Boot910

Look what I just found outside my door today. Front Panel Express packaged it up beautifully on a shrink-wrapped board which I opened up before I took this picture. Here's one view. I put in the rocker switches and the Master Caution button to test fit and see how it looked assembled. Here's another view. I think it came out great. I'm still working on the pcboard stuff but that shouldn't be much longer. It would be interesting to do tact switches instead of the rockers. I'd have to cast some rockers and figure out a good way to mount the pivot on the back side of the front panel. I got a custom referral code from Front Panel Express. Anyone who uses this code can get 20% off their first order (and I'll get 20% off my next order too!) The code is only valid thru 2/31/2011 (sic) Apparently they don't know how many days are in February, but they do great work. :) www.frontpanelexpress.com the code is 2L0O309R More pics to come...

I'm using 12mm tact switches for the buttons on my UFC project. They can fit the key caps I have that are just about the right size (round and square). If I was going to go the 2-button route for the rocker switches like you are which is a great idea then I think I'd look at the 6mm switches for those. Easier to fit in that configuration if you mount all your tact switches on a pcboard.

I'm in the process of building an UFC and I found these switches from C&K components at Digi-Key. http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?lang=en&site=US&WT.z_homepage_link=hp_go_button&KeyWords=7105J1ZQE2&x=20&y=18 The actuation force is a bit high but they work. I got mine when they still had some in stock but it looks like they're out right now. I don't know what the lead time is for more but I doubt it's 6 months. I think Total is 100% right about the actual construction. I have no idea where to go or what it would cost to get the rubber membrane made so I'm going with a combination of the momentary rockers, tact switches and a momentary LED pushbutton for my project.

Update: The Light Gray round caps for the tact switches (B3F-4050) aren't in stock anywhere. So... I ordered some black ones which I'll paint gray. It'll be a good test because I have to paint the rocker switch actuators gray too since I can only find them in black. The push button for the Master Caution I want (Amber LED) is backordered so I ordered a green one and I'll see how that works. I completed the design of the pcboard to mount the buttons on last night. I just have to do a final sanity check to make sure everything fits right. Once that's done I'll be ready to pull the trigger on ordering the pcboard and the enclosure parts. I'm gonna use ExpressPCB to made the pcboard. If I do a simple prototype board with no silkscreen/solder mask it'll run about 60 bucks. I can also go the ProtoPro version route and get 4 boards with the fancy silkscreening and solder mask layers for about $120 (tax+shipping). Right now it looks like the FrontPanelExpress stuff with all 6 panels (front/back/top/bottom/sides) and the accessories will run just over $200. It adds up quick! I figure I can have the prototype up and running in about 2 weeks. I don't really have a good idea how to get the LED in the Master Caution to work yet. I'm not a programmer type so I don't know how to go about getting that signal from the game into the U-HID card to turn the LED on or off yet. :smartass:

Hi Hog_Driver. The buttons I've chosen to use are Omron B3F-4050 12mm tactile switches. The caps are 9mm square (B32-1200) and 9.7mm diameter (B32-1600). I've found these parts here in the states from DigiKey and Onlinecomponents.com The average price is about $0.40 US with discounts from each company based on quantity ordered. I'm sure you can find a distributor over in Europe pretty easy. If you're going to make your own buttons then you can probably go with any tactile switches. I've seen them in 6mm and 12mm square sizes. I ones I picked out were because they had caps I liked and have long advertised lifetimes. I've seen tact switches for a lot cheaper than these (around 8 cents a switch). However you decide to mount the switches I think some soldering will be involved. I would guess your idea of connecting them should work although I don't know much about the OC mastercard at all. Seems like wiring them up should be pretty straightforward. I'm going with designing my own pcboard just to make the assembly as clean as possible inside.

Thanks for the info rocketeer! I will do that for the Enter key. Was thinking of sanding the key that will serve as the enter key's base so that there's a bit more surface area for the resin to stick to. Might trim the "top" and "bottom" edges of the cap as well so the resin can flow around all 4 sides and still the right size vertically. Doesn't look like there will be a problem getting the NKK pushbutton. Not perfect, but it will do the job without adding to the workload. I'm doing the pcboard for the tact switches now (everything but the 5 rockers and Master Caution button). I'm doing it as a 2-layer pcboard. I'll post images of the layers when I'm done to see if anyone sees any problems. It'll be a tight fit on there.

Since I'm in the process of trying to build my own UFC for the sim, I've been doing a lot of poking around and researching. I have Jake Melampy's "The Modern Hog Guide" and from the pictures I could see in there that showed the UFC it didn't look like those three buttons were even marked. The Default.lua file doesn't have any entries for these under the UFC Panel section, but the Clickabledata.lua script has them setup to adjust the VHF, UHF and SAT frequencies.

