My Own Home-Built Cockpit

MY OWN HOME-BUILT COCKPIT By Francisco Garcia Garrido. Valencia - Spain frangarcia.matradi@ono.com
INTRODUCTION STARTING POINT THE FURNITURE THE PILOT'S SEAT: HOW TO SAVE YOUR MONEY IN A SCRAP YARD EXTERNAL VIEWS: THE WORLD FROM A PILOT'S POINT OF VIEW FRESNEL LENS THE PANEL: HOW TO SAVE YOUR TIME WITH A 14" MONITOR WORKING WITH ANALOGIC JOYSTICKS THE YOKE AND THE TRIM WHEEL MY HOME BUILT PEDALS SWITCHING BETWEEN MONITORS AND KEYBOARDS OTHER ELEMENTS THE BUDGET
1.- INTRODUCTION In September 2000, I read the issue number 7 of PC PILOT magazine... I was impressed with an article about "home built cockpits". This article showed three different cabins, from very simple to more complex ones, built by flight simulators fans. Immediately, I started thinking about it. "How can I make my own cockpit?" "How much money can I spend?" "Where can I install it?" (Well, questions number two and three were quickly answered by my wife...) In the following weeks, I thought about it every day and wherever I was. I started making drawings, looking for materials, and so on. I finished my virtual cockpit in May or June of 2001 (although you never really finish it, because you are constantly thinking about new improvements). I understand that six or seven months may seem like a long time. But unfortunately, I had very little free time and sometimes I could only dedicate one or two hours per week. Well... I was happy while constructing my cockpit, and now I am happy flying in it. I don't think it is the "passport to another virtual world", but I can tell you that is more real than a simple joystick put over a computer's table. You can do a flight of an hour or two, comfortably sitting in your pilot's seat, with a wide view of the terrain in front of you, and feeling involved with your pedals, trim wheel, panel, yoke, sound and so on...
2.- STARTING POINT The first step was to think about what I could and what I couldn't do. As I said before, I had not much free time and I didn't want a cockpit with hundreds of switches and knobs... I knew this was a very exciting project, but I was sure that I would never finish it. So, I started designing a very simple cockpit. Perhaps it is more a "flying desk" than a cockpit, but I think you really get a very realistic sensation without spending a lot of money. I wrote a list of the conditions that my cockpit had to satisfy: 1.- It had to be easy. 2.- It had to be cheap (or, at least, compared with other habitual home-built cockpits). 3.- I am interested only in civilian flights. I use Flight Simulator 2002 with light aircraft: Cessna or Mooney Bravo. 4.- Take advantage of the elements I had: A good computer, a graphic card with dual-screen option, a CH Flightsim Yoke, home built pedals that I built three or four years ago... 5.- Some obsolete monitors from my company. 6.- Not to move the computer from its position (a typical computer table), to enable a dual use of it, so that I could use it also for work, Internet, text editor... If you are a fan of combat flight simulators, don't worry, you can build this cockpit and replace the yoke with a joystick. I think it is pretty good also for you.
3.- THE FURNITURE I started with a photograph of myself, sitting in a car seat (temporarily dismounted from my car) and with a joystick in my hands, everything in the position I wanted. I used this photo to make measurements on it.
The first step: Take a photo of yourself in the position you want. The final result. You can see the computer on the left side.
Then I made a lot of drawings, thinking about where to put the two monitors, the pedals, the keyboard (this was an authentic problem) and so on. Of course, the cockpit is designed bearing in mind my height (1.76 m) although it is useful for almost everybody, because you can move the seat forward and backward, like in real planes and cars.
The car seat with the furniture under construction. The support for the 14" monitor You can move the tray up and down to facilitate sitting. The furniture is separated in two parts, to facilitate handling
I designed the furniture in conglomerated wood, with a thickness of 19 mm and a beech surface. I was not very experienced with work in wood, but I consider myself a skillful man and it was not too difficult... I am lucky, because near my house there is a hypermarket (Leroy-Merlin) where you can buy wooden sheets cut to the size you want, so that you only have to stick the edges and assemble it with special screws.
