/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[BattlemechDood No.405802]

Sup /diy/nosaurs, battlemech senior project guy here. Old thread 404'd, but the project didn't!

Just finished the panel for the main dashboard. I'll start the thread off with a pic dump of the process.

tl;dnr if you didn't see the previous thread, I'm making a fully operational mechwarrior-ish cockpit for my senior project at school, including programming my own mech game to run in it.

Here's a somewhat outdated video of the game so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbK9WXhUVug

[BattlemechDood No.405808]

GEOMETRY! This took about two and a half hours.

[BattlemechDood No.405811]

Cuttin' that shit out.

Scrollsaw's cray.

Also, I wish I had a mill... or a CNC machine... or a water laser.

[BattlemechDood No.405814]

All cuts made... now to bend the sides.

This is 1/16th" aluminum btw.

[Anonymous No.405816]

>>405811
>Also, I wish I had a mill... or a CNC machine... or a water laser.
Neither a manual nor CNC mill would really have helped. It's not advisable to use one for cutting holes in thin sheet. You would have had to cut or file the corners out afterwards.
Plasma-cutting is good for rough cutouts, but not great for straight lines or finished edges.
Water-jet or laser would be ideal.

Barring those knock-out punches work great, but get expensive if you're not making a ton of the same size opening over and over again.

So all-in-all you did end up using the best tool for the job considering you're on a budget. I'm sure your hands went numb a few times.

Have you made any progress in designing the structure for holding your whole cockpit together?
T-Slot aluminum is pretty damn easy to work with.

[Anonymous No.405819]

>>405802
How bizarre OP, I'm interested in getting into this very line of work. What kind of tools or skills have you used in creating your project thus far?

[Anonymous No.405822]

holy shit. you programmed that game in the vid?
mirin.

[BattlemechDood No.405824]

>>405816
Yeah, we had a lasercamm at school for cutting out delron and acrylic, but supposedly you can't cut metal with it because it will reflect back into the machine and damage it.

I did look at punches and square hole drill press bits, but as you said -- filling out a collection of those kinds of things gets pricey.

Thanks for the appraisal, haha. That scrollsaw was tired by the end, and I went through quite a few blades (I only had some crappy GP blades for it. Home Depot doesn't have sheet metal scrollsaw blades, surprisingly. May have to go to Harbor Junk for those.)

I haven't put much work into actually assembling the innards of the cockpit yet; the seat is in there but that's about it. Once I have some panels done I will start figuring out how to mount everything in there.

I love aluminum... it's like playdough if you have the right tools!

>>405819
So far just a ruler, sharpie, electric drill, scrollsaw, vice, a few clamps, scrap wood, and a deadblow hammer. Pics incoming!

>>405822
Yep, thanks! Coded in Javascript through Unity 3D.

[BattlemechDood No.405825]

My edges aren't the cleanest, but most of my components have flanges that will hide my shame.

(My scrollsaw blades are awful, too.)

[BattlemechDood No.405829]

Not the most high-tech solution for bending edges...

[BattlemechDood No.405834]

...but it works!

[BattlemechDood No.405836]

Here's the hard part...

[BattlemechDood No.405841]

Victory! The angles weren't too bad once I cut out some wood chunks that fit in there nicely so I could clamp em in the vice.

[Anonymous No.405843]

swag

[BattlemechDood No.405845]

Finished and sanded pic is OP... here's with a coat of paint. It's drying in the driveway right now. Will throw some switches n shit in it tonight.

[Anonymous No.405847]

>>405824
>I went through quite a few blades
To be expected. Very few paces carry scroll saw blades for cutting anything other than wood. Even Mcmaster only has one relevant part #.

If you ever run into a part of the project you can't make or need welded let me know.

[BattlemechDood No.405854]

>>405847
Hey thanks! I'll keep that in mind. Things might get tricky when I start trying to mount monitors and such... I'll let you know. Cheers!

[Anonymous No.405855]

You sir, are awesome.

Did anyone archive the last thread?

[BattlemechDood No.405861]

This is officially the best spraypaint ever made. The finish is amazing and it's rock-hard. I couldn't possibly do justice to it with my crappy camera... just trust me on this one.

>>405855
Haha, thanks. A fella saved a .htm version of the old thread as well as the pictures... I'll try to host them somewhere.

[BattlemechDood No.406187]

Welp, here it comes... putting in components for the center console.

[BattlemechDood No.406188]

[BattlemechDood No.406190]

[BattlemechDood No.406191]

[BattlemechDood No.406193]

captcha: and lameroo

[BattlemechDood No.406195]

[BattlemechDood No.406196]

Woot! Just need a throttle slider knob and some labels.

Hmmm... how should I go about doing labels for this?

[Anonymous No.406197]

I like it

[Anonymous No.406208]

>>406196
Looks awesome dude. Where did you get all those different push buttons though?

[Anonymous No.406220]

>>406196
Perhaps icons where you can and simple text where you can't? All on top of the buttons. You could cut them out of vinyl and stick them on.

[Anonymous No.406221]

OP needs to get that black paint off of there and use flat colors and then weather it so the metal shows through

[Anonymous No.406231]

>>406196
>Hmmm... how should I go about doing labels for this?
Go old school and use Dyno.

[BattlemechDood No.406236]

>>406208
Electronics surplus store. Specifically "San Diego Electronics Supply."

>>406220
Not a bad idea... Will keep that in mind, thanks!

>>406221
It looks much better in person... my camera just makes it look extra glossy.

>>406231
I think that's the route I'm going to go. Kinda ghetto but w/e.

[Anonymous No.406240]

>>406196
need a skull or something like that, just one.

is it going to be themed? like apocalypse? steampunk (please say no) old, futuristic and apocalypse or just whatever it ends looking like?

[BattlemechDood No.406242]

>>406240
Working theme right now is long-term post-apoc, as in the nuclear holocaust happened but the game takes place a hundred years or so afterwards, so old cities are overgrown and fairly organized societies have reformed, but there are still bandits and shit like that.

I will throw together some concept art at some point.

[BattlemechDood No.406243]

>>406242
Just realized a city won't be overgrown in 100 years, but you get the idea.

[Anonymous No.406266]

>>406236
It wont look ghetto, itll look very industrial and fitting for a mech control panel

[Anonymous No.406281]

>>406266
Seconded. Dyno text looks awesome...

[BattlemechDood No.406289]

>>406266
>>406281
Righto, I ordered some white-on-black emboss label rolls. It's happenin.

I'm also working on making the board look slightly less arcade-y. Gonna take out the brighter colors and such.

[BattlemechDood No.406291]

Not gonna be a gundam game; that's just what happened to be on the screen when I took the shot. But here's a nice close-up.

[Anonymous No.406293]

>>406291
Nice screens. Love the data readout ones especially. What all screens did you use?

[BattlemechDood No.406296]

>>406291
Thanks. Used these lil guys:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007WSWGLO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Super easy... one pin communication over serial.

captcha: asswuth ready

[Anonymous No.406298]

>>406296
This is a really cool project, dude.
What controls are used to move the mech? Are you still using the mouse for that? I think using two joysticks would be pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.406301]

>>406296
So are you using an arduino for those? I admit that my knowledge of such things is slim.

