Flightsimming is all about deception. The more tricks you can add to make
it feel real, the better.
Sitting in front of a monitor with keyboard and joystick on your knee may be
nice in the beginning, but after some time you may want more.
I have done many
experiments to try to improve the flightsim experience, all of which are
described in the various chapters in this website.
I have always appreciated the effort people put in describing their hobby, sharing their ideas with others, so I have spend 'some' time to make this website which now contains the descriptions of all my flightsim projects up to date.
 | I started off in 2001 with a simple generic light aircraft cockpit controls console, with the flight yoke and various levers and switches at the places that are most common for those aircraft. All components come from local hardware and electronics shops and stuff that I got at the junkyard. |
| The next addition was adding tactile transducers, which was a simple but very rewarding addition. |
| The visuals were improved by adding a fresnel lens to the single monitor. |
| Then there was a more ambitious experiment, the DIY motion platform, which is really fun, and after the second prototype DIY motion platform II and now the third prototype DIY motion platform III, it still in the tweaking stadium. (probably stay that way) |
| After the move from Taiwan to the Netherlands, I build a simpit construction. |
| With this simpit, I have done more experiments with improving visuals, like dual display and projectors. |
| My current setup consists of the simpit with a freshnel enhanced triple outside view + cockpit view. The whole contraption is now build on top of the DIY motion platform III. Some new ideas (some tried and failed, some successful). |
Most of the flightsim enhancements described here can be applied to basically any PC based flightsim program, since I used only standard interfacing methods. (keyboard, game port and USB joystick). The MJOY-16 interface now replaces my earlier interfacing methods.
This website contains the full description of all parts (both electrical and mechanical), and some of the basic tricks and tips concerning components, PC keyboards and game ports you need to know in order to make things work with your PC.
Except where I listed the source, the mechanics and circuits are my own design, but since they are rather straightforward, it is very well possible that somebody else thought of the same things earlier.
In some cases, you may find my designs somewhat crude. I have tried to keep things as simple and cheap as possible, while maintaining reasonable functionality. Since I don’t know much about PC peripherals specifications, many circuit solutions are based experiments, not specs. Things work with my setup, but I cannot guarantee that they will work with other setups. (A rather poor engineering practice, but hey, this is hobby, not work).
I wrote down pretty much everything I know on the subject. If you find any major mistakes in the text or drawings, I would appreciate if you'd let me know, so I can make corrections.
Some documentation history :
In March 2002 I did a write-up on my DIY cockpit controls which was
posted on Flightsim.com's How-to section, and the Word document was posed on AVsim.com library.
I have included & updated all information from that document in this website.
In summer 2003 I moved from Taiwan back to the Netherlands, which interrupted the hobby for some time. After moving, changing jobs, we have finally settled down in Eindhoven, and I have some time to spend on the hobby again.
All information is free for your non-commercial personal use. Do not copy the information to other sites or documents. If you want to use the information on this website for commercial purposes, please contact me. © Roland van Roy, 2002 - 2008