Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

[RCHeliguy]

@RCHeliguy your taking this feeling of being connected to your rig a little far from that last photo

 

[RCHeliguy]

That is quite a motion rig! This video is from 5 years ago.

It has 64 feet of travel X and Y and a hydraulic hexapod on a turntable that has 330 degrees of motion. They use projectors to create a 360 degree field of view around the car.

They can fit complete cabs of cars and trucks inside the enclosed environment.

They've used this sim rig to measure the reaction times of drivers under the influence of alcohol, pot and various distractions.

 

[blekenbleu]

Yesterday in 7 hours ( yes I know it was a Saturday ) I wrote a fairly elaborate application with the help of Chat GPT 4 and CoPilot. Extremely impressive stuff. When I got my code working and generated an analysis of the data produced, my customer seemed blown away!

Most YT AI-assisted code development videos do not exceed lameness.
My guess is that combining your video and dev chops could attract many views.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Most YT AI-assisted code development videos do not exceed lameness.
My guess is that combining your video and dev chops could attract many views.

I know a number of very talented software developers who are making use of AI-assisted code development these days. I agree with your assessment. Many people creating videos don't have real life projects to help create realistic videos. The rub is that frequently I'm under an NDA, or don't have rights to the code I'm creating. So I can't use it in a video. It would take some effort to create a good video on the subject and sadly that feels like work.

From what I've seen, the best way to use Visual Studio CoPilot is to make all your data objects first and add any helper methods you may need making sure to use descriptive method and variable naming conventions( which you should be doing anyway ), then it seems to naturally fill in the blanks rather well.

It handles a lot of the busy work of mapping data to intermediate data objects. It generates lots of good LINQ queries. So it is especially good at handling monotonous code where you just click enter, it suggests the next line and you click tab to accept that, then Enter, Tab, Enter, Tab.

It's also great when you are refactoring. Let's say that you just created an inline method and then go back to clean up some more redundant looking code to use the new method. It watches what you do the first time and when you get to the next chunk of code that looks similar, it can automatically replace that chunk of code with the new method you created, automatically filling the appropriate arguments.

Then let's say you just queried something into an list of objects it recognizes and start a foreach loop, it may suggest something completely wrong, or something decent. What's interesting is that when it guesses some code right and you tab to keep that but then delete a piece of that code, you can put in a comment to describe what you are planning to do next and sometimes it will generate exactly what you said you planned to do.

It's also good at understanding your intent, so you might have an if not null check and a piece of code. When you type else it may automatically create an error log or Console.WriteLine( with text that makes sense including a variable that that you would likely want to see in a message.

It also is good at suggesting best practices. So when I had a small method that simply isolated some hard coded credentials ( which is a bad practice ). I hit a space in between methods and it generated an identical method that pulled all the credentials out of in this case Azure environment variables.

Unfortunately the new hasn't worn off and I sometimes waste some time trying to figure out how it inferred what it just generated from what I gave it.

In terms of learning how to use ChatGPT effectively to generate code, that is a much harder thing to describe. I like asking ChatGPT to generate little snippets of code that I can paste into Visual Studio and then use CoPilot. This is similar to how some people get very good at creating effective search engine requests and other people have trouble getting information. You just trial and error you way along and see what seems to work. Basically you are trained to create requests that seem to work for you, but they vary so much that I would have to take time to figure out how I'm thinking to generate what I feed it.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Most YT AI-assisted code development videos do not exceed lameness.
My guess is that combining your video and dev chops could attract many views.

FWIW, I've created advanced level development classes using Camtasia for extremely large consulting firms and training text and sample code to be distributed to ISV's with SDK distribution. My current large customer ( current full time contract ) has asked me to train their new developers. I've been creating training references related to the technologies they are using and classes in MarkDown stored in GitHub and then I run them through the hands on classes and give them small projects. I am still architecting solutions and doing the heavy lifting development tasks, but then I'm breaking down everything I can into assignments for them to work on.

