Vega's Warthog Hotas Gaming Station

I wouldn't call it a "cockpit", but the results turned out pretty good for a HOTAS mounting. I decided a center mounting of the Warthog Hotas would be too much of a pain as I like to move my chair around and get up frequently.

I side mounted the stick, which makes for easy ingress/egress of the chair. The arm support also help for those long flights and my arm weighs down the arm rest, not the stick. Less downward pressure on the stick works out quite well in addition to the Molykote EM-30L lithium soap grease I put in the stick.

Even though the real aircraft I fly is center stick, going to a side stick really isn't as strange as one would think. It works out quite natural, and you don't have to worry about "twisting" the angle of the stick as you would a center mount. I am contemplating adding touch screens to either side of the chair for Helios integration. Also, one center mounted touch screen under the main view screens. That would be a total of six screens, but the question of Helios being able to work somehow with the main display being a nVidia SLI Surround setup is still in the air.

And a few images for those that like other types of games too:

BF2:BC Vietnam

So easy to snipe!

What? WoW?

Three different EvE clients up and running. Top one is main character, bottom left and right are alt characters. Center bottom is web browser to view while playing all three clients.

Oh yeah - that's bad-ass right there. Love the stick placement.

Nice, nice! Me likey.:thumbup: I'm sure you close the shades when you're actually simming, right?

EDIT: Oh wait, they are closed. Do you leave that backlight on all the time?

Nice, nice! Me likey.:thumbup: I'm sure you close the shades when you're actually simming, right?

EDIT: Oh wait, they are closed. Do you leave that backlight on all the time?

Ya, I leave the back light on to alleviate eye strain. 3x 30" monitors can be pretty bright, it's good to have some soft lighting behind them. It just appears super bright as I also have the overhead lights on which I normally have off.

Gotcha.

Hi Vega,

Really nice setup you have there. How did you manage to attach the hotas to your chair? Was it some type of kit? Hard to tell in your photos.

Best,

Bull

Sweeet! Enjoy :).

Thats very sweet and what I have been looking for.

What materials did you use for the mounts and the bases? How is attached to the seat.

I've been thinking of something like this for a while but the weight of the WH has always seemed to be a problem on the relatively slim kind of fittings you seem to have.

Any pointers on how you did it would be very useful.

J.

Hi Vega,

 

Really nice setup you have there. How did you manage to attach the hotas to your chair? Was it some type of kit? Hard to tell in your photos.

 

Best,

Bull

Thats very sweet and what I have been looking for.

What materials did you use for the mounts and the bases? How is attached to the seat.

I've been thinking of something like this for a while but the weight of the WH has always seemed to be a problem on the relatively slim kind of fittings you seem to have.

Any pointers on how you did it would be very useful.

J.

No kit for this stuff! I had to create the mounting solution from scratch. The way you mount your Hotas is very dependant on the chair you are going to mount it to. Luckily, the Embody chair that I have made it fairly straight forward. If you are looking for a really comfortable chair to mount your Hotas, the Embody has a ton of neat features and can be found here: http://store.hermanmiller.com/store/servlet/dynamicKit__10151_-1_10051_1445

The chair has a nice wide "lip" under the forward adjustable thigh support. I used U-clamps like these to secure a 24" wide piece of 1-1/4" OD steel water pipe to the chair frame with threaded ends on either side.

Then I used some 90 degree threaded elbows to raise the platform:

The platform base is 1" thick oak (hardwood for stability) cut to the exact dimensions of the throttle and stick spaced exactly where I needed them for ergonomic placement. The oak "platform" is supported off of the pipe system by a floor flange as seen in the bottom of this picture:

In order for the whole setup to be stable and not "rotate" under the bottom because its a round pipe, between the U-clamps and the pipe I used heavy thick rubber isolation mounts. When you tighten down the bolts it clamps super tight. The rubber mounts also give just a very small amount of vibration absorption and help with some of the larger vibrations coming from the Buttkicker gamer mounted under the seat.

The whole mounting system then got sanded and painted flat black. Since all of the components are heavy duty steel (besides the oak platforms), everything is weighty and stable for a nice solid feel. There is no "flex" in the system.

All in all, the cost was about $40 total and all parts bought from Lowe's hardware store. I've gotten creative many times in the plumbing section!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

That's ingenious and has given me some ideas. Thanks for taking the time to post those follow up photos.

Best,

Bull

Nice clean setup!!

with touchscreens you setup any sim, good job

I might do something like you, but use a sparco r100 seat mounted to a welded frame adjusted to the same height as yours.

I like to play multiple sims/games, it only makes since.

I love the way everything complements one another. Very stylish and "clean".

You mentioned you fly in RL... Could you elaborate? History aircraft etc. :)

I think I understand how the setup is built and how it attaches to the Warthog but how do you clamp it on your chair?

Nice clean setup!!

 

 

with touchscreens you setup any sim, good job

 

I might do something like you, but use a sparco r100 seat mounted to a welded frame adjusted to the same height as yours.

 

I like to play multiple sims/games, it only makes since.

Thanks Flim, I am still interested in seeing if I can get side touch screens to work (Helios) even though my main display is SLI surround. Might be a bit technically tricky there.

