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

[RCHeliguy]

Here is what I did for my USB din connector. It's nothing spectacular, but it works.

It's at a height where the cable doesn't rub on the metal opening. I used to just have it velcro'd in place, but this is quicker. It's not that I switch out between my two wheels that often, but this better than having a dangling connector.

This is trickledown. Once I had the front plate on finishing the look a bit more the dangling DIN connector just looked wrong. I may come up with something better, but this is solid and I will never futz with aligning the keyed connector.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I finally installed the Noctua cooling fans in my NX4-6000.
It used to be a bit loud. Now I can't hear it unless I have my ear within a foot or so of the amp. I definitely can't hear it in my rig. So currently the cooling fan on the rig or my computer fans are the loudest fan noises.

Hopefully they will cool the amp well enough. I've been told they do. Based on the very quiet fan noise, I could have used something with even more airflow if I could have found it and I did look.

I clipped the wires on a couple 3 pin to 2 pin adapters and soldered the original plugs to the two wires as shown below.

The fans have the rubber mounts on the side towards the bolts on the back.

Quick function test before closing it up.

View from the back.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Not sure if I could even get away with this ironically

But I'm printing it anyway. Maybe I'll give it to someone deserving of the title.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Subtle enough ?

In case you want this:

Cup Holder ( Sim Racing God ) by RCHeliGuy

This has a bit of attitude. I'm not sure I could even using this ironically for myself, but for the serious sim racers among you this may be more appropriate. This has the same dimensions as my other 32 oz Camelbak cup holder. It has 8mm bolt holes 40mm apart for a profile sim rig. Print...

www.thingiverse.com

This was an experiment with the Fusion 360 emboss feature that will wrap around surfaces and also to see if the letters would print with an overhang.

I could see using the smaller 0.25mm print head to make clean raised letter label blocks. These blocks could snap into place on a button box above each control. Since I'm in VR, I would just use them as a reference to look at until I had the controls memorized.

For that matter I could even use something like braille to differentiate controls, but that seems like a lot of effort and I will likely use position and boundaries to easily find the location of a control.

Also if I'm printing a horizontal surface such that the letters are all printed at the same time, I could print a bunch of these at once and switch filament color when the letters are being printed.

How about having letters recessed all the way through the material so they could be back lit. I could print a single layer or two of a translucent material so the centers of letters have a base to be printed on and then use LED lighting behind the panels. Hmmmm.... I keep making more work for myself, but this is interesting.

OK, had to try it out for size Deserved or not... Definitely not.

 

[RCHeliguy]

This has been a change I planned to make a month ago, but I haven't had the time or inclination.

So I finally replaced my old hand brake mount which had gotten just a tiny bit complicated.
It consisted of:
1 x 6 hole joining plate.
1 x 40x40 piece of profile and end cap
4 x corner brackets and caps
2 x 40 series pivots
1 x HE mounting plate.

Besides being busy looking, I couldn't tighten the inner pivot bolts, I had to tear it all apart to get to anything and it wasn't completely stable.

I replaced that with:
1 x piece of aluminum angle cut down to 6.5" tall by 3" x 3.75".
1 x new mounting plate that allows easy access to all bolts.
2 x 40 series pivots.
This is much more solid and cleaner looking.

I haven't finished the aluminum past a light sanding.
I'll get it polished up another day. For now I just wanted to make sure it fit well and I liked how it worked.
I'm also not happy with how the bolts look, so when the new bolts and covers come in, I'll take it apart and polish it up.

 

[RCHeliguy]

My Sequential shifter is just BEGGING for a mount made out of angle aluminum where I can replace the original steel mount and have a smooth looking upright.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Got up early this morning and was actually in a waiting pattern for work after being up past 10PM last night in an 8 hour 34 minute Conference call. Phew! Big Go Live event tomorrow. My rig is still collecting dust, but I can design cool things for it while I am chained to my desk.