So when I say that sounds like work, I should have said, that is the type of work that I am paid to do and it is hard for me to justify trying to amortize a YouTube channel. I'm sure it would generate traffic, but not enough in this niche to be worth it to me. I have an open invitation to generate training material for online classes and to travel to teach with a fairly large technical training company. It's possible that I'll consider doing that some day. I do enjoy teaching. Time will tell.

 

[blekenbleu]

current full time contract

Bingo, so little motivation to generate more interest from potential customers.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Bingo, so little motivation to generate more interest from potential customers.

I've has as much work as I would ever want for most of the last 15 years I've been doing this. The curse of it is that if I want a new toy I tend to just work a little more to pay for it and sometimes that becomes an endless cycle so I end up working and buying, working and buying, and guess what I rarely spend any time doing?

 

[blekenbleu]

The curse of it

My experience has been hobby activities which at other times was paid "work".
Those activities had in common solving puzzles involving physics.

guess what I rarely spend any time doing

Avoiding impeding faster cars was first priority on track days;
times when few others were on track, e.g. during rain, were most enjoyed.
Car preparation, imagining, implementing and testing improvements were the focus and reward.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I should have published this a long time ago. Thankfully Peter brought to my attention that I hadn't shared this yet.

It's helpful setting up isolation alignment, but there have also been a few people who said that their isolation was slowly creeping backwards during use. I believe that was because they were putting metal washers between the rubber and the tactile plate, but this will take care of that issue.

Isolation Spacer by RCHeliGuy

This is a isolation spacer that fits around the 64mm diameter rubber donut used for tactile Isolation.It is useful for initial setup, but can be left in place if a person has any issues with the rubber bumpers sliding backwards.

www.thingiverse.com

 

[RCHeliguy]

So I may be getting another BK-CT and pulling my TST-329 out of it's box.
I need to try out the lastest new effects pre-release GV 16.6 I understand that they absolutely unleash the power of the large BK units without any pangs.

The idea is to put two BK's in series and two TST's in series. So no new channels, config or amplifiers.

 

[mikemav]

So I may be getting another BK-CT and pulling my TST-329 out of it's box.
I need to try out the lastest new effects pre-release GV 16.6 I understand that they absolutely unleash the power of the large BK units without any pangs.

The idea is to put two BK's in series and two TST's in series. So no new channels, config or amplifiers.

Forgive my ignorance, what is GV 16.6?

 

[MarkModdy]

Forgive my ignorance, what is GV 16.6?

I presume @RCHeliguy is referring to the ‘Good Vibrations’ Simhubdash profile version 16.6… Good vibrations is the go to discord channel for the tactile effects!

 

[RCHeliguy]

I presume @RCHeliguy is referring to the ‘Good Vibrations’ Simhubdash profile version 16.6… Good vibrations is the go to discord channel for the tactile effects!

It's still a prerelease that I've not tested personally, but based on feedback from it, and what I felt from an earlier version....

I think we are about to reach a whole new level

And sorry, I wasn't trying to be cryptic with my previous post.

One thing I will say was that with Mr. Latte’s system, it was pretty easy to drop in a new profile because the mappings were simple and assumed the same transducers

These new profiles take a little more time to wrap your head around because you start with a matrix of which layers map well to each type of transducer. Then you go from there.

The good news is that the matrix should make the most of what you've got. It doesn't rely on TST-BK pairs. However that doesn't mean that TST BK pairs don't feel really good.

The bit about doubling up the BK's in series is something new on top of this. I should try out the new profile before changing anything else. The results should be good already.

None of this changes the fact that it might be next month before I have time to play much with this

 

[RCHeliguy]

My daughter is bringing back her gaming computer and the Rift I gave her. I'm going to transplant it I to a bigger better ventilated case and drop my old 2080Ti into it.

It's been about 4 years since I played with the old Rift. It will be interesting to see it in action again.

