CubPilot

The Matrix From Hell! I thought I might as well show my button matrix breakout board. I had no previous experience with button matrix's before. I was using a Leo Bodnar BU0836 USB PCB to convert my TM RCS rudder axes to USB and decided to add the AHCP panel switches + the others to make full use of the USB board. This USB board is the older version and to use its 32 buttons a button matrix was needed as shown below. What's a button matrix? Well on the BU0836 it is a 6x6 matrix (6x6=36, I said there are 32 buttons..??? The other four are for a HAT switch). There are 6 ROWS and 6 COLUMNS. The BU0836 only has 6 header pins on the PCB for ROWS and 6 header pins for COLUMNS. With a full compliment of buttons + the hat switch each header pin would need 6 wires attached to it, not an easy thing to do because the header pins are small & close together. The answer is the button breakout board to the rescue. It will allow easy connections to be made to each ROW & COLUMN. It also allows the diodes to be on this PCB instead of being wired at each button/switch. It makes it easy to modify the button/switch wiring. So.... how the hell does this matrix work with only 12 connections (6 ROWS & 6 COLUMNS) on Leo's USB board with 32 buttons + 4 hat switches connected to it? Well, the microprocessor on the USB board scans each ROW looking for a COLUMN that is shorted (button pushed or switch closed). The processor can tell which COLUMN is shorted and along with knowing what ROW it's on it can determine the button number that is being pushed (or the switch that is closed) and send this info for processing to the USB interface. It scans each row very quickly so button "lag" is not a problem. The diodes (depicted by a bar and triangle "|<" above) acts like a one way valve. It allows electricity to flow in only one direction. If the matrix was made up of buttons and only one button was pressed at one time the diodes would not be needed. But, because we are using switches that could result in multiple "button" presses the diodes are needed. Certain combinations of multiple button presses can result in "phantom" button presses, that is a button could be shown as being pressed but it physically is not pressed. This has to do with the varying paths that the electricity can flow in the matrix with different combination's of multiple button presses. The diodes prevent this from happening. If I were buying this USB board today I would get the "X" version, no button matrix is needed, just connect the button/switch wires to its connectors. This is what I started with (show above). At the top a bunch of diodes (like the one shown above), the green PCB terminal wire connectors, short wires (not shown),and the Strip PCB. The PCB I used was a bit bigger than what is shown above. One side has copper traces (wires) running in one direction, the other side doesn't. The copper traces reduce the wires that you use on the PCB and can be cut to isolate the different electrical circuits. First thing I did was work out a wiring diagram that I thought would work & fit on my PCB. At the bottom of the PCB above are the two groups of connections that are attached to Leo's BU0836 USB board. The group at the bottom left connects 6 ROW wires to the USB board, the group at the bottom right connects 6 COLUMN wires to the USB board. The two vertical rows to the left are the terminals for the ROW connections from the buttons/switches, the diodes are arranged in between the connectors. Along the right side and at the top are the connectors for the COLUMN connections from the buttons/switches. The wires on the PCB make the proper connections for the COLUMNS. There are six groups of six connections for the buttons/switches. Each group of 6 button/switch connections are either one ROW or one COLUMN depending on which ones are being considered. I marked these to avoid confusion later on. The above picture shows the back of the breakout PCB, the ROWS & diodes are on the left half, the COLUMNS & wire connections are shown on the right half of the PCB. Because one group of 6 COLUMN connections are turned 90 degrees from the other COLUMN connections I had to come up with some "funky" wiring to get it right............. but it works. :thumbup: Above is shown the breakout PCB connected to the BU0836 USB board (blue colored PCB). At the right of the BU0836 PCB are the pin headers where the wires connect to (with yellow shrink tube on wires). The top group are for my rudders, the bottom group are for the button/switch matrix. The green PCB below the BU0836 PCB is a DB15 connector breakout board. Plug your DB15 rudder cable (NOTE: DB15 Gameport rudders won't work, my DB15 is a custom cable) into the connector and each pin of the DB15 connector has a screw connection on the right side of the PCB (blue terminal strip). Attach the wiring correctly and then do the same at the BU0836 and the DB15 is attached to USB. It just worked out really well, the BU0836 fits on the DB15 breakout board nicely! :thumbup: So, why do I call this the "MATRIX FROM HELL" ? Well it had to do with how I wired some of my switches on the AHCP panel. Most are grouped with 6 contacts wired with a common ground, meaning one ground wire for 6 contacts and 6 other wires (from other side(s) of each switch) going to the matrix breakout board. It took some experimenting and some :helpsmilie:from others to get this to work properly. After much swearing and wondering WHY I got myself into this I finally got it working. My matrix breakout PCB board was wired correctly, but some of the switches had to be hooked up in a manner that one would not think was correct at first glance, even for the "pro" who helped me. :doh: >>>>>>>>>>>>> But it works!! :thumbup: :pilotfly:

