Have the prices of some simulator component manufacturers gone crazy?

[RayS]

I'm in the market for a wet compass for my B1900 and, looking at some of the players like FlightIllusion and Simkits, one cannot be had for less than $600

$600....... let that sink in for a minute....

You can buy a real wet compass for less than half that cost (Granted, it doesn't have any of the internal electronics but...)

So, the plan right now is to buy a real compass similar to one of these:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/vertcard_compass3.php

...gut it, install a stepper motor and use my Arduino to drive it.

[jackpilot]

Even Better:

[ebay]331480857667[/ebay]
[ebay]141564932376[/ebay]

[tennyson]

I totally agree with you Ray.

I, too, wanted that authenticity for my 738, but it's slim pickings for wet compasses.
I thought about all kinds of conversion on existing gauges and such, but in the end, I don't have the time to waste on such a minor detail in the cockpit.

I opted to buy the Flight Illusion wet compass. It works beautifully and looks like a million dollars.

I'm in Oz, so that baby cost me a fortune, with taxes and freight.

Is it worth it? When I look at it, all lit up in the cockpit and working.....Yes.

Seeing how much it adds to my pit, I'd do it again. But I'm a bit of a stickler for detail, I'm making windscreen wipers from real 737 parts.........



Frank Cooper

[jackpilot]

Wet compass:
Avail on EBay at some $30
Making the 737  casing is just a matter of bending some alu sheet.
IMHO If you are not too fussy about the fact that it does not move, the eyecandy factor is very high, and the budget super low.
Besides, apart from the hard core maniacs we all are, who looks at a wet compass in an airliner? 

[RayS]

That's the route I'm taking, Jack. I bought a vertical card compass off eBay yesterday and plan to gut it and retro-fit a stepper motor to my Arduino.

The Arduino is currently running 2 fuel gauges and a flaps gauge. I've had very good luck with the gauges and programming,so a stepper motor shouldn't be much more complex. (That's my hope anyway...)

You're right... even static eye candy can lend a lot to the immersion factor.

[Sam Llorca]

You guys should check with Craig, he made one last month and it looked awesome.

[Caflyt]

 Thank you Sam for your acknowledgement. What I did was like Jack said, bent some aluminum into shape and made a front piece out of MDF. Next I disassembled one of my old Saitek FIP gauges and used the guts to make the inside of the compass using the LCD screen and controller. If you are familiar with the FIP from Saitek you know you can manipulate the XML file to read many FSX outputs and then create a layered bitmap for the gauge appearance. Tom Tsui at FSX Times: https://fsxtimes.wordpress.com/hardware-index/gauge-collection-2/   Created a wet compass gauge and I slightly modified it to work with mine. It's not perfect but will look great in the dark!
I plan on remaking it with more patience later on (like I do everything else) because the "fit and finish" is somewhat lacking.

[Sam Llorca]

Is all you, You deserve the credit!

[fsaviator]

Craig,
Looks good!

Any special drivers to run the FIP?  Does it need to interface through the Saitek yoke?

[Aerosim Solutions]

In my Prosim cockpit I have the Prosim wet compass displayed on a 3" reverse camera monitor, this is housed in my own "Boeing" box, it works great and cost about AUD$160 all up!
Cheers Gwyn

[Caflyt]

Warren,
The driver is freely available on the Saitek website. It uses simconnect and can be run on the main FSX machine or on a client computer. I bought 6 of these 4 years ago for my generic cockpit build and at that time I learned enough to sort of make my own gauges. There is information on the net about how to do it.
Here is the manual     http://www.saitek.com/manuals/Pro_Flight_instrument_panel.pdf
The only thing about using the guts of this for my compass was I had to make the housing slightly larger than the original 737 unit to accommodate the controller. It is about 80mm or so wide. Not a big deal.

This is how a poor man builds a sim 

Here is the latest picture of my project. Not much further along but getting there.
The Doctor I work with is selling the practice and there is a lot of things the new owners-to-be need from me lately. Not as much time for sim building and very stressful time. Can't wait until all the details are worked out and I can re-focus on my project.

[Jan737]

Hi Gwyn,

Do you have a picture of your wet compass?

Regards

Jan

[tennyson]

I know you asked Gwyn for pics of his wet compass, so I'll throw up a few of the Flight Illusions one, just so you can compare.










Frank Cooper

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi Gwyn,

Do you have a picture of your wet compass?

Regards

Jan

My Prosim compass! It has a VGA to Composite converter and I run it from an old W7 PC which is on the Prosim network. I'll take some close up pics of it tonight and post them tomorrow!

[smg id=1107]

Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

Here are some close up pics of my Prosim wet compass in operation. The 3" reverse camera monitor came from China and I made the enclosure to suit it. The six Allen head "bolts" on the front are just engraved into the plastic! The total cost of this was about AUD$180.00 and it works well.

[smg id=1139]
[smg id=1140]
[smg id=1141]

Cheers Gwyn