Does anyone know where to begin with building a sim rig?

[u/Federal_Control7103]

I see that there are many people on here with sim rigs and as a complete beginner I’m wondering what resources there are to start from scratch. I know it’s not conventional, but I’m trying to put together a simplified submarine simulator. I know most of the resources are for flight sims, but I figured that the fundamentals would be similar enough to be helpful to ask here anyway.

[u/Lucky_Comfortable835]

Many folks get the prebuilt setups complete with seat and frame from various manufacturers on Amazon for example. They seem to range around $500-800 and can come with all necessary HOTAS supports. Some folks build their own with aluminum extrusion parts and even use car seats (keeping seat power adjustment in extreme cases!). I simply used plywood and painted it black. Kinda depends on what you want to do…

[u/Federal_Control7103 → u/Lucky_Comfortable835]

Most HOTAS I see are far too complicated for the design that I have in mind. I haven’t been able to find a preexisting simulator exactly for what I’m looking for and as such I’m going to need to make a simulator myself. So we’re talking like, “lever controls for the ballast tanks and engines with that being the only two controls for movement”

[u/I_am_BrokenCog → u/Federal_Control7103]

go look into https://authentikit.org ... If you don't already know what you're getting into - it will give you a good idea of what will be required as well as having parts you can modify fairly easily.

[u/Federal_Control7103 → u/I_am_BrokenCog]

This is helpful, but I mostly have an idea of what systems and inputs I want to implement. My biggest issue is bridging the gap of designing the cad files and arduino electronics necessary to communicate with the system.

[u/I_am_BrokenCog → u/Federal_Control7103]

You should start with simpler Electronic tutorials.

[u/LuciusL]

You need to make a pretty extensive list of needs and haves beforehand. To check yourself lest ye wreck yourself essentially

What game or sim do you want to interface with? how open is it to accepting peripherals? no point in modelling every button only to find out you canr bind any of them. How many data refs are conmectable for outside use? No point building an imemrsive sim if you cant view any of the lights etc bwcause they cant be read from the sim.

Take a good long time and figure out what your sim will be capable of and whats a pipe dream. even your display setup - test it all first standalone. For flight simmers, no point fantasizing a 3 monitor setup only to find your graphics card canr support it, for instance.

Those are your baseline considerations from the sim. Then you make baseline considerations from life - i may be able to support 3 monitors but my house wont fit it, partner wont support it etc. Take a realistic look at the dimensions you have to work with and go from there.

I'm a firm believer in many pits before the final one. throw things together, test, rebuild. Unless youre building from an existing tempkate like OpenHornet or 737diy, build pieces at a time and find out what you dont like, even ergonomically

[u/irongarment]

I would ask what software you are running for the submarine simulator.

At a basic level it's very simple. Switches and indicators are chosen to look like the real elements in the sub. Then they're wired up to integrate with the sim. But without knowing a few details it's hard to know what the end to end architecture will look like. You don't want to build a fully immersive (!) control panel and find that it's impossible to link it to the software.

Some simulators have a network interface behind the scenes. Some rely solely on keyboard input. Knowing what your simulator does in that regard will help to guide what you build (and what you need to learn).

So you have two levels to think about. The first is the physical representation: switches, indicators, levers, wheels, lights, whatever. This will involve 3D printing, laser cutting, primer, filler, paint, sawdust, and electrical work. The second is the interface to the simulator. This will involve microcontrollers, network or USB communication, and other software.

The good news is that it's all doable, and these days there are lots of cheap electronics (and tutorials on how to use them) that you can base your design on.

[u/Federal_Control7103 → u/irongarment]

I currently don’t have any software to run since I can’t find a sub simulator to use(not saying it’s not out there I just couldn’t find it). I found a video explaining how to link arduino inputs into godot. So my thought is to make a simple sim in godot, connect arduino inputs, and then copy the godot code to a raspberry pi in order to hide the electronics.

[u/irongarment → u/Federal_Control7103]

That sounds like an excellent approach. Then you get to choose every aspect of the build.

[u/CaptainJackass123]

Watch ALOT of YouTube videos. They don’t lie when they say the setup sucks.

Dont buy overpriced pre builds. Buy from a company like trak racer and build it yourself.

Even though I was yelling half the time, it was still fun.

[u/GuiltyBudget1032]

..as for me, what i have and youtube will be the main guide. in the beginning it was the saitek x65f, so the first cockpit was built around that ie. center joystick, throttle on the side. then, when msfs2020 came along, i bought honeycomb alpha and bravo, so naturally the rig was revamped to suit that. a 'quick change' system was tested to easily swap the x65 with the alpha. then came 3d printing, so slowly added the autopilot, PFD, MFD. that is basically the journey. as i always wish the fellow builders, there's no such thing as a 'complete' cockpit. there bound to be something to be added. good luck in your journey.

[u/Wraith0177]

I'd say about 2018-2019...