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 PICS 03/05

 

Well, what have we here. After all that bragging about a large projected screen I  have a 32" monitor in the cockpit now. It was a surplus deal I couldn't pass up. The monitor is a 32" TV/Monitor. The problem with the projector was that I have limited space and had to use it as a rear projection system by setting the projector in the middle of the
room and storing it when I was done, which I'll probably go back to for various reasons I'll tell you about later. The photos show the monitor and a sliding enclosure I added to cut down on unwanted peripheral vision. Any amount of unwanted peripheral vision that you can eliminate adds greatly to the realism of a flight or racing sim and many games
in general. This photo shows the enclosure installed on the base and shrouding the monitor, even this helps cut down  unwanted peripheral view clutter. I usually play in low light conditions which makes the room sort of fade away into the background, especially when you're engrossed in a sim and concentrating on the screen.
Here the enclosure is slid forward on sliding rails at the base of the unit. The rails are just 22" sliding drawer rails. The problem with the rails is they tend to separate if you do not mount some kind of retainer at the bottom to keep things on track. I should have used the European single unit telescoping type. When the unit is slid closed, which is 
about 22" travel, it really isolates me from the outside world. The rails work great . After getting comfortable I've had to egress several times to explain to the wife that I'm not trying to avoid reality or her, a computer pilot's life, the things we must endure!  The computer is shown in this photo.
No access to the computer with canopy slid close but  there is no need to. These photos are of the monitor before I mounted the sliding canopy . You can see the  rail mounted on the base the other part of it is mounted on the canopy. Don't  think of lifting one of these monitors by yourself, here a significant other or a friend is very useful!
I cut out a filler to fill in between the monitor and canopy you can see the cut out which is attached to the monitor face with Velcro, it's made of fiberboard. As I had stated earlier the monitor is an old Gateway Destination combo TV Computer monitor which may be great for general computing and games. Due to dot pitch and TV compatibility it's nowhere near the  clarity of an LCD projector, 1024 x 768 leaves small print and
Hud data very difficult to read. But all and all the picture quality is good I don't have to turn the projector on and off and move it so I'll stick with this setup for awhile. Even with a smaller monitor the benefits of an enclosure are immediately noticeable. These photos show the canopy which is made of hardboard bought at a Home DIY store. It has 1" square longerons for bracing and support.
The silver was supposed to be glass looking like it was mounted in an Apache helo type frame. Really blew that one looks more like an arcade type game enclosure, oh well can't win them all (actually I win very few). Meanwhile go to get back to actually using this thing, happy flying!
Just brought a lighted keyboard and a got a P8000 (PC-Dash 2) off of ebay. Next step integrate them into the Pit, hope the P8000 works. With this keyboard I won't need any room lights on at all, should be fantastic for night simming. Just need to find  more time, I'm already using 57 hours of a 24 hour day! More updates to come.

 

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