Fokker50 HC updates

[Guest PoRrEkE]

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire !!hell well at least there is a roof now :)check it :http://www.fokker50.be.tfmake sure to check the progress pages (last 2 days)you'll see that my 2*20 LCD is finally built in as well.let me know how you guys like it !peace!

[Guest PoRrEkE]

check out what could have been / what could be 1 day (maybe)http://users.skynet.be/plipke/TruckageFullCockpit.jpg

[tigert 0]

>check out what could have been / what could be 1 day (maybe)Your cockpit looks absolutely awesome by the way, great example of low budget and creativity rivalling the best looking big-money projects :)Btw, put a large mirror to the right - you get a handsome co-pilot as a free bonus =)/Tuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

>Btw, put a large mirror to the right - you get a handsome co-pilot>as a free bonus =)negative ... that is not true. i'd only get a clone of myself :(and i would see the engine panel/overhead/pedestall double .. so I think that's even worse than what I got now ..>low budgetfor my standards I don't see this as a low budget *haha*as a student this is quite an investment I made and I'm always short of money :(but indeed compared to FDS cockpits and such .. ok yap indeed.freeware softwareself made panelsbut hey i gotta pay those panels too :(for sure they are less expencive but I had to buy a PC ( 500 euro ) 2 17" screens ( 70 euro each ) switches & knobs ( roughly 300 euro ) FSBus system ( roughly 200 euro ) paint, wood, metal parts, etc etcI was lucky to have some wood around (i used to be into Marklin trains and I had quite some panels around of 2m-1.5mnone the less, add all this up and you get roughly 1500 euro which might bee low budget compared to some others but I think it's not nothing ;)

[tigert 0]

>negative ... that is not true. i'd only get a clone of myself>:(>and i would see the engine panel/overhead/pedestall double ..>so I think that's even worse than what I got now ..Yea, although it might look nice for night flights with cockpit lights on. But yea, I like your half-setup - it has everything you need and still doesnt take all the room.>none the less, add all this up and you get roughly 1500 euro>which might bee low budget compared to some others but I think>it's not nothing ;)Yes. Our C172 sim budget is something like 2000-3000 euros, minus donated stuff (we are doing this at a aviaton club in Helsinki-Malmi (EFHF)) - a lot is done by hand, though we have simkits instruments, which probably saved us a lot of building time and allowed us to do a through-the-panel yoke shaft.What I have learned is that a pile of cash does not always count here - there are things that just cannot be bought (unless you are crazy and have REALLY lots of cash and need to get rid of it, but then you should start flying for real or start an airline :)) - a lot of this hobby is about gathering information, getting the knowledge, looking at stuff others have done and planning and doing projects. That's what I mean by low budget - do it yourself when you can. Your cockpit looks very good. Are you flying with it too? Got any "in action" pics? Would be interesting to see them, the more pics the better =)A good tip btw: Get a logbook for your sim and log the flights - gives you some nice memories later on. This is from our sim, it has about 9 hours so far in the book.http://tigert.gimp.org/tigert-albums/simu_...e/aas.sized.jpgHere's a moody pic of the guys trying to figure out where the airport is by looking at a Jeppesen VFR chart:http://tigert.gimp.org/tigert-albums/simu_...e/aat.sized.jpgTuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

> Your cockpit looks very good.Tnx :)I am since this weekend starting to have a realy good feeling about it. I noticed that it starts to look better now than the images I rendered before building with 3D studio max :) which is great.It may have been obvious to some already but what I learned:1) details make the simadding detail and making detailed parts is most of the time very hard when on a low budget. but in the end, if something is not detaild enough it will be that part that will bother you most cuz it's a thing that makes you realise your project is not real.2) making a roof adds MUCH more to my sim than I had expectedat first I was not sure if i would want to even bother making one. but since I had PVC plate left (big enough) to do this roof I gave it a go. the reason I think why this adds so much is that now it helps to integrate the overhead into the whole of the cockpit. before it used to just hang there as if it were floating. so for sure I'll add window borders to connect the roof part with the rest of the cockpit now and I'm quite sure this will again add to it. also close in your cockpit, like hide the rest of the room from it should do a great deal.>Are you flying with it too?Neglectably. (?) I mean, only the flight controlls are working at the moment and 1 switch, which turns on/off the phisical lights under the glare. Most people tend to say here "if you build a sim, make sure you're up flying within at least 3 months or so" ... I get nothing like that :/ I'm building for 1 year and 2 months now, still got maybe 3h of flying. Why ?Simple. 1 reason is that I had to wait untill Espen had done some programming on the gauges so that I could indeed access and controll them from my cockpit. Even now I'm still waiting for some extra things to be added.Then the second reason is that I'm still waiting for my FSbus kits to be shipped towards me. My order was done November last year and still they are not in Netherlands (from where they will be shipped to Belgium). But again I can't blame no one really for this.Either way, I expect the goods to be at my place within 2 weeks, 3 at most. After that, it's soldering, positioning, wiring up, flashing, configuring, testing, using.And with "using" I mean fly ! o/ finally !Either way, I'm not feeling all that bad 'bout not flying. I'm super sure that I'll be bored most of the time once the sim is finished. I just love working on it too much :)>Got any "in action" pics? Would be>interesting to see them, the more pics the better =)Trust me, as soon as the thing choses the air .. I'll get someone to take some pics :) Also I expect some people to come over for some flying. Some people I know use Espens panel sometimes, so they should be able to get going without my help. Others might need some instructions but I'll make sure they got a User-Guide-For-Dummies in their hand and they'll be "GO" quite soon aswell.Also I'm going to try and figure out how I can create a 360

