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Poor Man's Control Panel, Throttle, TrackIR & it's Amazing!

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So I'm currently away from my real home and working across the country. Lot of free time I need to pass so FS2020 has been a godsend really. I was getting pretty bored of FSX/X-Plane. 

I didn't bring much to this apartment, what I did bring was a misc box of switches/knobs and an extra Leo Bodnar board. Threw together this "ugly" real quick in a cardboard box. It's not pretty... at all but boy does it function like a charm and I absolutely LOVE that FS2020 has more binding/control options. Nothing like FSUIPC but much better than what they used to be. I have no tools here, and I'm not about to buy them to make boxes, not until I get back home. 

I bought a Logitech USB Throttle and hated it, it was jittery, buttons had massive play and it just wasn't worth $70 at all. But I needed an axis for my throttle, I just can't do adjustments with buttons. So lo and behold a bare slide potentiometer taped to the desk surface haha. It's VERY precise, fine control, very accurate. LOVE IT. It cost $2. I got 2 more and I think Im going to put them on top of cardboard box as well to control Mixture and prop and maybe get a round dowel and extend the slide lever a bit. I also got a slide potentiometer with a much longer throw and thus much more precision. I might use as V pitch axis.

For TrackIR, I bought a $10 PS3 Eye camera, some IR LEDS and resistors for $5 and again, glued it all to cardboard (Which I hardened with super glue). Used a 18650 battery (long battery life) and just clip it to my headphones. Opentrack worked right out of the box. Boom, $15 Track IR that works surprisingly VERY WELL.

I have the Thrustmaster TCA Officer Pack on pre-Order and I hear it's delayed till late Oct. Until then this has to do and it's doing it well haha. I'm also very interested in the Honeycomb Bravo Quad but they been pretty mum about that so all I can do is keep waiting. Hard to find good products on the cheap.

Shout out to Leo Bodnar, excellent product. I think every simmer should have one so they can at minimum tinker with it like me. 

What's your Poor Man's build? pretty or not because mine is very very very far from pretty but on spot for functional. I'm always open to ideas and actually looking for Ideas so share yours or would love to hear them in general.

 

control-panel.jpgps3-eye.jpgtrackir2.jpgtrackir.jpg

  • 3 weeks later...

wow !!  Love your DIY stuff.  I especially liked the simplicity of your opentrack IR device.  Will that work in moderate daytime light, or is it dark room only?

 

 

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