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At the Swiss Military Museum in Full, Aargau, a visitor can sit in a tank-driver cab, steer through a miniature landscape and watch the view from a camera moving through the model. The “graphics” are not computer-generated: they come from a physical terrain board, while a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ replaces the simulator’s failed 1970s computer.
Known as the Panzer 68 driving simulator, or FASIP (Panzerfahrsimulator), the machine is a preserved mechanical, optical, hydraulic and electronic training system—not a video game, combat simulator or VR installation.
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A tank simulator without a virtual battlefield
The surviving FASIP was developed in France during the 1970s and later used by the Swiss Army for tank-driver training. Its purpose was practical: help drivers rehearse steering, vehicle control and terrain negotiation without putting a full-size tank on a training ground for every lesson.
That did not make it a complete substitute for field training. Instead, it offered repeatable practice in a controlled environment, with physical motion and a live optical view of a miniature world. The broader system was associated with training for vehicles including the Centurion, Panzer 68 and Leopard 2, although that does not mean every surviving component had exactly the same configuration.
The museum is in Full, in the canton of Aargau, rather than Zurich. Switzerland’s tourism office describes the museum as a roughly 10,000-square-metre collection of tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, and Swiss and foreign military vehicles. See the museum’s visitor listing.
How the analog simulation worked
The physical layout supplied the illusion:
- The trainee sat in a replica tank-driver compartment.
- Steering and other controls were monitored by sensors.
- A camera mounted on a trolley traveled along a roughly 12-metre-long terrain model.
- The camera’s live image appeared on a screen in front of the driver.
- A hydraulic system moved the cab to reproduce the simulated route’s motion.
- Different tracks represented roads, rough ground and changes in elevation.
The miniature landscape contained roads, buildings, vegetation and other scenery. It was not decoration. It was the simulator’s visual world, and the camera trolley performed a job that a modern graphics engine would handle by rendering a scene in real time.
Electronic controls also handled lamps, indicators, displays and the interface between the driver’s actions and the mechanical system. The result was a hybrid machine: part scale model, part motion platform, part closed-circuit television system and part computer-controlled training device.
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The MITRA-125 became the preservation problem
The original central computer was a MITRA-125. It responded to displacement sensors, controlled simulator movement, operated lamps and displays, and communicated with the machine’s electronic systems.
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By the time the museum attempted to restore the exhibit, the computer was defective and replacement industrial parts were difficult or impossible to obtain. The restoration therefore required more than finding a compatible modern computer. The team had to determine what the old system was supposed to do.
Fortunately, the original program survived as a paper printout. The restoration team worked through several thousand pages of French documentation. Scanning and optical character recognition helped extract the text, but faded characters still had to be interpreted. Some parameters were recovered through trial and error.
The new program was written in C. That is an important distinction: the restoration preserved the simulator’s behavior and operating concept, not necessarily the original executable software bit for bit.
Why a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+?
The team selected a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ because it was small, inexpensive, readily available and offered a useful 40-pin GPIO interface. Its 1.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 processor and 1GB of RAM were more than adequate for the control task. Its full-size HDMI output also suited display-related work, although the museum installation’s needs were more specific than a standard hobby project.
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The Pi did not create a modern 3D tank world. It replaced the obsolete controller and communicated with the surviving machinery through custom electronics. Raspberry Pi’s own product brief lists the board’s specifications, while its restoration account explains the museum project’s architecture: Pi 3 Model B+ specifications and the restoration account.
The difficult part was the interface
A vintage machine cannot safely be connected to a Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins simply because both systems use digital signals. The Pi’s GPIO operates at 3.3 volts, while parts of the simulator used 5-volt TTL logic.
The restoration added a custom adapter board with signal multiplexing and level conversion. The team also replaced obsolete XERUDI and XUCI interface boards, dealt with timing between the Pi and the interface hardware, and replaced unstable original power supplies with modern switching supplies.
Other components—including the camera, screen and some site lighting—were replaced as well. This makes “everything is original except the computer” an attractive but inaccurate shortcut. The historically meaningful achievement was selective substitution: retain the cab, terrain model, camera trolley, hydraulic movement and much of the electromechanical experience, while replacing parts that were unsafe, unavailable or no longer serviceable.
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In a modern maker project, the same constraints would matter. Anyone attempting a similar retrofit would need electrical isolation, suitable level-shifting and signal protection, deterministic timing, correctly rated power supplies, grounding and an emergency-stop system. Unknown legacy electronics should never be connected directly to GPIO.
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According to coverage from Swiss public broadcaster SRF and Raspberry Pi Magazine, the simulator remained in Swiss military service until 2004. The museum rescued one system from scrapping and rebuilt it at the Full museum site. SRF’s restoration report provides the military-service and museum context.
The restoration was completed at the end of July 2020. The machine is widely described as the only surviving operational example of its model, or the last remaining example of this pre-digital simulator type. That is more precise than claiming it is the only tank simulator of any kind from the 1970s.
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Reports following the restoration said that the simulator could be experienced by visitors by appointment. That does not establish fixed daily operation, walk-in availability, current admission prices or guaranteed access in 2026.
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Anyone planning a visit should contact the Swiss Military Museum directly to confirm booking requirements, opening arrangements and whether the simulator is operating. The museum’s broader collection remains the reason to visit even when the simulator is unavailable.
Why this restoration matters to retrocomputing
The FASIP is compelling because the Raspberry Pi is not the star in isolation. The board is useful precisely because it can be made to disappear into an older system.
A wholesale replacement with a gaming PC, modern simulation engine or VR headset might have produced a more sophisticated visual experience, but it would have removed the physical interaction that makes the exhibit historically valuable. The driver still operates a cab, the hydraulics still move it, and a real camera still travels through a real landscape.
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The project also demonstrates that software archaeology can be as important as hardware repair. Preserving an obsolete machine may involve scanning fragile paper, interpreting damaged characters, reconstructing undocumented parameters, matching signal timing and writing a new controller around old assumptions.
That is why the restored simulator is more than a tank-themed curiosity. It is an example of conservation through carefully limited modernization: replace the impossible-to-maintain controller, build a safe bridge to the legacy electronics, and leave the machine’s original physical logic intact.
Quick Recap
Timeline
- 1970s: The simulator is developed in France and built for military driver training.
- 2004: It reportedly leaves Swiss military service and is saved by the museum.
- July 2020: The restoration is completed.
- 2022: English-language coverage, including attention following Tom Scott’s video, brings the machine to a wider audience.
- 2026: Visitor access should be confirmed with the museum before traveling.
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