Topic: Ship Sim Control Unit? (Read 82017 times)

PI48895 · « **Reply #75 on:** October 01, 2010, 20:24:47 »

Quote from: Captain Spencer on October 01, 2010, 20:19:05

Well, judging by the images on the website, I do have a couple of questions...

Will the casing of the control unit be plastic, or metal. Also will it be a tinted blue colour or grey?
The case is a high-impact ABS painted metallic blue. The base is steel and the subwoofer gives it a good weight. It feels very solid. The pictures currently posted are very accurate. The picture gallery has some nice high res images.

Secondly, will the switches remain blue?
Yes. Just as in the pictures.

Thirdly, will there be any lights on this controller aside from the LED display? It would be nice to see what we have turned on when sailing in the dark.
No lights other than the display.

If I have any further questions I will be sure to let you know.

Regards,
Adam

Thanks for the questions. Feel free to ask more. - Dan

Captain Spencer · « **Reply #76 on:** October 01, 2010, 20:27:39 »

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your answers

PI48895 · « **Reply #77 on:** October 01, 2010, 20:36:36 »

You are welcome, Adam. I am eager to see the reviews when a few forum members get them in their hands. I know I have enjoyed the testing. But then, who would not enjoy getting paid to complete missions in Ship Sim?

TNeves · « **Reply #78 on:** October 01, 2010, 20:48:25 »

I don't know if I can ask it here, but is any way that this will be sold at amazon.co.uk?

PI48895 · « **Reply #79 on:** October 01, 2010, 20:56:12 »

That will be up to our UK distributor, First Class Simulations. You can send them the question: info@contact-sales.co.uk.

BTW, feel free to PM me if you don't want to post a question here.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed no one has commented on my homemade Sea Hunt ID pic.

Denis · « **Reply #80 on:** October 15, 2010, 10:20:05 »

Hi PI48895,

I have a technical question about the PI Ship Driver unit.

Can you invert the rudder axis ?

Because :
If you use the modern control lever (horizontal), you should turn it counter clockwise, for example, if you want to turn to port,
If you use the old wheel control (vertical), the axis should be inversed : you have to turn it clockwise if you want to turn to port.

Is this taken into account on the consol itself, or do you have to change your settings in game ?

Thanks for your answer

Denis

mdfitch · « **Reply #81 on:** October 17, 2010, 02:19:22 »

inexpensive and does the job,, available Nov1.
http://www.shipdriver.com/

The Ferry Man · « **Reply #82 on:** October 17, 2010, 11:47:58 »

Someone needs tto get Amazon the right price:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Class-Simulations-Ship-Driver/dp/B00457X0P6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287312859&sr=8-1

Should be ~Â£125 $:-\$

At least its on Amazon though...

v.h94 · « **Reply #83 on:** October 17, 2010, 12:25:01 »

I have a cuestion to.

Will the thruster controlls be like the light/wiper switches on the raildriver or can you turn them into more positions then the 3 positions on the Raildriver? Would be strange to have a thruster that just does 0% or 100%.

Best regards v.h94

leemiller · « **Reply #84 on:** October 17, 2010, 22:52:16 »

There is new "ShipDriver" control console comming out in early November.

It retails for $199 (USD).

Looks good!

PI48895 · « **Reply #85 on:** October 18, 2010, 14:27:39 »

Quote from: Denis on October 15, 2010, 10:20:05

Hi PI48895,

I have a technical question about the PI Ship Driver unit.

Can you invert the rudder axis ?

Because :
If you use the modern control lever (horizontal), you should turn it counter clockwise, for example, if you want to turn to port,
If you use the old wheel control (vertical), the axis should be inversed : you have to turn it clockwise if you want to turn to port.

Is this taken into account on the consol itself, or do you have to change your settings in game ?

Thanks for your answer

Denis

Thanks for the question Denis. ShipDriver has a Wheel Mode which gives you about two turns from center to full left or right rudder, and a Tiller Mode which covers the full range in about a 120 degree sweep. Tiller Mode is more like the more modern tiller in a tug or pilot boat. You point the tiller in the direction you want to go.

The Tiller control on the ShipDriver can also be reversed and attached with the handle pointing up, and, as you point out, you could also reverse the directions in the control settings if you want a more traditional style tiller. But you will need to change the settings in Ship Sim back again if you switch back to the wheel.

