This Website is about Virtual Reality Flight Simulation along with references to other interests. The main driver has been the g-Seat project which is described below. As projects develop they will be updated when possible. Indexed links are on the left.
IL-2 GREAT BATTLES UPDATE - Tuesday, 26th March 2024 Update list.
DCS WORLD UPDATE - Tuesday, 26th March 2024 Add F-104.
g-Seat-III UPDATE - Wednesday, 27th December 2023 No News Update
SIMTOOLS UPDATE - Sunday, 17th October 2020 Only updated Webpage layout link.
VR Controllers UPDATE - Wednesday, 27th December 2023 WinWing Controller Problem.
Due to agenda driven influence within video service providers, I will not be posting videos until a non-biased video service platform is made available. Sorry, no videos for now.
The g-Seat PROJECT
g-Seats have long been used by the military as a means of enhancing the flight experience in training for their pilots. By strategically exerting pressure on the pilots body through the seat, it tricks their mind into the sensation with some of the g forces experienced in true flight, which aids in "seat of the pants" flying. These seats were driven by pnuematics in cushions the pilot sat on and exerted the pressures on the pilots body to simulate the g force effect. However they cannot simulate the complete high "gLOC" g induced loss of concious. The opposite effect is blood pooling into the brain under high -g forces causing "Red-Out". The internet showed that, from the huge talents like Bergison, it was possible to make a "home user" version of the g-seat. And so the project was started.
Capabilities of the g-seat builds are;
g-Seat I - Retired.
- 4 x 12VDC 6W car wiper motors driving 4 seat flaps + Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
- 2 x 16MHz Arduino interface boards with SMC3 PID.
- 2 x Elechouse 50A motor controller boards .
Effects: g-Heave, g-Surge, g-Roll, g-True Sway, Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
g-seat II + SFX-100 - Disassembled and integrated into the next gen build.
- 5 x 24VDC 200W worm drive motors driving 4 seat flaps and 1 back scrub + Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
- 3 x 180MHz Arduino Teensy 3.6 custom interface boards.
- 3 x Roboclaw 15A motor controller boards with PID and ReGen.
Effects: g-Heave + g-Back-Scrub, g-Surge, g-Roll, g-True Sway, Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
- 5 x SFX-100 750W AC Servo motors with ball screws (Combined 1000Kg Lift) driving a motion platform with surge guide rail frame.
- 1 x AMC-AASD15A Servo Motor Controller.
Effects: True Heave, True Surge, True Pitch, True Roll.
Combined Total Effects:
- True Heave + g-Heave + g-Back-Scrub.
- True Surge + g-Surge.
- True Pitch.
- True Roll + g-Roll.
- Integrated Sway via seat flap motion.
- Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
g-seat III + SFX-100 - Built and operational (No 6th axis design yet)
- 5 x SFX-100 750W AC Servo motors with ball screws (Combined 1000Kg Lift) driving a motion platform with surge guide rail frame.
- 5 x 600W AC Servo Motors with rotary reduction gear boxes driving 4 seat flaps and 1 back scrub + Shoulder and Lap belt tension.
- Possible 6th AC Servo Motor for True DOF Sway to supplement the Integrated Sway from the g-Seat flaps.
- All off the shelf hardware components plus 3d printed parts, local CNC MDF cutting and Aluminium Extrusion.
- Module based as stand alone or drop and bolt onto any motion platform (SFX-100 in mind.)
- No motion power consumption at 140W and extreme event consumption peaking at 440W max.
Loving every second of this simulator. Biplanes, Warbirds and Tanks... I had a great experience with the Flying Tin Cans group flying in their Normany Campaign. An absolutely huge amount of work has gone in to making of the campaign and the results are truely amazing. Unfortunately my faulty WinWing joystick has made it impossible to have a flight longer than 30 minutes before it disconnects (I have posted a youtube on this). So no FTC or online missions until I can get a reliable replacement.