IceMaker..... very nice pit you are building! I have a question about your fuel panel shown in previous posts. What did you use for the four switches for the fuel tanks (that turns them on or off for refueling)? I guess they stay down when pushed, then with another push they are higher so you can tell if they are on or off. Or are they more like circuit breakers (which are mucho $$$$'s)? :pilotfly:

If you go to Options/Misc. in the sim there is a check box "Synchronize Cockpit Controls with HOTAS Controls at mission start". Check marking this option will allow you to physically set your switches to match the 3D cockpit switch settings. To do this push "Pause" on your keyboard to begin a mission, the first push allows you to look around the cockpit and synchronize your physical switches with the 3D cockpit switch settings, push "Pause" a second time and the mission starts. If you set your physical switches correctly they will be synchronized with the 3D cockpit switches. :thumbup: :pilotfly:

Sorry for the delay, just back from vacation. I made the LDG Gear knob from some aluminum I had laying around, so currently, being solid aluminum, it can not have a light in it like the real thing does. At this point I'm looking for functionality and not an exact copy of the real thing. The handle shaft is made of some 1/4" x 1" aluminum bar stock I also had on hand and I put a bend in it as the real one has, not to any specs, just bent it so it looked about right. The knob has a slot milled into it so the end of the bar stock fits inside the knob, it's held on with two small set screws on one side of the knob. :pilotfly:

I'm not going to do back lighting on the switch panels at this time. I'm going to use flood lighting as I used for the keypad as shown in this post. It works much better that the picture shows (due to using flash to take the picture) and also illuminates the AHCP lettering well enough to be very usable in a darkened room. I'm not completely ruling back lighting out, but I just don't want to spend the time on that now. juankeiko, maybe I missed something. I can see how I could have three LED's to turn on when activated by my panels Gear Down switch, but I'm talking about having the Gear Down LED's reflect what DCS A-10C's Gear Down indicator lights are showing inside the sim and interfacing that info to my Gear Down panel lights. If I had LDG Gear damage my panel would still indicate all three were down & locked while the sims indicators might not. :pilotfly:

LDG Gear Panel installed on instrument panel Paint is dry, attached the left wing panel and LDG Gear Panel to the main instrument panel. I decided to paint the wing panels gray, similar to the real A-10C panel. They are attached using wood dowels, but only glued in on the main panel side so I can take the wing panels off easily if I want to add any other switches to them. That way the monitors and other items aren't in the way while drilling holes, etc., it keeps the MDF dust (nasty stuff) away from the rest of the panel components. The LDG Gear panel is a bit darker than shown, I tweaked the photo to bring out some of the detail in the shadows. :pilotfly:

Thanks. Flim does nice work too. Leo's USB cards emulate a USB controller and as such only send the axis and button press info via USB TO a sim. To make the LDG Gear & indicator Lights active on a instrument panel you need to GET the info from the sim to turn them on and off as required. This requires a different kind of card. I think that Flim is using a Phidgets 1031 Advanced LED controller card which is designed to do this along with Helios to bind the various lights outputs from the sim to the Phidgets card. :pilotfly:

LDG Gear Panel The LDG Gear Panel I made is not exactly as in the A-10C, mine fits the room that I have for it on my panel and adds the Anti-Skid, LDG & Taxi Light, and Downlock Override switches along with the LDG Gear Handle. The LDG Gear indicator lights and Flap Position Indicator are non-functional, just thought the graphics added a bit to the panel so it says "aircraft". I can't show it attached to the wing panel and the main panel yet. I just painted the left wing panel and the paint is still wet. The four holes are for the panel mounting screws. I tried painting the three balls on the LDG & Taxi light switch gold, but didn't like it. Saw a pic of the real thing and they were silver, so scratched the paint off the balls on my switch and I like that much better. :pilotfly:

I'm pretty sure that what you are calling a "switch handle" is actually a "post light" to illuminate the Flap Indicator. You will see another post light above the LDG/Taxi Light switch next to the aircraft ser number. This is a common way to illuminate instruments in older aircraft. Mr B.... where did you look for flap keystrokes? Seems like it would be somewhere in the Warthog throttle lua file. :pilotfly:

Thanks for the kind comments. Nope, not a carpenter, although I know enough to be dangerous, but still keep my fingers intact. . Used to be an Offset Pressman for many years, now I have gone over to the "Dark Side",..... I fix copiers. I dabble in wood, metal, a bit of welding, etc. I'm pretty handy but I know that some others could put me to shame. I have a router, router table, jigsaw, contractors table saw, milling machine, small metal lathe, + smaller tools. For MFCD monitor screens if you look at the first or second post (about my panel, not in the hijacked section) I'm sure I gave the info on what I used. Tigershark did a great job on the switch setup info, I used that, especially the part on modifying the .lua file for detecting the OFF position of switches. The most problems I had was with attaching the three position switches to the USB board. I had an older Leo Bodnar USB board I was using for my rudders & TB's. This has the axes + 32 buttons + hat switch on the USB and is seen as another USB controller by the sim. But to use this with the switches I needed a switch matrix breakout board with diodes on it to hook all the switch wires to (then hooked to the USB board w/12 wires). I made that OK, but hooking up the three position switches was a problem for a while (actually a problem from hell !!). But I found some help and finally got it sorted. If you get Leo's USB board do yourself a favor and get the "X" version. No matrix breakout board needed, just hook up the switch wires to it. A bit more $$, but worth every penny IMHO. No need to change the labeling on any of the three position switches. The center position is physically off with these switches. So when setting them up you hook the center switch terminal to GND, the outer terminals to a button position on the USB board (one button position for each terminal), so a three position (ON-OFF-ON) switch would have wires to two buttons on your USB card, middle switch wire to GND. The OFF position will need an addition to the .lua file which basically detects when either button connected to the switch is turned OFF and triggers that event to the sim (which can actually turn something OFF or ON, depending on what's needed, like the "baro/radar/alt" switch). It would be good to visit Tigersharks thread, he has a video explaining this in detail. After the .lua file is altered it's just a matter to assign the various switch's to the sims key bindings. You need to check the sims key bindings, some have them for the OFF position of some switches, some items don't. I used thin aluminum as a base for the AHCP switch panel, a laser printed switch labeling sandwiched between the aluminum with a layer of plexiglass on top (I tried a non-glare plxi used for pictures, Home Depot). The labeling was used as a template for drilling (small black "+'s" marking the center of the switch holes, which I did in white). The MDF (1/2" in my case) is cut out where the group of switch bodies live on the back side to give the needed clearance for them while leaving enough MDF material for the panel's attachment screws in the corners. Still have to be careful not to tighten the panel screws too tight, they will break the plexiglass if too tight, just touching is good. A good Forstner Bit in a drill press makes real clean, flat bottom holes, limiting factor is the depth of the drill press throat (distance from bit to column). I used the F bit for some switches that were alone and not in a panel group (Stores Jettison & Fire Ext Bottle switches). Hand holding one would work if you didn't try to rush the cut and the piece was clamped down so it could not move, it would be harder to control depth & keep it straight than when using a drill press. NOTE: A regular drill bit will most likely break plexiglass, It needs a special grind on the tip of the drill, but a Uni Step Drill bit of the proper size will work very well and it makes nice round holes. A bit expensive, but again, worth it IMHO. Make sure the Plxi is supported while drilling. Been taking a break from this project, but I will post more when I get back to it.

