Last time, we figured out that the phidgets controlled everything and that there were all of these phidget files… sigh… (If you haven’t been reading this series on the CRJ, please read 1 thru 3 please.) Return of the Phidgets Rick (my lovely programming engineer) wrote a small but significant program that allowed us to…
In my travels on the internet, I have witnessed DIY’er attempting to make motion base platforms from various items. From drill motors to wood, these systems are ingenious, but in my opinion, seem unsafe and will not last over the long term. Let’s explore why… What does it take to build a motion base? At…
Motion Base Platforms have been apart of the flight simulation industry for a very long time. Longer than one might think… The simulation industry is relatively old (almost 100 years!), but not quite as old as planes have been in the sky. The follow article is an except from wikipedia in regards to the history of…
What are some of the reasons that people in the simulation industry hate motion platforms? Let’s explore… 1. Cost! Why are they so expensive? 2. Installation… what is required to install a system and what support does it require? 3. Maintenance… Why does it cost so much to operate one? 4. Properly follow motion cues……
Once again in our ongoing segment on how to bring a trainer back to life… we begin where we left off… with nothing in the simulator (buttons, switches and the like) except the glass working….Step 7 – Phidget and Project Magenta LandSo here we were and not a switch or button to be working… I…
So getting back to the CRJ refurb…The buyer decided to get it working again…Step 3 – Reverse engineering the whole system (hindsight being 20/20, the overhead panel was the best place to start)Starting with the overhead panel, I wanted to see what parts were used to make it work. It was the easiest piece to…
So a few months ago, we took on a project to rehab a CRJ-700 simulator that was dead… like dead dead. None of the computers worked…but… So a business associate contacted me about this CRJ system and that he had a buyer for it. Sight unseen, I said sure, it should be fixable. So said business…
Virtual Reality (VR) has been around for a relatively long time. The first one that I can remember working on was back in 1993 or so. We built a gimbal that a person sat in and put a very large and clunky helmet on their head with a pair of screens inside to see the…
How are feedback control loaders used in simulation? Why are they used in full-flight simulators? How did they come into use? Let’s explore…Let’s start with the basics… what is a feedback control loader? or more simply, a control loader? Well, it isn’t a large piece of machinery for farming…A control loader is used to provide pilots…
When should a simulator require refurbishment and when should it need to be replaced? That is a problem that every training company has to think about when it comes to aging simulators. With more and more pilots needing training and proper training at that, our aging simulators need some help. If the systems were upgraded…
