Nick1150 Home Cockpit 737NG project in Athens

[Nick1150]

Hi there,

My name is Nick and I live in Athens, Greece. I am 35 y.o. and I am simming almost a decade.

3 years ago I went further and realised that FS has changed over the years, so one more screen was added, and then one more, and then one more, and then a yoke, and then a MCP, and then, then, then..... you know how it goes right ? 

In here I will try to post the history of my setup in the past but also in the future...

So here it goes...

Hope you like it 

[Nick1150]

This is back in 2008, when I added a second screen... This the top floor of my home in Athens, where my home office is located

[Nick1150]

The idea of an overhead, even on a screen, and a yoke instead of a joystick was in my mind then, so a TH2GO a CH eclipse yoke and few materials from my local store was what I needed...

[Nick1150]

You know of course that enough is never enough...

So a second TH2GO was bought and 6 screens were the reality then... Woooow what a difference !!!









I couldn't imagine of course the future back then...

So, this was the time I must have been playing in my mind about something more, not too much, but more than what I have. The idea was simple... I have one PC and 6 screens... why not hiding those screens behind a panel and look like a cockpit ?

More to follow in a while 

[Nick1150]

So the one thing brought the other, and after more or less one year I officially began the serious stuff...

The order was made from 15 of April 2010 to CockpitSonic GMBH, and the discussions before that took almost one month. Given this long time of waiting, you can understand that I was a pretty happy guy !!!

The Dual Seat Trainer arrived to my place noon time, but I had meetings in my office till late last night, so my wife accepted the package from Germany for me. I wanted to take few pictures before disassembly of the packaging, but I could not make it.

The DST came in 5 pieces. The trainer with the CP Flight MCP EL and dual EFIS EL already installed, the CDU bay, one box with two 19" screens, one box with 15" screen and one box with one 10" screen for the lower EICAS and few cables, A/C adaptor, etc...







The packaging was good, not perfect, but fair. Few hits on the back most probably from the transport were noticed


The disassembly was easy, and quick, and took me almost 30 minutes to arrange without any help. After taking away all the nylon packaging, I could see the trainer. It weights almost 30 kgs without the screens, and therefore it is easy to move it inside the room.





The details of the MIP as far as the first impression after unpackaging were  fair and accepted quality wise, eventhough I do not have any previous experience in home cockpit building and of course I haven't tested anything yet.












On the background...










Monitors, monitor cables, AC adaptor, etc...















As with all constructions... the same exists here, few parts were found inside the packaging. I haven't yet found where are they coming from...



So now here comes cleaning of the screens, and the bezel windows



After that I made a coffee. This is a Greek coffee called "Frape". I avoid drinking this kind of coffee because it is too strong (I prefer espresso), but given the circumstances I wanted to celebrate the beginning of my project. Champagne will be served after the first online landing in LGAV !!! 



The screens were installed in no time !!!







For all above I needed two hours... It's almost midnight now I had to go to sleep.

Coming back with more pictures asap...

[Nick1150]

Next day I had the pleasure to make my first test flight with a very good friend who was in Athens those days.

A lot of things to take care and i needed alot of time to feel that my sim was ready, but as long as IT FLIES everything is easier !!!

A few pics and a video from the test flight. ILS landing at RW 03L, LGAV





Cockpitsonic Dual Seat Trainer 737 first impressions

[Nick1150]

This, I remember was a difficult day. I started assembling at 17:00 and finished 02:00 in the night without stopping... It was worth it, but, as always, it was not finished... I had few things left. Carpet was also to be added in the next days... The base is made 40cms tall, with rubber wheels 15cms in height, and the sim can be moved easily by one person inside the room. This was made for cleaning purposes, and also this way I can install everything easily without struggling in between cms in the future.




I also added a small step, so everyone can easily enter the cockpit.




Two columns (ordinary table columns) where transformed into yoke bases, till I invest to real 737 yokes.




Finally I did a quick construction in ? shape which can accommodate the 3 x 20" TFT LG screens, which can be easily go away in minutes when I decide about my external visuals.






To be continued...

