this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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DIY Simulators. Simracing, Flight simulators and more

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Discussion about diy simulator related projects.

Examples are simrigs, OpenFFBoard, OSW, motion systems, button plates, cockpits...

Show and discuss your simulators and peripherals here

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Got into flight sims at some point and decided to build a simple button box with the very basics. It's intended mostly for the AV8B harrier, but can be bound to any plane or any sim. Letters are laser engraved on translucent white acrylic that i painted in black beforehand. There are green LEDs behind the panel that backlight the thing. (not bright enough though).

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Really cool box :)

I made one too but looks less professional. It's called "DCS Ejector" and it contains a large red push button... I'll let you guess what it does. :p

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Pics or it didn't… eject? :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Here it is. It's mounted on an extra https://www.monster.tech/ support I had laying around, I can smash it without looking, something I do quite often when playing DCS as I'm not very... let's say... proficient. ;) Inside it's run by an Arduino Micro. The other buttons I often use for Emergency Jettisons... as you can see there's a "Theme" :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

your MPCDs look great too, did you DIY them or buy them ?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I planned to DIY them but ended up with Cubesim ones. Can't complain, they are really good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Touche.

It seems like I can't upload pics though. I'll try from the web.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i'm having trouble uploading an image to lemmy for whatever reason,, so i put a link up. That sucks

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've trouble fetching that link :(

Connection refused. May be my Pi-Hole 🤔

Anyway, super interested. Going to do the same but with only 20% transparency white + black colour. Someone suggested black acrylic but my dad (having a laser engraver) said that black acrylic just cooks up 🤪 Apparently that depends on the laser.

Currently working on the first version with wood. Used cardboard for the mock-up and I like where this is going:

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Black acrylic looks nice but you won't be able to backlight anything. What i like with black paint over white acrylic is with a very light engraving setting, the laser just vaporises the paint and shows the white acrylic below

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

there you go, i managed to upload the image i think. I used 30% transparency white acrylic and black matte paint. I don't own a laser cutter but i have access to it thanks to a local community tool sharing association

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks :) Got more pictures while making it? And a lit version? This looks really good!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

not sure, i'll try to find some. I'll take backlit pictures but the LEDs are very underpowered and i'm not sure we will see them. I'll replace them soon with LED strips, but i fear the little controller board i put in there won't power it and i might need another power cable

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