I hope that answered your question. Sorry for the delayed reply. I've been out of town.

PI48895 · « **Reply #86 on:** October 18, 2010, 14:40:09 »

Quote from: v.h94 on October 17, 2010, 12:25:01

I have a question too.

Will the thruster controlls be like the light/wiper switches on the raildriver or can you turn them into more positions then the 3 positions on the Raildriver? Would be strange to have a thruster that just does 0% or 100%.

Best regards v.h94

Hi,
Good question. The thruster controls are the same physical design as the RailDriver with detentes at center and full left and full right, but they are actually analog controls reporting values in between, so yes, you can set the thrusters to positions between 0 and 100%.

Thanks, Dan

v.h94 · « **Reply #87 on:** October 18, 2010, 14:50:30 »

Thanks for the answer

jfail · « **Reply #88 on:** October 18, 2010, 15:23:10 »

Hi Dan

Pre-ordered mine a couple of weeks ago and looking forward to it.

The throttles, is there some resistance as you push them or are they smooth (for lack of a better word) and presumably there is no backlash when you set them for example at half throttle and they "stay there" with no backlash?

Thanks for answering all the questions. Great to have this forum for the ShipDriver

John

PI48895 · « **Reply #89 on:** October 18, 2010, 16:52:23 »

John,
There is a good amount of resistance and the levers stay put. In my testing I could get a reasonable degree of accuracy by nudging them back and forth and they go to full throttle when you are at the end of the range and sit nicely in neutral when you are at the center.

I think you will be very pleased and look forward to your review when you get it. Don't hold us to it, but if we can we will ship out a few of those pre-orders ahead of the release date.

Thanks, Dan

jfail · « **Reply #90 on:** October 18, 2010, 17:40:06 »

Thanks Dan

Sounds great. Will the software interface use X-KeysMacroWorks like my RailDriver with RailWorks etc.? I see on other forums that a lot of people can't get the RailDriver to work with Railworks on Windows 7 64 bit. I had no trouble at all and some time ago I sent Maggie a step by step on how to do it.

Thanks again

John

PI48895 · « **Reply #91 on:** October 18, 2010, 18:06:15 »

ShipDriver requires no additional software. The controls and buttons are assignable in Ship Simulator's Options>Controls menu. We have posted setup instructions here: http://shipdriver.com/support/shipsim.php

Lucky Jim · « **Reply #92 on:** October 22, 2010, 17:19:50 »

Quote from: PI48895 on October 01, 2010, 20:01:24

I work for P.I. Engineering. I was assigned the task of finally bringing the ShipDriver to launch:

http://www.shipdriver.com/products/shipdriver.php

...after an unbelievable number of setbacks, delays, and other issues.

I have been testing it with both SS2008 and SS Extremes. It works well with both. As VSTEP makes more controls and other shortcuts available in future releases of Extremes, it will work even better.

Aside from "What took you so long?", I would be happy to answer any questions.

Dan

I have been interested in the ShipDriver unit since P.I. Engineering, Inc. talked about it back in 2007 and was doing a spot of research/price comparison and came across thisâ€¦

RailDriver

ShipDriver

RailDriver ShipDriver
USA Purchase price $199.95 $199.95
Exchange Rate 22/10/2010 Â£127.31 Â£127.31
UK Purchase price Â£149.99 [$235.24] Â£189.99 [$297.98]

It appears they are basically the same unit with modifications to suit each product, the purchase price is the same for each product in the USA, move across the pond to the UK and the purchase price for each product becomes wildly differentâ€¦

Now I may be missing something or is this just blatant profiteering and a welcome to â€˜rip-off Britainâ€™â€¦

This may be absolutely nothing to do with or out of the control of P.I. Engineering, Inc. but it certainly doesnâ€™t encourage me to purchase P.I. Engineering, Inc. products in the UKâ€¦

Regards

Peter

Kevinmcg_ships · « **Reply #93 on:** October 22, 2010, 18:20:12 »

Quote from: Lucky Jim on October 22, 2010, 17:19:50

RailDriver ShipDriver
USA Purchase price $199.95 $199.95
Exchange Rate 22/10/2010 Â£127.31 Â£127.31
UK Purchase price Â£149.99 [$235.24] Â£189.99 [$297.98]

It appears they are basically the same unit with modifications to suit each product, the purchase price is the same for each product in the USA, move across the pond to the UK and the purchase price for each product becomes wildly differentâ€¦

Now I may be missing something or is this just blatant profiteering and a welcome to â€˜rip-off Britainâ€™â€¦

This may be absolutely nothing to do with or out of the control of P.I. Engineering, Inc. but it certainly doesnâ€™t encourage me to purchase P.I. Engineering, Inc. products in the UKâ€¦

Regards

Peter

You forgot to add things like VAT, plus Custom Tax if the goods are imported from outside the EU.

