Showroom 2dof Cubby House Flight Simulator

I'm embarassed to announce that the world's dumbest motion platform concept has finally reached completion!! I've put a 2 dof Flight Simulator into a kid's cubby house. Don't ask why ... I just wanted to see if I could. It was a test run before I build one for myself.

My reason for posting the story and photos is not to proudly advertise my own insanity but to give a massive thanks to all those people on this site who helped me along the way. I stumbled across this website about 6 months ago when researching the idea of building a very basic flight simulator for my plane-obsessed 4 y.o. son. With the help of this community my basic idea blossomed into something a little more complicated.

When looking at the projects on this site I realised that I already had most of the tools, and a lot of the parts, required to build a motion platform. I can weld and had a whole lot of galvanised tubing left over after building a trailer. I had two motors that I'd bought off eBay a few years ago with plans of motorising the kid's tricycles. I had a ton of old computer parts that were sufficient to build the motor controller and gaming PC. So, after quite a few beers, I figured I may as well give it a go.

That said, I began this challenge without any idea about electronics, soldering or computer programming and it has only been with the guidance and instructions from others on this site that I have been able to muddle through the process. The following is therefore dedicated to everyone who helped me along the way. It is a credit to you all that someone with such a ridiculous idea, and without any real idea of how to achieve it, was able to turn it into reality. I thank you all. More importantly, my kids thank you.

I apologise up front that I can't really provide too many details about the ingredients, or cost, for this build. There was little planning and I grabbed parts that were lying around for most of the steps along the way. I have no idea about the specs of the motors. The controllers are jrks 12v12. The seats are old car booster seats found by the side of the road. The software is, obviously, SimTools - that I gladly paid for. The computers are old ones - left over from my constant upgrading to better equipment. I don't know the specs of most of the bits but I do know that an old Gigabyte HD6850 video card was sufficent to run MS Flight Simulator on triple screens. It was an experiment and it surprised me that it worked ... but it does. The power is two LED power supply units - about $25 each. The flight instruments are Saitek that I bought a while ago. In the end, to get it up and running I probably had to spend somewhere around $400.


So ... here's the story ...

The idea of building a flight simulator was sparked by my wife deciding it was time I built my kids a cubby house. The oldest kid was into boats and so he decided he wanted a boat cubby house. This is what I built over the following few weekends.



Anyway, after it was finished the kids were delighted for a few hours. Then my son announced that he doesn't like boats anymore and now really likes aeroplanes. "Can you turn it into an plane for me". So, yes, I beat him.

Anyway, I've always liked planes as well and his comment got me wondering about how hard it would be to build a flight simulator. During my subsequent internet research I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this X simulator site and the plan was hatched. The simulator is buried underneath the cubby house. I had to build a platform for the cubby house's slippery dip and was left with a small space underneath. This area was initially going to be a sandpit or paddling pool but I figured I could probably squeeze a small flight simulator under there.






I mentioned before I can weld. Not well, but I'd taught myself by re-building a boat trailer. Here's how the welding started ...



Here's how it ended up ...




The motors are mounted to the shoulders (via 12mm threaded pipe and tie rod ends - not shown).



The flight controls are Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System.



Here's the electrics all soldered up and working prior to installation. For me, the hardest part.



The exterior completed ... almost. There's still some painting to be done around the back.





The finished interior - complete with chequer-plate flooring.



And the final touch ... a car's rear vision camera connected to the LED PSU so I can keep an eye on the kids from outside.



And, finally, a video of the working product.



Again, many thanks to everyone involved.

Now that I know I can do it, the next step is to build my own for the man cave. And, obviously, having used up all my old parts for the kids the wife can't argue that I 'need' to buy new computers to build my own!!

My only hope is that you all get some satisfaction from the joy my kids are experiencing due to all your hard work. Again, many thanks!!

Thanks noorbeast. And don't worry there's a queue! I thought that by putting 2 seats in there I'd avoid fighting about who's turn it was. Obviously, that was a little optimistic. Now there's fights and tantrums about who is going to fly and who is the co-pilot. And, before anyone suggests it, I'm not putting in dual controls!!

BTW, I love your DX racer. I'd like to say I got some of my inspiration from you but, instead, I looked at the quality of your workmanship and realised I was well and truly out of my depth! Beautiful stuff. Unfortunately, my tactic with welding is ... weld, grind, weld and then grind some more.

@Thurston , if the welds hold, thats all thats important.

Thanks bsft. Whilst I'm in complete agreement it must be satisfying for those guys who can run a perfect bead each and every time. I'm sure it's just that they're using better equipment ... there's no other reasonable explanation

I use a $99 arc welder and it took me a while to get a decent weld, I would weld, knock the flux off, grind and re-weld if needed.
I really couldn't weld either in the beginning.
Not much better now either, its practice, thats all