[Nick1150]

In the next following days the carpet was installed and after a few around LGAV flights, I decided that the 10" screen for the lower EICAS area is good but I cannot rotate it whithout having one extra vga port free. That would mean a second PC only for that screen. I have spare PCs in my place but at the time being (waiting for PMDG 737 NGX) a second PC is not in my plans. So I abandoned the 10" screen, and I put in that place a 14" old flat TFT I had in my warehouse. This screen has taken the place of the lower EICAS and the right CDU in the CDU bay. The plan is to create a bezel for the lower EICAS screen and buy a dummy CDU and put it right from the bezel together with the left CDU which I haven't decided yet from where to buy. This is the only way I can keep up with one PC and I want to keep up with one PC untill 737NGX comes. Maybe I will invest in a better PC configuration for FSX.

The problem of course was that the 14" screen is deeper than a normal CDU which means that the screen has 2 cms difference in depth in the CDU bay. So I constructed a new CDU shelf for the CDU bay where now the screen seats nicely and in the same level with a CDU...

Here is the old and the new CDU shelf







and 2 more...

[Nick1150]

And the result...

[Nick1150]

And after all, the first online flight of my DST 

It took some time to get use to it... new places for the radios for the time being, CDU, FSnav, (lower eicas screen).

Flight plan LGAV to LTBA and back to LGAV.

Photos and two videos in action ...














LTBA approach: Cockpitsonic Dual Seat Trainer 737, TEST FLIGHT 2

LTBA RW36R landing: Cockpitsonic Dual Seat Trainer 737, TEST FLIGHT 1

[Nick1150]

Few weeks after.....

Updated pictures:

One of the most important things I have done, and I didn't know before I constructed it, is the cockpit base with heavy duty wheels. I can easily pull the project, to wire, solder, or even clean at no time. It's is worth the money, and comparing with the cost of the sim it is nothing.







With the carpet it feels better, warmer and cleaning is easier to do. You can see the IKEA PEDESTAL (LOL). Soon it will be removed for a full 737NG pedestal.





I have constructed an MDF cover for the CDU bay, painted in the Boeing colors, just till I order my CDU and one dummy one. I didn't like to see the monitor till I decide. My aim is to have the left CDU and a dummy for the right. Since there is a 15" monitor installed, I will try to drag the CDU from FS on the right and the dummy hopefully can be backlighted and also with an operative screen from the monitor below. That's for the future of course



The biggest advantage of the CH Eclipse yoke is that rudders are on the yoke and it is really very easy and economical. I am really not sure if I ever invest to a real yoke, like lets say ACE yoke or something similar, because of this.



...

[Nick1150]

Visuals are not permanent installed, and I will have more news soon. I do have enough space, for the projectors, BUT my roof is sloped, so this makes things difficult to install 3 projectors from different roof height. So I am searching for possibilities. More to come in this aspect.



Only one PC and a UPS... the rest are installed with velcro behind the MIP base... too easy... My aim is to keep ONLY ONE PC. Most say it's difficult, but I will try.





All is PMDG 737-800 oriented, MCP737EL + dual EFIS737EL and 2  x  TH2GO with 6 screens. Easy setup.



Behind my project I have a seating space, where friends come. We fly and have fun behind the cockpit. Sometimes I fly with my wife too, she brings food from the kitchen and I do both... husband and pilot too at the same time :p Behind this a home-office is situated where I work when I am getting back from my office. Below you will see my FO, my dog, Ermis, a Rodhesian Rigdeback. Here he is just wondering why I am taking pictures.



And few pictures with the MIP backlighted.

[Nick1150]

Keyboard and mouse...

I purchased this for a keyboard Speedlink SL-4439 for 25 euro. It is wireless and I am happy with it, given the cost and it does match with my CH yoke, at least until I decide what to do with 737 yokes. It switches off after few minutes of not usage to save battery life. By pressing any button it gets activated again. No drivers needed for windows, just PnP.








I also purchased the XL Ergonomic Touchpad from UK. Costed around 50 euro. It's expensive, but it's worth the money in my opinion. True PnP, and because of its style you have to watch very close to understand that this is a pad instead of a Boeing pedestal accessory !!!

[Nick1150]

Dual Headset installation...

