Mike's Flight Deck is an introduction to home cockpit building, the hobby that takes off where flight simulation game software ends. When staring at a 17" monitor on a crowded desk, and pushing, pulling and twisting a wimpy joystick just doesn't do any more, it's time to build a simulated cockpit or flight deck. This site offers information on how to do just that.
Mike's Flight Deck is also home to Mike's Flight Deck Books, a very small company that sells the books I've written about building flight simulators. So far I've written two and a half books.
Clicking on a cover image will take you to the information/order page for the respective book.
What's New:
Chapter 3, Book 3 (13 May 2012)
Okay, so I'm now making the third pass through chapter 3. Or is it the fourth? I'm not really sure.
You've probably picked up that this isn't just a grammar and spelling issue. The problem is making the chapter less like an encyclopedia and more like something people would want to read.
This is the chapter on projection systems. You know, a screen, a projector and a dark room then you're golden. Except maybe not. The goal isn't simply to create an image, it's to create an image which strongly supports depth of immersion. Plus, the book's aimed at wildly creative, diverse bunches of readers: flight sim addicts, first-person-shooter zombies, motor sport crazies,... really anybody wanting to lose themselves in a computer generated virtual world, (my kind of people). So who says there will only be a single screen and projector? Will the screen(s) be flat? Will the imagery be 3D or collimated?...
The issue is answering all the questions coherently.
Mike's Tips Article (1 May 2012)
Just finishing a new Mike's Tips article for posting at MyCockpit.
Only One Copy Left (29 April 2012)
After filling all outstanding book orders I find that I have only one (1) copy of Building Simulated Aircraft Instrumentation left.
I won't reprint the book. There are enough changes I want to make that I prefer to develope a new edition... Assuming there's enough interest, of course, and that I finally manage to complete book 3.
Update: 8:10 PM (pacific time) The last copy was just purchased. BSAI is out of stock.
CNC (24 April 2012)
Bits and pieces for the CNC project are drifting in. The plan revisions aren't yet available, though an updated bill of materials is. The BOM also lists the lengths of the individual pieces rather than just the total for each size of metal stock. So, while I don't yet have the revised plans, I can at least cut the individual metal pieces to length.
This has been a good opportunity to excavate my work area in the garage. Apparently certain unnamed family members have seen my recent lack of work there as license to turn the space into a storage zone.
HA! Won't they be surprised!
CNC (9 April 2012)
I've been looking into small CNC machines for quite some time. I had thought I'd pull a design together myself, but ran across a very appealing set of plans. The "Momus CNC design" appears to offer good performance from a relatively low cost design. It will handle wood, plastic and soft metals.
Check out this YouTube video.
There's a support forum on CNC Zone.
I waffled a bit, but after watching the videos several times I bought a set of plans as a PDF download. First thoughts: A professionally presented, well thought out design well worth the $20.
And then I found out that a revised version is on the horizon. Fortunately, the designer, Bob Pavlik, will be making the revised plans available to buyers of the current version.
I'm looking forward to them.
New Mike's Tip Article (31 March 2012)
I completed a new Mike's Tips article. It's a brief intro to force sensors for use in simulators. It should be posted soon over at MyCockpit.
Punching Out (4 March 2012)
My neighbor recommended the book, Punching Out, edited by James Cross. It's a collection of stories, mostly first hand acounts, of ejections from high speed aircraft. If you have any interest in military flight, this book will hold your attention.
New Mike's Tips Article (28 February 2012)
Just sent off an article on electromagnetic head tracking for posting over at MyCockpit. Should be posted in a day or so.
Most head tracking that we use in the hobby world is based on optical means. We've got commercial units like TrackIR and open source ones like FreeTrack. They use webcam video and image processing which places a burden on the host computer, burning cycles that could go toward rendering the game imagery.
Most military head tracking systems are based on electromagnetic fields and use a local processor. The arrival of low cost micro controller development systems like Arduido and chipKIT place this technology within reach of the hobbyist.
Potentially, one could have fast, accurate head tracking with no processing required from the host computer.
Still Beating on Chapter 3 (20 February 2012)
Chapter 3, Projection Systems, is the largest chapter, and I am not happy with it.
The chapter is large because there are many choices you can make when setting up a projection system: screen size and shape, gain, front or rear projection, mirrors or no mirrors, number of projectors...
I'm not happy with the current version because I want a more intuitive flow in the reading of it. I don't want a huge data dump, but there is so much interrelated material that it's in danger of becoming just that.
The key, I think, is following image quality through the system and showing how each design choice impacts the factors which support depth of immersion.
DIY Spot Photometer (4 February 2012)
A portion of the Projection chapter in book3 deals with projection screens. These are system components that you might want to build rather than buy, particularly so when your consider the prices of custom curved screens.