[BattlemechDood No.406304]

>>406298
You nailed it; using two joysticks for the torso/arm control, and four foot pedals for driving it.

>>406301
Yep, using an Arduino MEGA to run the text displays/lights/switches/buttons/etc. It's nice because it has multiple serial communication ports; I have each LCD screen on its own serial port, and another serial port that communicates with the computer.

[BattlemechDood No.406306]

>>406293
Forgot; this is the middle screen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130734380670?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

[Anonymous No.406307]

>>406304
four foot pedals? Sounds extreme. What's each one for?

Gotta say that I'm really jealous right now. I'm >>405819 and you're already doing several things I had planned to do. However, I like seeing someone more experienced so I can pick up some good tips on how to approach my own project in the future.

[BattlemechDood No.406308]

>>406307
They are only on-off pedals; couldn't find affordable gradient-output pedals. So, I have them lined up in a row, with the middle two pedals being "forward", the outer two being "reverse". Holding both middle pedals makes you go forward, holding one outside and one inside pedal makes you turn in place, etc.

Awesome to hear there's someone else with the same aspirations! I'm kinda making things up as I go, learning new skills as I require them. None of this project has required any SUPER advanced skillset, just lots of time and heart, haha.

I would definitely recommend looking to Unity 3D if you want to make games, and just start building random stuff if you want to get into fabrication.

[Anonymous No.406321]

>>406308
I have plenty of experience with game design thankfully, been looking at unity so the endorsement is good reason to pursue it further. Where I really need to advance is in the hardware side of things, as I haven't wired anything more than an arcade keyboard interface. As for the building shit, that will come once I find somebody on campus with access to tools and a workplace.

I was also considering pedals for turning after seeing a cool pic on deviantart of all places depicting such a cockpit design. I guess what surprised me is that you outdid Steel Battalion in pedal count. That game is more car-like in its movement though, so different interpretations will obviously grant different results.

I look forward to seeing the finished project in action.

[Anonymous No.406341]

>>406308
>couldn't find affordable gradient-output pedals

You could probably make some with potentiometers in the pivots, assuming your dweeno has any 5V analog inputs.

Come to think of it, Happ's analog pedals are actually cheaper than their digital ones.

[Anonymous No.406342]

Wow, really all I can say right now. Seen a couple threads and I'm glad to see you are making good progress.

I know you probably don't want to destroy your beauty, but I think weathering it slightly, like >>406221 suggested, would add a good feel to it. But its probably more of a if you have the extra time for little details idea.

Really looking forward to the finished project!

[Anonymous No.406350]

>>406304
Isn't it awkward to have a right-handed joystick in the left hand? 2 ambidextrous joysticks seem better.

[Anonymous No.406360]

Apollo GX60 Com/GPS with moving map
Apollo SL 30 Com/VOR
Apollo SL70 Transponder w/encoder
Apollo SL15 MS Stereo Audio panel W/ 3 LT
FM/CD Player
Circuit Breaker Panel W/Upper Switch Plate
Warning Lights
Blue Mountain EFIS #1 with Engine Probes
Blue Mountain EFIS LITE

ALL NEW AND NEVER USED
Total Invested - $38,000
Sale Price - $28,000

[Anonymous No.406362]

[Anonymous No.406366]

[Anonymous No.406384]

>>406304
Makes me want to watch Robot Jox while playing MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

[Anonymous No.406416]

OP, I want you to know, my dick is so fucking hard right now.

This is something I've always wanted to do myself. Good luck, bro.

[Anonymous No.406429]

>>406236
it'll look soviet...

which is clearly awesome

[BattlemechDood No.406550]

Call me a boat 'cuz I'm RUNNING A GROUND!

sorry that was pretty bad.

>>406321
Bahaha, Steel Battalion... I need to get my hands on it so I can try it for myself.

Cheers!

>>406341
Not a terrible idea actually, I just couldn't be arsed to rig some up. Maybe I will get up the guff to make some eventually. Good thinking.

>>406342
Thanks! Yeah I think I'm going to make everything work first, then I'll get to roughing it up and such.

>>406350
Yes, very. I intend on dremeling and modifying it so it is okay in the left hand.

>>406360
That shit's beeaaautiful. Thanks for posting those pics!

>>406384
ROBOT JOX! Yessss!

>>406416
Thanks... Don't hurt yourself!

>>406429
I didn't even think of that... I may push the design further into Russian territory now that you say that...

[Anonymous No.406586]

>>406550
Add some crylics, Russian accents and change from Gau-8 to Russian equiv? Plus lots more unguided rockets....?

[Anonymous No.406700]

>>406304
What kind of multimonitor support does Unity have? That's been vexing me as I've been conceiving some projects I'd like to try at some point that involve 3-4 monitors, not including smaller displays like those arduino controllers there.

[Anonymous No.406714]

Just copy the Iranian stealth fighter cockpit.

[Anonymous No.406892]

>>406550
Can you explain to me how you're going to go about wiring it up to work as a controller?
I'm clueless when it comes to electronics.

[Anonymous No.406893]

>>406550

You actually soldered all those? Those look like 1/4" QD tabs.

[BattlemechDood No.406946]

>>406586
Sounds good, haha. I'll make it play Katyusha when you win.

>>406700
Sadly it has none, so I'm just going to make the game run in a gigantic window that will span across all my monitors.

>>406892
I'm having the Arduino and Unity communicate with each other over serial. When a button is pressed or a switch is toggled in the arduino, it fires off a number corresponding to the switch/button to Unity over the com port, which Unity then decrypts. Likewise Unity sends numbers back to the Arduino corresponding to commands for making lights blink and such.

>>406893
Easier and cheaper to solder them.

[Anonymous No.406951]

>>406946
>Easier and cheaper to solder them.

It's easy, but nah, not as easy as crimping QDs on there.

And while it's cheaper, the main issue is that it makes maintenance a big pain in the ass.

[Anonymous No.406958]

>>405861
Mad props for rust-oleum black hammered spraypaint. I spray that shit on everything.

[Anonymous No.407082]

>>406714
Actually, the Iran copied OP's idea.

[Anonymous No.407271]

HORY SHET

Good job OP, can't wait to see the finished product.

This thread makes me feel useless

[Anonymous No.407283]

>>406236
>>405811
Wait a second, idk if this has been mentioned already but you're the guy with the fighter scion aren't you. If you are I've seen you at IMS before. I didn't wanna break the IRL barrier and didn't say anything.

[BattlemechDood No.407346]

>>407283
Yep, that's me! Ahahaha, that's awesome!

[Anonymous No.407433]

>>407346
Could you post a pic of the board when mounted?

[gamedev No.407456]

Just found the new thread. Looks great, OP!

>>406243
You'd be surprised how fast things can deteriorate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8CsBMCfu0s
I read the full book a while ago and it talks about how many cities, like NYC, are constantly battling with nature. If NYC were abandoned for a few months, it would flood--not just the subways, but the streets themselves. There's giant water pumps running 24/7 to evacuate the water. So, plausibly, 100 years from now, cities could be very overgrown.

[Anonymous No.407637]

Alright /diy/, let's solder this sucker up.

>>407433
For sure. It will be a week or two at the earliest... gotta get it fully functional before I actually stick it in the cockpit.