Hehehe... no worries. I'm just not set up to start any sort of manufacturing business. I have a pretty good idea how to go about this, but I haven't done a project like this before. I will definitely share any info I learn, offer whatever help I can, and give a running tally on prices etc. for anyone who wants to have a go at making their own like the one I'm looking to put together. There are some parts that will be troublesome. For instance, the Enter key will need to be modified/custom-made since I haven't been able to find an appropriate commercial product yet. There seems to be fairly long lead times on the round button caps. The rocker switches are somewhat scarce to find in-stock as well. It may turn out to be worth it to pool a bunch of people together and order the parts and then mail out "kits" I have no idea how hard the final assembly will be. Right now I'm trying to design the pcboard the push button switches will be mounted on, and assuming I don't screw that up :D It'll be quite a bit of soldering once the parts come in. I'm pretty much finished with the enclosure/front panel. With FrontPanelExpress.com you have to design all six sides. With all that, their total cost looks like it's going to run around $200 US. The front panel by itself is around $68 for anyone who'd want to do their own enclosure. I'll gather up all the quotes and stuff I have a bit later and give a the current total. That should be eye opening. :joystick:

I don't think I'll get involved in making kits to sell. I don't think it'd be worth it in the long run. However, I'm certainly willing to provide updates, pictures, info, instructions, part numbers, files, etc. during the build free of charge so that anyone else who's interested can build their own too. I'm sure to have a few questions of my own to ask once it gets time to start hooking everything up. The work has certainly been interesting. :pilotfly:

After much adjusting and tweaking to make sure everything will fit with the components I've opted to use, here's what the finished product should look like more or less.

Absolutely. When I finish modeling the rockers and MC switch I'll post a render of what it should look like when done.

Glad to help. This stuff is a lot of fun! Great idea for the Enter key cap. I wish I could find a button for the Master Caution that was closer, but you gotta work with what you can find! Speaking of the MC button. The one I spec'd out has the LED circuit separate from the push button which is what I was going for. The big question is whether or not the state of that light is something that can be exported from the sim or not. I've gotten a bit further along in the design process. If I go with Front Panel Express to also do the enclosure then I may have to change the positions of the components a bit to fit properly. I created a mock-up in Lightwave 3D of the panel components. Unfortunately for the enclosure style I'm looking at it requires M5 screws in the corners for the self-tapping extrusions. M5's take up a good amount of space on a 50mm high panel so I'll have to move the STEER rocker and relocate the plus and minus characters to the side. Also had to move the rest of the buttons/switches a small amount to make room for the top/bottom/side panels. Now I'm looking into a PCB solution for mounting the push buttons. Pad2Pad and ExpressPCB both seem reasonable for making prototype boards. I'll post an updated image of the front panel when I get everything in place.

Here's the file for Front Panel Designer. The panel dimensions are 225mm x 50mm. I'm using 1.5mm thick black anodized aluminum for the front panel material. As for linking the buttons, yes you will have to do that. I was looking at the U-HID controller card, but I'm sure one of the other available interface cards will do just as well. I'm not yet sure how I want the buttons to interact. The U-HID card is pretty versatile. I was leaning towards having the buttons reported as game pad buttons. A10C_UFC_R08.rar

Here's an image of the UFC panel I setup in Front Panel Designer program along with the parts I'm looking to use. Couldn't find anything closer for the Master Caution button. Also, it looks like I'll have to modify one of the square buttons to make the rectangular Enter button. Maybe build up the sides with epoxy or something. The price for this panel as drawn is about $63 USD. Not sure how much it'd cost for a complete enclosure which they can also make.

I don't know the exact size, but it looks pretty close. Certainly close enough for what I'm looking to do. Thanks for the link on the push buttons. For labeling I was going to use my p-touch labeler and some white on clear tape and make my own labels for the keys. The route I'm taking isn't cheap. Probably be just over $300 when I'm done, but hey... already spent $400 on a Warthog!

Serial No. 01675 California, USA

The CH panel is pretty ingenious. I too am in the process of building my own UFC. I'm going for making it as realistic looking as possible. Found a company called Front Panel Express (http://www.frontpanelexpress) that will make custom enclosures including custom panels for a reasonable price considering my project is a 1-off. They have a free panel design program that gives you the price as you build. I think I'm going with the U-HID board as the interface and encoding the buttons as gamepad buttons. Looks like there are 29 active inputs on the UFC and since you can have 32 buttons on a game controller in Windows I can throw in an extra 3 for misc functions. Hard part was finding the right buttons and rocker switches to use. I'm going with Omron B3F-4050 tactile buttons and 7105 series rockers from C&K Components. Haven't been able to find a cap for the ENT button. May have to try fabricating one, and I don't have a good idea yet for the Master Caution button. FYI the size I'm using for the UFC front panel is 225mm x 50mm