	Tools on the right: 1.- Allen key for screw #2 2.- Assembling screw for 19 mm wood 3.- Drill-bit for screw #2 4.- Allen key for screw #5 5.- Assembling screw for 16 mm wood 6.- Drill-bit for screw #5 7.- Allen key for drill-bits.	These are some of the tools that you will need...
The only condition was "To buy a wood board or half board" (a wood board has a size of 244x122 cm). So that I bought one and a half boards: As you can see in the "Cutting scheme of pieces" below, the grey surface is the remaining wood (not a lot). My recommendation is this: If you are not very sure about your own capability, look for a carpenter to make it. Perhaps it will cost you slightly more money, but it is worth the price. In this case, it is important that you prepare good drawings and, if needed, a scale model of the furniture in cardboard. As I said before, probably you will have to make a lot of drawings, measurements, photographs and so on... It depends a lot on the size of monitors that you are going to use. But if you believe that you can build a cockpit exactly equal to mine... go ahead! (Don't forget to send me photos when finished!) You can click over each image to enlarge, then right-click again over the enlarged image and select the "Save this image as..." option. Print this image on paper and you will have a pretty layout (not to scale).
Scheme of the different parts. The cockpit with the seat and the monitors. The tray and the fresnel lens without the cover. The cover, the keyboard, the joystick and myself.
Cutting scheme of pieces. Cross section with measurements. Top view without most of elements.
4.- THE PILOT'S SEAT: HOW TO SAVE YOUR MONEY IN A SCRAP YARD My wife became a little frightened when I told her that I was going to buy a car seat in a scrap yard. So, I carried it directly from the scrap yard to the laundry... It cost me only $25 ! A new car seat, bought in a garage as a replacement piece could cost you as much as $500, and on the other hand, you can find almost new seats in the scrap yards (from car accidents, usually free of blood) with prices betwen $25 and $80, so that it is worth taking the first option.
5.- EXTERNAL VIEWS: THE WORLD FROM A PILOT'S POINT OF VIEW In Flight Simulator 2002 (and I think in most flight simulators) you have eight possible views from the pilot's seat: Front, front-right, right, right-back, back... Each of these views covers an angle of 45 degrees of your field of vision, so that you can cover 360 degrees with the eight views.
If you want a virtual cockpit with the maximum realism in the external views, then you need a very big screen. The bigger the screen, the more realistic the feeling. The optimum screen is the one that covers an angle of 45 degrees of your field of vision. If you want to know how big your screen must be, you can take a look at this table:
Distance from your eyes Size of the screen 35 cm 15" 40 cm 17" 50 cm 21" 100 cm 40" 200 cm 80"
As you can see, you need a big screen, unless you put the screen very close to your eyes. But if you do so, then your eyes will be focussing on an object that you feel is very near. You will not feel like you are in a plane looking at a landscape in front of you, with your eyes focussing on the infinite. I think the distance between your eyes and the screen must be at least 1 meter. With this distance, your eyes start feeling as if you are looking at the infinite. So that the optimum screen is a 40" one... How can I get an image 40" big? I think there are several options: The best solution (and probably the most expensive) is a projection monitor that projects the image from the computer to a screen in front of you. Prices start out $2000... perhaps too much for many flightsimmers. Another disadvantage is that you need a lot of space and some darkness in the room (forget about putting the cockpit in your living room...). Another solution is a standard TV, connected to your computer with a video output graphic card. You can buy a 28" TV and put it 1 meter from your eyes. (Of course, a 28" TV is much cheaper than a 28" monitor). But there are some severe disadvantages: 1.- A standard TV has an image frequency of only 50 times per second, while your monitor has between 70 and 90. This means that your eyes will become tired after some minutes. 2.- The TV has a resolution of only 720 (approximately) lines, while a typical monitor could have 1024 or more... This means that the image looks slightly blurred, and you will have trouble reading the program menus. If you want, you can try to do this experiment: Put a chair in the middle of the living room, and try to watch TV for an hour or two from a distance of only one or one and a half meters... (Please, advise your family beforehand, so that they don't think you have gone crazy). You will notice that it is very uncomfortable after a while. The third solution is a plasma monitor: I am not very sure of what a "plasma monitor" is (this expression reminds me of science-fiction films) but I think it is a very good solution... if you have a lot of money. Probably too expensive for many flightsimmers too. Another option is a Fresnel lens. You can read about this device in the next section. I think that another condition to get a realistic feeling is this: The horizon's height in the screen must be equal to your eye level. Or if you prefer, your eyes must look at the center of the screen totally horizontal. In this question my cockpit has a little mistake: As you can see in the photos, the screen is slightly higher than my eyes. I made a lot of tests and understood that it was impossible to solve...