So really the price difference is outwith PI Engineering's control.

Captain Spencer · « **Reply #94 on:** October 22, 2010, 20:10:52 »

Yes tax is 17.5% of the overall price here in the UK, so if you calculate that it is about right. However, having seen the pictures posted in Peter's post, I thought that the RailDriver unit looks reasonable.

However, because the ShipDriver is marine based, PI Engineering decided to make the unit look a little cheap and tacky with the blue ect.

I'm sorry to sound a little harsh Dan, but for me the Ship Driver unit really does not entice me to buy the product, especially for the price. It just looks like a glorified toy really $:-\$

I'm sure what it does is great, but to keep the cost down I would remove the subwoofer and change the colour of the casing. Replace the plasticy blue buttons and switches with black ones and you'll have yourself a nicer looking unit.

That's just my two cents, pennies and euro's!

mdfitch · « **Reply #95 on:** October 22, 2010, 20:42:41 »

100% on the color comment, I have one on order and was going to call and ask for it to be done in the same color as the rail, thought it would have been a bit of an imposition while the guys are rushing to get to market.

The steel gray just makes it look more tech and less toy.

Looking forward to getting the unit soon, and big thank you to you manufacturing guys.

PS regarding pricing in the UK. lets not also forget the variations in exchange rates, they have to post a price and then sit and watch as the pound moves around.
I have the same issue purchasing my ship modeling stuff from the UK especially on on big ticket items. I usualy wait for my every 3 year "go home" to go shopping!!

This controller looks like it has serious potential and who can beat the price!

I am thinking about pulling it apart and re-painting it!!

PI48895 · « **Reply #96 on:** October 22, 2010, 20:52:25 »

Sorry, we have no control over the price set by the reseller. As previously pointed out, shipping and VAT make the cost relatively equivalent.

Sorry you don't like the color, guys. I can accept part of the blame for that. It was not an attempt to make it look like a toy. We thought the RailDriver looked too dull and boring. The metallic blue was proposed by the project leader at the time (too long ago to recall precisely

). I think I was also drawn to it because it triggered fond memories of a '67 Mustang fastback from my youth (beautiful car - tiny back seat). Admittedly that's a stupid reason to choose a color, but I stand by it and I still like it.

We will have to revisit the color if we keep getting negative feedback on it. I do like your suggestion of black for the buttons. Perhaps we can make a change in the next production run (if the blue paint doesn't keep us from selling the first batch).

We never considered removing the subwoofer. It's there more for the vibration than the sound. It adds a nice heft to the unit as well. Removing it would reduce the cost a little, but not substantially.

Thanks for the comments. I will pass them along.

I am eager to see more comments when the ShipDrivers start to land on some desks.

PI48895 · « **Reply #97 on:** October 22, 2010, 21:16:03 »

Seriously. How can you not like this color?

The Ferry Man · « **Reply #98 on:** October 22, 2010, 21:17:42 »

I have to say - I do like the colour...

Its the price I don't like...

Kevinmcg_ships · « **Reply #99 on:** October 22, 2010, 21:36:57 »

Quote from: The Ferry Man on October 22, 2010, 21:17:42

I have to say - I do like the colour...

Its the price I don't like...

Same here, I like the colour - blue as in the colour of the sea, which I thought was a nice touch. (love the Mustang reference also - it always reminds me of THAT car chase in Bullitt......

)

Can I ask you something Dan, does the ShipDriver controller require a mains socket? Cos in that picture I could see there's two wires coming out of the unit, I presume one is for the USB connection to the computer and another for a mains socket to power the subwoofer, perhaps?

Best regards,

Author Topic: Ship Sim Control Unit? (Read 82017 times)