F-16 blk 50 Central Pedestal

 I added a chopped off blk 50 central pedestal.

This is a chopped off central pedestal. The 3D model came from the "ancient" Hempstick site, as one of the forum goers stated. This is a VR pit. I call it an Augmented VR pit (AVRPit). The panels are only there to provide positions and rigidity for knobs, switches and buttons. They don't even need to look good. But because I could, I will make them look good.

I won't even bother putting in instruments like HSI etc. The visuals are provided by the VR goggle. All I need is the HDG, and Heading knobs, the barometric knob, and the fuel selection knobs, etc. I will just leave the holes uncovered... empty. Maybe I will put some color pictures in them so they don't look funny.

Nevertheless, this pit is designed to be adjustable, and could be torn down, and reconfigured for PS5 Gran Turismo, and regular PC gaming with keyboard/mouse. I have the other two panels instead of the F-16 front panel too. The front panel could be quickly reconfigured without tool in about 5 minutes. The central pedestal piece is screwed down to the mahogany front piece, so it gets swapped in/out altogether. 

Most of the side panel controls are screwed down with quick release handles, so I can quickly rearrange them with minimal tools.

I wish I had matte black filaments when I printed the HUD case... oh well, I will just have to paint it.

This pit is designed mainly for F-16. The flexibility is really not intended for it to serve many different aircrafts. The flexibility is really designed to allowed "design-build", and adjusting the positions of each panels to meet what's in VR. You see, even though I have a lot of real F-16 parts so I can get the knobs and switches to the "correct" positions within mm, there is no guarantee that DCS will be "correct." So, I will have to build my pit to fit DCS... hence the adjustability!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F-16 ICP Mechanical Design Fully Prototyped!

Image
The ICP's mechanical design is now fully prototyped. That is...  Everything you see in the picture is 3D modeled, 3D printed... Hot off the press, just file off the flashing/support materials... and assemble. No lengthy filing required. All the graphics is turned off when exporting... so 3D printed without graphics. Then, laser engraved. It's possible that you can use resin printers and print with the graphics with good result, but I am testing the worse case scenario, printing with filament printers. All buttons are backed with 0.9kgf stainless dome switches, resulting in very satisfying click, just like the real thing. The Dobber is backed with an off-the-shelf 5-way "joystick" I found and shared on ViperPits before. I am too lazy to do optical on this one... no need anyway. The toggle switches are commercial grade miniature toggles... not the Mil spec. one that costs USD $180 apiece. It's not cheap, about USD $10 apiece + S/H + tax. Not easy to find... and very...
Read more

F16 TQS Electronic Friction Generator Experiment Successful!

Image
  I have not posted for awhile due to health problem, and recovery... Not much in this post, just to report the successful test of the TQS friction generator. The idea is to read the angle of the throttle arm, and use it to dynamically generate friction using an industrial servo motor running in torque mode (not all servo controllers allow that). Now... there are two possibilities. direct drive convert the torque/force into friction using a disk brake or drum brake mechanism. #1 has the advantage of simpler mechanism, but it is not exactly how we "feel" in the cockpit. That is.... for instance... let's assume the dumbest constant force response, i.e. at any position, you always get the same "preferred" friction force, just like what the original "friction wheel" does. But... remember, only if you move the arm should the motor generate that constant force opposite of the delta v. Now, if the pilot is not moving the TQS, then, it should maintain the posi...
Read more