I love the way everything complements one another. Very stylish and "clean".

 

You mentioned you fly in RL... Could you elaborate? History aircraft etc. :)

Ah, I teach US Army flight school students the UH-60 at Fort Rucker Alabama. The job is pretty good but the location leaves a bit to be desired! :pilotfly:

Vega,

That's a great solution.

Did you have to thread the pipe yourself? It looks like the way I should go.

I just built a new base for my office seat out of the plastic pipework you see some people use, its good but I cant see it being a long term solution so fitting something to my office chair would be much better (and better received by the other half).

I'd like to add a USB hub and some cabling for my headphones and the Track IR Headset to mine too though I think there is plenty room on the base under the seat.

Good to see another Rotary Wing guy here too. I'm ex RAF Puma, Sea King and Merlin.

Just as an aside how do you stop the seat moving when you're using the pedals? I'm guessing you have one or 2 locking wheels on your seat?

Rgds,

Jase.

No kit for this stuff! I had to create the mounting solution from scratch. The way you mount your Hotas is very dependant on the chair you are going to mount it to. Luckily, the Embody chair that I have made it fairly straight forward. If you are looking for a really comfortable chair to mount your Hotas, the Embody has a ton of neat features and can be found here: http://store.hermanmiller.com/store/servlet/dynamicKit__10151_-1_10051_1445

 

The chair has a nice wide "lip" under the forward adjustable thigh support. I used U-clamps like these to secure a 24" wide piece of 1-1/4" OD steel water pipe to the chair frame with threaded ends on either side.

 

 

 

Then I used some 90 degree threaded elbows to raise the platform:

 

 

 

The platform base is 1" thick oak (hardwood for stability) cut to the exact dimensions of the throttle and stick spaced exactly where I needed them for ergonomic placement. The oak "platform" is supported off of the pipe system by a floor flange as seen in the bottom of this picture:

 

 

 

In order for the whole setup to be stable and not "rotate" under the bottom because its a round pipe, between the U-clamps and the pipe I used heavy thick rubber isolation mounts. When you tighten down the bolts it clamps super tight. The rubber mounts also give just a very small amount of vibration absorption and help with some of the larger vibrations coming from the Buttkicker gamer mounted under the seat.

 

The whole mounting system then got sanded and painted flat black. Since all of the components are heavy duty steel (besides the oak platforms), everything is weighty and stable for a nice solid feel. There is no "flex" in the system.

 

All in all, the cost was about $40 total and all parts bought from Lowe's hardware store. I've gotten creative many times in the plumbing section!

 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Quick question. I have a similar chair with casters and a hardwood floor. How do you deal with rudder scoot? as i call it. You know when you press a rudder pedal and it stays put as you slide backwards across the floor?

I have my own solution but looking for better ideas :)

Thanks Flim, I am still interested in seeing if I can get side touch screens to work (Helios) even though my main display is SLI surround. Might be a bit technically tricky there.

If you have another machine laying around (even low spec), networking HELIOS is incredibly easy and (for me) entails no frame loss or delay in rendering and commands!

I think with the updates to fps increases in both dcs and Helios , fps should not be an issue if you are using a mid to high end system.

Vega,

That's a great solution.

Did you have to thread the pipe yourself? It looks like the way I should go.

I just built a new base for my office seat out of the plastic pipework you see some people use, its good but I cant see it being a long term solution so fitting something to my office chair would be much better (and better received by the other half).

I'd like to add a USB hub and some cabling for my headphones and the Track IR Headset to mine too though I think there is plenty room on the base under the seat.

Good to see another Rotary Wing guy here too. I'm ex RAF Puma, Sea King and Merlin.

Just as an aside how do you stop the seat moving when you're using the pedals? I'm guessing you have one or 2 locking wheels on your seat?

Rgds,

Jase.

All the pipes came threaded from the hardware store. I find a movable office chair much better versus fixed "cockpit" seats. I like to get up and move around a lot. I work with a pilot from Holland who also flies Puma's and Sea King's. Good aircraft. I don't have locking wheels to stop the seat moving. I just place a furniture foot floor protector pad type thinga-majig under the front caster to stop it moving aft. You can usually find those pretty easy.

Quick question. I have a similar chair with casters and a hardwood floor. How do you deal with rudder scoot? as i call it. You know when you press a rudder pedal and it stays put as you slide backwards across the floor?

 

I have my own solution but looking for better ideas :)

I use a rubber anti-skid "sheets". They work pretty good unless you completely stomp on the pedals.

If you have another machine laying around (even low spec), networking HELIOS is incredibly easy and (for me) entails no frame loss or delay in rendering and commands!

I was actually thinking about buying a laptop to handle this. Not sure of how many video outputs / USB monitors you can use with Helios but I'd like to get three touch screens set up ideally.

My networked machine outputs VGA to two monitors without any problems (the video card has two VGA connections. In SLI, I believe I can output to four. Wait, there's an idea lol.

Love your setup, i am running nvidia surround with two gtx 480 and using helios on a fourth touch screen and couldnt be happier.

Only problem I have is the frame hit (not helios related) using surround and aldo that i can not export the mfd data to the fourth screen (i can to any of the other three), any ideas??