So far I have a cleaner more elegant 3D printed version of my fan supports. I'm being conservative about this and only printing the left support right now. If it fits I'll print the right support and then take final measurements for the piece between them. I may also make some snap on corner covers to clean up the look of the fan a bit more.

LOVING Fusion 360! What a great piece of software!

Not bad looking, but I think I need to lower the hinge at the bottom a bit for clearance with the bottom of the fan and especially the wiring connector.

I've also designed a custom cleaner looking sequential shifter support out of aluminum angle and a nicer USB Din connector plate. I'm just not sure when I'll have any shop time to build them.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Next iteration. This time I'm printing the right support, but with 12mm more clearance at the bottom and a bit of support off the bed for the circular part at the bottom that required sanding inside the hole the knob fits in because it was slightly out of round.

I'm now leaning towards something like a half fan shroud on the left and right side to both cover the fan corners and dress it up a bit more.

The longer support is on the right side and that fits perfectly and should work well,

However I decided to print a fan shroud before printing the other support, to see what I thought of it and I may change the supports a bit to reach up to the shroud.
If I don't like how it looks, I'll just print the the mirror of the support, finish the center mount and call it done. (for a while)

 

[RCHeliguy]

I flipped it over and realized this looks like something out of TRON

I do like the idea of a shroud, but I think I need to modify the side supports to be a bit wider and then have an edge that reaches up to meat the shroud so there is a clean edge on the sides. I'm going to mull this over for a bit, but went ahead and printed out the left leg and will print out the center mount next to make sure that it all fits together, mounts to the SC2 cleanly and I'm happy with the position, height etc. before getting to that point. I'll also decide if I want the shroud to extend further.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Finally got everything printed!

I like it and I'm going to leave it like this for a while before I create something with an integrated shroud. My most complex 3D printed project so far and I'm just scratching the surface of what I can do in Fusion 360.

Here it is if any of you are interested.

SC2 and 200mm Noctua VR Fan Mount by RCHeliGuy

3/12/2021 - Added a mount that builds on this and covers the fan enclosure as well as adding a shallow fan shroud. Fan mount for SC2 Sport or Pro bolt pattern and SimLab vertical Mount. This is for VR use only as it would certainly be in the way of screens. This mount uses the long 8mm bolts...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[RCHeliguy]

Thought I would try sculpting a piece to scale and try out some of these tools and figure out how they work. Under that ugly blob is a beautiful round DIN USB wheel connector just waiting to emerge When I think I have a good idea of the aesthetic I'm going for I'll transition to Fusion 360.

Just trying to think differently using a new medium that I'm unfamiliar with.

I'm thinking that when I get to designing my button box that I'll buy all new controls so I can mount them to cardboard covered with saran wrap and then try to figure out how I want the 3D contours of my button box to feel and layer the plasticine over it. It should be an interesting process.

Edit: After all that, I'm not sure how helpful it was on this project.

I ended up with this.
It will be interesting to see how it works.

I did test fit the small USB mount section before starting the print. It fit, but I wanted to make sure since this is a 12 hour print. I decided to print this in silver. Fingers crossed.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The 4x M3 holes with 20mm offsets aligned perfectly.
The print accuracy is good enough. This is supposed to be 30mm. The overall dimension of the 80mm wide base was 79.89mm.

The 5mm side slot allowed putting the USB connector in place without rewiring my rig. Overall I like the idea.

This is the print that was waiting for me in the morning. I'll have another one waiting for me this evening. The USB connection position was a bit off from where I wanted it. While I was at it, I redesigned it a bit further. I think the next design is a bit cleaner. It's obvious that this is overkill in terms of strength for this application so I thinned it down a bit.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I'm pretty happy with this 2nd iteration, so I decided to share it on Thingaverse.

SimLab PSE USB DIN mount by RCHeliGuy

This is a round DIN USB mount for a Precision Sim Engineering Wheel through a SimLab Vertical mount without the cable touching the opening. It may be compatible with other round DIN designs. The M3 bolt holes are on a 20mm OC square pattern. and the center clearance is about 21mm. This design...

www.thingiverse.com

It should work for any USB DIN connector with 4 x M3 mount holes in a 20mm square pattern and a SimLab vertical mount. What I don't know is how common that connector is.

