What you see is a glorified DIY joystick controller with a LCD (‘MFD’) and plenty of RGB inspired by a VF-1 (Block 6) Valkyrie of the Macross franchise.
I use it mainly to play Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, X4: Foundations and plenty of other Space Pew Pew.
It’s mobile and can be stashed easily because my battlestation is, unlike most gaming rigs, also my workstation and has to move a lot. It’s also frequently occupied by my kids who also love clicky buttons and compete with me for stick time :D
It’s completely DIY and made on a budget (no really). It’s also Work In Progress, like probably any home cockpit out there.
For the PC it’s just a joystick and an additional display. The magic starts to happen when I manage to interface with the games to display live game data and adjust the blinken lights depending on the current ship telemetry.
Am I crazy? Yes, probably. It’s a hobby and when Corona happened indoor hobbies became kinda a thing again 🤓
Edith says: Should have added this from the beginning: I do foster a project website that has additional details, pictures and videos: 🌐 https://SimPit.dev (yes it’s slow - hold the line :P)
Videos are usually mirrored to 📹 https://tube.tchncs.de/a/bekopharm or 📹 https://www.youtube.com/@BekoPharm (pick your poison).
Additional content may be found on 🌐 https://beko.famkos.net/category/simpit/ or on ☠️ https://hackaday.io/bekopharm
That’s so cool. Do you have any videos showing off the build process or final product
Plenty but mostly snippets only. Nothing cohesive for a while (3 kids don’t leave much energy for YT).
There is a project website: https://SimPit.dev (slow af, backyard hosted but ads and tracking free) There’s also a PeerTube channel: https://tube.tchncs.de/a/bekopharm/video-channels I did make one of those dreaded YT Shorts (not going to do that again - that’s just pain): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BoJHZQpK2Iw
Other sources may be derived from the project website or my blog 🤓