Blue73

Thanks Mr Burns!

Hi Goslin, Congrats on getting started, once you've got the hang of Fusion360 and the limitations/tolerances of your particular 3D printer you can build almost anything. Just a slight learning curve at the beginning. Learn what your printer's tolerance is and design in the necessary gap between any parts. I'm using ABS so it's got some flex, therefore my bottom panel is 4.5mm and my top 2mm. With PLA you could go thinner. My printer can only print on a raft so though my bottom layer is a little rough I don't have any first layer issues. cheers John.

Just a wiring shot update for the latest panel. cheers John

I'm with good company here :) I gave the jettison allot of thought and decided this was the most compact way to do it and still have control over the sweep angle. The helical gear is more a habit, it's meant to increase the tooth surface area maximising strength, not really an issue here though, so I could have used spur gears. I haven't thought that far ahead, but I imagine it'll be the same geared design with magnets and HE sensors for the pull switch. It will need to be a more compact design as there's two in the same box. cheers John

cheers mate :) I have poured a boat load of hours into this, it's brought all my hobbies together so I'm having a ball. If only I didn't have to work...

Quick update, instead of gluing in the headers which means I can no longer remove the switch for maintenance and I'm not sure how long that would hold after a while I've opted to drill a small hole through the 3mm wide toggle switch head and insert a 1mm brass rod through the switch header. To ensure accuracy I built this jig, without it, drilling on a polished curved surface in the exact same spot would be challenging. Flap Control Switch cheers John

Cheers Guys, the challenge is to design mechanisms that fit into the boxes. There's almost no space left in the air unit. With this unit it had to be shallow as the max clearance-depth is a little over 3cm.

Designed and printed the jettison button and rotary control knob. The lettering will be lasered with the rest later. Moving onto the switch headers for the four toggles shown. The multi-selector switch is geared to take 180 degrees movement on the knob to 120 degrees movement to the switch. The switch needs to move through 5 positions with 30 degress between them. Design Printed Components Assembled Components Lower Front Face Under Completed part, minus lettering. cheers John

It just takes time mate, keep at it. How's your F-5 project coming along?

Completed the air unit programming tonight, fan turns on and off when minimal oil pressure is present, this synchronizes it with the in-game cockpit ECS. As I said before when I eject the fan unit spins to 100% during the rocket sequence then comes back down to a medium level as so you descend, then eventually switches off. It will be better once I build the right fan unit to even out the air.

Hi Aniron, I can only speak in terms of duty-cycle, at levels below 78% the fan noise is lower than the sim's fan noise. At that speed it's producing plenty enough air. I plan to crank it to 100% duty cycle though during an eject, they certainly are loud then but it will add to the ejection experience. cheers John

Hi All, Completed the construction of the Air Unit today. It has 2x 40mm fans PWM controlled by the slave Arduino. The shape is angular to mimic the F/A-18's air port. I've built a FET driver with an opticoupler for isolation. The bus transceiver unit has been miniaturized so all circuits can be placed along the edges. I wanted a clear path of air to pass through. Currently programming the unit. The fan's RPM is set by the cabin temperature control knob on the right. I'll spin the fans up to 100% on an eject and finally when the canopy is up measure the jets velocity and adjust the fan speed to suit. In VR having the fan blow air on your face does enhance the immersion and cools your face when it gets warm. The louvers are articulated. Cutaway from Fusion360 with the Fans removed exposing the air duct. Fan base mount suspended by elastic bands to minimize vibration. Fan driver is on the right. The air unit will be situated here. cheers John

Fusion360 is free for hobbyists, as long as don’t make more than 100k per year from your designs.

Hi Goslin, I use Fusion360 and the Zortrax slicer called ZSuite. cheers John

Hi Tom, I'll be upgrading all the top plates at a later date. I've intentionally left the top as a separate so this could be done. My plan is to print in white HIPS, sand smooth, spray with matte black filler/primer, laser etch the lettering then apply a tough semi-gloss clear top coat. My plan for now is to get all boxes/panels completed. Also my printer doesn't allow for a glass bed, not without a mod anyway. cheers John.

Thanks mate!

Hi All , The landing gear panel is now complete. I've temporarily installed this module on the left hand console while I'm building up the vertical unit. cheers John

Gear Lever Hi, Here some pics of the gear lever. Strong magnets were used with hall effect sensors and to give a firm mechanical thud at the lever stops. The CAD model. Printed parts with magnets installed. The knob is printed in clear, that is it goes in clear but after extrusion it turns a milky colour. This effect works well to diffuse the LED. Completed build, the electronics convert the HE sensor analog signal to digital. I only had analog HE sensors in my stash, so I had to build this little circuit. The knob has been painted in clear red with a red led within. This was hard to photograph as the red is very strong and the camera has difficulty exposing for it. To the naked eye it's a bright rich red. cheers John

it was roughly 3 days to print all parts, longest was 24 hours. I have the Zortrax M200. I've received and assembled the CNC router. The laser they supplied has a 3pin plug when the control board only has a 2 pin. I'll get back to laser engraving after I've made more progress with the panels, don't want to kill the momentum. My handle is shaped wrong, the emergency side is sloped. Easy to fix though.

cheers Gos, yes I will definitely be uploading the stl files.

Hi Ross, I think it was around 3 days. While I'm designing the printer is printing so the long print times don't really hold me up. My printer has a total print timer, it's done over 1500 hours now, still no issues with it. :) Just jumped out of DCS trying out the F/A-18 sound overhaul mod, it's pretty good. I had a closer look at the parking brake handle, mine is not quite accurate, I'll need to fix it. cheers John

These F/A-18 sounds are amazing, the howling sound is how I remember from airshows. The crackling of the AB also sounds great. Thank you for creating these! cheers John

Hi All, I've designed and printed the forward throttle upright section. It is made to accommodate 6 units of the standard panels, so it can cater to any combination. For the Hornet I'll be running it in the following config. The top left will house the gear lever. For the top right I'll be installing 2x 40mm fans with louvers controlled by the temperature dial on the right hand console. I'm also thinking if I can get a signal that indicates I've ejected I'll run both air units at full power to simulate an ejection. Should work well in VR. :) The top section is printed as one unit, so there were some minor warping with the overhang. The bottom is made from separate pieces that all links together with dove tail joints, no glue used just the 4 top bolts to connect the upper and lower sections together. If you want just a 3 unit upright then you can skip the top unit. I haven't removed all the support material yet, I'll also be printing cover plates to hide the frame. Here's my parking brake unit. I've used magnets with hall effect sensors to sense the rotating and the pulling actions of the handle. I've also used the magnets to give that positive mechanical lock feel on the rotation and extension of the shaft. The white plugs show where the magnets are installed. The brake hydraulic pressure gauge has also been created. A micro servo-motor with some gearing drives the needle. I need to print the face plate nut that is attached to the parking brake. When I get the distance right I'll build the unit that bridges the upright to the throttle. cheers John

Hi Tom, They're 40x150. cheers John

I have this problem. I had assigned theatre and flyby views to my Throttle, after this update it no longer works even after I rebound them.