Some interesting aircraft from 1C in the works are;
Focke-Wulf Ta 152.
Expected collectibles to be released ;
Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter
Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter B
Sopwith Pup
Airco DH.2
Albatros D.III
Roland C.IIa
Fokker E.III
Links to my skins.
DCS WORLD UPDATE - Tuesday, 26th March 2024
SImulator Motion issues still not resolved;
- Excessive aircraft shake on the carrier due to unknown reasons during hookup
This was tested and found that the Motion Shudder on the aircraft carriers going back to June 2020 has still not been fixed. You don't even have to have a motion rig to see that the direct output values from the program is wrong when it occurs.
ED has confirmed that there will be an IRAQ map, as well as an Afghanistan map, to be released with what looks like associated assets. A full fidelity FULCRUM - A is confirmed. Of course the F-4 has been delayed - do not release it broken please! The Pacific should have assets that looks like the Mogami Class Heavy Cruisers, plus Chi Ha and Type 97 TK tanks. plus the Hellcat and Zero in the mix. The F-104 from Aerges was missed so it was added to the list. It is great to see the Century series being fleshed out.
I have just completed the BF 109 K-4 Jagdflieger and Fw 190 A-8 Horrido! campaigns from Reflected Simulations to fill a gap after leaving the Flying Tin Cans. It was fantastic and a great learning experience. I found that the 109/190 are totally different beasts to fly in DCS. I hope that Reflected Simulations are able to release more of these great campaigns.
Much anticipated modules in development are;
Lancaster (Community Mod)
FULCRUM-A (ED)
CH-47 Chinook (ED)
Hellcat (ED)
F4U Corsair (Magnitude 3 LLC)
F-104 Starfighter (Aerges)
F-4E Phantom II (HeatBlur)
A-6E Intruder (HeatBlur)
Eurofighter Typhoon (HeatBlur)
MiG-23MLA (Razbam)
A-7E Corsair II (FlyingIron Simulations)
MB-339 (IndiaFoxtrotEcho)
G.91R (IndiaFoxtrotEcho)
Su-17M4 (OctopusG)
F-100D Super Sabre (Grinelli Designs)
Kfir (Aviron)
BO-105 PAH1A1 (MilTech-5)
OH-58 Kiowa (Polychop-Simulations)
C-130J (Airplane Simulation Company)
A-1H Skyraider (Crosstail Studios)
MRCA PA-200 Tornado IDS (Aviastorm)
PC-9/A (Check Six Simulations)
J-8II (Deka Ironwork Simulations)
Sinai Map (OnReTech)
Kola Map (Orbx Simulation Systems)
Australia's Top End Map (Check Six Simulations)
IRAQ Map (ED)
Afghanistan Map (ED)
g-Seat-III UPDATE - Saturday, 19th March 2022
The g-Seat-III has been built with the new AAD15 servo motors and reduction gear boxes. These have worked out exceptionally well, so much better than the DC servos. Getting a full build log will take some time so please bear with me. I expect to break the build up into sections, links should go to their own page. Understand that there are some issues with the motion rig that I need to resolve which I will note at the end. The software has been updated to the latest Thanos motion controller, as well the FlyPT Mover software has just been started to be explored. How this affects the issues I have noted has yet to be updated. Stand by.
Servo Controller Box
SFX-100 Motion Rig
SFX-100 Surge Slide
g-Seat-III Motors, Gearboxes and Hardware
VR Peripherals
Now for the the issues that must be corrected;
The guide rail blocks for the surge slide do have bearing "noise". (Subtle vibrations as the bearing balls run through their channels and can be felt. Not totally smooth. Once you tune in, you know it is there.) Could be rail alignment but the slide does runs freely (but not freely enough)? Plus it is audibly noisy on big changes.