I have this mounted on the back two slots of the vertical uprights and simply pressed up against the mount. A person using the SimLab vertical mount with the mount further forward could use the front two slots to move the mount 40mm forward.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I'm just having too much fun playing with Fusion 360 and my 3D printer.
I finally decided to see if I could make that trackball mouse mount as a 3D print.

Tomorrow morning when I get up, I'll have to check it out

 

[Atak_Kat]

I also went with the trackball after I saw your posts. Best thing I ever did. So much better for sim racing.
For mine, I mounted it directly to the right side of my seat. Just used some strong sticky pads. Essentially on its side, directly to the seat brackets. Move my hand down and it's in perfect position. Works great for me.

Looking forward to your updates.

What I'm struggling with is a nice way to hold my phone. Not for any connection to sim racing, just so I can see it and not miss important calls or messages while I have the headphones on. The slots in 80/20 profiles are perfect to just set the phone into, but I need to find a way to do it without a massive piece of profile and so it's on an angle. Also don't want it too clunky looking.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I also went with the trackball after I saw your posts. Best thing I ever did. So much better for sim racing.
For mine, I mounted it directly to the right side of my seat. Just used some strong sticky pads. Essentially on its side, directly to the seat brackets. Move my hand down and it's in perfect position. Works great for me.

Looking forward to your updates.

What I'm struggling with is a nice way to hold my phone. Not for any connection to sim racing, just so I can see it and not miss important calls or messages while I have the headphones on. The slots in 80/20 profiles are perfect to just set the phone into, but I need to find a way to do it without a massive piece of profile and so it's on an angle. Also don't want it too clunky looking.

FYI I'm actually planning to have my next button box iteration feature a forward facing phone mount

I've got that plain Jane looking trackball mouse design printing now to verify dimensions etc. BUT.... I have some ideas to make it very cool looking I'm feel like I'm still learning my way through Fusion 360, but it's coming and as it comes it opens up all kinds of possibilities. If you are going to print a bunch of filament, why not have it look as cool as possible!

 

[LeeHetherington]

You’ll do anything not to drive

 

[RCHeliguy]

You’ll do anything not to drive

I actually got some rig time for the first time in a while yesterday morning.

But I do get more excited about designing things. Recently I've started to think about the things that I can 3D print that would be impossible to fabricate.

I'm also loving the idea that I can design something, spend a couple bucks on a print, test things out, then make small changes and let the printer rip with a new version.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I played with the trackball support a bit and I may tinker with it some more, but for now I like may aluminum solution.

I also think PLA is a great material for a cover, cup holder and even a fan holder, and I think it will be perfectly fine for a button box, but for supporting any control that you interact with that is under stress, I'm not sure It's a great idea.

 

[RCHeliguy]

This is a tactile enhancement.

These mounts do a good job of allowing my foot plate to vibrate.

I added some surgical tubing around the M8 bolts where it goes through the plate so I wouldn't hear the threads vibrating against the aluminum plate, however the tubing didn't fit through the supporting corner brace and as you can see below the threads of the bolt were catching which created some noise.

Also if I tightened the bolts they would dig into the Sorbothane and the nut on the underside could slap against the bottom of the corner brace.

What I've decided to do is capture and support the Sorbothane. It is about 11 mm thick and I have supporting walls that extend 5mm around it. I'm also fitting the hole more snuggly.

In addition, I'm capturing the nut in the body of the support so it is unable to move. Metal against plastic should also be quieter. I'm still going to use the surgical tubing between the bolts an the aluminum plate.

I'm hoping that this will both work better and look better. Time will tell if this is strong enough.

The PLA for each corner is about $1.10 in cost so this is much less expensive than the hardware I'm replacing.

I decided to order some PETG since it is supposed to be stronger than PLA and more heat resistant. Something new to play with.