6.- FRESNEL LENS A fresnel lens is a transparent plastic sheet with fine round grooves on the surface. It acts exactly like a magnifying lens, but with a reduced thickness and weight.
It produces two effects on the image on your screen: It makes the image look greater (about 40%) and it makes the image look further (about 20%). This is a very interesting effect for flightsimmers: You will look at the external view in front of you, and your eyes will focus on a point situated far from you. You will also see a greater image that covers a wide range in your field of vision.
The 21" monitor without the fresnel lens. The fresnel lens with the black cardboard cover The fresnel lens without the cover
It means more realism without spending a lot of money. If you are interested in including a Fresnel lens in your cockpit, you can take note of these measurements applied to the model I have. (Most of them come from my own experimentation and could be a little "subjective") 1.- The distance from my eyes to the lens is 68 cm. The optimum distance is about 60 cm. If you have a distance bigger or smaller than this, then the apparent size decreases, although the difference is slight. 2.- The distance from the lens to the monitor is 31 cm. This is very important, because the bigger the distance, the bigger the image. But you can not separate it too much, because then it starts looking blurred (like any magnifying lens). I have mine at the maximum possible distance. 3.- My 21" monitor is then at a distance of 99 cm from my eyes, but thanks to the lens, it looks like a 34" monitor (it looks bigger) and the apparent distance is 115 cm (it looks further). 4.- The size of the lens is 53 x 42 cm I have a vision angle of 32º, far from the optimum 45º. But I think the apparent increase of size is very interesting, and the saving of money is important if you think about the price of a 34" monitor... I have covered my lens with a cardboard box painted in black. It also adds another effect that makes you feel more "inside" the action: Like in the cinema, you see the image with a surrounding dark area, so that you don't see the room, the frames on walls, the light in the ceiling... You feel more "involved" by the action.
I forgot to say... I bought the lens from RC Simulations. You can pay them with your VISA card and they send it to you by mail. I suppose that you could get a lower price buying directly from a manufacturer, but I have no idea who makes these kind of devices! The aproximate price of the lens is $147 plus shipping. I think you can find fresnel lenses in many other places: For example, in lighthouses (too big, too heavy and difficult to steal), in "transparent sheet" projectors (you have to dismount the projector, of course) and I have seen it also in car supermarkets, as a special plastic piece that you put in the back glass, (if you have a mono-volume car) to facilitate parking (very cheap but too small).
7.- THE PANEL: HOW TO SAVE YOUR TIME WITH A 14" MONITOR I have seen web pages with photos of wonderful panels with hundreds of switches and small lights... I suppose that there are people in the world so fortunate that they have time to spend several hours every day on their cockpit's construction... But I am not one of them. The solution came with the graphic card Matrox Millennium G400 Max, Dual Head, 32Mb. You can right-click over the panel in the FS2002 screen, then select the "undock window" option and drag it to the second monitor... It is so easy! (Well, you will have to configure your card after installation, of course. But it is very easy). Obviously, the bigger this second monitor, the easier to read gauges and numbers. I usually fly in default Mooney Bravo IFR, and I can read everything in the panel with my humble 14" monitor, so I think it is enough. You will also find 14" second hand monitors very easily and very cheap. I like the effect when you look at the panel and then to the external view: Your eyes appreciate the different distance, so that you feel like you are looking "inside" and "outside" the plane, adding a pleasant realistic effect.
