Can you adopt me?

there was this guy, what was his name... "explore the inner space"?, that "tube" experience... hmm...

I can see this getting better and better until it's able to actually blast off irl!

One of the previous owners of this trailer put carpet in it. I have to take that out. My wife has asked me to make it look a little better so I am going to paint the outside. Once those things are finished I am going to start the transformation from enclosed trailer to spaceship. The idea is to leave the outside as plain looking as possible but the inside will look and feel like being inside a spaceship. I am also going to mount a window unit a/c because the summer gets pretty hot around here. I hope to post some youtube videos once construction begins. My vision is to make the inside look like a spaceship but make it look kind of old well worn, maybe like the interior of Serenity on Firefly.

Have you heard of this?

I'd imagine it could be really useful to you, check it out...

Ps, make sure he never tells people when he gets to high school! Unless he's already there, in which case I'd say keep schtum!

Nah, you're a legend!

Whoa! That's really cool!

I know you are all going to think I'm nuts if I tell you this, but... my son is only 6 months old.

Naw, we think you're nuts because you're on this forum with the rest of us nuts!

So, you're planning to finish it by the time he's ready to use it? 😆

I've also been meaning to mention that that's the first spacecraft simulator I've seen that's actually able to go anywhere. 😉

So here are some of the ways I have changed Pioneer to better fit within the context of my simulator...

So, in this screen shot, you can see how I modified the icon for making jumps. This icon only shows up when a jump destination is set in the computer. You can also see the "auto pilot" and the "gear up" icons I made. Notice in the bottom left corner that I have removed all icons except for camera views. I really wanted camera views to be immediately noticeable. You may have also noticed that there is no "cockpit". An on-screen cockpit makes little sense when you are sitting in a cockpit. I also wanted to make sure that none of the icons referenced the keyboard, such as "F8". There won't be a standard keyboard in the simulator so "F8" or any other reference to a function key would be meaningless.

Here, you can see the "rear camera" icon and the "gear down" icon.

External camera 1

External camera 2

Lastly, the icon for manual fight mode.

So, I really hate to post this video for a couple of reasons, the first of which, is the quality. I made this in flash. It uses a lot of lines and they just didn't get treated very well on youtube. It looks great in person. The second reason is that you might not understand where this idea is coming from. This video is for a second computer that will be in my son's spaceship simulator. This computer is an extremely old computer that is running an old version of Ubuntu. If I am honest, the main reason that I am even running the second computer is because I like the way the radar screen saver looks in a spaceship. What I am doing with the video is this; when my son enters the simulator, he will turn on the secondary computer first. This video will play automatically to simulate all of the ship systems starting up. Once this video is finished he can start the main computer and run Pioneer. The third reason I don't really want to show this video is because I have changed the hyperspace drive to a warp drive. I did this on purpose because it is what I prefer. I figured someone would probably point that out. Anyways, here is the video, sound effects will be added later.

I have to ask, has the idea crossed your mind to mount the whole thing on some hydraulic rams for some movement/vibration effects? Wouldn't need to be extreme but would greatly aid the sense of immersion, especially with the system startup thing.

Yes, it has. But I think that getting it all to work in unison with pioneer (or anything else for that matter) would be far above my skill level. I am also on a limited budget. It would be great though!

Check out this video I found on YouTube:

I guess there are people as crazy as myself! 😀

So we're not the only ones using water as a propellant! 😆 😎

Oh yeah! Stick a 360 degree wrap around moniter in there and its done!

Haha! Nope! 😆

here we have a lost spacesuit, it might be useful to have one

first "pig" (skin) in space

in case of accidence, max invented the EVA/FCP

a max in space

your son whisper979?

max grueter

very little know, the Palestinian Space Agency and secretly hidden, but revealed due to my investigations in space programs.

edit: argh, should use a dictionary sometimes, but google translate makes stupid, so i don't use it often.

this is their top secret capsule

america you lost they was first on mars.

WE ARE NOT ALONE! 😆

Here are some updates for my son's spaceship simulator. First, I bought this off of eBay:

I don't plan on getting this working. I am simply going to put it on the co-pilot side of the cockpit. This will give my son something to play with until he is old enough to learn how to pilot the ship from the captain's seat.

Also, here are some switches and knobs that I bought from allelectronics.com:

These are for various control systems in the cockpit. In addition to these I am waiting on toggle switches from China.

More to follow soon! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Holy s*#t, thats amazing <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Aww, it might be possible though depending on how the buttons work...? Although I suppose the flight yoke might not be suited to Pioneer.

The buttons work great s2odan. Unfortunately this isn't some kind of glorified USB joystick. It's an ancient flight yoke with a serial port interface. Also, it has a port that looks like an old game port. I'm sure someone out there could get it working but that someone is not me. I really don't want to take the time to get it working time anyways. I've got so many other things that I want to focus on. Still, it is pretty neat!

This is excellent news. Spend some time with it and an Ohmeter, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

When I saw the picture my thought was that it was taken straight out of an old aircraft <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Given that, just a quick fyi; You can get hold of generic USB devices which can convert analogue and digital signals into something a computer can recognise, literally any device can be connected this way. It's something I have looked into for monitoring things around the home, but never got anywhere with it.

But.. considering you already decided you won't spend the time getting it working I suppose it doesn't matter <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> I agree it would seem to take a lot more time than just constructing your own with modern equipment.

Ninja'd <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Well, I bought this thing for 20 US dollars. That's the same price that I paid for my USB joystick. The joystick simply works when I plug it in. It would be really fun to get this unit working but that just isn't a realistic goal since I work full-time, am married, go to school, and have a kid. Granted, building a spaceship simulator isn't a realistic goal either but I guess I've got to have at least one unrealistic goal at all times. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Here is the finished video for the spaceship start up. This video has sound.

That's absolutely awesome man! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_biggrin.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> Did you replace the 'simulating evolution of the universe' bit with that or is it a whole separate thing?

No. This is for a separate computer. The best way to think of it is this; I am calling the computer that runs pioneer the "camera system computer". It is there in the place of say a windshield would be in a plane or car. The second computer is the "ship" computer. It will play this video at start up. Then the camera system computer will be turned on afterwards and you will find yourself docked at a space port. The ship computer will have other videos that play as well. I am working on a video that cycles through all of the ships systems and shows their status. Of course, this isn't connected to pioneer in any way but it is just there for the effect. The ship computer also has a radar screen that will run when it isn't playing videos. I feel like this doesn't make any sense. Sorry.