jrsteensen

Try it and report back?

Will do. Leaning back towards the mill after chewing on it. Just gotta save a few extra pennies...gonna take me a hot minute to get this model then associated drawings done anyways. I already have 160 hours easy into this model. Researched the overhead console some more, (Deep deep into the IPM Tech Manual for the UH-1H) as there were extra dzus fasteners in the middle I couldn't figure out the function of. I discovered an interesting tidbit - the overhead console is actually two seperate console, split on the longitudinal plane, and hinged. They swing outwards for maintenance. Additionally, I think I will do the majority of the sim control (game/pc related) functions via push/pull and pushbutton switches in place of the circuit breakers in the overhead console.

Still chewing on your post - so I'll only ask one question for that so far: How are you doing the large components for the structures? I am not much of a craftsman by hand for sheet metal honestly. I'm considering doing the X-Carve 1000mm machine for a CNC router. I had the original Shapeoko, which this is a much improved version of. I was impressed with it's ability to do PCBs (fairly low tolerance ones - anything high tolerance, I'll have professionally fabbed for 10-15 bucks for three boards), .064 aluminum, and acrylic parts. Finally, here is a updated layout based on some acquired real dimensions from two different birds. Once I get the overall model fairly squared away, I'll identify all the dimensions I am iffy about, and go measure the bird at the Air and Space museum.

Accuracy on the router is .003" to .005". I'm thinking doing the CNC router, then adding a DRO to the mill would do absolutely plenty for me, though I was looking forward to being able to thread round parts on the mill with the 4th axis.

If I skip CNCing the mill in lieu of purchasing the CNC router, it will leave me with enough cash for a 30 gal compressor, grinders, paint guns, 36" sheet metal brake, and a bunch of other odds and ends. Another benefit of this thing is I will be able to CNC molds to be able to make all my knobs in one shot - I need to get my hands on as many real knobs as possible to borrow. I got permission from my boss to use our digitizer after-hours to 3D scan all of them. Woo.

Hey Warhog, thanks for all the ideas. I've been looking at my tooling really hard. I'm now on the fence about my tooling/CNC plans of comparing bang for my buck. I can do a 31"x31" Work area router that will do up to .125 aluminum and 2.5" acrylic plate and doing PCBs which would allow me to do all my panels and structures on it for a fraction of the cost of converting my G0704 to CNC....I would eventually convert the mill, but this gives me a big work area for the bulk of work. (The only structure I wouldn't be able to fit is the main instrument panel until I extend the router a bit more on the Y axis - would need to extend it to 48, which may be a good idea anyways to order material at 2x4 feet.) Now I am absolutely torn...haha. Would appreciate anybodies input.

What a wealth of knowledge! Thank you. Just so I understand your stackup you go: Rowmark .06 layer Styrene .06 box layer Clear Acrylic .118 Layer Aluminum Backplate LEDs are attached to the top of the clear acrylic layer, which would place them inside the styrene layer? Would you be willing to share the part number of the LED strips? How do you power and drive the LED backlighting? Separate connector from I/O pins?

John, just did some research on acrylic cutters - going to order a 10 pack of single flute upcut end mills for the regular acrylic milling. Only about 35 bucks. They are chinese...but I can afford to break a few at that price. I'll pick up a couple of those engraving bits as well.

:thumbup: Standards tend to be a guideline in the aerospace/defense industry. As long as you have a good reason and the customer buys off on it, they will waive just about anything not related to safety of flight.

I'm aware. As always, every contract can waive meeting certain facets of the standard with approved justification.

I was looking at those - what sort of RPM/Feedrate do you use? I'd like to avoid designing a secondary spindle using a small diameter router for engraving. My machine will be capable of about 2K RPM max with the stock motor. I was looking at using .22 cast clear acrylic backer, with the .022 Rowmark LaserMax top layer, painted with the white then black (white for a reflective layer to allow light "bounce" internal to the panel.) Using a .22 backer with the .022 top plate brings the panel into the thickness tolerance required by MIL-DTL-7788H section 3.3.2 (0.240 +/- 0.023)

So, looking at getting myself a small compressor and a couple of HVLP detail guns. Having trouble with finding paints though - I need a 37875 color white for the legends, and 37038 color black for the background colors. My only question is which 37875 is transilluminable, and does not require a primer on acrylic? I would prefer it is something I can cut with water versus solvents to keep cost down.

Boltz, I actually found a low RPM engraving tool which is hte one mentioned above. Almost 80 bucks apiece, but...keeps me from spending a fortune. I'll upgrade it with a dedicated engraving high speed spindle in the future, but I'll make do with what I'll have for now - my budget (approved through the office of home finance) is 5k to get my tooling completely in order. I'd like to get my tooling and a chunk of materials with that.

