Genius.... Now with Video!

Oh, I thought it was obvious

KariFS wrote:Oh, I thought it was obvious

You did? Must be a cultural thing. Beats me!!

Wow !!! Totally tubular man !!!

You've taken Paul Turner's 1960 48-in (1220 mm) span Road Runner, scaled it down for Cox engine power?

http://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=698

Cribbs74 wrote:Is it so amazing that my feeble mind cannot comprehend? I don't see anything...

You can't see it because it's still in my head.  I thought it up yesterday evening, and now I have to build it.  But when you DO see it...

The Mad Inventor Mark

GallopingGhostler wrote:You've taken Paul Turner's 1960 48-in (1220 mm) span Road Runner, scaled it down for Cox engine power?

Bah!  Bah, I say!!!

The Dogbert Mark

Ok i am in , Totally amazing !!

getback wrote:Ok i am in , Totally amazing !!

Couldn'a said it better myself. Ditto Eric.
Rusty

There must've been some interference or something as I didn't receive your telepathic message.

It's not unusual for Mark to run interference when the ball is in his possession.

uuummmm    

Its one of these two!!

Yum! My favorite Martian... and I like the funny guy with the spaceship too.
Jacob, you just forgot to remove your tin hat LOL.

If you have an extra ACME anvil laying around, I am looking for one with good edges and will take it off your hands to prevent injury. Those pesky things tent to fall on Wile E. characters.

Phil

I got this idea at work.  I only get to go out to the flying field across town two or three times a month, as I’m either working, it’s raining, or I’m taking care of the wife.  I can do loops and lazy 8’s, but not much more.  And if I don’t get out more I never will progress.  I was thinking that if only there were a way for me to get some flights in at work on my lunch break, I could make some headway.  But there’s no way my company would let me fly on company property.  If only there was a way.  A way….  A WAY!!!


So, I introduce to you the proof-of-concept, Batjac Aeroworks™ Virtual Reality Control Line Simulation Unit (pat. pend.):





I assembled this on Thursday and Friday evenings using stuff I had laying around the house.  An old joystick that I hadn’t used in five years.  A couple of spare USB cables.  Some hardware.  Some coroplast for the handle.  A cardboard FPV headset from a cheap mini-racing quad.  MonoKote trim sheet covered box to house everything.  Total cost to build?  $0.00 dollars.  The unit only has a handle, a throttle wheel, and a Play/Pause switch.  It only has one switch on it because I only had one in my junk box.  The prototype will have at least four pushbuttons.  Maybe five.  And a USB jack.  And folding legs.  And racing stripes.  Yeah! Stripes!

The thing that makes this easy is that there’s a guy in England who has an R/C glider program called PicaSim that is free for download (http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/PicaSim/index.html).  He’s been working on it for years, and over time has added glow powered planes, and three Control Line models.  More than worth the few bucks I PayPal’ed him.  I built my proof-of-concept unit and downloaded the program, and:






To fly V/R C/L, I use the BAVRCLSU, my Galaxy S4 work phone (I don't have a personal cell phone), an OTG adapter, and the FPV headset:





I don’t have a way to record what I’m seeing on my phone, but if you go to the PicaSim website or do a YouTube search, you’ll see videos of control line flying in PicaSim.  Sorry for all the mouth breathing, but the headset pinched my nose and I couldn’t breath through it.  

I did my initial testing of the program and Simulation Unit on my Android tablet to get a feel for it before I put on the headpiece:





After a couple of hours messing with this, there’s a bit of play in the quick links I used to couple the handle to the elevator pot.  On the next one I’ll use ball links, I think.  And definitely ball bearings for more smoothness on the handle.  I also find that if I just use my right hand to move the handle up and down with no other tactile input, I start to fly this like an R/C airplane simulator, and feed in down input when I mean to do up.  So I use my left hand to push forward on the back of the Unit so my right hand feels pressure against my fingers like they’d feel with an actual control line handle.  My flying improved when I started doing that.

I built this with stuff laying around the house, but since Radio Shack is no more in my area, I’ll have to order the parts to make the next one.  I’ll play with this iteration for a few hours and see what changes I want to make on the prototype while I wait for parts, and then build the next version.