If you are in the USA check out the Groovy Game Gear USB board. If across the pond in Europe Leo Bodnar's "X" USB board would be good. They both do pretty much the same thing with some minor differences. Choosing one over the other can save on shipping.

It's pretty straight forward for the LDG Gear Lever. The micro switches are hooked up so that the switch makes contact with the gear UP position (this is one "Button #"), the other switch makes contact with the gear DOWN position (this is another "Button #"). Then the wires from these switches are connected to some sort of USB board. Leo Bodnar has several (which is what I have been using for my TM RCS rudder axes, it also has provisions to add 32 buttons & a hat switch). Groovy Game Gear has a similar USB board. There are others. Hook the switches up to one of these boards via USB, and what DCS A-10C sees is another game controller. Then, in the case of the LDG Gear, just bind the proper switch position (Button #) to the UP & DOWN assignments in the DCS Controller Options screen from your USB controller that the switches are attached to.

LDG/TAXI Light Switch Been away from panel building for a few days. Just finished knocking out the LDG/TAXI light switch. The switch is a SPDT flat handle switch. The aluminum part is the beginnings of the switch handle add-on. There will be two set screws to hold the add-on to the switch handle. Another view, the switch handle goes into the slot in the add-on. Almost finished switch add-on. The three small balls will go on the front of the add-on, which has three holes milled into it at a depth of 1/2 the diameter of the 5/32" diameter balls. I could have used BB's, if I had any, which I didn't. I looked online and I would have had to buy 1000..... just to use three! Ended up getting SS balls from a machine shop supply company. I only had to get 100 @ about $6. Another view of the ball sockets. A little epoxy and those little balls look right at home! Before the epoxy completely set up I cleaned up any excess that squeezed out around the balls using a small jewelers screwdriver. Finished base coat of paint. I need to get shorter set screws. Now all that's left to do is to.... ummm.... cough, cough........ paint my three balls gold (or yellow or something). :shocking: :pilotfly:

Yes, a small table top metal lathe and a medium sized milling machine (not table top size or one that sits directly on the floor, it sits on a base cabinet, not a mill/drill with a round vertical column, mine has a dovetail "knee" for the Z axis [up/down]). For wood, a router & router table, a decent Contractors Table Saw, a good Jig Saw,and a cordless drill with various drill bits, and other hand tools. I used each of these tools as needed for the various parts of my instrument panel. So, I probably have more tools than most, but some would have more/better than I do, others less. Having good tools and the correct tool for the job can make things easier and produce better results, no doubt about it. That being said, sometimes a different tool can be substituted for the best tool to do a certain job. I don't have a band saw, which would probably been a better choice to cut the curves at each side of the glare shield. I got by using a good jig saw, the cut ended up being pretty square to the face of the piece, which was the desired outcome. :pilotfly:

Win7 64bit

Cali, Each of us have our own special talents. If we can all help each other out then all will be well with the Universe. Thanks Duckling, I checked out your A-10 cockpit project and it doesn't look amaterurish to me. Nice job right back at ya. :thumbup: Left Wing Panel with LDG Gear Handle LDG Gear Up, the switch on the right makes a connection. LDG Gear Down, left switch makes contact, right switch breaks contact. Front view, LDG Gear Down. Back side showing LDG Gear Handle pivot. This is a "KISS" (keep it simple) design. The real deal requires that the handle be pulled out a bit to choose the LDG Gear configuration. I was afraid I would pull the panel off the desk with the "pull" design. Besides, I won't be pulling any "G's" at my desk to need that feature. :smilewink: The object under the nyloc nut is a spring. Turned out the spring was too weak to do the job so I just compressed it more until I got the amount of drag correct so the handle stays put. I put a piece of UHMW tape between the LDG Gear Handle and the bracket. Makes for super smooth movement for the handle and requires no lubrication. The two black screws (sticking out of right side of bracket) are the UP/Down stops to limit the handle movement. Attached to main panel. Next the Anti-Skid and Taxi Lights Switches. :pilotfly:

The next two modules, Left - Jettison Stores Module and Right - Fire Extinguisher Discharge Module These two modules are the easiest to make. The above photo shows the back side of the Left & Right modules. The main body of each module is made of 3/4" MDF material. I chose this thickness so that I would have enough room for the switches that are in each module. I then glued a 1/2" wide x 3/4" high strip of MDF material to form the ledge at the top and on the backside of the modules as shown above. This ledge matches the thickness of the main panel and the height of the Fire Handle Module and attaches to the top of the main panel. I traced the shape using the graphics I printed out at the very beginning of this project and cut the straight parts on the table saw, the curved parts were cut with a good quality jig saw (no 30 year old Black & Decker jig saw used here). A bit of finish sanding to fine tune the curved sections and I was on my way. I then cut some 1/16" 3 ply Birch Plywood to width and the proper shape for each piece. I then wrapped this around the MDF main body, gluing it to the top, bottom, and sides. The straight portions presented no problem. But the curved parts did. Normal plywood is made with the grain of each ply (layer) glued together at different angles in relation to the other layers of the finished product. This makes the plywood equally stiff in all directions and makes it difficult to bend around curves. One solution would have been to steam the plywood and make it bend that way (if the glue used in this plywood could stand all that moisture). I did not have an easy way to steam the plywood, so I went down another path. I got some 1/16" thick balsa wood. This wood did not have any layers, it was a solid piece, readily available at the Hobby shop that I bought the Birch Plywood at, and was very flexible in one direction (90 degrees to the grain). The holes seen at the backside of each module are for mounting the switches. This picture shows the top side of each module. Before I glued this up I cut the plywood and balsa wood to the same width. Figured out the length I needed for the straight parts covered with plywood and the curved parts covered with the balsa wood, plus a little bit more length to allow for final trimming. I then glued these two different materials by butting the edges together to form a smooth, even joint. I placed them on the table saw top with the plywood against the fence, some wax paper under the butt joint area so as not to make a gluey mess on the top of the table saw, then pushed the balsa wood tightly against the plywood, finally I placed some more wax paper and a heavy weight on top of both pieces of wood. I left it like that overnight, had a nice evenly joined piece of wood in the morning. The two holes in the top of each module are for the screws to attach them to the main panel. The plywood/balsa wrap is glued and complete. Nice curves huh? :smilewink: The graphics are installed to locate the holes for the switches. Also shown is the aluminum push button guard for the Stores Jettison Button. Painted and installed Left Module. Painted and installed Right Module. :D More to come. :pilotfly:

Thanks for pointing that out Gadroc. Your work on Helios is simply amazing :clap_2:>>>>>>> :thumbup: ! I had been following Helios on and off but didn't know it had that kind of support for the Phidgets board (never really looked into the Phidgets board). That might become useful sometime in the future, maybe next winter. I really want to get what I have on my plate at the moment done and working so I can actually use it with the sim. Still have the two main panel side wings to finish up and the LDG Gear handle, LDG/Taxi Light, and Anti Skid switches needs some final work. :D :pilotfly:

Thanks for your kind comments. I probably won't do anything like that. It would take a PCB that could read that data from the sim to turn on the LED. Not impossible, but right now I don't know how to do it and if it involves any LUA programming I would be sunk (or any other type of programming). I can modify code if it's a small change (sometimes), but writing code from scratch isn't in my vocabulary. I can see that info on the main screen and that's enough for me. My main reason to build this panel was to get as much weapon stores and controls as possible with the MFCD's. The LDG Gear, Fire Handles, and the others I'm adding because the USB PCB has enough positions to do them, so I might as well use them. Also to get away from that "rectangle" look I started out with and make it more like an A-10C instrument panel while keeping in mind my main reason stated earlier. Oh, one other reason, I enjoy making things and figuring out how I'm going to do it. Right now I want to get this done as I do have other things to do now that the nice weather has arrived here. Maybe in the future I may add or modify things, not ruling anything out.