I'm debating getting another set of base stations and setting it up with my Index before she takes ot home. I doubt I'll use the Index again, but it still feels like an old friend.

 

[RCHeliguy]

So I've been working on my deck instead of playing on my rig lately which leaves me tired and less interested in gaming.

Having the right tools for demolition and construction helps. Since I've decided to do this project completely by myself, I need all the mechanical advantage I can get.

I have some rotting header boards, but the rest of the deck is in good shape and no one would repair it for me. They all wanted to tear it down and rebuild it from scratch.

I also didn't want to shell out $40K+ for an all new synthetic deck and drain roof over my screen room. But to be fair this is tedious work and requires engineering a lot of solutions. Synthetic decking screws are painful to remove. I have to get all the wood cut away, use bolt cutters on the bottom of the bolts, then use a small screw to drive into the plugs on top. Pull them out than hand screw the screws out "clockwise" because the top of synthetic screws run the opposite direct to the rest of the bolts.

So I started with #1 kiln dried pressure treated lumber and then put 2 coats of a 25 year stain on it. I'm epoxy sealing the end grain and anywhere I cut it and I'm using decking tape to help seal the holes where screws go through.

Phase one was a single board where I worked everything out. All the other joists behind this one look great. This just had a pile of holes screwed into it from the side for the synthetic sheathing.

You can see the decking tape applied where the synthetic sheathing is screwed in. Hopefully this will last a lot longer than the last one. There is a strip of tape like that running along the entire top of the board as well where the decking screws down into it. I also used epoxy on all the exposed wood that this bolts to.

Starting the larger second phase of work.

Fortunately most of the joists are intact and solid all the way back the header board on the house.

Now to build a big draw bridge winch system that will allow me to crank the joists up level with where they will be placed and another winch that will pull them into place. I will need to notch the 2 x 2x12" boards that are the outer support for these.

So at least you know what I'll be doing this summer.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Back to VR.

I recently purchased this Xumee $12.99 USB-C DAC / headphone amp and I like it.

When I got my Aero I purchased expensive low impedance very efficient headphones Sure 846 that do work really well with the analog jack on the Aero. The Sure 215 never sounded very good plugged into the Aero and I think that is impedance related.

However this little USB-C DAC/amp DRAMATICALLY improved the performance of the Sure 215. Side by side with the same Comply Pro inserts the 215 sounded pretty good and DEFINITELY good enough for gaming. For $100 that is a pretty big deal.

Now the 846's still sound better for music and vocals especially, but for gaming I would say they are serious overkill when being driven by a decent headphone amp or even one that can handle higher impedances well. I think it's hard to suggest something this cheap is audiophile grade, but it is surprisingly good for that price.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083LC9WMB

Why did I buy this? The Bigscreen Beyond doesn't have an analog headphone jack, it has a USB-C connection. So this is in preparation for my "potentially" buying a Bigscreen Beyond and continuing to use my Sure 846 Gen2 with it.

I don't want to start another debate about VR headsets.

I find this headset interesting because it is completely different from any other headset I've ever had. So that's my call. I'm extremely curious about something that is so different.

I'm well aware of the specs and weaknesses. I have heard back from one beta tester who is a sim racer and what I heard is encouraging. It's not perfect to be sure, but I will likely end up with one just to try it out if nothing else.

 

[GagarynGaribaldi]

Back to VR.

I recently purchased this Xumee $12.99 USB-C DAC / headphone amp and I like it.

When I got my Aero I purchased expensive low impedance very efficient headphones Sure 846 that do work really well with the analog jack on the Aero. The Sure 215 never sounded very good plugged into the Aero and I think that is impedance related.

However this little USB-C DAC/amp DRAMATICALLY improved the performance of the Sure 215. Side by side with the same Comply Pro inserts the 215 sounded pretty good and DEFINITELY good enough for gaming. For $100 that is a pretty big deal.

