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

It's a good idea to clean the surface with IPA (rubbing alcohol) first before applying the 3M strips. And stick them at the right place first time as it's not easy to remove them.
 
Agreed. I'll have the seat mounted first and absolutely make sure that where I'm planning to put things will work, then I'll clean both surfaces with denatured alcohol and put everything in place carefully.
 
Just got this wheel for Rally use. It's a Momo 330mm rim with 37mm dish.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067XI9C?tag=racedep-20

It bolted right up to the SC2 70mm adapter plate and feels great in my hands. Was just trying it out in Dirt Rally 2.0 in the Audi Rally B car and maybe it was a coincident, or maybe I made a mental note, but the in car steering wheel was identical :)
rallywheel_4392.jpg
 
Absolutely! I was asking because it was my interpretation or what I would've done with it, when using your simulator. But maybe it was designed as something else entirely, I thought? ;)
Being a VR setup I would think about camel backpack for drinking for example.

Was thinking to add a cup holder to my build too. :D

It turns out I didn't need to buy anything. I had 4 of these older style half liter camelbaks sitting in a cabinet. They have to be 15 years old. I don't know if they are in production anymore, but they are designed to drop into an aluminum can sized cup holder. They are perfect for my rig. No risk of spilling and very easy to reach. I tried it out yesterday with a Cherry Coke can, but I like this better.

camelbak_4396.jpg
 
Thanks to @Wmacky for sending his vertical mount in perfect condition. It looks great.

VerticalMount_4399.jpg


It's currently mounted at the upper edge of my vertical mounts and tilted up a bit. Once my racing shell seat gets here, it should drop my shoulders a couple inches and I'll be able to drop the mount down a bit.
verticlemount_4402.jpg


My trackball mount has been raised up a bit to accommodate the vertical mount.
backviewVerticalMount.jpg
 
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The danger with making "perfect" ergonomic solutions is that unless they are highly adaptable, changing one thing has a lot of trickle down. This is one reason I am very glad that I built an 8020 rig. It has been in a constant state of flux since I first built it rarely going more than a few weeks without something changing.

The vertical mount upset the apple cart just a bit, but I raised my track mouse mount to an even better position as a result (Yeah!). I dropped my sequential shifter a bit for clearance ( not an improvement, just a requirement (Boo!).

The new seat is going to have a much larger trickle down. I will be dropping the steering wheel and likely moving it towards me since I'll be deeper into the seat and angled back further. All of the controls will need some adjustment. Some things like my cup holder that is positioned nearly perfectly right now will be harder to reach when I'm more reclined. I may end up needing to rework my button box enclosure, but I won't know much until the new seat arrives.

I don't think there is really any way to fully anticipate what will change when my seat gets here.

I'm aiming for a seat back angle of 40 degrees. I've been told it's likely that the stock seat mount may not get me there which means I may end up ordering some more angle aluminum or find another solution to increase the angle that the seat mount has when attaching the top of my NLRv3. I could potentially use a wedge of some kind.

The attachments below are for WMacky's benefit so he could see what I'm sending him in return for the vertical mount. Suffice to say he had a good reason for wanting to swap components having to do with specific gear he needed to mount that required a wheeldeck.
 

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This is more of an obsessive thing, but it bothered me that I had the brake and clutch pedals raised 1/4" compared to the throttle pedal, so I made a matching 1/4" aluminum throttle pedal plate.

I made it so that I just needed to push the pedals together when I'm using all three pedals and then I can slide my brake and clutch to the side when I'm not using the clutch.

This also allows me to through bolt the pedals using lock nuts with a wide flange. While the pedals have enough metal to be structurally solid, I've never felt good about the repeated loosening and tightening of small 5mm bolts and thin metal it is secured with. I feel much more comfortable loosening and tightening the 8mm bolts over and over again and they are much easier to reach.

ThrottlePlate_4409.jpg
 
I'm still waiting on my NRG Prisma seat to arrive hopefully this Thursday, however UPS said there may be delays because of the fires in California.