Shudder when lowering the rig. The rig is silky smooth lifting weight, but there is uneven shudder when lowering the rig. The rear right SFX-100 motor fell and broke when attaching it to the rig frame for the first time. I now have some doubts that I have perfectly aligned the ball screw ends after replacing the broken 3D prints. g-Seat-III is Kilo's heavier than g-Seat-II but they both had the shudder. Is the balancing of the SFX-100 not centered? with the load mainly on the rear two motors? Should the motors be rated higher? The effect of the software update is being tested.
This is a definite must! Stall vibrations in DCS. I have seen a commercial motion rig replicate this well. On mine you see the stall but don't feel it. I have yet to track this down.
Other than that....
SIMTOOLS UPDATE - Saturday, 17th October 2020
Simtools settings for DCS is now being updated for the g-Seat-III settings. Details to be added.
g-seat-III testing. - VR SIMULATION ONLY!
DCS | Work In Progress |
IL-2 Sturmovik | Work In Progress |
XPLANE 11 | To Be Done |
MSFS 2020 |
To Be Done |
AeroFly 2 |
To Be Done |
War Thunder |
To Be Done |
Project Cars 2 |
To Be Done. |
No Limits 2 | To Be Done. |
Elite Dangerous |
To Be Done |
VR Controllers UPDATE - Wednesday, 27th December 2023
For quite a while now my WinWing F-16EX Joystick and SUPER LIBRA J1 JOYSTICK BASE has been stopping after about half an hour into any flying activity. Sometimes it will start working again and sometimes it won't. When it doesn't, my flying ends with an uncontrolled crash into terrain because of no joystick control. Not ideal for any ongoing pilot life career. After much fault finding I contacted Tech Support to be told that the J1 base is end of life and I cannot get a replacement PCB for it. This is a major hurdle to my flying as I can not fly for any longer than half an hour at this time. I will update how this problem gets resolved
Simshaker has been installed into the cushions of the g-Seat. This has proven invaluable to sense the onset of a stall and for any continuous vibration, saving on ballscrew wear.
Due to the bulky hand controllers on the HP Reverb G2 for flight simming, I am in the process of designing a VR cockpit interface to control the needed functions in physically controlling the simulator aircraft. Which really negates the benefits of VR, that I did have with the Oculus Rift CV1 controllers in the first place. (Functional and not too bulky to use in a flight sim application.) These are being added under the Flight Simulator Controllers section on the website (link left). I have been looking at the Leap Motion controller and the PointCtrl. The PointCtrl seems to have a substantial production delay, I have pulled the trigger on an UltraLeap Controller. It was delivered very quickly from mouser.com.
After installation of the Orion and Gemini drivers, it still was way too clunky to be functional in DCS. The hands would not show up in menu but the laser pointer was working. (Eventually fixed by finding out how to enable it properly thanks to forums.) The directional laser is very clunky and all but unusable on the side consoles in cockpit. My left hand "melded" onto the throttle and would not let go, forcing a full reboot. Getting onto a switch was hit and miss although mouse clicking while hovering on the switch worked extremely well. The method of mouse control is still the most viable option at this stage of development.
A Bluetooth Mouse Glove is now in development to assist the exisiting VR control. All parts required have been aquired. Assembly and programming is problematic. The glove must be LiPo powered with touch sensitive switching. There aren't too many boards that accommodate that. The Jaycar duinotech ESP32 dev board did not work as anticipated. (Not even as a drink coaster.) The Adafruit Huzzah32 ESP32 Feather Board did prove itself as a great board, although touch sensitivity switching was crippled by enabling Bluetooth (DAC2). The basic switching has been confirmed. This has to be transferred over to a Bluetooth HID mouse configuration. The mouse glove is now working well. With the left hand wearing the glove resting on the throttle, all cockpit controls can be switched by looking at it in game, and switched by touching finger combination on that hand. All without effort or even thinking about it. It gets the job done. Unfortunately there is an issue that after about 30 minutes of working in game, the bluetooth connection is dropped and a reset of the glove is needed to get it working in game again. Once I can get the drop out sorted then I should be uploading it to Instructables.
Cheers,
Brass.