I divided the glare shield into three pieces (modules) which makes it a bit easier to make. 1. Left - Jettison Stores Module 2. Middle - Fire Handle Module 3. Right - Fire Extinguisher Discharge Module OK, off to the Fire Handle Module Above is the bottom view of this module. The top is the front, the bottom is the back. This is made of 3/4" thick MDF material. Starting at the top are two protrusions that are the areas between the Fire Handles. The horizontal notches are used to house the Led flood panel lighting units on the underside of the module. Directly below these LED notches are four smaller notches, which are the openings for holes which go down and out the back of the module to route the LED power wires towards the back of the panel. The numbers 1,2, and 3, are lined up with the three vertical holes for the Fire Handle shafts. There are no bushings, the holes in the MDF is the bushing. The fit between the Fire Handle shaft and the hole is loose enough so the shaft slips in the hole with very little force, but not so loose so it wobbles around inside the hole. The three notches going across the Fire handle shaft holes are used to limit the travel of the handle (more on this later). The three notches at the bottom of the module are there to mount the switches for each Fire Handle. This shows the Fire Handle which is attached to the shaft with a set screw. The shaft has a notch milled into it which does four things. It limits the travel of the shaft both in and out as well a not allowing the shaft to rotate. In addition it allows for minor adjustments to rotate the handle so it lines up with horizontally with the bottom front of the module. The notch in the handle shaft sits a little above the notch cut into the MDF material. This allows the white UHMW Polyethylene block, which wears well and has a low coefficient of friction, to slightly rotate the shaft for horizontal fine tuning. The UHMW material will allow for a smooth movement. All three Fire Handles installed. The three UHMW blocks have two tapped holes in each block to accept the adjustment screws which are installed through the top of the module. Top view of installed Fire Handles. The adjustment screws for each handle fine tune the handle rotation by loosening one screw and tightening the other screw a bit. Tightening or loosening both screws adjusts the drag on the shaft. The drag setting wants to be enough so the handle stays put when activating the switch, but not so much as to move the whole instrument panel when activating the Fire Handles, which risks pulling it off the desk. The module is painted, wired, and assembled! The white items at the top are the green LED flood lighting units. The black LED power wires on the right exit through to the back of the module and connect to the dimmer and power supply. The white wires that loop around at the center of the module connect the two LED units together. The white UHMW blocks are covered with black electrical tape to help them be less noticeable. The Fire handle switches are installed along with their activators. Top view of the module. The top of the MDF was covered with 1/16" 3 ply Burch Plywood. This makes the top of this module even with the other two modules. I cut holes through the plywood for access to the Fire Handle shaft adjustment screws. The two screws at the top attach this module to the main panel. I will cut the backside of the Fire Handle shafts shorter at a later time. Closeup of a Fire Handle switch and actuator. The switch is really made for surface mounting on a PCB. I soldered two wires on to it and with a bit of epoxy in the notch we have a Fire Handle switch. The actuator, the aluminum bit, is attached to the shaft with a set screw. The bolt and nut allows fine tuning for the switch activation. It's adjusted to push the switch down, but not put so much pressure against it to risk breaking it. There you have the Fire Handle Module, ready to be installed and wired up. Now I realize that some of you may not have the tools that I do. But even so you might get some ideas from this as to how you might be able to do something similar and get similar results. Creativity is a wonderful thing. :pilotfly:

I have a BU0836 card that I use for the TM RCS rudder axes (I have a TM Warthog so I needed to convert the RCS's to USB). I needed to build a breakout board for the button matrix required with this version. Leo had not come out with the "X" model when I bought this card. If I counted correctly there are 28 buttons that are active in the sim on the UFC. Six other buttons do nothing in the DCS A-10C UFC, so I did not include them in my keypad UFC. These are the FWD, MID, AFT and the three unlabeled buttons under them on the UFC. The BU0836 has 32 buttons + four hat buttons. I think you could use the hat buttons for two of the rocker switches on the UFC as these would never have two hat buttons pushed down in normal use (two buttons pushed at once would result in a 8-way hat switch "corner" output). So I think you would have enough buttons to do the UFC with Leo's "X" board + a few left over.

