Pioneer Simpit

[whisper979]

"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts"Here is a link to my blog:http://allwehaveisgravity.blogspot.com/I will be updating periodically as I work on things. The plan is to have a fully functioning spaceship simulator for my son to play with. My goal is to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

[spazeman]

Can you adopt me?

[Potsmoke66]

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

[Subzeroplainzero]

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

[whisper979]

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.

[spazeman]

Have you heard of this? 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!

[whisper979]

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.

[Marcel]

Quote:
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.

[whisper979]

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 1External camera 2Lastly, the icon for manual fight mode.

[whisper979]

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.

[Overlord]

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.

[whisper979]

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!

[Marcel]

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

[Overlord]

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

[whisper979]

Marcel wrote:
So we're not the only ones using water as a propellant!
Haha! Nope!

[Potsmoke66]

here we have a lost spacesuit, it might be useful to have onefirst "pig" (skin) in spacein case of accidence, max invented the EVA/FCPa max in spaceyour son whisper979?max gruetervery 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!

[whisper979]

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="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

[s2odan]

Holy s*#t, thats amazing <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Quote:
I don't plan on getting this working.
Aww, it might be possible though depending on how the buttons work...? Although I suppose the flight yoke might not be suited to Pioneer.

[whisper979]

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!

[Brianetta]

'whisper979' wrote:
Also, it has a port that looks like an old game port.
This is excellent news. Spend some time with it and an Ohmeter, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.