Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

[RCHeliguy]

Ultimate+ pedal impressions update.

The throttle is all immediate upside. I feel more in control of modulating my throttle. I credit most of that to the increased travel, but like the feel of the damper. The clutch also feels nicer, but has zero effect on lap times. As I mentioned I immediately drove better in Rally where there is a lot of throttle control going on. ( I wish I had increased the travel on my Sprint's Throttle a while back ) As I mentioned earlier, I couldn't decrease the travel on the Sprint's clutch, so I do like how that feels better on the U+ clutch in an inverted configuration. Upright it wouldn't matter.

The brake feels good, but I am having to acclimate to it. That was expected. I'm spending more time on the track now and I'm "almost" back to where I was with my Sprints. I like to hope the new pedals will help me be more consistent over time, but realistically I'm expecting to reach were I was and stay about there. However, I think I'm already very comfortable with right foot braking. My left foot braking needs some work. It does make me wonder if I would actually do better right foot braking, but I think that is a short term solution. I just need to work on my left foot precision.

I do like the way the U+ pedals look and I'm much happier with the pedal cabling arrangement to the smart control box and I like not needing a cable extension to make it work.

Overall I'm happy with my purchase, but I'm the only one who can make myself a better sim racer, premium pedals like this feel nice but in the end I doubt will make me any faster.

 

[cnhoff]

I can only encourage you to leave right foot braking behind. I also took the purchase of my Ultimates as a reason to switch after being reluctant for some months. In the end i just did it and seriously, within a week i could actually not think off driving any other way.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I can only encourage you to leave right foot braking behind. I also took the purchase of my Ultimates as a reason to switch after being reluctant for some months. In the end i just did it and seriously, within a week i could actually not think off driving any other way.

I've been left foot braking for a few years now.
I've just noticed that I'm still more precise with my right foot and I more quickly adapted to the new pedals with my right foot. My left foot takes longer it seems.

 

[cnhoff]

Sure, my left foot felt like a brick on the brake when I tried it and thus i abandoned the idea again several times. In the end it just took a couple of days to adapt and switching pedals seemed like the perfect occasion to bite the bullet.

 

[RCHeliguy]

In the realm of irony.....

Yet another friend of mine just ordered a Tesla. This time a Model Y. I have friends who own Model S's, Model 3's and one with a Model X. Electric motors that run pretty smoothly through their entire speed range with no gear shifts.

Then I look at some of Rodney's engine rpm profiles. One of them has FIFTY layers to produce all the harmonics and resonances of an engine from idle to redline.

Pretty soon a Simulation will be the only place left to drive a car.

The future can't happen fast enough, but there will always be things that we are nostalgic for!

 

[Deleted member 1066209]

View attachment 571539

I have a concern about the transducers rattling the control hub to death. Do you think it is valid?

 

[RCHeliguy]

I have a concern about the transducers rattling the control hub to death. Do you think it is valid?

I don't, but time will tell. I've been wrong before.

HE claims that they can handle transducers. We will see. For the moment I'm happy with things as they are.

 

[Deleted member 1066209]

Their assurance provides much satisfaction for me. I'm sure it'll be fine then.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Their assurance provides much satisfaction for me. I'm sure it'll be fine then.

Since you got me thinking about this, I just looked at the HE website. I remember verbiage on the Sprints that said they were safe to use with transducers and made the assumption that the U+ pedals would inherit that. I couldn't find verbiage like that for either set of pedals.

Despite not finding that verbiage, these pedals have been mounted on motion systems for many years which are also capable of shaking parts of your rig loose.

The RJ connectors for the smart control unit have a solid connection with no discernable play or slop. The solid state board appears to be clamped in place. I'm not worried about the 3D printed PLA part failing. The Smart control unit isn't heavy enough for that to be a concern.

The biggest concern I would have would be to have an unreliable connection of the RJ connectors or the USB cable and they are all very solid connections at this time.

 

[GagarynGaribaldi]

Since you got me thinking about this, I just looked at the HE website. I remember verbiage on the Sprints that said they were safe to use with transducers and made the assumption that the U+ pedals would inherit that. I couldn't find verbiage like that for either set of pedals.

Despite not finding that verbiage, these pedals have been mounted on motion systems for many years which are also capable of shaking parts of your rig loose.

The RJ connectors for the smart control unit have a solid connection with no discernable play or slop. The solid state board appears to be clamped in place. I'm not worried about the 3D printed PLA part failing. The Smart control unit isn't heavy enough for that to be a concern.

