Building a Cockpit Setup for Simulator Games?

Milo_Mindbender asks: "For awhile I've been looking at building a cockpit-like setup for playing simulation games. One problem is finding a way to hook up a large number (up to 100) of lighted push-buttons in the thing and interface them to a computer that would poll the switches and control the (Tri-color LED) lights. Since the buttons/LEDs won't be clustered together, it would be nice if each button (or group of 4-5 buttons) could be on some kind of multi-drop network so the thing wouldn't turn into a wiring nightmare. The trick is that you don't want to miss button presses and you want to let people hold down multiple buttons without the setup getting confused. The big problem though, is cost. Anybody got an idea of how this could be done, preferablly with off-the-shelf parts, for under $5-$10 per button including the button?" Combine this idea with the earlier article we did on LCD-screens-for-cockpits, and you might have a kick-ass setup! Networked mech sims, anyone?

Comments

Re:Keep this in mind...

[sphealey]

You need probably close to a thousand hours of flight time before you are officially a licensed pilot.

The minimum flight hours required to obtain a private pilot license from the US FAA is 40. Here's a link to one flight training school I just happened to find with Google. At that point you are technically able to rent a plane and fly by yourself, although the rental agency's insurance company may have other thoughts.

If you want a high-power, instrument, multi-engine, or ATP (airline) certificate many more hours are of course required. However, 1000 hours is close to what you need to get an airline job, not to cruise around on weekends in a 172!

sPh