAY someone to do the things for you, either in kit or built form.

As an example, I spent 6 hours today hand wiring the parallel to PIC converter board....

I spent about 10 hours designing it..

5 hours coding it

20 hours coding at LEAST to do yet

20 hours researching PC parallel port interfacing and Microchip PIC hardware Parallel addressing

another 20 hours researching I2C serial bus.

20 hours building, testing, programming and refining I2C test circuits...

thats near enough 100 hours.. on ONE single part...

at work.. I make about $32 an hour....

this is a hobby (luckily)... but to allocate a cost... $3200 for this one board ....

however, its fun, and apart from a few componets, the ACTUAL cost is virtualy nil ( for me!)..

I CAN do it, so the time is just a relative expense.

if you CANT do it.. then the time factor figures into everything you buy...

the EPIC card is fabulous, the epic system is the best on the market (so far).. but it will cost you $1000 before you even get seriously started.... thats purely a representation of Ralph's input, and a mere infinitesimal payback..

hope you are seeing the picture ??? :-)

Set your goals, see how the skill set fits in, re calculate, then, if happy, go for it.



Joe 'Captain Slarty' Hanley

ps Mike ??.. where did 'ED' come from lol.. ???



http://homepage.ntlworld.com/captain...s/coolskul.gif

System - >
3gig Intel + .. Size DOES matter

[MikePowell]

OOPs! Sorry Joe.

Apparently a slight glitch between brain and fingers. And here I was feeling so smug about some quality name dropping & making sure I typed "Hanley" instead of "Hanly". Darn!

Mea culpa. (sound of body falling on sword)


Mike
www.mikesflightdeck.com

[MikePowell]

ps not MY body!


Mike
www.mikesflightdeck.com

[PoRrEkE]

I can tell you this 'bout expences:

my calculations (for now) show that I'll have spent +/- 247 € on the cockpit itself

for me expences will increase largely if i add to that:
1) the jig-saw i bought
2) the screens
3) the computer i'm gonna buy (but maybe you have one already .. a good one that is :p )

so ... cheap or not .. i leave that up to you ..

i'll end up having spent +/- 1200 €

[Captain_Slarty]

lol :-lol

;-)

Joe.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/captain...s/coolskul.gif

System - >
3gig Intel + .. Size DOES matter

[Icarus747]

If you buy a whole system I'll ship to you in Germany. www.cyberwitt.com/pilotshop Best prices on the net for GOFLIGHT Hardware! I won't do it a box at a time though.