Elo

Well gentlemen, its official. Looks like well be modifying our cockpit plans, at least a bit. Except of course for @AusMumbles, who in his wisdom already did so. Looking forward to it!

@HagenThat looks incredible! How did you do the the 5 switch row on the display panel? Im planning to modify this type of latching switch row (https://www.ebay.com/itm/185986854410), but if you've found a better way i'd be awesome if you shared it with us.

Already preparing for the B(U), nice

Hey @Ltdan853 For instruments i recommend using Modelviewer 2, which is built in with DCS. It has an Orthographic view option with which you can make screenshots that are not distorted by Perspective/FOV. You can find the dimensions for some of the instruments online, for instance the Altimeter is 3.25in on each side (see the attached PDF), and extrapolate from there with the image editing software of your choice (even Paint 3D will work) and some rule of three calculating. For Panels, you can also use MV2 (and extrapolate from the width of the panels, which is 5.75in), or use this high-resolution schematic https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Utk7XcOaj622XG_r18X_Xw4PLhM4meY_/view. Its not 100% accurate, but ive found the text and switch/button positions to be good enough. For a template for the panels and more information on their design, see this post: Cheers MIL-PRF-83419E.pdf

@AusMumbles Nice Backlighting indeed! Im using Rotary Encoders, not Pots: https://www.tme.eu/en/details/ec11e20-20p20c-sw/incremental-type-encoders/sr-passives/ Pretty generic, got them on ebay. The button press they add will be useful for DCS-specific functions, or so i hope, and for the CRS at least we need the unlimited rotations. I recommend using a semi-translucent black/gray acrylic for the screen protector (I use Plexiglas 7C83 GT), to hide the mask on the sides and make it look more like a proper round edged CRT screen. As you can see the screen backlight still shines through a bit, might experiment with even darker acrylic (the one i use already only lets ~21% of the light through)

@BULLITT83 Im on board with Rustbelt, my plan is to make every Gauge a real one, and only simulate screens. For the F-14Bs front cockpit, there are effectively 4 screens: -VDI -HSD -RWR -EIG The F-14A has analouge "ribbon" engine gauges (like this C-141 gauge i managed to procure), so you could build that with steppers/servos and have VDI, HSD and RWR as screens with one left for the main display. The way i do it at the moment with my 5 screen desk setup and plan to do it with the pit is using a cheap USB-to-HDMI "converter", which are really just small GPUs, again as Rustbelt mentioned. They come with a performance hit, i noticed about ~10FPS lost with mine. Not great, not terrible. You could also experiment with a proper multi-GPU setup, but i dont know how well DCS will handle that (with something like a GT1030 or RX550 in addition to your primary GPU). Oh and by the way @RustBelt while im sure Helios makes it easier, you can also use the native DCS multiscreen function with the corresponding .lua files.

Oh and by the way, if anyone is interested in making their own RWR, heres the 2.8in display i used for that: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005188217754.html The one from Flight Sim Pro is awesome of course, but kinda pricy. If you have a laser cutter/engraver and a 3D printer, you can make your own easily enough.

Hey @AusMumbles, nice to hear from you again. For my HSD i used this screen: https://www.ebay.de/itm/185665095498 It fits almost perfectly in LASooners HSD design. Only drawback is that the metal bezel will be visible on the sides, but since the HSD doesnt display anything that close to its rim i just put a black 3D-printed mask over it. Wont be visible once the outer acrylic window is installed.

Pretty sure its not 90°, and since HBs 3D model is based on scans on real aircraft id bet the 53,7° is pretty close. I was mostly referring to the detent positions regarding innaccuracies. Looking at cockpit pictures in D. Core mans "Uncovering the Grumman F-14 A/B/D Tomcat" and comparing those with the HB Model it seems good enough

@Madpie In HBs Model, it looks to be about 53,7° Keep in mind that the Throttle in our DCS F-14 doesnt exactly mimic the real one, as can be seen in this video at around 5:35 Looks like irl the MIL detent would be a bit more center then in DCS. The one in DCS/MV2 is probably serviceable though. There are some people here with access to original Throttle Quadrants, like punk and Cheesecake, perhaps they could help you further

@ITR1102 For the gauges, you can get the dimensions of some of them from MIL-Spec documents, the altimeter (https://everyspec.com/MIL-PRF/MIL-PRF-080000-99999/download.php?spec=MIL-PRF-83419E.041672.pdf) or clock (http://everyspec.com/MIL-SPECS/MIL-SPECS-MIL-C/MIL-C-38207A_33161/) for example. Theres probably more to find on that website, but i just use those dimensions to then take screenshots in ModelViewer2, using the "set camera mode ortho" option and extrapolate from there I currently have the VVI, Barometric and Radar altimeter working as analouge gauges, with the BDHI and Airspeed+Mach indicator on the bench. I personally am using screens only for VDI, HSI, RWR and engine instruments (since im building a B Model). Ive seen "hybrid" analouge/digital gauges like this being used ( @AlphaDecay on the DCS-Skunkworks Discord) as well as full digital ones like TheWarthogProject. While displaying simple numbers on OLEDs is possible with arduinos, making completely digital instruments on LCDs would require something like Helios, as far as i know. And with that, you quickly run into the issue of NVIDIA GPUs only being able to connect 4 displays. With the A-10 you have a large, somewhat rectangular main instrument panel that allows for a single large screen, in the Tomcat however the instrument panels are split and a more triangular shape that doesnt really allow for that.

Hey LASooner, those hoods look amazing, may i ask how you made them? Are they bent metal or 3D-printed?

Wow... just wow

Youre right, those guys made some software for use with LG/Saitek stuff, but they also made their own branch of DCS BIOS, which the above link should lead to. They also have a great discord server with lots of people willing to help with code https://discord.gg/5svGwKX, and a wiki for help with installation https://github.com/DCS-Skunkworks/DCSFlightpanels/wiki I get home in a couple of hours and ill check the control reference for throttle position. There should be some kind of output for that. I dont think using RPM of fuel flow would work since those vary with other factors outside the throttle position and would be delayed too. EDIT: @Gareth Barry found it: null

Word of advice, if youre starting out new with DCS BIOS i would recommend you use the Flightpanels (now Skunkworks) branch, since its still being actively updated. It lacks the fancy GUI of the main branch though. https://github.com/DCS-Skunkworks/dcs-bios