>>407456
Whoa, that is fascinating. Very cool; maybe I will stick with that timeline, then. Thanks for the link.

I looked up those pumps; that is nuts. Damn...

Welcome back to the thread by the way! Really appreciated the input on the old one.

[Anonymous No.407639]

Minor modifications to the monitor; all I did was tap my own lines into the power input and removed the coax jack so the panel could be removed/replaced easier (and to clear up some space).

captcha: abooopr large

[Anonymous No.407640]

The most badass soldering iron rest on erf.

[Anonymous No.407642]

Mounted the Tarduino to the monitor case. Convenient.

[Anonymous No.407644]

[Anonymous No.407643]

Wiring up some transistor arrays for controlling my 12v high-current LEDs with the Arduino.

[Anonymous No.407645]

Protip: teach your girlfriend how to solder. Makes the project go faster and gives you something fun to do together.

[Anonymous No.407646]

Interrupting cat...

[Do It Bro !Cunts.GMW. No.407647]

>>407637

That's some very nice solder and wiring work.

I wish I could be that neat, My shit just ends up looking like a rats nest.

I program like I build things, I jump right in without doing thorough planning. That's really what holds me back...

Props dude, this is an awesome project.

[Anonymous No.407649]

>>407647

lol, Oops. Was playing with trips on another board...

[Anonymous No.407650]

[Anonymous No.407651]

>>407647
Thanks! Yeah I'm a bit of a perfectionist (see last pic...) I generally will throw myself into a project, as you say you do, but I will then spend a stupid amount of time going back through and fixing/tidying things up.

[Anonymous No.407652]

SPAGHETTI! Note that I had to run a hot line parallel to the ground line... turns out my transistors only work as a ground-switch, so my LEDs are all 'hot ground' and controlled by the actual ground going through the transistors, while my buttons will be running pull-down through the Arduino, so they need true ground...

[Anonymous No.407653]

[Anonymous No.407654]

Arduino signal --> transistor arrays --> LEDs.

[Anonymous No.407655]

>>407651

See, I'll throw myself at a project.. But literally through myself at a project.

It'll work in the end.. sometimes.. but it's a HUGE clusterfuck.

I'm seriously trying to FORCE myself to get in the habit of planning things out ahead of time, and being detailed and methodical.

But back to your project..

The boards with the surface mount components shown:

>>407639
>>407642
>>407637

Those are the things from the inside of >>406306?

Or did you have it fabbed? I skipped quite a few of the posts.

[Anonymous No.407656]

Aftermath... jimmies, jimmies everywhere.

[Anonymous No.407657]

>>407652

Could have possibly used flat ribbon cables for that. If it's just the logic signals from the Arduino to the Transistor Arrays.

Just a thought for next project.

[Anonymous No.407662]

Whoop whoop! All display hardware is functional! Next step will be getting all the inputs to work... gotta go get me some more 22ga wire.

>>407655
Best advice I can give for fabrication is keepin shit neat... it takes a lot of practice, for sure. Draw your designs, use math and geometry, be consistent with your wire colors, etc. Definitely a learned skill! My shit used to be piles of inexcusably messy bullshit.

For coding, use comments EVERYWHERE; I comment almost every line of code I write. And name your variables things that make sense. If you have a variable for the explosive ammo damage of a gatling gun, don't call it "gatExAmDam" or whatever, actually call it "gatlingExplosiveAmmoDamage". It's a bitch to write out, but SO worth it when you're trying to understand your shit.

And if you have a decent IDE, it should auto-fill variable names when you start typing them. I personally use Monodevelop... great software.

The stuff in the center is the guts of the monitor; I just cracked open the case and resoldered a few things.

[Anonymous No.407664]

>>407657
Definitely could have... but I don't have any laying around. One of these days I will break down and buy a few skeins of them. Good call.

[Anonymous No.407668]

>>407662

I use Sharpdevelop and Visual Studio. I tend to skim over comments but what I mean is really detail it out. Object Oriented wise, how my classes will interact.. how the workflow will be, concentrate on reusability etc.
I program quite a bit at work too, It's something I just need to get in the habit of doing.


The picture looks sideways in that pic. Or is it just me?

[Anonymous No.407669]

>>407668

By picture I mean what's on the monitor in the center.

[Anonymous No.407674]

>>407669
Ah yeah, forethought and planning goes a long way in coding. And if anything, if you do just dive into something, practice making things abstract enough that they can do whatever you want them to.

My general philosophy with scripts is to make each script completely independent. Each script should be able to exist on it's own, without crashing or throwing errors. All my classes are more or less self-contained, until they need to interact with one another.

For instance, I have all of the code that runs the movement, turning, orientation, systems, etc. of the mechs in this game all in one self-contained script. If I put a mech together and attach the mech script to it, the game will compile and run fine; the mech will just slump over and sit there doing nothing. But then I also have a "PlayerControlScript" and "EnemyAIControlScript" that I can attach to a mech. PlayerControlScript forwards user input to the mechScript (in the form "this is what they player wants to do", and it's up to the MechScript to try to accomplish those things--the MechScript is responsible for the physical limits and such of the mech parts, etc.) The EnemyAIControlScript does the same thing, but runs off of AI (duh).

So basically the MechScript is the actual physical system of the mech, and the ControlScripts just say "the user wants to turn to turn left" or "the user is aiming (here)", and the MechScript interprets these inputs and moves the mech around, within its own constraints.

This kind of coding theory is handy because, for instance, what if I want to make the game multiplayer? I won't have to write a whole new 2000-line script for moving every part of the mech and handling the weapons, headlights, damage, etc... I just write a NetworkControlScript or w/e that interepets network data and slap that on a mech.

[Anonymous No.407675]

>>407668
The monitor picture is just some crap from a google search; doesn't represent the in-game at all. Just found something that looked vaguely like what I wanted there. I can't be arsed to make a radar display in-game yet, haha.

[Anonymous No.407676]

>>407675

lol, Copy that. Looks cool, just noticed the wording was sideways.

[Anonymous No.407677]

>>407674
Another cool side-effect of that code I had going for a while was that if you manage to snipe the cockpit of an enemy mech, I would literally just delete the EnemyAIControlScript from the mech, and it would slow down to a stop and slump over. Pretty brutal. I took that functionality out for gameplay reasons but it was a good proof-of-concept and stress test for the abstract coding paradigm.

Pic related; mech with no ControlScript attached.

[Anonymous No.407680]

>>407640

Doesn't that bleed off all the iron's heat into the model?

>>407652

Fuck. I caught myself reaching for my zip ties and tie mounts.

[Anonymous No.407688]

>>407680
>heat bleed
Yes, but... the model doesn't care, haha. It's a very cheap cannon anyway.

>zip ties/mounts
Pffthahaha! I know, I know... I have a huge supply standing by; I want to get ALL the wires done before I go and groom everything. I still have to run the input wires, which will double the number of wires in there now... eesh.

[Anonymous No.407687]

>>407640

Is that a Harbor Freight soldering iron?

Shame on you subjecting your electronics to that!

[Anonymous No.407691]

>>407687
It is, I'm sorry! My other one is a piece of garbage from Radioshack... but they both work! I'm using good solder at least.