Appreciate it DM! Well, decided to just go CNC on my mill that is on the way out the gate. Building a list of everything I need to control it, plus a bit of additional tooling. Should be about 3k to convert it, but this will keep me from needing to buy a laser engraver for a while. I'm thinking a 30 degree carbide rotary engraver bit down to .005in will do dandy for engraving the information plates. Examining making my own dzus rails - the only issue would be the .050 rod running the length of the rail. I may have to just install a .050 pin through each hole the short way, which will result in the dzus screw connecting 90 degrees from true, but....not too concerned about that versus spending 500 bucks for the rails for the center pedestal, much less the extra 300 for rails for the overhead panels. Instead, should cost around 30 bucks for all the rails. As far as the structure goes, I'm considering backing the console with .75" Birch for rigidity, versus building it all out in aluminum due to cost and complexity. All external surfaces will be .064 aluminum however. I'm going to build the cockpit in 4 sections as far as the floor goes - pilot seat, center pedestal (w/ supporting structure for overhead console), copilot seat, and instrument panel. That way it will break down easy for moving through doorways.

Starting to rough this in - thanks Flim for the seat model for this. Had to take a break from my 3 weeks of binge panel designing. I want to get a "pretty good" model together before I go up to the air and space museum. That way I can sit in the aircraft with my laptop and tweak the model on the fly, along with documentation.

I was actually planning on doing that - there are several good 5x7 and 5x8 matrix fonts available that I should be able to load on the TFTs SD cards and use. The radios likely don't need to talk to each other. Really need it for my navigation avionics though - I'm concerned that 100 waypoints with all relevant information will eat up all my memory on the arduino due in a hurry, and would like to use a PC based utility (even if directly editing it in notepad++) to edit the WP and flight plan library for ease. I also need to drive the HSI as there is no I/O available for an HSI in the huey. I can get in some of the functionality between the radio compass and ADF, but all I can do is drive it from the DCS ADF stations for the huey, not use it for the flightplans and waypoints in my ASN device.

Yes, as well as drive my HSI from the ASN device, be able to edit the waypoints and flight plans for the ASN on the PC, and all sorts of little things I need to be able to do down on the hardware layer. Unfortunately, I wouldn't even know where to start on reserving those addresses and making them accessible.

Hey Ian, is there any way that I can create additional variables and constants that can be visible to all my arduinos? For example, I would like my ARC-210 and ARC-210 Half Size RDU to be able to share freqs between them, and for my HSI to talk to the ASN, etc.

A little update of today's panel work. APX-72 and C-11898/ARC (Half size ARC-210 RCU) are in progress now.

So, I've been in contact with my local air and space museum who has a UH-1H. They have graciously offered to let me measure out the cockpit which is mostly complete. Woohoo! Just need to get organized and figure out my schedule as I will have a single full day with full access to the bird, and it's about an hour and change away.

Good stuff gentlemen, but I will be direct feeding it via arduino - serial, spi, or parallel - doesn't particularly matter. (Using arduino due's for the panels with onboard displays). Would appreciate a part number for what display you selected - the other bugger for these guys are find a pull rotary. Definitely good reading on the DZUS. I figure I'll make the rails myself, and use some .050 pins through each hole from the side, versus one long one the length of the rail. I wish OLEDs came in better sizes these days - initially, I wanted to go OLED for everything, but...just cant seem to find stuff that fits right.

A couple better renders of what I have so far. The hardest part with the ARC-210 panels is finding displays. The DZUS stud installation tools cost almost 300 bucks, but 15 minutes on a buddies lathe with 10 dollars of round stock....and I'll have one. A couple better renders, to show a little more detail of the panels:

Glad to hear there is a little interest! Still need tooling - I will have my G0759 here at the end of the month, and I have the feeling I may convert it to CNC sooner than later for engraving purposes versus investing so much more (and so little garage room) on a laser engraver. Also going to pick up a good 3D printer kit in the next few months.

In the design phase on my UH-1H/V cockpit. Wanted to go with a hybrid of the H and the V models - better navigation and radio options in the V model. Will be DCS-BIOS based, and the ASN-128D will be (eventually) fully functional IAW with the manuals. The AN/ARC-210 will be cosmetically correct, however I am unable to locate a manual or a TM for it, so the menus will basically just drive all the DCS radios via one control head. Starting with panels, then, on to flight controls, gauges, main instrument panel, seat, and structure. I will have a full and complete CAD model before I cut anything. As far as panels, I still have left: APX-72 IFF AN/ARC-210 M-150 or ALE-47 (FLARE/CHAFF Panel) Sim Control Panel (Trackball, sim related controls such as TIR center, pause, etc.) I may do one of the half-size ARC-210 control heads to give the pilot easy access to the control head as well.

Here is a picture of the almost finished design for hardware for the ASN - decided to go with the D model versus the C model pictured above. Unfortunately, while I located the real alphanumeric displays...they would have cost almost 600 dollars, versus the less than 100 for a quality 4.5" LCD...so, dot matrix font time, and it will be able to be purposed for other games/sims/functions. (I may incorporate the software side sim features via that TFT versus making switches for tir centering, pausing the game, etc.)