Got the racing sim bug.

Fordman said:
After a couple of months of menial tasks around the home, I have been able to get on with this important project again. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Decided that the monitor stand was more urgent than the seat and it is now completed. What started as a simple frame to hold a monitor and a PC became a design challenge exercise in making it as foldable as possible for storage when required, as the stand is quite an awkward shape to store. With a few "on-the-run" mods, I ended up with it only requiring 2 wing screws to remove for folding up the frame, and they get stowed away in the folded mode. I feel pretty pleased with it actually, the folding challenge made it interesting.
You may well ask, what about the colour? Thought I might go for something a little more "Gamey" - and it meets the approval of my grandchildren!
I am about to buy a new 27" monitor, and I am "upheriting" (from a younger generation) a gaming PC from my son-in-law who is building a new one for himself. The monitor bracket was a Bunnings special about $20, and I have just realized after fitting it that I can swivel it 90 degrees to easily convert for normal PC use with the addition of a small desk for a keyboard beside the frame (as per one of the photos below).

If you want to see more of the DIY monitor stand blow-by-blow construction, follow the link to my album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p1Da1AEAAD1UQ8CC6

A few photos of the finished product. Note the seat needs a bit more work! :D

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Does the color indicate the SHS tube is recyled ? :ROFLMAO:
 
bowie said:
Wow!

Check out that dot Matrix printer!
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Ha, I thought someone would pick that out! And underneath it is the Tandy CoCo itself (Colour Computer), and the cassette player/recorder to store the programs!
I dragged it all out of storage a while back, for the benefit of my 13yo grandson, to show him what was around when his father was his age. Amazingly, it all works, including the cassette player whose drive belt is still in good Nick, not a perished lump of rubber. The boy was pretty rapt actually, and spent a few hours checking out the old games, etc.

Museum piece - worth nothing.

(y)(y)(y)
 
robmac said:
Does the color indicate the SHS tube is recyled ? :ROFLMAO:
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In a way, I had a few lengths of new 30mm SHS tubing lying around, but the colour is deliberate, cool gamers colour for the grandkids. I'm not too sure, but tried to get away from plain old black. :D
 
Fordman said:
Ha, I thought someone would pick that out! And underneath it is the Tandy CoCo itself (Colour Computer), and the cassette player/recorder to store the programs!
I dragged it all out of storage a while back, for the benefit of my 13yo grandson, to show him what was around when his father was his age. Amazingly, it all works, including the cassette player whose drive belt is still in good Nick, not a perished lump of rubber. The boy was pretty rapt actually, and spent a few hours checking out the old games, etc.

Museum piece - worth nothing.

(y)(y)(y)
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He should have been displaying his coding skills! The few I have I learned on my kid's Tandy Co Co! :cool:
 
Kim Luck said:
He should have been displaying his coding skills! The few I have I learned on my kid's Tandy Co Co! :cool:
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Same here. My limit of coding is introductory Tandy Colour Basic. But it did teach me how computers and programming basically worked, and gave me a bit of an understanding. The only difference is it wasn't my kid's Tandy CoCo, it was mine, mine - all mine! But the kid's used it of course, and I have never regretted buying the Co Co, it's where it all started for my family.
Cheers.
 
More progress on my setup - today I finished the basic unit, still to do the seat, but any seat will do for the meantime.
Now just waiting for the new PC to run the program. I was going to inherit my son-in-law's used gaming computer, but he hasn't had the opportunity to source and build a new one, so my fall back was to purchase a new gaming PC. Ordered it last week, should be about 2 weeks to build up (they have a backlog), by gaming standards it's low end, but more than capable to run Assetto Corsa, the racing sim program.
Also, it is really just a fairly powerful PC, and will be used as my new everyday PC, by swinging the monitor at 90° and using a small table/desk at the side.

Since last progress report, have obtained a 27" BenQ monitor, which I found was too light for the spring-loaded bracket, so I decided to mount a speaker on the monitor bracket instead of the main stand frame. Bought a small soundbar, Creative Stage Air, mounted it on a somewhat agricultural angle iron bracket for a bit of weight, and it all works perfectly.

Today, I finished the last stage by mounting the keyboard and mouse in accessable positions, and I reckon it looks ok.

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More photos here if you are interested in the detail.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p1Da1AEAAD1UQ8CC6


Can't wait now for the PC to get this thing on the road!

:cool::cool::cool:🏎🏎🏎
 
Looks Mad! :D

That'll do the job greatly, and your right, capacity to store is and keep the family happy is important.

When COVID was getting gnarly here (NSW) I was preparing some MDF lock down insanity.


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Yep, that's the cockpit of an Arial Atom :D

Despite the gnarly cut outs making it look complicated, the bones of it is actually pretty straight forward. I was going to raid bunnings and use ~6mm MDF for everything, then reinforce the joins on the inside with alloy right ankle brackets.

My partner saw pictures of this on my screen one evening whilst watching the news and she flatly asked if I was joking :p

Anyway! You have a rig! most of us are still bolting stuff to our do everything desks and dreaming of rigs like yours.

Good on ya!
 
bowie said:
Looks Mad! :D

That'll do the job greatly, and your right, capacity to store is and keep the family happy is important.
.........................................................