The quality of a soldering job is dependent most on the craftsman, secondly on the solder, and thirdly on the iron.

[Anonymous No.407696]

>>407691

Details... I love me my station. It's tops in my book.

[Anonymous No.407709]

After seeing your illuminated buttons all illuminated... I suggest using icons on them.. just solid decal cutouts on the button face themselves.... or if you can.. on the underside of the button plastic so it doesn't get worn off/damaged. If it is on the underside, you wouldnt even be able to see what the button did until power came up and the light made it show up. A neat feature would be to make buttons go dark if something like damage affected them so that weapon was non-functional, and something like a dual color LED underneath that would make a button/system have a red glow to it, or even a blinking red light under it if there was a problem with the system like overheating or some such thing. I would consider adding a section with tinted 'error lights/idiot lights' which come on for something like missile lockon, or whatever.. could just go to a junkyard and pull some instrument panel components off some obscure car function. I like what your doing overall, looks fun. Don't shy off adding some fun stuff that maybe isn't functional (or isn't tied into the game itself, but does function...) Suggestions: A fan with a toggle switch (could be a few fans.. computer ones maybe... maybe they even come on when the mech is overheating.) A cigarette lighter. (for funny) A music system/cardash style radio of some sort (Or even an 8 track player would be amusing). Some sort of "dome light" to add illumination to the cockpit. Armrests would be interesting. For a crazy sort of immersion experience, you could pick up the seat/back for one of those massage chairs they sell at office depot and wire the various vibration components to mech functionality... or make the left thigh one vibrate randomly when there is left leg damage.. or something. (So many cool ways to go with that project.)

[Anonymous No.407733]

goddamn. what's the budget for this?

makes my sr project look like horseshit.

[Anonymous No.407745]

>>407709
Some dam good ideas there.

>>407677
HOLY SHIT! Is that updated UI and game pics? Lookin good!
On that note of sniping the cockpit, were you thinking of adding in any natural weakpoints, like joints?

[Anonymous No.407798]

Just wanted to add my experience with planning wiring. LEARN HOW TO MAKE ELECTRICAL DIAGRAMS. Even for basic circuits they're really helpful. And you're going to need to learn CAD to plan out your project in detail, so you might as well use it to draft your circuit diagrams too.

Pic related is an electrical circuit for pneumatic control of several solenoid valves. Some for gas supply control, some for linear pneumatic actuator control with a timer relay added.
This circuit would be very difficult to understand and troubleshoot without color coded wiring and color coded terminal blocks. I also included all of the wire colors by using them as the line colors in the wiring diagram.

A full color-code set of solid core 18ga wire was used. I find solid core wire to be much easier to work with since it stays where you want it to, and terminal blocks have an easier time holding onto it.

[Anonymous No.407819]

Have you thought about including visible cockpit frames in your UI? Kind of what hawked does?

[Anonymous No.407944]

>>406308
Some torque loaders and track diggers have the tracks driven by 2 foot pedals except the whole left pedal rocks forth for left track forward and rocks back for left track back and same for right pedal. I would use arrange the pedals in that system, i.e one pedal under toe and one under heel and a pivoting pedal shoe above both.

[gamedev No.408015]

>>407662
>For coding, use comments EVERYWHERE; I comment almost every line of code I write.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/07/coding-without-comments.html

>>407674
>My general philosophy with scripts is to make each script completely independent.
I'm guessing you mean apart from polymorphism. If you're not using inheritance on this project, you're making things needlessly hard on yourself.

>>407677
>sniping the cockpit
That's really cool, it would be neat to see it in the final game. If it's a matter of gameplay balance, then just make a really small hitbox/low probability for this happening, or make the hitbox on the back of the mech (pilot's O2 supply or something).

Also, you seem to have lost your "BattlemechDood" name.

[Anonymous No.408033]

>>407675
>I'm seriously trying to FORCE myself to get in th

[BattlemechDood No.408315]

>>407696
I would put down some money for a good iron, but honestly there's nothing wrong with the HF one. :\

>>407709
The green buttons don't really need icons, but definitely in the white/red/blue arcade buttons I will put text/iconic inserts.

The green buttons are for individual weapons; if a weapon jams, it will blink quickly. If it is reloading, it will blink slowly. If it takes damage, it will kinda fizzle on and off.

Error lights are an excellent idea; if I have any pins left on the arduino I will run error lights off of them.

Fans were granted from the start, as it's going to get hot as hell in there with all the equipment. I am going to have a whole panel dedicated to the HVAC of the cockpit.

Cigarette lighter is fuckin hilarious... wrote that down; def gonna happen. External radio is actually an awesome idea; I will have it powered through a relay that I can cut if your mech takes too much damage!

Dome light for sure; going to have a nice amber automotive light in there for ambiance.

That massage chair idea... that is the idea of an evil mastermind. Be careful with that brain of yours... :]

>>407733
Initial budget was a grand; I've spent about that much on it. Will probably go over a bit... Granted, a lot of the purchases I've made have been for tools and supplies that will supplement future projects.

>>407745
Thanks! Gave the graphics some love the other day; glad I did.

I was thinking about doing weak spots such as joints (kneecaps, shoulders), as well as external ammo/fuel tanks and other systems like that, for sure.

[Anonymous No.408317]

>>407798
I can make electrical diagrams as well as anybody; just so happens this project is extremely straightforward, as the arduino has its own internal pullup resistors and the transistor arrays I got have their own resistors and diodes built in... TEK-NAW-LUR-JEE!

That solenoid circuit is beautiful; nicely done. I went out and bought a shitload of colored wire (got purple, blue, and white to supplement my existing colors) for color coding.

Pic related; 15-pound roll of 24-gauge stranded. I like stranded because it DOESN'T stay where you put it, and doesn't put torque on the connections and it forgiving if you nudge it. I have a good supply of both kinds though. Thanks for the tips!

>>407944
That's pretty awesome; I had considered doing something like that but the mechs move so slowly in this game that it wasn't really neccesary.

If I do a revision of this project the pedals will probably be one of the first things to be further developed, though.

>>408015
Ok, I don't comment EVERY line... but every relevant clump has a quick note about what it does.

Yeah, I wasn't referring to polymorphism. This project basically runs on inheritence; every piece of equipment runs on the same script, all the AI runs on the same script, etc. etc. That Java class I took in uni was one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

The fact that it was such a low probability was actually what made it a poor mechanic; you'd be unloading on some guy and suddenly he'd just slump over, and my beta testers would get really confused. (They thought it was a glitch.)

It's much more satisfying having to chew apart and obliterate a machine instead of just neutralizing it.

>>408033
wat

[gamedev No.408330]

>>408317
>The fact that it was such a low probability was actually what made it a poor mechanic; you'd be unloading on some guy and suddenly he'd just slump over, and my beta testers would get really confused. (They thought it was a glitch.)
Perhaps make this happen only with a rail driver weapon, like in Red Faction 1. The gun shoots an energy beam through walls that only affects people. (In RF1, the gun also has a scope that shows people's heat signatures.)

Sorry to contribute to the idea spamming, but I hate to see a cool mechanic like the dead pilot go to waste.

