Learning by doing. My ACES II G-Seat

Stepped into my first VR experience at the Forest Fair (now Cincinnati Mills) Mall in the late 80s. Huge headset, cheapo plastic gun controller, Wargames/Last Starfighter-era graphics.

I was hooked.

Fast-forward a handful of years and I "strapped" into a VR F-16 sim at Wright-Patterson AFB. Slightly lighter headset, mocked-up cockpit, Falcon 3-era graphics.

Further hooked.

Fast-forward again to two years ago and my Rift DK1 showed up, followed shortly by the DK2. Started doing a little development, some testing with various control methods. Basically just geeking out.

And I set the hook even deeper.

Everything was cool, it was just missing the motion aspect. Hence, I stumbled across this page. My skill is all in software and systems, but I have a good measure of confidence instilled by my father, which I figured would help me through the woodworking, mechanical, and electrical aspects of a sim. Did a bit of research and decided I wanted to keep my first foray into all of this simple. I didn't want to have to worry about:

1. A large project, money-wise
2. Additional software/math/programming to interface (cancel) actual motion from the Rift
3. A large-project, space-wise
4. Something that could be built-upon to upgrade

After some considerable research, I decided on a g-seat. Bergison's seat is my inspiration and you can find his project detailed here -> (Apologies, not allowed to post links yet, it looks like. Will update later I suppose)

I toyed around with a couple of options:

1. Racing seat - but would have to cut/modify so much of it that I didn't want to have to deal with it. Also, cost.
2. Seat from an actual car - Same as above, but with additional concern of weight (a factor in #4 above)
3. Copy Bergison's seat - almost made the cut, but decided I wanted to "make the project my own 'design'"
4. Build something from scratch.

I decided on #4 and determined that if I'm ever going to go ahead and build an actual cockpit around this thing, that I'd go with an "actual" ejection seat. ACES II (F-16 version) it was, then.

I considered Brenda's ACES II plans for about 13 seconds before I realized:

1. Way too heavy
2. Way beyond my current woodworking skill

So I found these -> (Apologies, not allowed to post links yet, it looks like. Will update later I suppose)

Perfect!

So the plans are laid. I have the seat plans, I'm pretty much going to follow Bergison's lead on the internals (wiper motors, arduino), and I'm going Rift/HOTAS for the human interfaces.

I already have a good start, but wanted to keep this post as introduction only. More to come.

-Shawn

Part 1 - Building the seat

Parts list:
1. 1/2" plywood - 4'x8'
2. Wood glue
3. Screws
4. The heavy cardboard backing from a poster frame
5. Tools: Saws, screwdrivers, drills, band-aids, gin and tonic
6. Scrap wood (2x4s mostly)

Can't post links yet, so Google "simpits how to aces" and it should be the first hit.

I decided to build only the shell from these plans, leaving the interior completely available for supports, motors, linkages, electronics, etc.

So here's the back of the seat with the headrest and various bits at the top yet to be completed.



The only immediate concern with building just the shell is that I wanted the rear panel to be removable, so I needed additional support there. I decided on a couple of 2x4s. You can see one at the bottom in the above pic. . .there's another at the top. Each are screwed/glued into the side panels and the back panel is only screwed into them so that I can remove it.

Next came the "seat of the seat" and it's attachment to the back.



The main deviation from the plan here was to omit the center supporting structure, also in the name of space for internals. You can see two 2x4s poking out of the back that will eventually support the seat flaps.

Here's a better pic of that, along with a hint of the back flap supports:



Finally, the flaps! I went will full-size flaps as I want anyone to be able to enjoy the seat, not just me. And me being 6'6" and 220 lbs means customizing it to myself only would have left out a large portion of the population in my house.



The flaps will eventually be padded and covered in OD canvas.

Next step, motors and mechanicals. Which are on the way now!

-Shawn

Really interesting project. We don't see to many g-seat style projects here. I was already deep into my flight/race sim project before I even discovered this kind of sim existed.

Nice workmanship so far! Best of luck with the build.

Hey Shawn....do I know you from Viper pits or Hornet pits? I am Propnut over there.

a new gSeat project: great!

thanks for sharin gthe pictures: I'm eager to see your progress

I am on viperpits, but have not yet posted. Only conducted research. . .mainly on Brenda's plans. I'll keep an eye out!

-Shawn

noorbeast, cgodwin, and RacingMat,

Thanks for the kinds words and tips. Motors should be here today and I'll be hitting the local shops looking for brackets and miscellaneous hardware. More work/pictures soon!

-Shawn

Woodwork filled, smoothed, and painted. Flaps not painted as they'll be padded and covered eventually.

Just got ship notification for the motors, arduino and controller. Power supply arrived yesterday. Nearly time for another big push!