I already had a Saitek Pro flight headset, so I purchased another one for the F/O... Also purchased a Creative Soundblaster X-FI GO, together with two 3.5mm audio adapters and cables from my local shop. All true PnP, no drivers needed. After installation I changed the input and output from the drop down menus of the voice tabs of squackbox and the result was for the C/O and the F/O to both hear and speak from both headsets. I have to say that the Saitek Pro Flight are very very very beatiful and have excelent audio quality.... Too expensive though...

[Nick1150]

Revolution Sim Products Pro version motorised TQ was just ordered during FSweekend 2010....

ETA around the end of January 2011... That is going to be a long time waiting.

[Nick1150]

My SINGLE PC dual seat trainer is now running Windows 7.... much much more smoother than expected, all programs were installed from the beggining, and everything is operating as it should, except one minor detail with one driver, but I am certain in the next following days that this will be settled

I am posting pics of the new CP_flight radio modules. If you scroll several posts above you will notice that there is almost no difference on the outside, but beleive me there is a great difference in the inside !!! All CP_flight modules run better and quicker than the Opencockpits ones, and also my SINGLE PC setup (and I) feel less worried with one USB, instead of 7 USBs with the Opencockpits solution. Not to mention that the TA/RA switch is working as the real thing... just PnP.



I am looking for a fire handles solution just to finish the pedestal project


This is the panel that a very good friend made for me... A LeoBodnard card is below this panel giving the inputs. The switches in a way that when a switch is on the led lights up... It works great. In the middle you can see the Engine Start switches, to which I have assigned the autostart Engine1 & autostart Engine2 offset from FSUIPC, works great !!!


Just switched on the Landing Lights...


And now the Wing Lights are switched on too...


Next to follow is one Hitachi Ultimate Short Throw Projector, one Engravity CDU, the TQ and of course 2 737 seats...

Hope you liked this minor but VERY important to me upgrade
I am a happy man

[Nick1150]

This is the end of my update...

In fact this is the way I fly now.

More to follow soon,

Thanks

Nick

[Trevor Hale]

do you see this now?

[Nick1150]

Hi Trevor, Yes thank you I can see the thread now 

[Nick1150]

Just an update...

I haven't posted for a while....

The reason is that I realised that my cockpit has come to a dead-end situation... meaning that a Single PC configuration + FS9 together with PMDG can go up to a point. I was in that point for a while now.... BUT If that makes you happy, you are a happy simmer. If you want more, you start to realise that the setup needs be upgraded to be able to follow the dream...

Unfortunately, in a personal discussion I had with my self ( :mrgreen: ), we concluded that WE belong to the second category

So I spent a lot of time researching, and came to the point that it is a waste of time trying to do everything with one PC... a network setup is a MUST if you want to get to the next level. Concequently, with a 4 PCs network as given, I wanted to spend as little as possible my time in programming (which is not my strong point after all) and spend more in flying instead. I needed a worry free solution... ehhhh as worry free as possible I mean. In order to achieve that I also realised that a 737 cockpit software suite is needed....

So to make the long story short, My setup few days now is a 1 server + 3 clients setup (3 x Old Sony Vaios laptops) + a full Glass cockpit + MCP + CDU, Project Magenta software for CPT and FO and as a bonus a used Engravity CDU was purchased and is expected to arrive today in my place !!!!!

The reason I choosed laptops instead of desktops, is that on the one hand I had already two of them in my drawer for 3-4 years now, and on the other hand, the small size of them, together with the fact that the screen, the keyboard and the mouse makes changes a snap, compairing with a desktop solution with which 3 mouses and 3 keyboards are too much in my mind, and also seting up windows and stuff is difficult with the screens behind the MIP. Finally eventhough my setup has 2 x 1500 UPS for safety, laptops do not lag my power setup, because of their batteries.

As you can understand it was a busy week for me, but hopefully this weekend it will be flyable and post few pics with my new setup,

So stay tuned :wink:

[Nick1150]

Photos?

So here it goes...







The right CDU is opencockpits dummy, and the left Fly Engravity










More to come with the projector instead of 3 sceens... next week

[XOrionFE]

None of your pictures are showing for me.

Scott

[Nick1150]

None of your pictures are showing for me.

Scott

Sorry for that Scott   

To be honest I can see the pics right now. Those are photos saved on my photobucket account 

[Nick1150]

Hey guys can you see the pics now ?

[NeoMorph]

I can see the pics fine...