[Anonymous No.408341]

>>408330
>"I hate to contribute to the pool of awesome ideas..."
Say what? I really appreciate all the input! Don't stop!

I like that, actually; have only a certain sniper-rifle-esque weapon that can accrue pilot kills. Then it would only happen if you really meant for it to.

To balance it I'll have it do relatively little damage to the structure of a mech; it will only be effective if you can manage to hit the pilot.

Excellent call! I will go ahead and implement that as a special weapon. Thanks!

[gamedev No.408350]

>>408341
I'm always wary of feature creep, although it does seem like you're implementing things faster than the features are creeping, which is good.

[Anonymous No.408365]

>>408350
Ah yes, very wise. I actually encountered some physical anti-feature-creep... turns out I ran out of pins on the arduino, so I'm having to strip or consolidate some of the controls. I took out ECM and chaff, as well as some of the startup sequence, and the ability to "prime" your weapons (which only really mattered for gatling guns.)

I don't want people to sit down in the cockpit and feel completely overwhelmed by controls and features, so I am definitely keeping an eye on feature creep.

I've been forced to define all my pins ahead of time (since I ran out), so that basically has capped the complexity of the system as far as user input, haha.

(Unless I add more pedals/joysticks/non-arduino peripherals...)

[BattlemechDood No.408366]

Keep losing my name, huh...

[Anonymous No.408397]

>>408365
Add another Arduino or ten! Operating a mech cockpit should be arduous in the extreme.

[Anonymous No.408399]

>>408341
There's a great flight sim called Il2-Sturmovik where you could shoot the pilot, various control cables, and so on. It was fucking awesome.

[BattlemechDood No.408447]

>>408397
I'm actually considering switching over to a Raspberry Pi with a 128 pin i/o set up... mite b cool.

For now though I'm dealin with this shit, pic related.

It's god damn wires.com up in here

[BattlemechDood No.408714]

Welp, I ran out of pins on the arduino, even after cutting a bunch of features... went ahead and ordered some I/O expanders from Digikey. We'll see how that goes.

I also fried a couple pins on my shitty made-in-china arduino board, so I bit the bullet and ordered an italy-made one.

Gotta pay to play...

[Anonymous No.408979]

>>408447
>that wiring

And this is why I bundle my wire into runs, extra wire expense be damned.

[BattlemechDood No.409026]

>>408979
This is pre-bundling and such. I'm still figuring out where everything goes.

Man, some of you /diy/nosaurs don't understand the concept of w.i.p. very well.

[Anonymous No.409027]

>>408979
I need to take a picture of a 50 pair splice at work for you.

[Anonymous No.409034]

>>409027
Found one. Actually this one is quite nice and tidy by what I've come to expect from this plant.

[BattlemechDood No.409063]

Starting to build the sub-panels. These will route to the Arduino on the main board through I/O expanders seeing as I ran out of pins already...

[BattlemechDood No.409064]

8-O

[BattlemechDood No.409065]

[BattlemechDood No.409066]

Manage ALL the systems!

[BattlemechDood No.409068]

Not particularly exciting but I like the simple interaction of 1/4" jacks.

[BattlemechDood No.409069]

If this project has taught me anything, it's to buy in bulk. Bulk + surplus = supreme victory.

[BattlemechDood No.409076]

[Anonymous No.409095]

>>409065
>>409066
>>409068
>>409069
I've been scrolling post this thread for a few days now, due to a lack of time to check out everything on /diy/ during the week.

I'm dumbfounded by the amazing job you are doing. One of the coolest things I've seen on /diy/ so far. I tip my hat to you good sir.

[Anonymous No.409107]

I really like the structured wiring on the keys. I've been thinking about making a control panel like this for a midi controller. But I would make a wooden frame instead of aluminum.
Keep up the good work looking forward to more pictures.

[Anonymous No.409114]

>>409034

[Anonymous No.409116]

>>409034
Mmmm.... that color coding.

[Anonymous No.409138]

OP, Holy shit. The time and effort you have put into this is amazing. Keep keeping us updated please!

[Anonymous No.409168]

>>409064
>[screams internally]

[BattlemechDood No.409218]

Aw yiss, motherfucking Italy-made Arduino. Now I have a 'beater' chinese mega to prototype on.

>>409095
Hey thanks! It's nice to have a good excuse to make something like this, haha. I'm taking advantage of the 'school project' thing as much as I can. I know most people have better things to do...

>>409107
That sounds awesome. Yeah, just get some illuminated buttons from a surplus store (make sure you get more than you need). The Arduino MEGA can handle 54 I/O so if you need more you'll need either a different solution or some I/O expanders.

MIdi stuff is awesome. Good luck to you.

>>409138
For sure! I'll be updating you guys 'til the damn thing's done.

>>409168
it's haunted for sure

[BattlemechDood No.409263]

Quick sketch for the housing for my ambient RGB lights.

[Anonymous No.409279]

>>405808
You could have used solid edge 2d, it's free. You would have been done way faster. Just a little tip.

[BattlemechDood No.409290]

>>409279
Right--I have AutoCAD and such too--but how would I have gotten it onto the metal?

[Anonymous No.409295]

>>409290
Print it out 1:1 and trace it. Tape the paper to the metal, use a center punch to mark the corners, then a straight edge to scribe the lines all connect-the-dots style.

[BattlemechDood No.409361]

Nibbler ftw.

[BattlemechDood No.409362]

Five minutes with the nibbler, no blades to break, no hearing protection... I love this thing.

[BattlemechDood No.409363]

Awww, innit cuuuute.

[BattlemechDood No.409364]

[BattlemechDood No.409365]

These will be red/green/blue once those arrive in the mail.

[BattlemechDood No.409366]

Woot, left/right boxes. Going to paint these with the same hammered finished rusto.

[BattlemechDood No.409373]

>>409295
That's a pretty neat idea. I will remember that. Unfortunately my printer prints things at odd dimensions (stretches things seemingly randomly)... hm.

[Anonymous No.409391]

>>409295
>Print it out 1:1 and trace it. Tape the paper to the metal, use a center punch to mark the corners, then a straight edge to scribe the lines all connect-the-dots style.
>>409373
>That's a pretty neat idea. I will remember that. Unfortunately my printer prints things at odd dimensions (stretches things seemingly randomly)... hm.

What you need to do is either make your drawing in CAD then print it 1:1 by disabling scaling somehow in the print output (the software I use asks if you want the current drawing to fit the sheet size), or you save the drawing as an image and scale it to size in Microsoft Word and print it from there.

The process for that is covered here.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3694322&postcount=3

[BattlemechDood No.409395]

>>409391
The printer itself is retarded... I just need to buy a new one.

Thanks for the tips though!

[Anonymous No.409399]

>>409391
Cont'd

If you're just making a template hole holes, add centers to the holes in your drawing. Tape the printed template to your material. Then use a center-punch through the paper to mark all of your hole locations.

If you're making a fairly simple shape You can use a straight edge or ruler and scribe the outline of the shape using a hobby knife to cut along the lines on the template.

[Anonymous No.409404]

>>409391
Cont'd

If you're just making a template for hole spacing, add centers to the holes in your drawing. Tape the printed template to your material. Then use a center-punch through the paper to mark all of your hole locations.