Now the 846's still sound better for music and vocals especially, but for gaming I would say they are serious overkill when being driven by a decent headphone amp or even one that can handle higher impedances well. I think it's hard to suggest something this cheap is audiophile grade, but it is surprisingly good for that price.

View attachment 669953

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083LC9WMB

Why did I buy this? The Bigscreen Beyond doesn't have an analog headphone jack, it has a USB-C connection. So this is in preparation for my "potentially" buying a Bigscreen Beyond and continuing to use my Sure 846 Gen2 with it.

I don't want to start another debate about VR headsets.

I find this headset interesting because it is completely different from any other headset I've ever had. So that's my call. I'm extremely curious about something that is so different.

I'm well aware of the specs and weaknesses. I have heard back from one beta tester who is a sim racer and what I heard is encouraging. It's not perfect to be sure, but I will likely end up with one just to try it out if nothing else.

Both the 215 and 846 are low very low impedance, 846 being the lower of the two. Impedance is only part of the equation of course, the 846 are also a lot more sensitive (7dB) so with any given output they will be significantly louder.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Both the 215 and 846 are low very low impedance, 846 being the lower of the two. Impedance is only part of the equation of course, the 846 are also a lot more sensitive (7dB) so with any given output they will be significantly louder.

With the Aero I needed to give it nearly twice as much volume to get similar levels and it never sounded right.

With the USB-C DAC/amp it actually sounded OK at the same volume and only needed a couple notches to be equal and it sounded MUCH better. Frankly that surprised me because I understand the differences you mentioned.

FYI, I got a lot of my questions answered by people with experience using the BSB and I heard all the good and the bad and decided I knew enough to get in line. Yes, it's not perfect and there may even be a couple things I'm not happy with, but I've got to get my hands on one.

So I've put myself in the pre-order line for a first product from a company with no track record. What could go wrong ?

 

[mechsicko]

Looking forward to reading your hands on impressions of the BSB. I just picked up some cheap but decent sounding earbuds to use with my Index cause I was getting tired of slapping the hmd and shaking my head around to keep the left speaker limping along but also as an audio solution for BSB should I end up going that route.

Sadly the audio output through the jack on the Index sucks and sounds awful/tinny and so far any attempts I've made with an EQ lead to glitches and crashes. Neither APO Equalizer or VoiceMeter play nicely with SteamVR (particularly Dirt Rally 2.0) on my machine so for now I'm stuck with hollow sounding audio. My Index speakers were shorting out or something cause that was causing weird crashes and issues too so switching back to them not really an option either.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Looking forward to reading your hands on impressions of the BSB. I just picked up some cheap but decent sounding earbuds to use with my Index cause I was getting tired of slapping the hmd and shaking my head around to keep the left speaker limping along but also as an audio solution for BSB should I end up going that route.

Sadly the audio output through the jack on the Index sucks and sounds awful/tinny and so far any attempts I've made with an EQ lead to glitches and crashes. Neither APO Equalizer or VoiceMeter play nicely with SteamVR (particularly Dirt Rally 2.0) on my machine so for now I'm stuck with hollow sounding audio. My Index speakers were shorting out or something cause that was causing weird crashes and issues too so switching back to them not really an option either.

I purchased a replacement left Index Speaker. One of the two spring loaded pins was jamming and not making contact. I would have to remove it and pop the contact free and then it would work for a little while.

I started having other issues, but you could see them in the display as well. My tether hand worn out, so $129 for a new tether and my Index was working well.

They sell a complete replacement rear band with both speakers for $114, but they are currently out of stock.

Valve Index Headset Head Strap: Genuine Replacement Part

Replace a damaged head strap assembly for a Valve Index Headset.

www.ifixit.com

I've heard a number of people say the BSB is an easy and logical upgrade from the Index.

But I'll definitely let you know what I think when I get it. I never did recommend the Aero. I like it enough to use in place of my Index, but that's not the same thing.