Showroom Vynne's 3DOF Simulator

Hi all, I’m Vynne from Durban in South Africa and I plan to build a 3DOF system. My motto is “Fiddle & fiddle some more.” I have an Ekolot JK-05 Junior but it is over an hour away so no quick flights there... Apart from building my own simulator, I’m also helping a friend who is also building a sim in a Sting fuselage which he hopes to make 6DOF eventually. His sim will be as real as possible and even has a real EFIS, while mine is adaptable.

Unique:

A swing cockpit for easy access!


An Ejection Handle and a seat on runners, which ejects you backwards when pulled!


A modular, changeable fighter jet dashboard for VR!


Water cooled VR for comfort!


This is my chair so far, which I have built on its own frame, so that the wheels can be removed and motors fitted to convert into a 3DOF. I am fine with the mechanical side of things, but haven’t a clue regarding programming or electronics, so I’ll need lots of help from this forum.


The chair (Revision 68? Or is it 84?), has a swing frame for easy access and has both Flight Sim controls, (A10C HOTAS) and the Car setup with Thrustmaster Wheel & Pedals and a “few buttons”. All the controllers can be removed from the chair, normally just with a thumb screw and the joystick can either be mounted by my right hand (like my plane) or between my legs. I am also busy building a working collective for my helicopters in DCS. I fly MS 2020 Flight Sim and DCS and race Project Cars 2, F1 etc. Initially it was all done with TrackIR5 but I now also have an Oculus Rift 2.

When I flew with TrackIR5 I built a green backlit set of controls with MFD Cougar pack mounted on a monitor, but when I got VR I wanted a cockpit laid out like the plane I’m flying. I realized that Fighter Jets had a similar modular layout and so I started creating my own modular cockpit. Although it isn’t perfect, at least it “fits” more types of planes. This was laser cut from Supawood and I wired up the buttons using controllers sourced in China. This stage isn’t complete yet and is a work in progress but here is the basic layout. Each panel can be moved to new locations to suit the planes. All panels are interchangeable and 2 rectangle panels make up 1 square. 4 Square panels and 5 rectangular make up the dashboard. Buttons are different shapes and sizes to make it easier to identify the row by feel. The buttons around it will be a keyboards Enter, Escape, Shift etc. and along the top will be F1 to F12 (mainly for DCS radios). There is a controller panel with rotary knobs for radios, ILS, HDG etc. mounted next to my throttle.


The chair is also movable, forward and back and my yellow/black ejection handle controls the slider, and also activates a micro-switch that is depressed 3 times (for eject in DCS) and you will then slide backwards as you are ejected (Great in VR). (I guess that is the first axis for my chair?)


Also, I found that the VR gets very hot on my forehead and cheeks so decided to fit a water cooler on it and the water “tank” also fits on the chair. I put fridge water in there in summer and tap water in winter. It does an amazing job of cooling me off. Power sockets will be fitted to the chair for the wheel, monitor and water cooling.


Now to start on the 3DOF….