Since I saw Barry mount these identical brackets for his NLRv3 review, I'm sure they will bolt straight down through the support. The Prisma is a bit wider than his Sparco EVO I so I'm not sure if I'll need any washers. My current mount for my seat includes two pieces of 40x80 that are bolted to angle aluminum. The angle is bolted to the sides of the of the NLRv3 support, so I'll be able to remove the angle completely if I like. This gives me the opportunity to try some other mounting solutions when I convert to flight mode. I may bolt some 40x40 directly to the sides as a place to bolt the seat belts and the flight throttle and to bolt another piece of 40x40 across them in the front as a place to mount my flight stick.

seatbrackets_4406.jpg


The amount of bolts and parts that have accumulated just to allow for the constant rate of change of my rig continues to spiral. Every single bolt below was purchased for my rig.
boltsnstuff_4412.jpg
 
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Having fun figuring out how to make this all work.

After disassembling the old seat mount, I added UHMW tape to the bottom of the support angles, so I could slide the NLRv3 around to tweak placement. Notice the second set of holes.
UHMWTape_4417.jpg


Going back to a much earlier picture when I counter bored the angle supports and was just a bit too close for comfort, I added the holes that mounted the NLRv3 a bit higher. I don't think I need to do that anymore. I should be able to drop the NLRv3 deeper and use my original holes now.
fullright.jpg


As you can see in the picture below there is plenty of clearance now, so now I'm going to submerge it deeper into the chassis. There should still be adequate ventilation.

My current thoughts are to get a piece of 1.5 x 1.5" or 2"x2" 1/4" thick angle aluminum and bolt it to the bottom of the seat mounts in the back for a shoulder belt mount point. Then a 2"x4" 1/4" piece of angle aluminum would bolt to the front and a piece of 40x40 would be bolted to that in front and underneath to hold the flight stick. I would trim the angle and notch it in the center where the flight stick slides in. There would also be a single piece of 40x40 mounted on the left side to mount the flight throttle. However the seat mount is angled there and I would need to cut some thick UHMW or Delrin stock at 72 degrees to create matching sandwich wedges and through bolt to a T-nut in the side mounted 40x40. I need to mount the seat and make sure all the geometry will work for both driving and flight before I order the aluminum stock.
NLRv3_sparcoMount_4418.jpg
 
I've got the seat mounted which took a bit of futzing around. I ended up filing the edge off the top of the brackets and putting UHMW tape at the very top of them to help me get the seat wedged in. I have the seat belts mounted and adjusted and there is room for the transducer underneath, but I haven't mounted that yet.

The steering wheel is finally high enough that 9 and 3 are comfortable and the pedal height is great!
I could feel the extra support my back was getting when I pressed the brake pedal hard which was the key reason behind this change. Lowering my seating position may end up being just as important.

The NRG Prisma fits my 190lb 6' tall body like a glove. There is no extra room, but it does feel good.
The seat is as far back as the bracket would allow me. There is one lower hole in back, but the seat base wouldn't have clearance.
newSeat_4425.jpg


I am sitting a bit lower and I removed the stick shift extension and moved it forward about 3/4". The extra spring strength from having a shorter lever arm feels great!
NewSeat_4423.jpg
 
...and looks the part, too! And that shifter looks the dogs danglies!

I see you have the seat leaned back as much as possible with these brackets. I can imagine that the seating position must feel great. I was just thinking, that the pedal tray could move up just a bit, but then noticed that you are at the maximum you can do (even with an extension) at the moment.

Jealous at the moment. Hope my P1-X arrives soon and I can start the build.
 
Here are the cushion measurements. I was expecting this to have a bit more room in it. While it fits me perfectly, some of my friends will have trouble fitting in this chair.