If you're making a fairly simple shape You can use a straight edge or ruler and scribe the outline of the shape using a hobby knife to cut along the lines on the template.

[Anonymous No.409414]

You're a new kind of awesome. Do you get girls for this? you should get girls for this

[Anonymous No.409425]

>>405811
no sex on board

[BattlemechDood No.409490]

>>409414

[BattlemechDood No.409491]

>>409425

[Anonymous No.409541]

Hey OP, I saw in the other thread that people were talking about being able to "rewire" the mech for more power. Well if your Gatling guns have an overheat function, you could make it so that you can "rewire" around safety procedures to allow your Gatling guns to go past their heat limit at the possibility of destroying the guns or hurting the mech. It would give you a bit more firepower during a final push for victory.

[Anonymous No.409598]

>>409541
Each weapon will have the ability to be "primed", which will basically be like setting it to "extra hot." For gatling guns this will make it spool up and spin at max rpm at all times.

There is also going to be the power sub-panel (pic related; the one with the holes/jacks) that will let you double up your power on your weapons systems.

A primed/overloaded gatling gun will be extremely powerful but potentially wreck itself if you aren't careful. (Same goes for any other primed/overloaded weapon. You gotta REALLY want that kill to run your weapons that hot.)

[Anonymous No.409600]

Let there be light! Again these will be RGB eventually. Using white just for function check at the moment.

[Anonymous No.409601]

Innit cuuuuuuuuute.

captcha: contingo hoplemen

[Anonymous No.409603]

Found this gem while cleaning out the workbench... built my own H-Bridge a few years back.

[Anonymous No.409604]

They're like weird little steampunk robots...

[Anonymous No.409736]

How will this be mounted ?

[BattlemechDood No.409888]

>>409736
All the consoles and shit are going in this thing.

[Anonymous No.410075]

This thread needs moar love. Bampin

[Anonymous No.410189]

>>409888
How will this be mounted in this thing?

[Anonymous No.410288]

>>410189
I have no idea, lol.

Okay, yes I do. The small panels will extend from the wall on shaped metal sheet-bracket things that will be angled in such a way as to angle them towards the player. The panels will mount to the brackets with nuts/bolts, and the brackets will be screwed into the wall, most likely.

The main console... that bitch is gonna be tricky. I may build a frame out of wood 2x2's that will hang from the sloped section. The console will then be attached to a crossbeam with hinges so it can lift upwards (so you can actually get in and out of the damn cockpit).

I've yet to figure out how I'm going to secure the console in the up or down position though.

[Anonymous No.410290]

Nothing exciting to report today... just been gettin' mah learn on with some I/O expanders. Gotta get my 33pF capacitors tomorrow from Radiocrap and then hopefully I can get these things working.

[BattlemechDood No.410291]

>>410288
>>410290
Damnit, I wish I could save different names for different boards or something.

[gamedev No.410292]

Completely off topic, but whatever happened with your armphone? Do you ever use it? Did it get any cool upgrades since the thread 404'd way back when?

[BattlemechDood No.410293]

>>410292
I use it while hiking and on long road trips, but I don't wear it daily as I get tired of having to re-adjust the straps whenever I want to put my sleeves up or down.

No cool upgrades, as I couldn't be arsed to interface it with any peripheral components... maybe someday though.

[Anonymous No.410393]

>>410291
That sounds like a suggestion for the inline extension or 4chanX. Suggest it on github.

[BattlemechDood No.410785]

My professional car audio buddy came in and helped tune the system... gonna start mounting the speaker boxes.

[Anonymous No.410800]

>>410785
How are you supposed to be able to move the big box ?

[BattlemechDood No.410802]

>>410800
Wheels on the back...

[BattlemechDood No.410805]

>>410800
...lift-bars on the front.

[Anonymous No.410818]

Are you a GOD?

[Anonymous No.410828]

Sorry OP, but I'm hijacking for a small question. It's unrelated to your shit, so I'm really sorry.

Now, look at this pic. It's confusing as fuck. Maybe I'm just a babby at drawing, but goddamn. The upper and lower part doesn't seem consistent at all.

[Anonymous No.410832]

>>410828
It looks like the top part is not the same length as the bottom part.

[Anonymous No.410837]

its because its in an isometric view and not a perspective view

[Anonymous No.410840]

>>410828
that ain't orthographic

[Anonymous No.410845]

>>410837
>>410840
Well, what do you reckon the top and bottom part be? I understand that the bottom part is 7mm, but fuck all if I can figure the length of that thickest piece.

[BattlemechDood No.410894]

>>410828
>>410832
>>410837
>>410840
>>410845
What the fuck is this about? Make your own thread dude.

[BattlemechDood No.410896]

Anyways... got the speakers mounted. Sounds great; I need some new ovals though as one of them has a bad crackle/buzz.

[BattlemechDood No.410897]

Old family secret... hinges for mounts, lul.

[BattlemechDood No.410901]

Sub folds down to be serviced.

[BattlemechDood No.410903]

[BattlemechDood No.410904]

[80's guy No.410926]

>>410904

this guy!!!! what a shark!

[BattlemechDood No.410993]

Thanks to whoever convinced me to use embossed labels... this shit looks mean!

[Anonymous No.411013]

Holy shit OP this is insane, how did you learn about all this shit
did you go to uni?
what degrees?

[Anonymous No.411028]

> what degrees?

hehe, I was doing shit like this in High School. It's not like he's designing chips, or something complex like that, it's just taking ready-made parts and hooking them up according to their data sheets. The only expertise here is on the software side.

[BattlemechDood No.411111]

>>411013
Most of the skills for the physical side of the project I learned in a high school Fabrication and Design class and from customizing my car on my own time. The javascripting side got a jump-start from a few classes I took in uni, namely a C course and a Java course, but again--mostly skills developed on my own time by just messin around.

>>411028
I'm not claiming to be an expert, but that's a pretty shallow appraisal. What kind of stuff did you do in high school? I'm curious.

[BattlemechDood No.411112]

>>411013
Most of the skills for the physical side of the project I learned in a high school Fabrication and Design class and from customizing my car on my own time. The javascripting side got a jump-start from a few classes I took in uni, namely a C course and a Java course, but again--mostly skills developed on my own time by just messin around.

>>411028
I'm not claiming to be an expert, but that's a pretty shallow appraisal. What kind of stuff did you do in high school? Impress me.

[Anonymous No.411168]

Just a suggestion for the dome light inside. Don't do amber or a normal lighting color. Obviously a military piece of equipment, so gotta go with a red dome light. We did it in my brother's jeep and its the shit. Feels like I'm riding in a Blackhawk.

Also: PLEASE MAKE THE CENTER SCREEN A DRADIS SYSTEM. I WOULD BE FLOODED WITH JOY.

[Anonymous No.411201]

>>406360
Investment > sale price?

[Anonymous No.411205]

Is this archived yet?

[Anonymous No.411213]

Open is the diy Don!

[Anonymous No.411214]

>>410993
It certainly does.
This shit is shaping up to be pretty fucking amazing.

[Anonymous No.411216]

>>411112
This thread is more awesome every time I check it out. I wish you were my dad, OP.

[Anonymous No.411220]

I wish you were my son, OP.

