Couch-borne HOTAS?

[Schmobius]

Not sure if I'm visualizing that correctly. 2 shelves parallel to the couch, and the one with keyboard and mouse higher?

Here is my bad description

Let me use fake measurements here, ok?
Take one shelf, 1 meter long. Take another .5 meters long. Put the short one on top of the longer, so that it is centred. Now, put some sort of legs under the short shelf so it is lifted up, say 10cm.

Does that make sense? The raised middle shelf is for your keyboard and mouse. The longer shelf sticks out on each end to hold stick and throttle.

You could think of it like the couchmaster, but without the armrests. The middle part of the couchmaster is for the keyboard and the ends for the stick.

Heck, you could use pieces of wood and make the C shape of the couchmaster one put some pillows on the sides to Make arm rests.

So I'm thinking along the lines of ikea hacking, maybe using 4 Ekby Laiva shelves and some fastening hardware. The shelves are 3 bucks a pop, and I already use one with some 4" metal legs as a monitor stand, so I know they aren't too crumbly for being particle board.

Thinking I should make a right angle/"L" with 2 shelves, probably screwing one into the the spine of the other at the corners, maybe add an L bracket for support if needed. Put one board vertically through the space between couch cushions, the other horizontal board will then be making a flat surface to the left of the crack in the cushions and me. That would be for the throttle. Repeat and reverse for stick. Attach sticks either through bolts, or maybe velcro so there aren't metal bits beneath the shelves messing up the couch. I had mused about doing this in a T rather than L shape on either side before, but some measurements show that would be silly.

That still leaves me without armrests, which would probably need to be 3-4" tall to deal with the height of the base of the sticks, and give decent range of motion. Something firmer than a pillow, but soft enough to at least not cut off circulation or cause serious bone pain, is in order. (Think like a car armrest. They are usually some kind of vinyl over a bit of thick foam. Not super cushy, but not like jamming your joints into steel either.) I am really blanking on this part of it. I figure I could attach with velcro.

It would also leave me without a dedicated space for keyboard or mouse, but for 14 bucks in materials so far (thinking screws, maybe angle brackets to reinforce + shelves), that doesn't upset me as much. I might be able to do something like my monitor stand, which is the afforementioned shelf and 4 Capita furniture legs... I suppose I'd have to see how far apart I can mount the sticks (the shelf should be a couple inches wider than the sticks) comfortably, and if that leaves room to put shelf legs on. Or I could just use my lap for the keyboard...

So, anybody have any ideas about armrests? Even any ideas about what other hobbies/projects might have people making them from scratch or buying them so I can cruise other internet forums might help. I'm not sure that searching car forums would help, mostly because they use ones that are very specific to a model of car, and tend to mount via hinge to a console storage box, making them less than ideal here. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[GlobusDiablo]

...So does anybody have any solutions better than a lapdesk?

Mount the HOTAS on a plank wide and long enough to hold the HOTAS and leave just enough space for a keyboard in between. Rest it on your lap. Solved!

I'm using a Logitech wireless keyboard with built in mousepad, so no need for mouse.

[Schmobius]

...So does anybody have any solutions better than a lapdesk?

Mount the HOTAS on a plank wide and long enough to hold the HOTAS and leave just enough space for a keyboard in between. Rest it on your lap. Solved!

I'm using a Logitech wireless keyboard with built in mousepad, so no need for mouse.

I splurged and got the X-55 this week. No issues with it so far, for all the negative forum postings and reviews. The thing handles beautifully, though I get some strange repeating/starting/stopping behavior out of buttons I've mapped to keyboard keys. I suspect that's just the half-assed software. It works ok just putting the stick and throttle on the couch cushions next to me (the couch is fairly firm), the biggest problem is when using the twist, but for using full range twisting, the base only rotates a quarter inch at most, and only sometimes. So it's serviceable. Combat feels glorious, though takeoffs and landings are taking some getting used to. I'm doing them just fine, but they aren't as smooth as they were with a controller and my couple months of practice with it. I usually fly through mail slots at high throttle on my own, but use a docking computer for putting the thing on a pad. I could put it on the pad myself with a controller, it just took forever, but having to move the throttle and hit a reverse button to bump it forward and backward may be a little too much... I'll probably want to play with the landing overrides and use a hat for the forward and backward thrust.

So putting a board on my lap with the sticks at both ends and a keyboard in the middle, balancing precariously, would be a downgrade.

I'm supposed to have a half-day at work today, so barring any issues there, I'm going to head out to Ikea and get about 20 bucks worth of materials to basically put shelves on the edge of the left and right cushions, and hopefully keep them from moving.

I found some plans online for building a console armrest for a Scion which I should be able to use here with some different measurements, but will require a small amount of sewing. That could prove interesting since I struggle putting buttons back on. I'll need to figure out how tall these things need to be, and whether I want them to come all the way up to the back of the base for the sticks, or if I need to leave some room to not interfere with the motion of my arm on pulling back on the flight stick, and I won't need to get that right away.

