parkerfly51505

Found another photo of a pretty ragged quadrant that has a detached side panel letting us see a bit more. That pin I referenced in the other photo is seen "stowed" due to the missing side plate on the lower part of the wing sweep lever.

You may have already seen this photo but it's a decent closeup of the button mechanism. Looks like that tab is probably spring loaded and the button somehow pushes it in enough to allow the lever down.

I was just watching a YouTube video yesterday on the "art of bending acrylic"! Never tried it before. That seems to be the easiest method as long as a decent form can be made. I have some 3mm clear acrylic on hand but that's possibly too thin to try. When I get a chance, I'll try it with a heat gun and see how it holds up. I have no idea how that switch on the yellow handle works either. So wish we could tear into a real one to see how it works.

Definitely interested and thanks! I've been trying to figure out how I want to implement the wing sweep myself. I have a Virpil CM-3 and just map some of the buttons to the cover and handle for now but that's no fun. I'm finishing up panels on the full cockpit now but will be anxiously watching your progress. Those CAD files look great so far.

If you want to go down a never-ending rabbit hole and spend countless hours of your life... then yes, motion is for you. I have a 3DOF based on the eRacingLab 150mm actuators and GT Omega Prime cockpit. I built it to eventually go back and forth between different DCS flight modules and possibly racing. I'm building side panel consoles for the F14 module now. Using SimRacingStudio software is very quick and easy but left me with a very arcade like experience and I always had trouble with heave motion working effectively. FlyPTMover was what changed the experience for the better but man that has been a journey. It's a very high learning curve, at least for me, for how it's implemented but it can do just about whatever you want it to. This is where the time comes in. Again, I would never go back but definitely try the Butt Kicker first. I did. I haven't hooked it back up since adding motion but I plan to soon. Both together should be great. Here's an early on photo of my rig. Plenty of details have changed but the basics have not.

Now that is way cool!!! I never thought you could retrofit like that. I have a million questions but hate to completely hijack this thread. Mind if I PM you about it?

Now that's thinking outside the box. Speaking of boxes, I'd have to build a complete enclosure to keep the chips from flying even further!

That's a good question. I couldn't find anything referencing cast or extruded on Perspex's web site. Might have to ask Perspex directly or at least order the smallest pack you can and test. It's fairly obvious once you start cutting. Either your bit starts collecting melted plastic or there are chips flying everywhere! *UPDATE* I was looking at perspexsheet.uk not the actual company perspex.co.uk. Perspex makes both and shows them on their main page. You'll just have to make sure that the reseller knows which type they're selling. **

I only have a CNC. It's great for cutting acrylic... cast acrylic only. The extruded acrylic (Rock Hard Plastics) is what heats up fast and melts. Cast acrylic (SimbaLux) chips away and is MUCH easier to use. Engraving is a whole different story and wish I had a laser for that part. I can engrave well enough but its just not very consistent. Granted, my CNC is not super precise. It's built for woodworking. This is one of my better panels but is still not the most consistent from top to bottom.

I took a quick look at those control columns. That's a great idea, especially in a cramped cockpit. Even in my setup I have to move my legs a bit and end up banging my kneeboard. I found a lot of vintage gear in the UK eBay site but not a lot in the US. Probably just not finding the right search yet.

It never even crossed my mind that something like that would be available to buy. Sure enough, there's an overhead set for sale right now for $235 on eBay. Tempting but I have to stop spending $$$ on this damn hobby.......... or at least prioritize. haha

Thanks! I had a heck of a time figuring out how to attach everything to the racing seat but it works. Your seat handle design is awesome. Compact and out of the way... i.e you don't bang your head. Did you paint the yellow/black stripes? I used the Flex Pet braid sleeve but it's nowhere near as vibrant as your design.

I use a magnetic reed switch with a Teensy 2 controller. It's programmed as a USB keyboard using standard Arduino code and works very well.

You may have already moved on but just wanted to throw this out there. I use the mega clones from eBay. By default, Windows didn't recognize them within device manager. I had to download a CH340 driver for them before they would be recognized properly. https://www.drduino.com/blogs/news/ch340-usb-drivers They work flawlessly for me with DCS-BIOS.

That makes sense, thanks! I have another LUA change I wanted to make as well and I'll take the same approach.

You're brilliant! I spent some time going through a ton of LUA files and came across the materials.lua which includes the following lines... --materials["TID_COLOR"] = {28,255,15,220} materials["TID_COLOR"] = {4,71,7,255} File location is ...\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\F14\Cockpit\materials.lua The first line is commented out. I tried copying the commented out values, {28,255,15,220}, and replaced the uncommented line's {4,71,7,255}. That did it! The brightness is now the same as the HSD display. No idea why they have a couple of commented out lines. Maybe options that they were testing at some point and left behind??? This is probably going to be a pain since the file will have to be changed after every update but at least it's found. I didn't take the time yet to figure out what order the values are in... assuming some order of Red, Green, Blue, Transparency. Thanks for the suggestion!

Not a dumb question but yes, I made sure it was. Thanks though! I had a thought, try exporting twice to the same location hoping to create a "bold" effect to brighten it up... no luck.

Glad I'm not alone but wish this was resolved soon. The HSD brightness was all the way up in that screenshot. Strange.

Hello... has anyone else noticed that when exporting F14_HSD in the monitor setup LUA and choosing the TID via the display control panel, the TID display is very dim? The Nav screen is normally bright, just the TID is dim. Exporting the TID specifically via the F14_TID export is completely normal and bright. A comparison screenshot is below... same secondary monitor, just arranged the F14_HDS export on top and the F14_TID export at the bottom. It's unusable for me though as exporting TID specifically does not allowing switching between NAV. Anyone know of a work-around? Thanks!

Looks amazing! I bet you're dying to get it all wired up. What screens are you using for your HSD/VDI?

Hey LASooner... just wanted to say great job so far. I really appreciate your attention to detail on those panels. I went a bit of a simpler route, not making an exact replica, but man do I understand the amount of work involved and the rabbit hole which just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Keep up the great work! Here's my work in progress with a Virpil throttle. Absolutely love your ThrottleTek!

Thanks RustBelt! That was easy enough to test. I simply adjusted the brightness setting on each cockpit HSD and sure enough, Helios mapped the RIO. I'm still a Helios noob but at least this gives me a direction to dig into further. Thanks IronMike for being on standby! Much appreciated!

Hi all... I have a three monitor game and fourth monitor Helios setup running for the F-14. The VDI and HSD are exported and running fine on the fourth monitor except that the HSD does not change view from NAV to TID when flipping the mode switch. The game cockpit changes correctly, just not the Helios export. Is anyone else seeing this? I'm not sure if it's a simple configuration issue on my end or a Helios or Heatblur issue and would appreciate any insight anyone might have. Thanks!

Awesome, thanks for that. I'll check that out.

I know this is an older thread but wanted to throw my .02 cents in in case it helps anyone. I was getting frustrated for a while with this issue. I just wanted my four monitors to blank via command line action. My three Virpil controllers would re-awake them within seconds. I know this is a work-around but I found using NirSoft's USBDeview allowed me to create shortcuts for each of the Virpil devices to enable/disable them. I use a VoiceAttack profile command to activate/deactivate all at once as needed. Once deactivated, the command to blank the monitors works successfully.