The Matrox card configuration menu. The well known FS2002 Mooney Bravo IFR panel.
8.- WORKING WITH ANALOGIC JOYSTICKS I think that analogic devices are useless nowadays, because everybody prefers the USB port (I don't know why). But my analogic yoke lets me do a lot of things: I have added home-built pedals (that I built three or four years ago) and a trim wheel. I don't know if this is possible with a USB connection... If you want to make experiments with your control device (joystick or yoke) then you only have to follow these steps: 1.- Look at the joystick or yoke connector: It is a 15 pin connector with the pins numbered from 1 to 15. 2.- We are going to insert devices between the computer and the yoke. Basically, a yoke or joystick consists of a device with potentiometers and switches than you can manage. If you add other potentiometers, then you can have your own home built pedals and trim wheel, adding realism to the flight simulation. 3.- You can do this in different ways. Perhaps the easiest one is to buy two DB15 pin connectors (male and female) in an electronic supply store, and then connect with wires almost all the pins between both connectors (#1 with #1, #2 with #2, and so on), except those that I will describe to you below. 4.- Once again I recommend this to you: If you don't feel very sure handling the welder, look for a electronic supply and ask about welded wires with special connectors: They will make almost anything you ask, if you bring them a clear scheme. 5.- You are adding new devices between the pins that remain free, so that your computer will "believe" that you have pedals, trim wheel and so on... Don't worry, it is easier than it sounds.
9.- THE YOKE AND THE TRIM WHEEL Basically, an analogic yoke (like an analogic joystick) is a mechanism that lets you vary the electric resistance by using potentiometers. Most of the time, with a maximum resistance of 100 kohm. I like my CH Flightsim Yoke, but I found it too hard when you make slight corrections in level flight, so that I thought: "Why don't I try to make a trim wheel?" The idea is quite simple: Your yoke varies the resistance between 0 and 100 kohm (approximately), so that I added another potentiometer between the yoke and the computer, with a resistance of 47 kohm (the minimum they fabricate).
The trim wheel is a simple cardboard circle stuck on a 47 kohm potentiomenter.
This potentiometer is managed with a 24 cm cardboard circle, simply stuck on the axis of the potentiometer. You can move it with your right hand comfortably sitting in your seat. When I fly level flights and I have no turbulence, I control the height only with the trim like in real planes. You will have to weld the wires for your trim wheel between pins number 6 in male and female connectors. (See the scheme below). Some advice about the trim: 1.- The potentiometer must be linear 2.- When calibrating your yoke, you must push the yoke and simultaneously move the trim wheel nose-down. Then, pull the yoke and move the trim simultaneously nose up. 3.- You will have to use a shielded wire to connect the trim. The shield must be welded to the pin number 4 (Don't ask me why). 4.- If you have never managed a real aircraft, keep this in mind: When you push the top border of the wheel, the nose of the plane must go down. When you pull the top border of the wheel, the nose of the plane must go up.
10.- MY HOME BUILT PEDALS Nowadays you can find dozens of pages in the web talking about home built pedals. So I will not go on at length. In this case you are not adding a potentiometer between the computer and another thing. You are simply adding a potentiometer between two free pins in the connector (the pins numbered 9 and 11). The potentiometer is a 100 kohm one. (See the scheme above) The part of the pedals that makes me feel most proud is the back-to-the-center system. It is brilliant! (excuse me for my little modesty). I hope these photos let you understand it. If you don't understand something, ask me.
The pedals dismounted from the cockpit. Here you can appreciate the springs system. I am very proud of this "back to the center" mechanism.
All the components of the pedals are easy to get: little springs, wood, screws, little aluminum sheets, hinges... Some advice about the pedals: 1.- As in the trim, the potentiometer must be linear. 2.- As in the trim, you will have to use a shielded wire to connect the pedals. The shield must be welded to the pin number 4 (Don't ask me why). 3.- If you have never managed a real aircraft, keep this in mind: While taxiing, if you push your right foot, the plane must turn right. If you push your left foot, the plane must turn left.