[Anonymous No.411239]

I hesitated posting this suggestion a couple days ago because your display is already integrated.
A couple years ago I futzed around with using a blacklight as the backlight of an LCD and the same idea could be applied to your project. You could replace the LCD backlight with a color bulb so that the screen only outputs a single color, even at non-visible angles.

Just a thought. You'll already be staring at another LCD as your primary display so the glare isn't really an issue.

[gamedev No.411283]

>>411239
Seems like the sort of thing you could emulate with software. Why bother putting in the work to disassemble the LCD?

[BattlemechDood No.411566]

>>411216
>>411220

[BattlemechDood No.411570]

>>411168
I was going to do amber, but you have convinced me to go with red... red is awesome. Or what about a cool green? I'll have to see what goes with the consoles. Def not doing amber or white though, you can count on that!

DRADIS would be pretty frickin cool... might have to put that in just for you! (And my girlfriend's mom, who loves Battlestar.)

>>411205
How does one go about archiving something? The first thread wasn't archived but somebody saved a transcript of it...

>>411213
Pffthahaha, no way man, I'm just a dood with too much free time and a good excuse!

>>411214
Cheers! Been working hard.

>>411239
That is pretty awesome, however my center screen is a full-color display, so I could achieve the same effect just through how I render to it in Unity.

[BattlemechDood No.411571]

aaaaaaand pic dump time! Lots of progress today. Got my RGB LEDs in the mail... not sure how well they are going to work in practice but we shall see.

[BattlemechDood No.411572]

Started mounting speaker boxes and shit...

[BattlemechDood No.411573]

Machine screw --> 1/2" plywood --> washer --> nut.

[BattlemechDood No.411575]

Got some decent 14ga wire for the speakers. Running the wires through the back panel into a breakout...

[BattlemechDood No.411574]

Front speakers came out particularly nice... I was careful with these ones because you may potentially see them while playing. Probably not though... whatevs.

[BattlemechDood No.411576]

[BattlemechDood No.411577]

Made brackets for my power supplies...

[BattlemechDood No.411578]

Here's the front coaxials...

(sorry these aren't really in any particular order)

[BattlemechDood No.411580]

Standard bracket-making procedure...

[BattlemechDood No.411579]

Mounted and wired up amps... gettin there!

[BattlemechDood No.411581]

Power supplies are attached with 3m tape as well as the brackets so they don't rattle or whatever.

[BattlemechDood No.411583]

Tried to make the wiring nice and presentable.

[BattlemechDood No.411582]

All audio components installed and functional!

[BattlemechDood No.411584]

Thought this looked neat.

[BattlemechDood No.411586]

[BattlemechDood No.411585]

Proud of these guys. Yet to have a single issue with them.

[BattlemechDood No.411587]

One of my finest moments... double-up on cable clips like a bawss.

[BattlemechDood No.411588]

Wire management is very therapeutic.

[BattlemechDood No.411589]

So many screws... I feel bad for that poor piece of plywood. Maybe I'll add a crossbeam in there.

[BattlemechDood No.411591]

Oh yeah, and this shit works now, which means all non-pc-peripheral input/output can be handled by a single arduino. (Hell I could run everything off of an arduino UNO if I wanted to, but the Mega is nice.)

[BattlemechDood No.411592]

And here's my cat for good measure. She's crapped out from bugging me all day while I worked.

G'night /diy/! <3

[BattlemechDood No.411595]

Oh wait here's the whole setup as of tonight. New oval speakers come in tomorrow, at which point the audio will be complete.

[Anonymous No.411601]

>>405861

like my dick right now, good god OP nice /diy/ing

[gamedev No.411604]

>>411570
>The first thread wasn't archived
http://archive.installgentoo.net/diy/thread/380959
http://4chandata.org/diy/Battlemech-Cockpit-Simulator-senior-project-a345210

I believe all of /diy/ is archived automatically.

[BattlemechDood No.411612]

>>411604
Mr. gamedev... you are officially a wizard, and one of my favorite people on the planet.

Cheers to you.

>>411601
And cheers to you too! Thanks!

[BattlemechDood No.411615]

>>411575
*Terminal block. It's called a terminal block. I'm not stupid. Ok maybe a little bit.

[Anonymous No.411850]

>wood with subwoofer
oh god op.....how did you handle rattling?

[BattlemechDood No.411872]

>>411850

[BattlemechDood No.411870]

Woo, audio complete! New 5x8" powerbass coaxials in the rear sound great.

>>411850
All wood connections are glued down with heavy duty loctite adhesive.

[BattlemechDood No.411873]

[BattlemechDood No.411874]

[Anonymous No.411875]

>>411873
are you going to add anything to provide real motion? like a larger rumble motor or something

[Anonymous No.412110]

If I could offer a suggestion, that just screams for some kind of overly complicated looking ignition key. Possibly using something like what's attached.

[BattlemechDood No.412200]

>>411875
Definitely going to be at least putting in some kind of rumble mechanism. Probably just some kinda actuator that can throw a weight around randomly.

>>412110
Pic related is the 'ignition sequence' and the 'power reroute' panel. I'm trying to keep the game accessible to a broad audience in an arcade sort of presentation, so I'm trying not to make any of the controls too intimidating or complex. Those cables look rad though... might have to use some of those just for hooking up components!

[BattlemechDood No.412202]

Had a slight rattle and a bit of warp in the back panel so I added a spine.

San Diego Car Stereo more or less donated a pair of grills for the rear speakers. I feel kinda bad... I went in asking about 5x8" speakers, so they showed me my options. The cheapest were a pair of Powerbass 5x8s, which they wanted $60 for. The fella went to the back of the store and found me some grills while I pretended I was asking my friend about the speakers (I was actually looking them up on amazon... $35.) I told them I might be back for the speakers but I couldn't guarantee it, and the guy looked kinda mopey but said I could have the grills, after I offered him some money for them.

Maybe I'll go back and buy something from them just because they were so nice.

[Anonymous No.412221]

What the fuck am I looking at

[BattlemechDood No.412277]

>>412221
A mech cockpit in the works.

[Anonymous No.412281]

>>412277
It's fake, its not even plugged in, i really doubt you could control an US military drone with that...

[Anonymous No.412285]

>>412202
That's the down side of web shopping. They will not give you free things and many times they are just some 12 year oldtalented /diy/erin Omaha or a pregnant housewife in Florida, so don't count on tech support for your purchase.

[Anonymous No.412291]

>>412202
I know your feels. I'm a sucker for genuinely nice and honest salesmen too.

[Anonymous No.412304]

I love seeing it come to gether and have the feel like you really are in side the mech. You should add an airride system(the stuff they use for cars with adjustable heights) then you can make the whole box tilt and vibrate with impact and walking.

[Anonymous No.412310]

>>412277
Hey man, what language did you use for the program, did you write it yourself?

[Anonymous No.412323]

>>412310
see >>405824

[Anonymous No.412327]

>>411168
>>411570

Use a blacklight. Everything will be dark as fuck but all your buttons will fluoresce and pop out. Also, purple is better than red.

Maybe save red or amber for when you're getting severe damage. I suggest using LED strips for that since you can conceal them and you can get fairly cheap ones that are RGB. Context sensitive military lighting is futuristic as fuck.