That begs the question of how to measure screen performance. When you can choose between screen fabrics, screen paints, and even flat wall paints, how will you know which is most cost effective or even suitable? You can't simply look at a screen sample or test panel. The human eye is a wonderful bit of highly adaptive optics, but that very adaptability means it's terrible for making objective measurements. To make objective choices you need the proper tools.
Screen performance is generally made using a spot photometer on a test jig that holds the screen sample and photometer in various controlled alignments. It lets you swing the photometer so the amount of light leaving the screen sample at different angles can be measured.
Reality intrudes: even cheap spot photometers are expensive.
I've done some work with an inexpensive luxmeter and a tubular light baffle to make crude spot measurements, but I've been thinking about improvements. A luxmeter is a basic light meter which measures ambient light levels. A spot photometer is a light meter coupled to a lens system that allows the luminance of a well defined portion of an emitting surface to be measured accurately. Adding a light baffle to a luxmeter does allow you to measure light leaving a surface, but the basic construction of the luxmeter greatly limits sensitivity, and you can just forget accuracy.
I started looking into building a spot photometer from scratch. The electronics is trivial, so I didn't expect any problems there. The optics didn't need to be anything special. The lens won't be forming a high resolution image. Its purpose is to collect light and direct it to the light sensor. Then it occured to me that DIY from scratch wasn't needed. I could just hack a cheap luxmeter.
So I bought an LX1010B luxmeter for about $15 through Amazon. I also bought a few other things to push the total above $25 so I could get free shipping. (I'm not cheap, just frugal.) My only real concern was that the luxmeter might be glued together. Fortunately, it turns out to be assembled with screws.
Here's the luxmeter:
And here's what's inside the sensor pod:
The small black square is the light sensor. It's a large area silicon photodiode. The green square in the center of the black circular cover is, I believe, an infrared rejection filter. All in all, it's pretty simple. The bulk of the electronics is in the other pod.
My next step is to add a lens. I'll try a 10x loupe I've ordered through Ebay for a few dollars. There's nothing special about it. It's simply a commonly available item which I can press into service collecting light for the sensor.
Back to writing for the timebeing.
Progressing (slowly) on Projection Chapter (29 January 2012)
I've revised the first third of the Projection Systems chapter. The first draft had a lot of good material, but didn't provide enough guidance through the process of developing projector performance requirements from display system goals. I'm fixing that.
Cost of Shipping Goes Up (24 January 2012)
The US Post Office has raised the cost of Priority Mail and Priority Mail International, the services I use to send books. The shipping costs on the book order pages have been adjusted to reflect this.
Sigh!
Book 3 and a New Mike's Tips Article (22 January 2012)
Chapter 2 is in a lot better shape overall, but still has a few rough spots. I'm not having much success smoothing those out currently, so I've moved on to chapter 3. I'll be revisitng chapter 2 later.
Chapter 3 is about projection systems. I moved some of the material into chapter 2, and some other material will shift into an appendix. The chapter won't necessarily become shorter because I'm adding additional material.
I sent off another Mike's Tips article to MyCockpit which will be posted soon. This one's on information sources for aircraft control panels like those found in the side consoles of military aircraft. Dimensions, fonts, colors, and so on are the topics of endless questions on forums. As it turns out, these are also the topics of several military standards which are in the public domain. If you know where to look, it's all spelled out.
Book 3, Chapter 2 (12 January 2012)
Still working on chapter 2 of Building Simulator Display Systems. I completely revised the chapter which improved it a lot. I just don't think it improved it enough, so I'm back at it.
The key issue is how much technical detail should be in it. Some readers see detail as something that boggs them down. Others like detail. Ultimately, the guiding principle is that there needs to be enough technical information in this chapter so that the following chapters make sense. I just have to present the material so the essence comes though without turning readers off.
The current revision feels too sparse. I'm in the process of adding additional detail, but structured so the extra detail can be skipped by bog-prone readers.
Book 3, Chapter 2 (31 December 2011)
This is the background chapter which defines a working vocabulary of light, explains how display system performance is measured, and describes what we need from a display system if we're to perceive a high quality image.
I wrote the first draft quite some time ago. Since then I've worked through the rest of the book and gained a new understanding of what background should be included. So, naturally, this effort has turned into a massive revisioning exercise.
So, more research, more examples, more illustrations, and I'm not done yet.
Mike's Tips Article & Chapter 2 (20 December 2011)
I finished an article on display characterisitcs which improve immersion. It's now posted as a Mike's Tips article over at MyCockpit.
I'm in the middle of revising chapter 2 of book 3. Chapter 2 provides background for developing game display systems. It defines important photometry terms, explains how to use and abuse them, then finally overviews human vision. The idea is that if you're going to design a large display system you should be able to extract meaningful data from sales literature, and choose equipment which provides cost effective performance.
Book 3, Chapter 1 (8 December 2011)
Okay! Finally... a first chapter revision that works.