The size was determined using screen shots and resizing them so the glare shield fit the width of my basic rectangular panel and look about right with my panel size. This allowed me to use the screen shots for the graphics rather than make them from scratch. So, I guess it depends how large your instrument panel is. I'm sure mine is not the same width as the real thing. I sized my panel to fit the available space that I had on my desk. I had one other thing to consider with the Fire handles module. I have my two flood lighting LED units semi hidden on the bottom of the black areas between the fire handles, so I sized these parts to a width that would match the width of the LED units I had bought.

Thanks for your kind comment Deadman. It does look a lot better than a simple rectangle sitting on desk! As for how I did the fire handles, etc. They started out by taking closeup screen shots of them in the sim (I have Track IR). The parts are modular in that I split it up into three parts, left side, middle (fire handles), and right side. So when doing the screen shots I split them up in a similar manner. Once I had the graphics I went into my photo editing software and tweaked the color of the yellow slashes (yellow was different colors due to shading in sim). Then I printed them out, put the three modules together to see how wide they would be. I held it up to my panel and from there adjusted the width to fit my panel by adjusting the size of the screen shots (equally for each module) & printing them out again,etc.etc., until it looked about right for the width of my basic rectangular panel. That's how I started. I will post more details with pictures later this week. I will be away from the computer for the rest of today.

EEEK! The MFCD panel is growing up. Got home one day and my little desktop panel seems to have grown a bit! :smilewink: Something was added to it on all four sides of the basic rectangle shape. Decided I needed flood lighting for the Keypad & new AHCP switch panel, so decided I might as well make a reasonable copy of the instrument panel glare shield. The green LED flood lighting is brighter than it shows in the picture, used a flash for this picture. The LED lighting does a good job at lighting the keypad and the ACHP panel, it can also be dimmed to taste. Just got done hooking up the AHCP switch panel thru a BU0836 that I use for the rudder axes, thought I might as well use the buttons functions on that board too. Almost regretted doing it that way, built a button matrix breakout board and it started out as the "The Matrix from HELL" !!! All sorted now. My breakout board was fine, it was the matrix challenged virgin (referring to the lack of button matrix experience) that was the cause of most of the problem. :doh: All switches work on the glare shield, Fire handles, Fire Bottle, Stores Jettison. At the left is the LDG Gear lever which will also be functional (no need to pull it out to cycle LDG Gear, felt it would be too much work and pulling on the LDG Gear handle might risk pulling the panel off the desktop). The Anti-Skid and LDG/Taxi Light switch will be added to the left wing panel above the LDG Gear handle. More later. :pilotfly:

First let me thank Tigershark for all the excellent work he has done in this thread. Writing instructions (making videos), if done well, takes more time than most would think (and it's well done IMHO!). Guess I do need to qualify "the poorman's UFC" I put in my thread title. I was comparing it to the replica UFC that is being made in this thread by Boot910. He has done an excellent job replicating the UFC with only minor alterations due to the case design and minus back lighting. I think the last I knew cost was around $300+. So I guess the true poorman's UFC is really your mouse and clicking in the cockpit. Anyways, this thread has resulted in me being bitten by the bug again (thanks a lot Tigershark ) and I'm going to add some of the AHCC switches to my modest desktop panel. The Master Arm, Gun/PAC Arm, Laser Arm, and TGP will be there. The rest probably not as I will run out of panel space, or may be included with some switch position rearranging. Also I needed to light my UFC buttons for use in a darkened room so I got some green LEDs + a dimmer (this works very well with white letters on a dark background). However, the LEDs need to be mounted above the keyboard and away from the panel surface a bit to function properly.................. Soooo I'm in the process of making the top of the instrument panel that has the Fire handles and the Fire Exting Disch switch and the Red button that drops stores. The LEDs will hide under the ledge. I plan on switches for the fire handles, Stores drop button, Fire Exting Disch switch, and adding a LDG Gear handle that is also switched. I figured I might as well get more use out of the PCB board from Leo that I use to convert my TM RCS rudders to USB. Can you see how this panel building can very easily get out of control! Mr Burns, good luck with your project. If you can use MDF material for the panel (I used 1/2 " thick MDF) it has enough weight to help with any tipping problems, and if the lower panel hangs over the edge of the desk it won't get pushed back in use.