Ramblings, v.2

I was gonna be all slick and make a proper build page, but I can’t figure out how to easily get flickr to give me a freakin link to the picture so I can just drop it right in my page. So hell with it. If you wanna see the pictures, go here. I took an AK Designs Rocker 100 (which has a picture on the box of a dude holding an xbox controller BACKWARDS…check the flicker pics), a Microsoft Xbox 360 Racing Wheel, and a pile of wood & fasteners, and made racing game nirvana. Ok, not quite; it could really use a buttkicker. And a way to secure the pedals. But it’s still pretty damn awesome. If you ignore the cost of new tools & supplies I didn’t use (and seat and M$ wheel), it probably cost me about $80 for the raw materials. Add in the seat (which normally comes with when you buy a production racing cockpit), and you’re up to $130. However, I didn’t modify the seat at all, and it’s not even attached to the platform, so it can still be used as just another tv/gaming chair, unlike [edit] some of [/edit] the seats that come with those production cockpits. Also, I plan to add a couple arms to the platform to support a joystick/throttle set for the upcoming Ace Combat 6, something else you can’t do with a production cockpit. So, .

The cockpit is fully adjustable. The seat isn’t even attached, so you can move it wherever the hell you want. The wheel pedestal is made to be used to hold up a fishing seat in a boat, so it’s made pretty sturdy. It’s also adjustable with the cotter pin shown in a couple of the pictures. It was pretty loose (ie. the top half of the pedestal rotated a bit), so I had to add a set screw. The one I bought is a tad long, I’ll hafta go back the hardware store and get a shorter one. The pedal mount also has multiple holes its carriage bolts can fit into. There are big handle-nuts, making the entire platform near-toolless (stupid set screw). Ah well, I can look past a 45-cent allen wrench.

A nowhere-near-complete list of tools used:

• Dremel XPR 400 – Seriously. Oh my Christ is this little deal useful. If you fancy yourself a handyman (or -woman), and you don’t have a Dremel, kick your ass down to your hardware store and buy one.
• 220-01 Workstation – Literally doubles usefulness of the dremel
• MS400 Multisaw + Dremel XPR 400 = Jigsaw?! SWEET
• 565 Multipurpose Cutting Kit – Makes routing a snap
• Routing bits, sanding bits, ROTO-ZIP-style bits
• 10″ Circular-saw chop box – Some brand, I dunno. It’s my dad’s, but he never uses it, so he said I could hold on to it “for a while”. If I used the Dremel the most, this was a close second.
• Stand-alone 10″ circular saw – Again, some brand. It works.
• ‘Lecrtic screw gun & 1″ to 2.5″ screws
• ‘Lectric staple gun & 9/16″ staples
• Hand tools galore
• Palm sander
• Hand files
• The Dremel of sawhorses – it’s a sawhorse, but also has a platform that folds out so you can use it as a work surface. I have no idea how long this would have taken without it.

Wow, that is actually pretty complete. Here’s a go at the raw materials:

• 3 2″x4″x8′
• 1 1″x10″x6′ (only needed 12.5″, but 6′ means I have plenty left over if I need it for something else)
• Enough .5″ particle board for 32″x4′ (left over from my workbench build…and I have enough left still for another racing cockpit)
• 4′ of wood trim (see the flicker pics)
• 3′x12′ of the cheapest carpet Home Depot sells ($0.39/sq. ft.)
• Adjustable fishing seat post from Gander Mountain
• Bunch of bolts, nuts, & washers

All totaled, it probably took me 10 hours of in-the-garage build time. There was 20+ hours of planning and thought that went into the design that got thrown out when it got down to actually building the beast. If I had to build another one, I hope I could get it done in 8 hours, less if I had a helper. (Not to say Melinda didn’t help – she helped hold the particle board when I was cutting it in half and later when I needed a shorter test fitter – but someone helping with the manual labor stuff.)

After hauling the contraption downstairs and firing up Forza 2, I raced for about 2 hours. The cockpit felt pretty damned good, and I’d have raced longer if I weren’t tired & sore from 2 days of manual labor. There’s always tomorrow evening. Sweet.

ross sweet action

On Site5 hosting. The (again) is because I had to reset the database a few times to get rid of recurring illegal characters that ended up as ?? in the database. Posts were full of this sort of thing.?? Between nearly every sentence.?? Really, I’m not full of that many questions. I just accept that I’m generally confused.
I’ll be starting on my racing seat this weekend. Menards sent out their 15% off bags again, so it’ll be a good time to pick up some Dremel accessories, such as a wrench-less chuck, a multi-vise, a workstation, and maybe a planer. Mmm…tools at 15% off…

I’m gonna hafta just scratch-build the steering wheel mount, since I still can’t think of a “pretty” way to do it, and I’ve decided to re-think my idea for securing the chair. Instead of through-piping some 2×6’s, a pair of 2×4’s with some slightly-larger-than-necessary u-ish-shaped pipe mounts could work just fine. I also need to find some cheap carpeting to cover it with. I’m thinking a trip down to Kendor for marine-grade fabric would stand up to whatever I need, and they probably have odd-shaped & sized pieces for cheap.