Book 3 on Display Systems & Immersion (4 December 2011)
I've been occupying myself with revisions to the book 3 manuscript. Actually, revisions is a poor word for it. I nuked the first chapter. Even the title's been changed, several times, in fact.
Book 3 is about display systems for computer games. It's not just concerned with projector set up or LCD selection, though there's that and more. It's about crafting a display system that allows you to get lost in the game application. It's about immersion.
The first chapter has to put all the nuts-and-bolts detail of later chapters into context so the system designer knows what leads to immersion and what doesn't. The key concept is deceptively simple: emulate the real world visual experience. Chapter 1 expands on that concept.
Mike's Tips, the A-10C MIP, & Book 3 (22 November 2011)
I fired off another edition of Mike's Tips which should be posted on the MyCockpit site sometime in the next few days. This month it's a overview of how to make a main instrument panel for contemporary fighter aircraft sims. This type of aircraft tends to have complex MIPs that do not lend themselves well to simply cutting holes in flat panels. I used the A-10C MIP project as an example.
And speaking of the A-10C MIP, I'm moving this project toward the back burner. I'll still be working on it, but more slowly. It's been occupying most of my time and there are other projects needing attention.
Book 3, Building Simulator Display Systems, has, in fact, been on the back burner. I haven't made significant progress on the manuscript for longer than I like to admit. The bulk of the material is there, but there's a lot to be done. There're the obvious holes which need to be filled, but a bigger issue is that the high level structure feels a bit lame. There's a lot of really good material, but it's a bit overwhelming. The structure should provide more guidance in navigating through and choosing among the mountains of facts.
A reader shouldn't need to undertand the whole book to decide which portion to apply to a specific project. For example, you shouldn't need to slog through the details of projection screen gain to decide that three LCD monitors are the best choice for your particular application.
What this amounts to is a need for better introductory material for chapters and major sections. There needs to be more when and why before diving into the what and how.
A-10C MIP Project Progress (17 November 2011)
I have all the bar pieces in place. There are a few more corner gussets to add, and I've yet to put any of the threaded spacers in the corners. Here are two pictures of the current structure:
Although the epoxy bond with aluminum can be very strong, its strength depends greatly on how the aluminum surfaces are prepared. I managed to break some and judging by the lack of scratch marks, the weakness was due to having not sanded the gluing areas. Bottom line: to assure strong glue bonds, aggressively clean the gluing surfaces with 100 grit sandpaper.
I have a few minor tweaks and a lot of clean up to do. I'll then move on to adding some sheet aluminum. Some is glued on permanently while other portions will be mounted with screws.
I'm planning on cutting the backing plates for the sub-panels and using them to hold the threaded spacers while the epoxy sets up.
At this point I have about $70 in materials in the project. That's for the bar aluminum, the angles used to gusset the corners and a lot of epoxy. The threaded spacers will add about $40, while the sheet metal will add another $30 or so. These figures include the shipping costs associated with ordering the material.
I haven't kept track of the time I've worked on this. I don't think that's really important. The process of working on a sim is a payout for me. I think it's a real hoot to see something like this take shape.
A-10C MIP Project Progress (10 November 2011)
I added the first bent piece to the structure. I formed the bar over a coupler for 2" diameter rigid conduit. The spring back of the aluminum bar gave me a bend radius close to the desired 2".
The next piece has a lot of bends.
A-10C MIP Project Progress (7 November 2011)
The next two pieces have some bends in them. Being .125" thick, the aluminum bar doesn't cooperate well when it's time to bend. I made a rough bend on a scrap piece using a vice and a hammer. To get the bend I want, I'll need something to bend the bar around. Time for a trip to the store.
A-10C MIP Project Progress (6 November 2011)
A-1oC MIP Project Progress (5 November 2011)
A-10C MIP Project Progress (4 November 2011)
A bit farther along.
A-1oC MIP Project Progress (1 November 2011)
It's beginning to look promising.
A-10C MIP Assembly (29 October 2011)
Even using fast setting epoxy this is slow going. Perhaps once the center section is together and stable I can add several items at a time. Currently I have to add items one by one. Any misalignment at this point will screw up everything done later.
A-10C MIP Parts (26 October 2011)
I have all the difficult parts cut. There are two of most of these parts. When epoxied together, these will in theory form an extremely realistic A-10C main instrument panel structure.
The wide black marks are not the cut marks. (I'm a little more sophisticated than that.) I use a wide black marker in place of marking dye. The actual cut line is scribed in the darkened area and is very narrow. The black marker boosts the contrast so I can see the line.
There are a number of short lengths of aluminum angle remaining to be cut which will strengthen the corner joints.
With luck, I'll start assembling tomorrow.
Cutting Metal for the A-10C MIP (25 October 2011)
I now have most of the metal cut for the A-10C MIP structure. There are five pieces which need more attention after which I should be able to dry fit all but the curved outer most pieces.