[Anonymous No.412329]

>>412323
Thanks man.

[Anonymous No.412330]

>>412200
OKAY, HERE'S WHAT I'M IMAGINING

>your tester climbs into the cockpit, the overhead dome light is lit soft green, the some of the ac fans are whirring. it's pleasant.
>pic related is all that's on the screen
>it's an instantly intuitive prompt -- flip all the switches
>the "IGN" button does nothing until all the switches are flipped on

>once they're all flipped, as SOON as you press the button, the lights in the cockpit instantly change from green to RED, the rumbler beneath the set gives a heavy kick, the speakers play some awesome beeps and boops ("startup sounds"), and all the fans kick in, and all the screens flash through some kind of POST sequence

I know if I got into an arcade game and went through that sequence, I'd get fucking HYPED

[Anonymous No.412369]

This is so fucking cool, good luck dude.
Can't wait to see it finished.

[Anonymous No.412418]

I still don't see a neurohelmet, anon
Jokes aside, hory sheet, this is awesome.

[BattlemechDood No.412501]

>>412281
>Implying plywood doesn't generate it's own electricity
>Implying a honda prelude seat doesn't come stock with all the controls unnecessary for drone operation
>laughinggirls.jpg

>>412285
Yeah, I've been trying to rely on local surplus stores and such for materials... there's a lot to be said for human interaction. (Especially when the guy behind the counter gets so excited about your project that he starts throwing free stuff at you!)

>>412202
For sure... think I'm gonna go back and buy a sub box from them for my car (as I'm using the one from my car for the box, currently.) It'll eat the cost I saved ordering from Amazon for the speakers but I'll feel better.

>>412304
I keep leaning back and forth on the motion simulation idea... I think I will actually do some pricing on that kind of stuff after I have a working prototype.

>>412310
Unityscript, which is basically just Javascript with relevant functions for Unity stuff.

All my programming has been done with Unity 3D + Monodevelop (comes with Unity).

>>412327
Blacklight is an awesome idea, however it's not very 'military'. I did build these things >>411571 for the purpose of RGB ambient light but the lightning strips is a pretty damn good idea, and probably will put out more light than those little things...

>>412330
That... is some excellent choreography. I'll lean on that when I start programming the startup sequence. Thanks man!

>>412369
>>412418
Ahaha, thanks fellas!

[gamedev No.412506]

Some control scheme inspiration. This is the controls for the Canadian Space Agency's robotic arm, Canadarm (nice name, right?). I thought it looked pretty cool, particularly the giant STOP button and the little metal loops around the switches and knobs to prevent accidental toggling.

[BattlemechDood No.412533]

Starting work on the pedal board...

>>412506
Ooo, very cool, thanks. I want some of those switches... those are awesome.

[BattlemechDood No.412534]

[BattlemechDood No.412535]

[Anonymous No.412615]

>>412501

>>412330 here,
I just really like the idea that the system is just idling and humming and the IGN button doesn't do anything until all the switches are up, but once they are, you hit the button and fucking BLASTOFF.

obviously, computer-wise, everything is already on and running, but you just have a little logic loop in the game that makes it display that startup screen until "all systems are go." the POST screens are all fake, so you can have some hilarious awesome shit rolling up the screen like the Terminator's startup dialog.

maybe you can have some awesome metal music kick in at the same time as the system starts firing up, like Iron Maiden's "The Trooper"

and once the startup sequence is done it just drops you into the title menu of the game, with the rock and roll still playing.

[Anonymous No.412644]

>>412202
those vents gave me an idea. what if you added something that shot pressurized air up into the back. for one it would probably get sweaty as balls in there, and it could add some cool effects like in those 4D theaters. Arctic Thunder is a cool game that does this while you're on a snowmobile.

[BattlemechDood No.412661]

Buildin the pedal board...

[BattlemechDood No.412662]

>>412615
Lovin it. I will start working on the startup sequence within the week; I'll post video of it as I develop it. Your ideas run almost parallel to mine; should be awesome!

>>412644
Now there's a neat idea... hm. I will look into that. Not sure exactly what function that would fill in a mech game though.

[BattlemechDood No.412664]

[Anonymous No.412665]

>>412506
>darm means intestine in german
>that purple "VR" logo looks like intestines
Ugh.

[BattlemechDood No.412666]

All wired up into a little usb hub.

[BattlemechDood No.412668]

[BattlemechDood No.412669]

Standard heavy duty drawer rails.

>>412665
lal

[Anonymous No.412671]

Will you be painting the wood once it's done?

[BattlemechDood No.412672]

Woot! Installed. Just gotta get a deadbolt for locking them in different positions.

[Anonymous No.412674]

>>412672
Awesome.

[BattlemechDood No.412684]

Adjustable for battlemech pilots of all shapes and sizes.

[Anonymous No.412699]

>>412684
I'm drooling here...

[Anonymous No.412716]

>>412684
>>412672
>>412669
I'm kinda worried that maybe those pedals ought to be flipped upside-down, so they taper downward.
I'm just imagining raising my foot up and accidentally kicking the leading edge of the pedal and fucking it up, that'd suck pretty hard...

in addition, you'd be well off running a 2x2 horizontally right beneath those pedals so you have a place to rest your heels. my shins would get sore as fuark with the height you have them right now.

[Anonymous No.412717]

>>412662
>neat idea

you could simulate the sound of releasing valves with that. like when the mech's moving its legs or stuff

[BattlemechDood No.412724]

>>412671
Yep, gonna paint the inside with truckbed liner or similar, and the outside will get some nice military olive drab.

>>412716
I'm still experimenting with them, but the way they are now (with the taper upward) is much more comfortable to operate. I am considering the heel-rest as you said... I'll keep postin updates tonight with different setups.

>>412717
I dig it... I will go pick up some electric valves tomorrow!

[BattlemechDood No.412736]

I use push nuts for everything except for being push nuts.

[Anonymous No.412771]

>>412736
I'll have to use that

[BattlemechDood No.412782]

Air intake installed... gonna put some kind of air flow direction inside. Maybe just a piece of pipe that goes straight across with some holes in it to diffuse the airflow.

>>412771
It's there just for you. <3

[BattlemechDood No.412784]

Maxin threads like a bawss... time to make another one I guess.

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag !BmEFaG6dOM No.413011]

Can we get an archive on this thread too?

[BattlemechDood No.413041]

>>413011
This site archives all /diy/ threads automatically:

http://archive.installgentoo.net/diy/thread/405802

Just replace the number on the end with the thread you want.

(thanks to 'gamedev' for that)

[BiomedicalEngineeringFag !BmEFaG6dOM No.413054]

>>413041
Sweet, thanks and amazing work so far!

[BattlemechDood No.413064]

>>413054
Cheers!


For anyone else reading, third thread is here:

>>412787

[Anonymous No.413231]

>>406951
yeah, the best route for microswitch stuff like that is to crimp.

[Anonymous No.413232]

>>407346
fighter scion?

[BattlemechDood No.413232,1]

>>413232
You can read up on it here.

http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22149&page=11

[BattlemechDood No.413476]

>>413232
You can read up on it here.

http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22149&page=11

Now let this thread die, ahaha.