homepage Forums SimHQ Community Article Feedback Review: Obutto oZone Gaming Cockpit

Yep. Two or three things though to point out.

Where he had trouble getting the bolts through the bottom of the seat. I did the same thing initially and go, "this can't be correct". It wasn't. Contacting Chris at Obutto I learned where they are supposed to go. Note the difference below. It makes a big difference in how much fore and aft movement you have.



Next, it's better to connect the uprights to the monitor than to try and drop the monitor onto the attached poles. FWIW, he put his bolts through the top, mine went through the middle. I'd love to have had them in the bottom holes but that wasn't going to happen with big bertha monitor. Image does not have bolts through the uprights.



He said two hours with phone calls and kids. Okay, that's doable. But I don't see how people can fit their flight and race setups and seat position in that time and really check it out. Maybe he just got it together then plans to change it later. Also, he didn't have the flight sim add-on or the tabletop. I love that tabletop.

He added the foot pedal assembly before doing the steering wheel mount. Ouch. The foot panel is a supplementary piece, and should go on afterwards. Doing it in that order the wheel mount slides up and down fine.

I wonder if, instead of bolts, Quick Release Pins could be used in some places...

Trying to think where. Maybe on the monitor uprights. Everywhere seems like too much load bearing to not use bolts, lock washers, nuts to tighten it down.

First new addition today. A local ISP is running a $15 per month special so I had them put in a line. That way it won't affect my main ISP.

Thank you very much for answering all my questions. The answers have essentially sealed the deal for me I think. I am going to wait for a bit to see how you end up liking it a couple weeks from now. I'm curious as to how long Magnum has had his for (if he's still reading this thread). When I do pull the trigger (I'll try and drop in how I learned about it from you and SimHQ because I would *never* have heard of it otherwise I suspect.

I do have one more question if I may. From all the pictures you posted, I was curious about one thing. Is it possible after getting in, that one could swing the keyboard arm around so that it was positioned over the lap while the flight-sim sides are in place? I know there are multiple points to anchor things to the sides of the seat-frame, but would one of the L-shaped brackets for the throttle interfere with the swinging action of the keyboard arm? Just trying to see what sort of combinations I can do because I think I'd like the tray over my lap when I'm flying (and I'll have the stick side-mounted with the throttle on the other side).

Again, thanks for this review.

yep, still reading and only had it for about a week longer... thou a great product, I preferred my old gaming desk due to monitor size problem (I use a 30 in) and the sliding of the wheel mount, didn't like the final position and closest of the monitor.

So shipping it to Ghost.

Don't think you got the tabletop did you Chuck? That is what saved my butt with the thick, older 32" HDMI.

no I didn't...

I'll have to try it. It might be better having the keyboard/mouse tray mounted on one side or the other, because as I discovered tonight, the ends are offset. doh



With the standard package, you get one larger L-bracket like below. With the flight sim add-on, you get the shorter length L-bracket for the center mount stick position and one exactly like the one that comes in the standard package. So to do two outboard HOTAS controllers and the tray, you may need a third-full length L-bracket. I'll just have to try it to be sure.

Nice article. Looks like a really nice product! Any strategies on how to sell a game room as a good thing to your g/f...? Chair looks really comfortable too btw. Now I want one....

I'll be awaiting the second review

Hi Doug,

Could you please give us one or more full-cockpit shots from a distance in your next article? I think these would be really helpful for showing the Obutto in context in a room, with the monitor(s), wheels, HOTAS, etc. in place.

Relocation of noise and clutter to a single room? Possibility of noise insulation? Making it's second function a home theatre?

No.

Seriously, I'll see what I can do. The room is so damned small and still has enough junk that even my wide angle lens setting won't cover it.

Small world. Seems that Main Performance PC is now the US Obutto distributor.

http://www.mainperformancepc.com/obutto

you have email Doug ;-)

Can the flight stick, throttle mount be used in a regular office type chair? Or any other product of this type?

they are made to be mounted to the Obutto only, however you may be able to fabricate something?

Hey all, this is Chris Dunagan, creator of the OBUTTO gaming cockpit. Just wanted to pop in, say hi, and offer to field any questions you may have regarding our cockpit.

As far as flight controller mounts are concerned, the best way to attach the stick & throttle is with heavy duty Velcro or heavy duty double sided tape.

Re the size of the flight stick mount's top, it needed to be made this size since it would get in the way of your legs if made any larger, and I didn't want the 2mm thick sheetmetal edges near the inside of peoples legs. I've spent more than 6 months playing IL-2 with a velcro attached X-52 between my legs and have had no probs at all. Just to clarify, you do not have to slot the mount all the way down in it's mounting post, so it is height adjustable and you just secure it with the plastic knob. The best placement IMHO is high enough so the base of the stick clears the top of your legs.

Re monitor sizes....one thing to keep in mind is the monitor mount is quite close to the player. As Doug found out, as well as Magnum, larger TV's sometimes have clearance issues with the yoke/steering wheel mount. I personally cannot sit so close to such a large TV/monitor and opted for a triple monitor setup. Glad I did too since the triple setup really has a large impact on immersion with regards to any genre of game, but especially flight sims & racing sims, which is due to the angled side monitors. When sitting in a cockpit of a plane or race car you can actually get a sense of the speed just as you do in real life. Furthermore, the increased view is astonishing as you actually have side views out of the cockpit of your plane or car which in turn allows you to use your peripheral vision....very helpful when searching the skies for bogies or looking ahead to hit that next apex. At any rate, if you do run 32" or larger monitors the easiest fix is to just trim off some of the front portion of the yoke/steering wheel mounting plate, or bend it down....we have a few customers that have done this in the past.

Lastly, if you feel the seat may be a bit too low some of our customers build platforms to put their cockpits on. Some folks even put caster wheels on the bottom so they can slide their cockpits around the house ha! The reason behind the seat height was to make the cockpit not so obtrusive looking in a room, and since our cockpit has past many "wife tests" it was a great way to go.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope this clarifies a bit. I look forward to hangin around your great forums.

Best regards,
Chris

Hello.

Quick question for you. In this shot you show bolts going through the acrylic table top.




Is this part of the standard install or did you mod this yourself and add the bolts?



In this promo pick there are no bolts showing. Thanks for the clarification.






I've been researching this setup for a week or so.

For me it would replace my pc/console gaming desk. If purchased, I would use it for pc gaming/console gaming desk toggling inputs to my monitors as needed and using the keyboard tray like a normal desk.

I did it. No holes are drilled in the acrylic tabletop. I mount my G27 to it, and needed it to be rigid. There is a plate underneath that you ould attach the plex with industrial strength velcro as an option. I use it and the keyboard/mouse tray together for racing, and it works terrific.

I hope to have my "Part 2" article ready next week.