Anyway! You have a rig! most of us are still bolting stuff to our do everything desks and dreaming of rigs like yours.

Good on ya!
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Thanks, its been a great project!
I guess you watched some of the Supercars Sim racing series - I enjoyed it. In the first episode Rick Kelly didn't have a setup, so knocked one up out of pine wood and it was fine. And Dave Reynolds in his Super Mario outfit - funny!

For info, I bought the steering wheel stand from AmazonAu, $190, I thought that was easier than making one, but now that I have made the folding monitor and PC stand, in my head I have version 2, which includes the steering wheel and pedals incorporated, also folding up. Maybe when I get a Round Tuit.

The MDF cockpit is a good idea, and cheap, but as you say, storage is a problem.

I just want to get on with it now. My current desktop is a good one (2014 HP Envy 23 all-in-one) but not a gaming machine. It runs Assetto Corsa OK, but only with one car on the track and with scenery and shadows reduced a lot. Good for practice though.
The new PC getting built now at least has a graphics card (GTX1650) and a half decent CPU, but best of all it has built-in led lights and a glass side cover - why not? Ha ha. 😁😁

Cheers.
 
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Fordman said:
I just want to get on with it now. My current desktop is a good one (2014 HP Envy 23 all-in-one) but not a gaming machine. It runs Assetto Corsa OK, but only with one car on the track and with scenery and shadows reduced a lot. Good for practice though.
The new PC getting built now at least has a graphics card (GTX1650) and a half decent CPU, but best of all it has built-in led lights and a glass side cover - why not? Ha ha. 😁😁
Cheers.
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Ready to race!
New PC runs Assetto Corsa at full resolution, with many cars on track, easily.
For comparison, the AC program has a "benchmark" race, same cars, same track. On my normal desktop it ran at max 25-30 frames per sec, the new PC runs at 200 fps.

Technical specs (for those who are interested):
CPU - Intel Core i5 9400F 2.9GHz Coffee Lake R 6 Core 6 Thread
Motherboard - Gigabyte H310M H 2.0 LGA1151-CL mATX Desktop
Memory - GeIL 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR4 Orion Charcoal Grey C16 3000Mhz
OS Drive - Kingston KC600 512GB 2.5" SSD
Storage Drive - WD Blue WD10EZEX 3.5" 1TB 64MB 7200RPM Desktop HDD
Graphics Card - Gigabyte GeForce GTX1650 Super OC 4GB GDDR6
Case - Deepcool Matrexx 55 Addressable RGB 3F Mid Tower Case w/ Tempered Glass Side Panel
Power Supply - eVGA GD Series 600W 80PLUS Gold Power Supply

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Yesterday, had a little online match race with my 14 year old grandson in Melbourne. We were at Monza driving his choice - Mazda 787B as raced at Le Mans - much too quick for me! But great fun, with automatically programmed 10 min practice, 10 min qualy and 5 lap race. We did it twice. Amazing technology.

A few photos:

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Home screen menu for Assetto Corsa racing sim.

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PC mounted on monitor stand shelf.

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Driver's eye view of Barbagallo Raceway from a TCR Peugeot car. The Barbagallo track sim is excellent quality, and being familiar, I can actually drive around it quite quickly (but can't keep up with the other cars in a race as yet!)

All the photos in this album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/p1Da1AEAAD1UQ8CC6

I still need to make the seat.

Cheers.
 
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Now that I've got it pretty well set up, have had an hour or two playing around. The new PC handles multiple cars and full resolution scenery, so it's starting to look good.
This video of me in a Peugeot 308 WTCR car against 14 other WTCR cars. (WTCR - World TCR is the top level of the same cars running in Australian TCR). I have the opposition set to 93% so I can keep up with them. My car starts in 14th and I end up 5th with forceful driving and unconventional lines. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: The car is mainly white with red bonnet and carries the WTCR driver name Comte. There is a compulsory pit stop for some reason at the Barbagallo track, and I can't get rid of it.
Enjoy - recommended for fun.


BTW, this video is taken on my phone from a replay on the monitor, one-handed, explains the odd side movement!
 
Fordman said:
Now that I've got it pretty well set up, have had an hour or two playing around. The new PC handles multiple cars and full resolution scenery, so it's starting to look good.
This video of me in a Peugeot 308 WTCR car against 14 other WTCR cars. (WTCR - World TCR is the top level of the same cars running in Australian TCR). I have the opposition set to 93% so I can keep up with them. My car starts in 14th and I end up 5th with forceful driving and unconventional lines. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: The car is mainly white with red bonnet and carries the WTCR driver name Comte. There is a compulsory pit stop for some reason at the Barbagallo track, and I can't get rid of it.
Enjoy - recommended for fun.


BTW, this video is taken on my phone from a replay on the monitor, one-handed, explains the odd side movement!
Click to expand...
That looks amazing. Perfect for Dirt Rally 2.0. Just need a six point racing hardness for when you hit a tree at 140kph!
try this tip....... brake while accelerating..... :)
 
Well, I've got my setup off the ground and running.
I am going to continue any further sim racing discussion on the new general thread:

"Sim Racing/Rallying Thread"

Cheers.
 
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