The biggest concern I would have would be to have an unreliable connection of the RJ connectors or the USB cable and they are all very solid connections at this time.

Most likely issue, if indeed there are any, would be solder joints, maybe on the connectors if they are board mounted.

 

[Edward_Pernacz]

Hi! First thank you so much for recording all of this in this thread, this is such a wealth of information.

I'm at the start of this journey, I had dual VKB sticks on desk mounts, wasn't terribly happy about it because I could never have it fit right with my desk/keyboard tray/chair etc.

Then I finally bought a wheel (for now a ts-pc and t-lcm pedals) and received a P1x to mounty everything.

Motion is out of my reach for the foreseeable futur but I figure P1x should give me as much of an upgrade path as I could hope for.

As for flight I play only space-sims, so it's dual sticks (I have a vkg SCG on the left and a MCG ultimate on the right), and I actually use my racing pedals for throttle (throttle for forward, clutch for reverse... yeah I know it might sound really weird for sim-racers and flight-simmers, but after much testing (including with rudder pedals), it is to me the best setup for 6DOF flying.

After some customization I'm pretty happy with how everything sits around me. I have left to buy a shifter and handbrake which I will put on the upper section of the right side so it can coexist with the flight stick. The MCG stick is quite tall, so who knows if I might have to revert to my right SCG, but that would be a shame. I think Husinkveld hb and shifter look nice and compact and should fit right in. Not sure if I will be able to fit a h-patern shifter without removing the right stick though.

I did read through to get to the point where you replaced your passat seat, but I do have questions about this.

Confort is a big concern to me. I'm prone to back pain, but also wrist, knees etc: I'm not in a great shape. So I want to be able to be seated for hours. My guess is I need cushioning, so probaby a street car seat is best, but also reclining so I'm leaning back and weight is balanced better on my spine than if upright.

If I don't find a seat with a reclining function like the one you found, what are my options? What to look for?

Again, thanks for documenting all this

 

[RCHeliguy]

The seat out of a wrecked car is very inexpensive. I think I spent about $40. I did have to pull it from the car myself. It was better for flight than what I have now.

What I ran into was that adding stronger load cell brakes required more force and my back needed more support. Until I made that upgrade, I was perfectly happy with the wrecked car seat.

Seats are a very personal thing, but that cloth Passat seat was great for people visiting. Now that I have a shell seat, I have limited the size of people who can try out my rig and a surprising number of people I know couldn't fit into it.

 

[stigs2cousin]

I concure to the car seat recomendation and have extra advice:

car seats differ quite strongly depending on brand and car type/trimlevel.

For example Mark´s seat looked like it was from a base level Passat.
A Golf GTI ore 3series M trim would be more rigid and have better bolstering and firmer cushions.
A nice to have for bigger/ not so sporty guys is lumbar support.

I myself use a (street car) Recaro from the aftermarket. It´s rigid enough and has firm enough bolstering to max out my HSV Sprints.

If I needed a new seat I´d go for a passenger seat from a sporty car/ sportscar.
To take it out yourself is advantagious as you can check fitment (yours) and rigidity in the car.

MFG Carsten

 

[RCHeliguy]

Been vacating, snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, drinking a lot more than usual, getting a lot more UV than usual and just spending some good times with my best gal while we both recharge.

Hoping to get some videos together in the near future.

 

[herve45]

where is it ?

 

[RCHeliguy]

In the great equalizer category, after a week of pampering, gormet meals, having a butler on call 24 hours a day for anything, fun excursions, and deep tissue massages etc....

I'm now sitting in a small airport for a flight to start my voyage home that has been delayed 3 5 hours. No food here and there has been no running water in the bathroom at least since we arrived 3 hours early for our flight.

Happily paid $3 each to have someone type in the wifi password into our phones. At least there is wifi as my wife and I both finished reading a book at about the same time.

Time to fast and cross our legs.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Off topic.

 

[RCHeliguy]

WAY off topic.

 

[Jay Spears]

What would be the benefit of going with an epq304 vs some cheaper options like the nobsounds or douk amps for the exciters?

 

[RCHeliguy]

What would be the benefit of going with an epq304 vs some cheaper options like the nobsounds or douk amps for the exciters?

There are some combination DSP amplifiers that are actually a better price point except that they have no physical volume knobs and need to be set in software.