Sean Cooley

Alrighty, this post has been put off for way too long and I do apologize! I’ve had an incredibly busy month between seeing family and just traveling in general, and am only just now getting the time to sit down and write this update. So I’m super sorry but here it is!

One of the big milestones that I’ve completed since my last update was completing the mounting of all of the components for the center panel and wrapping up the last few finishing touches on it! Although I may add some stuff in the future, such as some controls for tractors beams and stuff, the only thing left now is to order the hardware and wire everything up for that portion!

I have gotten a Raspberry Pi setup to allow for easy control of the MFDs; however, these currently don’t really have a function and are just there to look pretty. I’m hoping to connect those sooner rather than later, but I need Star Citizen to have a way for me to pull out the displays from the game for me to be able to do anything.

I also have finally sat down and laid out all of the panels on the right side of the sim pit. These include controls for pinning targets, controls for bombs, mining, salvage, scanning modes and more. Currently these are just thin layers printed so I could play around with their placement easily, but I plan on fully printing these out soon and getting the right panel cut to take all of those controls.

Now, onto my plans for the left panel. I’ve revisited this design over the past few weeks and I’m going to redo this panel. I’m going to get a VKB Gladiator for the left stick and mount it in front of the throttle, moving the throttle rearwards to make room. The landing panel that is currently in the back will be shrunk and rotated to allow for this modification. I’m planning on binding one of the 2 position switched on the throttle to toggle between which is being used unless Star Citizen will automatically pick the one that it’s actively getting inputs from.

The main reason for this modification is that HOSAS setups are better for ship combat due to being able to change your inputs much faster and having more axes to bind. However, I prefer throttles for the space trucking game loop and just generally flying around. To get the option to use either or, I want to have both and be able to selectively use one over the other. I do know that you can convert the Gladiator into a throttle-like control by removing one of the springs, but I’d like to play with both before making a decision for committing to just one.

When it comes to wiring, I haven’t dove into the programming of all of the switches too deeply since I have yet to order the hardware. However, I have started to take care of the cable management for what is already there, as you can see below. Like I said, just a start, but I’ll keep you posted as things get better!!

I think that about wraps it up for what I’ve completed since my last post. Although it hasn’t been a lot, I’ve done what I can until I need to start spending money on hardware and putting the rest of it together. I think I’ll have some more free funds to be able to build out a few more panels, but if you want to donate and help move this project along faster, feel free to head over to my Support page! It can be anything, from just sharing my posts, using my referral code or even a direct donation! All help is much appreciated, and I can’t wait to wrap up this project!

Until next time!

o7,

Sean