CushionSize_4427.jpg
cushionSize_4428.jpg


The back angle as far as it would go.
backAngle.jpg

The front cushion angle.
frontCushionAngle.jpg
 
Yo, I'm planning to purchase the Hotas Warthog soon and will try to do something similar to my alu rig. I've found some aluminium brackets for the stick and throttle online but for a fairly ridiculous price. So I'll have something made myself instead. However, I can't seem to find the dimensions for the mounting holes anywhere. Do you have these for me?
 
Now I need to trim this piece of aluminum, drill 4 x 4mm holes and bevel the holes.
Once the transducer is mounted to one side, I'll clean the other side and underside of the seat with denatured alcohol.
Hopefully the 5 x 1"x12" pieces of Industrial Velcro will hold well.

The underside of the seat is very flat so there should be a good surface to bond with. I did need to remove the plastic ring protecting the hole in the bottom for a 5 or 6 point seat belt.
UnderseatTransducerMount_4434.jpg
 
Yo, I'm planning to purchase the Hotas Warthog soon and will try to do something similar to my alu rig. I've found some aluminium brackets for the stick and throttle online but for a fairly ridiculous price. So I'll have something made myself instead. However, I can't seem to find the dimensions for the mounting holes anywhere. Do you have these for me?

The stick and throttle are very different. The Stick is almost all very solid metal. The Throttle is all plastic except the ballast plate under it. BTW the CrossWind pedals are fantastic and very adjustable. The Stick is heavy with very strong springs. The extension pipes available for it at the link below make the motion more realistic.

Your fingers will get a work out! For realism it's great, but for gaming you will have sore fingers. I do like the stick. I'm less impressed with the throttle. It's not nearly as solid.

The Stick was pretty straight forward. 4 holes in a 60mm OC square pattern. I think they were 4mm machine bolts.
stickholepattern_4440.jpg


The Throttle was a bit of a pain. I removed the bottom plate of the throttle ( heavily weighted) and used it as a template. It uses wood/plastic screws with sharp threads that I didn't recognize so I reused the original screws. I think you would probably be better off taking measurements off the throttle when you get them. The outer holes are not evenly spaced. 120mm on the wide side bottom and something around 110mm on the top side. Also there are a lot of wires hanging around inside including at least one ground wire that used the original steel plate. So you will need to find a way to maintain that ground.
ThrottleMount_4441.jpg
 
The stick and throttle are very different. The Stick is almost all very solid metal. The Throttle is all plastic except the ballast plate under it. BTW the CrossWind pedals are fantastic and very adjustable. The Stick is heavy with very strong springs. The extension pipes available for it at the link below make the motion more realistic.

Your fingers will get a work out! For realism it's great, but for gaming you will have sore fingers. I do like the stick. I'm less impressed with the throttle. It's not nearly as solid.

The Stick was pretty straight forward. 4 holes in a 60mm OC square pattern. I think they were 4mm machine bolts.
View attachment 333629

The Throttle was a bit of a pain. I removed the bottom plate of the throttle ( heavily weighted) and used it as a template. It uses wood/plastic screws with sharp threads that I didn't recognize so I reused the original screws. I think you would probably be better off taking measurements off the throttle when you get them. The outer holes are not evenly spaced. 120mm on the wide side bottom and something around 110mm on the top side. Also there are a lot of wires hanging around inside including at least one ground wire that used the original steel plate. So you will need to find a way to maintain that ground.
View attachment 333630
Cheers!
 
These seat mounts may be on the pricey side, but they have plenty of 8mm bolt holes which meant I didn't need a piece of angle aluminum running across the back to get my seat belt mounted. So that saved me time and weight.

The gelcoat on the seat shell is a bit scratched up from from the brackets. I'll buff that at some point, but not now.
seatbeltmount_4439.jpg


Once I get the seat transducer mounted, I'm going to call it good for a while and just use it. I'll worry about the flight mode conversion later. Other than when I have guests over, I think I've only had my rig setup for flight once or twice this year, so I can probably think about how best to do that over the next month or so.
 

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