[Guest PoRrEkE]

2 final thoughts:1- not flying to much doesn't bother me for another reason. I got something going on imaginary, the same way as Michel VanDaele has going on on his 747. He's building, not flying. Once the plane is finished & tested, he'll fly from boeing feeld Seatle towards his home base EBOS Ostend in Belgium.I haven't got a base airport where my sim is "parked" at the moment but I feel like my sim should be 95% operational at least before flying.2- 'bout the gear lever. I've noticed that sim building hase grown super more popular during the last year. Also there are much more companies selling finished parts for those. Still haven't figured it out: "are there more builders cuz there are more "real looking finished parts" to be found ? or are there these companies cuz there are more builders ?"probably they both make eachother grow and increase in size :)either way, those companies most focus on things like panels and throttle quads. thus I'm expecting some of them to expand their products with gear-levers (all kind) and airliner yokes (all kind).as soon as there are multiple available, it will be easy to chose the most quality/price interesting one.

[tigert 0]

>Other than that the gear lever remains an issue. I need>someone to make me a nice round weel out of some material that>I have no idea about which it should be :/ Lots of questions>remain on this subject. Only 1 answer is clear: I can't do>this myself. 2bad .. I don't have the right tools I think.Use a small rollerskate or skateboard wheel? if it is a bit wider, what the heck, as long as it works.>One last thing. I'm hoping for a new version of FSlcd .. and>wasn't it you Tuomas whom I had sent a mail concerning this ? >If so, let me know something 'bout this will ya :) I need the>authors e-mail address. (Timo ? wasn't it ?)Timo yeah. It indeed was me who you mailed back and forth with, I think the zip contains the mail address, or I cc:'d Timo on some of the mails I sent you. Did you try the version with the "page switching" and did you ever get it to work? I didnt yet have a chance to work on my home setup (for obvious reasons considering the stuff on the aviation club sim :)) so I dont know if it works. Lemme know.Tuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

>Use a small rollerskate or skateboard wheel?that idea indeed crossed my mind but those are to big really and by the time i'll have found "mini" ones i'll be aged 80 or more! :('bout the FSlcd stuff, jup indeed I did manage to switch the "pages" using that tool which he made (though changing to page 5 or such made the thing go mental. same with any number above 5 .. might have been 4 or 6 don't remember but it worked up untill 1 number, that's for sure :D ), but now we need to be able to replace that tool with fsuipc or some sort. i can't go out of FS, clicking a button each time can Inow the reason why i wanted to contact Timo was for 2 things. as in my mail: 1 is that it would be neat to have a timered version of the software which would change "page" each 7 seconds. this version would remain usefull for users who not want to or can use key input from their .. (saying cockpit here would be rediculous indeed ..) module :)2 is that I do know a way to make a VB.Net program receive key input even while running in background. so we wouldn't have to leave FS or link fsuipc or any sort. just reserve a few very weird combo's for the FSlcd and boom, it works ! only problem then is that his software needs to be VB.Net :/

[Guest PoRrEkE]

or maybe it doesn't !Maybe this is stupid .. but what if:he could make his fslcd version with multiple "pages" work flawlesslythen i make a vb.net version of his tool with this "capture-key-input-dll-pluginn" in it.this would require FS to run + fslcd software + my tool + any other program you whish to use (PM / fsrouter / whatever)might this be an idea ?all i need to know then is how he made his tool and what it does and try and convert that into VB.Net code.having that extra tool running should not take much resources at all.in fact all it does is use a tiny bit of ram and just sit there and wait for you to input that key it likes to recognise and then write the number to the address .. that's all.silly to have 2 programs, but this might be the fastest way to get this thing started.