So far, I have used the VRCLSU on my work phone, on my 10” tablet, on my Barns & Noble Nook, and on my Windows 7 computer.  And I plan to take it to work tomorrow and get some laps around the circle on my lunch break…

The Virtuous Mark

Very Cool Mark ! There is more than one way to skin a cat LOL It looks good and like you said redoing the controller axes so it will bee more smoother (not so jerky)will bring it more to real life actions . I downloaded the app on my computer but got to spend more time with it right now i can't see my airplane?? It's fling somewhere ?? /cause it keeps crashing Keep us updated if you will .

Ok...... that's pretty cool Mark! The 1st photo had me wondering if everything was ok in your life.. (just kidding).. After watching the vid and reading the text.. I couldn't help but wonder if somehow a wii-controller couldn't be incorporated into the system? I'm not much of a gamer or electronics buff.. but if you could get one to function.. you might be able to replicate more of the physical arm-motion along with more freedom of movement. Nevertheless.. what you've accomplished is very clever.

Is there an option for selecting wind/speed/direction written into the software? Not sure how that could work.. maybe directional arrows in the background, that come-around (into view) when the model heads into the wind? I guess that may be a lot to ask for of a software program.. but having wind affect the flight would be very realistic.

Mark,

Very nice work. I really like the idea and the ingenuity. Is there a way to have short cables attach to the black box instead of that handle?

That way you could use a regular handle and hard mount that black box, which would allow you to stand and aid in the realism.

Ron

Cribbs74 wrote:Mark,

Very nice work.  I really like the idea and the ingenuity.  Is there a way to have short  cables attach to the black box instead of that handle?

That way you could use a regular handle and hard mount that black box, which would allow you to stand and aid in the realism.

Ron

Patience, my friend. Patience...

The Work In Progress Mark

getback wrote:Very Cool Mark ! There is more than one way to skin a cat LOL It looks good and like you said redoing the controller axes so it will bee more smoother (not so jerky)will bring it more to real life actions . I downloaded the app on my computer but got to spend more time with it right now i can't see my airplane?? It's fling somewhere ?? /cause it keeps crashing Keep us updated if you will .

Eric, when you do get it to show you the plane, there are a couple of adjustments to make to the control line planes before you fly.  I like flying the CL Extra, but it's way too heavy.  In the program it weighs 67 ounces.  About twice what a good control line trainer of 48 inch wingspan should have. Also, the planes fly way too fast, but partial throttle doesn't pull the plane through maneuvers.  Open up the Aeroplane tab in Settings, go to Advanced at the bottom of the screen, and:

1) Set Ballast Left to some negative number to simulate tip weight.  I use -0.3
2) Mass Multiplier to 0.75 or thereabouts.  This drops the weight to of the plane.
3) Set the size multiplier to just under 2.0.  This will slow the plane down to about a five second lap.
4) Give it a little wind in the Scenery tab for line tension in maneuvers.

These are the setting I started with.  You can adjust from there where you like.

The Tweaker Mark

roddie wrote:
Is there an option for selecting wind/speed/direction written into the software? Not sure how that could work.. maybe directional arrows in the background, that come-around (into view) when the model heads into the wind? I guess that may be a lot to ask for of a software program.. but having wind affect the flight would be very realistic.

Roddie,

If you look in the second video, at the bottom center of the screen is an arrow depicting the wind direction. The program has 28 different setting related to wind. The program was originally designed as a slope soaring RC glider simulator. The designer put lots of effort into the wind components of the program.

As for the Wii idea, you'd have to get the program and figure out how to make a Wii controller work with it. I read the author of the program say he probably wasn't going to make many more updates, if any. The base programming code he's working off of is supposed to go end-of-line sometime this year, and he's not going to be able to get any more updates through Google play or the Apple Store. He's thinking of writing a new program after that occurs, but no specifics. I do remember there was a man making RC conversions to Wii controllers a few years ago. A German fellow, maybe? If you could get one of those, you might be able to use a simulator cable with that to do this. But I'm afraid you're on your own on that front.

The Blow Hard Mark

It sounds like a much more comprehensive program than I first assumed. This has great potential. There has been a similar machine, but much more restricted by the limited processing power of its day. Your project looks really promising. And quite ingenious.
Rusty

Thanks for the reply Mark. I liked Ron's thought on connecting lines somehow.. to the box and mounting the box rigidly. Maybe as simple as a disc (with hub) with line-connections 180 degrees apart to actuate a servo-driver. It would transfer the disc's radial-motion into linear-motion. It might feel more realistic.. even with very short (2-3ft.) lines.

It's very cool; that "wind" is written into the software. I thought it might be.. where the fellow that created it is into soaring.