Do you love flying FS2 in VR? Looking for even more immersion?

Introducing AuthentiKit

In the spirit of sharing our home cockpits, here is something I've been working on for over 18 months and is just now coming together. It is currently in the form of the Robin DR400 which is great to fly in VR in FS2, but if you watch the video, you'll see there's more to it than that. You'll also see that this is something intended for the whole flight sim community to benefit from (in the spirit of my fsCloudPort application). It is currently in beta test with one of the guys on the forum and I will shortly be looking for a small number of people to help test it before I announce it more publicly. For more information see www.authentikit.org.

Quote from Ozav8r

Very intriguing project! I’m really impressed with your vision and understanding of what matters most in VR, i.e. geographic location of controls, levers, knobs, switches and buttons. The modular approach is just perfect to allow individual adaptation of different aircraft. Well done - I’ll be watching the ongoing development of this with great interest!

Thanks, well apart from making a few tweaks to the DR400 design, my main focus of effort now is creating assembly videos and giving jpx all the help he needs to build this. He received a kit this week.

Quote from J.B.

Wow, this looks really nice.

How did you put the sticky notes in VR?

Clipmaker : Editable clipboard For JF Duchess 76 / Cessna 152 / Robin DR400

Let me know if you want to be a 2nd beta tester. I'm going to order a bunch more parts soon and sell them as a kit at cost price. ~£110. Need your own 3d printer though at this stage.

Quote from MrRCSound

Hi Phil,

Long time since I posted here. I am manly using the other sim now, although if IPACS can improve things I will be back for sure. I have also tried that other new one that is out, not impressed so far.

I still have the G-seat I made based on your design. Have not used it in a while, but it is awesome when I do.

Anyway, this is a neat setup. I have a whole cockpit setup now, with three monitors, and a Diagma panel, but this makes me almost want to go back to VR.

Two questions about VR if you don't mind.

I have the Rift CV1. What should I look for, for an upgrade. Is the Pimax 5k worth it, or would you recommend another.

How do you set things up so that the position of the instruments, buttons, knobs, etc are in the correct position with relation to VR? Do you have to play with seating position, FOV, etc? I would want to set it up so that when I reach for something in VR, the button or switch is in the correct position.

Great work on this! I hope it works out for you, and you sell a ton of them.

Andrew

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Hi Andrew,

Everything on the dashboard positions correctly due to the fascia, which is part cosmetic and part for alignment. Also on the bottom of the fascia is a small "nick" and all the console mounted controls (wheel brake, trim, flaps) are aligned under there.

Then you need to use measurement to align the console controls. I'll be supplying a simplified version of this.

As for the next VR headset, I have the Reverb G2 on order. It doesn't provide the big FOV we all crave but its a big step up from the Rift (i had the HP G1). Screen door and clarity is a non-issue with the Reverb.

Cheers

Phil

Quote from J.B.

Hey, thanks for the offer. Unfortunately I don't currently have a 3D printer, but I'll definitely ping you in case I do acquire one some time soon.

I'll set up a Facebook page soon so people can follow progress better. I'm also working on more ways to solve the 3d printer problem. There is already one person on the forum here who has offered to 3d print one or two full sets of parts at cost as a gesture of goodwill for people in the community. Cost of printing all the parts is probably <$20. This is the kind of community sharing I'm hoping to inspire with this project.

OK, here's the Facebook page. I'm very new to this. I think if I get a few likes I can give it a nicer username/URL

https://www.facebook.com/AuthentiKit-102656871578604

Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see next on it? Video? Photos?

Quote from ussiowa

Phil, great stuff!

1- For the museum we have a few flying stations. I tried to create stuff like this, but it's a long story (need real industrial strength). I have however created a few designs and prototypes (helicopter, and such). I'm really interested in the control box as this is the part that is challenging my expertise (I'm a mech engineer)

2- I'm having fun creating stuff like this, so if you need help, chime in. Mostly interested in developping the fighter jets and fighter planes versions.

3- I can create anything in Sketchup as you know. Can be 3D printed and/or imported into F360. F360 is next anyway.

4- For example, here is a heli version of collective control designed around electrical conduit and boxes (faster than 3D printing when available). Never went further because lack of time and dove into research on control box and sensors. Then I found a professional unit cheaper, faster, and sturdy for sure for our application. But we could evolve the concept.

This one had collective, Throttle, and as many buttons and switches as necessary (box on the left, at tip of stick).

Can be made to any length, with springs and rotary damper if needed.

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Thanks. One of my breakthroughs was to move away from designing items as one entire unit and so having to design in the bearings, hall sensors, friction, wire connectivity etc etc each time on a custom basis, but designing re-usable components. Here's my "MagHall 6802" which can easily be dropped into a Heli collective, flap lever, landing gear, throttle quadrant etc just like a piece of lego. Someone I'm working with is making a throttle quadrant for a P47 with it.

I've put a few more piccies on https://www.facebook.com/AuthentiKit-102656871578604

I'll release the designs for this when I'm properly launched and you can drop it straight into Fusion 360 (Sketchup too probably)

Hi, working pretty hard on it actually, though i’ve decided to focus on getting one complete product designed and all assembly niggles ironed out. Part of that is to fine tune these maghalls. I’m developing a system to simplify the alignment of the cube magnet. The design doesn’t need to restrict +/-45 degs or so. As long as the sensor/magnet alignment starts in the right place you get almost +/-90.

I’m using 3 of them here for pitch, roll and brake lever. https://fb.com/FlyAuthentiKit