11.- SWITCHING BETWEEN MONITORS AND KEYBOARDS As I said before, I wanted the computer to be at its own table, so that I had to put three different monitors in the room. I discovered (thanks to my computer supplier) that a little switcher box existed: It lets you select between two different sets of monitor, keyboard and mouse (you can have a computer with two sets, or two computers with a set).
This switch box lets me choose between the table monitor and the cockpit ones.
This is another great advantage on my cockpit: You can select with a simple click when to use the computer for work and when for fun.
As you can see in the scheme above, the 14" monitor is always connected to the 2nd output of the graphic card. (Although you don't need to have this monitor turned on if you are working at your computer's table). All the wires in this assembly were bought full finished and they are not too difficult to find.
12.- OTHER ELEMENTS I have talked to you about the furniture, the seat, the pedals... These are the most important elements in my cockpit. You can see other less important elements in the photos. For example: I put a little stand under the 21" monitor to raise it to the exact level I wanted. It is built with 16 mm conglomerated wood painted in black. You can do this in a more simple way by putting bricks, wood blocks or any other hard thing below the monitor. I recommend that you wait for the last moment to build this stand, because the height will depend on the appearence of both monitors from your pilot's point of view. You can see a blue bulb behind the 21" monitor in the photos. It projects a blue light in the ceiling, creating a certain "sky effect". The little box besides the yoke and the keyboard is used for connections, microphone and speakers (or headphones) plugs, and a potentiometer to regulate a little lamp over the cockpit, so that I can reduce the ambient light level when I am, for example, flying at night. I have some free space in it, so I hope to include here other improvements in the future. The speakers are quite simple and they are mounted beside the 14" monitor. The tray where the yoke is fixed is a wooden piece that I found in a hardware store, cut with the exact size and shape that I was looking for. It is part of a pre-fabricated system to easily build your own shelves.
Side view of the tray with the yoke, keyboard and little box for plugs. You can free the tray by pulling the trigger.
I invented a system that fixes the tray in the up position to facilitate getting into the cockpit: When you are seated, you pull the trigger and the tray goes down. (I understand this is the less realistic part in my cockpit, but it is not very important, because you use it when you haven't started). You can also see two black wooden blocks under the seat. I have put them to raise the seat 7 cm. You may or may not have to put something like this, depending on your seat size and profile.
13.- THE BUDGET These are the approximate prices I paid for each component in the cockpit. I give you this information only to facilitate your decision making. If you do not want to spend all the money at the beginning, you can build your cockpit little by little: Start with the furniture, a cheap joystick, the dual-head graphic card, your actual monitor in the main position and a second hand 14" or 15" monitor in the secondary position. Later, you can buy the Fresnel lens, the pedals, the yoke, a bigger monitor and so on... For this reason, I recommend you not to buy all the material at the beginning. It's better to buy those materials that you need at the appropiate moment. Good luck and come on! The reward is worth the effort!
Aproximate prices (Ask your dealer in each case) Concept US$ € pta £ Wooden sheets, fitted carpet, screws, drill-bits, hinges, alluminum bars, glue, paint and other hardware store material. 130 138 23.000 86 Car seat, including laundry (1) 40 47 7.800 30 Fresnel lens 150 159 26.500 100 Transportation (Bristol to Valencia) 30 34 5.700 20 Graphic card 130 144 24.000 90 14" monitor (1) 100 120 20.000 75 21" monitor (1) 290 250 42.000 400 Keyboard + mouse 20 24 4.000 15 Switch box + wires 40 42 7.000 26 Yoke 150 156 26.000 100 Pedals (2) 150 156 26.000 100
Notes: (1) Second hand. (2) As you have read above, my pedals are home-built, but I put here the price of typical, fully finished pedals.
You can send me any comment, suggestion or criticism. frangarcia.matradi@ono.com