My next building project will be an official screen for my projector in the basement. I’m starting to look at the different methods, and everything I’ve found comes down to either framed fabric (canvass, blackout cloth, etc.) or a giant rectangle of something solid (drywall, etc.). A couple project managers at work went with drywall, but it takes a ton of work to get it right – tape, mud, sand, multiple custom paint coats, and more sanding. I’m thinking that I can go with blackout cloth for much less work, except that with my screen now 6′ by 10′, the only place that I’ve found that makes it big enough sells it by the yard on a 110″ ream for $15/yard. I’d need 4 yards, so that $60 + shipping for only the screen fabric…figure another $40+ for framing wood, hardware, and some nice black velvet to cover the front area of the frame, for a total of between $100 to $150. I shouldn’t complain, though, cause the only pre-made screens big enough I’ve found are over a grand. I think it’s hard to justify because the wall I project on is already painted white, and I’ve grown accustom to ignoring the seams between the bricks.

Enough, I’m beat. I want my damned 360 so I can try out the Bioshock demo. Stupid UPS. “We cannot guarantee any specific time of delivery, but it will be sometime between 8 am and 7 pm.” Gee, thanks for the clue.

ross site stuff

I’m moving to Site5 hosting. They look pretty nice, they’ve got good reviews, and for $5/month, you get 110 gigs of space. Sold.

My 360 should be back soon. I got an automated call from UPS giving me a tracking number, but I deleted it before writing it down. Der.

Reserved Halo 3 Legendary edition at Best Buy. Rock.

After getting help moving my big-ass CRT upstairs, there’s more room for my projector screen, so I expanded the image as much as I could. I now have a 146″ diagonal…that’s 6 feet by 10 feet. I also picked up one of these for the Mac Mini hooked up to the projector. There’s something special about watching Sunday night football in HD on a 12 foot screen. Awesome.
So, with the site move, I have no idea what the status of this place will be over the next few days. My account with Digital Space is up August 23, so I gotta get this move done soon. If you leave a comment, there’s a good great chance it’ll get lost.

ross site stuff

I need a new web host. Digitalspace got bought by Jumpline, and they’ve messed everything up. SSH is a joke, and I can’t even send emails using their SMTP server. My parents have an email account on mudman.us, and they also can’t send anything. I can get mail from MSOE & Gmail via POP, so I know it’s not my problem. The phone support is pretty worthless. So, I implore you, my 3 readers, if you know of a good host that’s *NIX based and supports PHP4/5, MySQL, allows a legitimate ssh connection, and provides “catch-all” email functionality for less than $10 per month, leave it in a comment.

ross site stuff

My 360 arrived in Dallas yesterday, but M$’s site still says “Empty box shipped to customer”. Roo mentioned that after M$ extended their 3-red-lights-of-death warranty to 3 years, the repair wait time went from a few days to a few weeks. Poo.

Apple updated iLife & iWork. iLife 08 brings a brand spankin’ new version of iMovie…but people are bitching that it’s too easy to use, so Apple is now allowing purchasers of iLife 08 to download iMovie 6 HD. I’ve only played with iPhoto, and its updates are pretty slick. The “event” idea is a good one, and the splitting/merging of events is really simple. If you don’t like “events”, just hit “Photos” in the left column, and it’s back to the old iPhoto view. iWork’s Pages & Keynote got expected updates, but new to the iWork package is Numbers – Apple’s fledgling spreadsheet app. It’s missing certain basic functionality, but it’s a very slick app. One of those apps for OSX that makes me wish I was back in school to use spreadsheets again.

I’ve gone back to my SLVR. Greg will be happy. I just got fed up with carrying the BlackBrickBerry around.

ross mindless prattling

Well, mainly project. Singular. I’m building myself a racing cockpit for Forza 2 & Dirt. I’ve got the Xbox 360 Racing Wheel, which is a damn fine piece of technology. For seating, I picked up one of these on sale. I’ve got some plywood and 2×4s left over from my workbench build, so I don’t think I’ll need to get any more lumber. In the design area, I was able to figure out how to make both the pedal & seat positions adjustable, but vertically adjusting the wheel was getting complicated. Enter the local Gander Mountain moving sale. They had an adjustable seat pedestal for a boat half off. It’s perfect! After testing the height, I realized I need to redesign the pedal mount a bit, but construction might be able to begin this weekend.

I just have to wait until the empty box shipped by Microsoft (step 1 in warranty replacement of a 360) to show up after a week of 3-day shipping.

ross mindless prattling