I plan to take pictures of the process, in case it helps out anyone else. I've ordered a cheap (but well-reviewed) bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad in it, so I don't have to keep using the chat pad on my PS4 controller, or steal the keyboard from my other computer constantly, but the one flaw in this plan is that I don't have anywhere to mount the keyboard. I'll probably just keep setting it down on the cushion next to me, and pull it onto my lap when I need it for typing in the nav computer, or talking with other commanders. (That really is all I need it for, I've even mapped a button on the throttle to bring up the Steam overlay for etn.io and Radio Sidewinder.) I currently also have a bluetooth mouse I just keep on the other cushion beside me, but I don't need to use it for much, so the touchpad on the keyboard should be fine.

I may solicit ideas for how to mount the keyboard once I have some pictures up, but right now, it's either just leave it on a cushion, or maybe get one of those Ikea laptop tables shown in earlier comments in this thread to sit in front of me.

[Loriath]

The problems you mention about some repeating keys is indicative of low power. Try plugging into a powered USB hub and that should solve it.

Looking forward to your build. Pics when you do.

[Schmobius]

The problems you mention about some repeating keys is indicative of low power. Try plugging into a powered USB hub and that should solve it.

Looking forward to your build. Pics when you do.

So that's the ghosting people were talking about? I wasn't sure what that meant, and it is only happening in keyboard commands mapped to buttons, not actual joystick functions. I'll see if I can get a powered one set up there. For now, I've just been avoiding most keyboard mappings, especially on the slider switch.

[Schmobius]

Alright, after venturing into the suburban wastelands to Ikea, I have the initial setup assembled, and I've posted a few images and descriptions into an album on imgur:

http://imgur.com/a/MwLUT

But here is the result, and I'd say it's complete pending some upgrades in the near future:



It feels great! I think I mentioned before the stick and throttle stayed mostly in place without this, but not completely. Enough to be perfectly playable, but also enough to remind you that you're putting joysticks on a couch. Now I feel like I'm in a proper cockpit.

I did not get to the armrests yet, but I did find where to get all the materials (just not at the same place, or I probably would have picked them up earlier.).

So this is very basic, but I think it looks a hell of a lot nicer than the shots I saw on the internet of people putting down cardboard on an ottoman in front of their couches, and the like, and it sure as hell didn't cost me as much as a couchmaster! Still won't, even after I do armrests.

[bootsam]

Buy some velcro jeans and fit velcro pads to the underside of the hotas. Problem solved. Although...you may have to shave down below.

[Loriath]

After seeing what you have done, I am getting ideas of my own.

Your secondary shelves that go between the cushions could go on the inside of my chairs armrests in the same fashion. Then a 5th piece could be placed across the top end to make a keyboard & mouse shelf that would make it look like the nerdy tech couch master.

It would for a letter C and would easy to remove and allow me to get the sticks where I want them.

Thanks for your brainstorming.

[Schmobius]

After seeing what you have done, I am getting ideas of my own.

Your secondary shelves that go between the cushions could go on the inside of my chairs armrests in the same fashion. Then a 5th piece could be placed across the top end to make a keyboard & mouse shelf that would make it look like the nerdy tech couch master.

It would for a letter C and would easy to remove and allow me to get the sticks where I want them.

Thanks for your brainstorming.

No problem. That was part of the reason I wanted to think out loud and post pictures. To provide exactly what I was NOT finding a lot of on this subject.

I will say that it may be important to remember that since my couch is a sectional, the cushions are not removable, and are basically filled with foam instead of fluff. This contributes greatly to the stability of it all, along with the ends of the wall brackets actually wedging against the steel frame. I could probably stand on the flat part without it moving down, though I'm not going to try it. Still, even on squishier cushions, it might be passable.

I was thinking about trying to put something across the front last night. I may have mentioned before, I have one of these shelves (Ekby Laiva) with four 4" Capita furniture legs on them to make a monitor stand. It would probably make an awesome keyboard stand across this, except I think it's actually about an inch or two too narrow to bridge between the surfaces as I have them. Also, I don't think I'd want it between the sticks, and I don't think there's enough room in front of them, even if a single shelf was wide enough.

You can see in the picture I'm just tossing the keyboard to the side, and grabbing it to put in system names while in a station. (You can probably also see a strange thing with wires behind the PS4 controller in that picture. That puck is actually a bluetooth audio receiver, with my good ear buds hooked up. Much more comfortable and better sound quality than my gaming headset/mic)

[Loriath]

CAPITA! That's the name of those IKEA legs. Thank you.

I know that you can get the shelves in different lengths, but the width changes on the longer ones. I have to make some measurements and probably will look at another keyboard that has a trackpad built in that I can permanently attach.

Need to get my ideas down on paper to see if it is feasible and if it will be stable enough for my needs.