Hellraiser

Take my money!

Me to! Spoke with Jonas via email, he said they are still working on it!

With Temp panels. It was the lighting panel and the stores jettison panel that bubbled. For now Ill sand them back down and reprint the adhesive label. All is not lost....

Hey guys, Successes and failures....... Been busy with real life lately but have managed to get the following done All sanding and filling done, pit painted Collective done Backlighting panels done on the interior Temp panels done ( failed ) Korry switches ordered Confirmed PC Flights will do custom cut panels for the Korrys All switches, encoders etc arrived from AliExpress Failures. Unfortunately I ruined a couple of the temp panels with some spray can clear coat which did not mix well with the paint and bubbled. Not to worried though as I will be purchasing the PC Flights panels soon. I purchased the Korry switches off DIY737 and Karl even made the switch covers for me. They will serve for now to give me an idea for the wiring harness size. The collective was a bit of a challenge, mainly the soldering to the Leo Bodnar micro usb boards as Im not the worlds best solderer. Sadly, once assembled 2 switches have failed, I suspect from bad soldering to the board. I did manage to add an extra switch ( not on the real thing ) so at least that compensated. Also, I am just using rubber motorcycle grips and trying to drill a nice hole through that is next to impossible. I made a mess of it and will be replacing them shortly. Also, do not use the Alps 5 way navigation switch with encoder and push button. It took me forever to figure out the wiring, and it turns out the push button is always "on" - long story short, you cant use the push button switch as intended. The rotary encoder is useless. However for straight up and down, left to right functionality they are pretty good with a nice tactile click KU Housing - also I did not leave enough room to build the KU housing - Total Controls were kind enough to send me the dimensions of their upcoming unit - unfortunately its larger than I thought it would be, and enclosing it is not going to work - but I will just mount it like you would with a tablet. I have to sometimes remember Im not building a real helicopter!! Successes The collective works! Almost all switches are represented and in the correct position of the real thing, the Wingwing base works great and I recalibrated it so it uses the full length of travel. So that will do for now until I decide which commercial product I will buy ( probably Virpil ) or make if someone comes out with a solid design for 3d printing. Korrys from Karl - he made the korry switches for me for the APU, Armament and Fire Detection panel - because these are the ones with dual LEDS in them and top and bottom text. He was also kind enough to also make the switch covers. That guy is a rock star! Not to start any rumors, but he did mention something was currently printing ( not saying what....) PC Flights also confirmed they will modify their panels to fit the Korrys - so will be placing an order soon for the full panel set which can be backlighted. Hardware - Ive purchased as many switches, toggles etc with pcb boards and pins - I want to make everything as plug and play as possible. The less soldering the better as far as Im concerned! So I will try to get more pics up soon, but here is a couple of the collective and Korrys; More to follow. Jonathan.

Lads, For those who know or follow Karl at DIY737, he has made the Apache Power Panel with the throttle. Im tempted to buy the design and make it, but as I have just finished my "saitek" version I want to see how I feel about it before spending more cash. My feeling though is this is just the start as he has also (finally) started making helicopter parts. I would not be surprised if he makes the collective and cyclic. Im planning on buying his Korry switches, as he nows sells them premade out of resin and laser etched faceplates and they are by far the cheapest around if you compare against others like opencockpits. Anyway just a heads up in case people were not aware of his website. Jonathan

Couple more pics; I was pretty surprised at how my temporary panels came out for my desktop TBM900 when I built it - I needed something quick and cheap at the time, and I had planned on purchasing some professional panels - but in the end decided to keep my DIY ones. This is also what I have planned for the AH64 panels for now. But since Ive gone this far with the build, and considering Apache's usually fly and fight at night I will definitely replace them at some point so I can have proper backlit panels. You may also notice the center panel - it is not like the real one ( straight ) as my EC135 cyclic has a pretty big curve in the pole - at full forward it was hitting the panel so I had to improvise a new one while keeping the wiper and check overspeed panels where they should be. I also wanted to keep the simpit down to 2 monitors only. Im using an LG widescreen behind the MPD's, and it was long enough to include the standby gauges but not long enough to give me the realistic space between the MPD and the gauges as you would see in the real cockpit - a minor deviation but saves me having to have multiple monitors. Wanted to keep things on the simple side. The EUFD uses the second monitor, a 7" screen. I've decided to place Flares panels on the lower right console - I did actually build the case for it and the structure to put it on top of the glare shield, but this would need another monitor and Im undecided on how I will be tackling that issue at the moment. I figure as long as I have the actual switches this might suffice for now. The glare shield was.....fun. Not. I toyed around with many ideas, mainly on fiberglass but Im not that experienced with fiber glassing so went with the tried and true mdf kerfing. I need to do a couple of fill and sands but it will come out nice thats for sure. As the Apache has the somewhat "iconic" double glare shield, I may just yet go with a fiberglass experiment for the top glare shield when the time comes.....

Of course, now that I've just purchased the winwing base...lol. Virpil products do look great though and reasonably priced so I will be watching this with interest. I've seen the MaxflightStick one but very little info about their products so Id be hesitant to take a gamble on them. I think my DIY effort is coming along nicely, so I want to finish it and see how I feel about it. But ultimately I do want to make everything exact so I will , no doubt, end up purchasing a commercial product. I've seen the 3D print model floating around, but since I possess zero skills in that department and don't even have a 3d printer, that option is out for now.

Hi corbu1, Thanks for the compliment. Copied them straight off the PC Flights website. I may purchase their panels at some point, but I would need to some mods to fit my hardware, mainly the "korry" style switches and the power panel. I didnt see the Virpil post - Ill have to check it out!

Afternoon Guys, Thought I would say hello as Ive switched to DCS and decided to build an AH64 simpit. I love helicopters and until now Ive been flying in Xplane, but since the Apache came out in DCS Ive always wanted to do something with it. Ive never actually really used DCS, so Im learning as I go along and eventually want to get pretty immersed in it and join a squadron and start flying in some campaigns. I decided to take the build first then figure out everything else later. To get immersed in the AH64 I wanted it to be as real as I could get in regards to cockpit layout, switch positions etc. I find this is a lot easier than trying to fly something from just the keyboard and mouse. I do have VR ( original Oculus ) but Ive found it to be lacking graphics wise so Ive decided to go with the old school cockpit. So, full disclosure - not my first simpit build. I originally built a Bell 407 simpit, then built a CRJ simpit and now Im back full circle to helicopters....but excited about this one and learnt a few things along the way. Ive based this simpit around my office desk and chair, Ill be able to just roll it in front of my desk as that is where my sim computer and monitors are. I think this gives me more flexibility than doing a dedicated pit with a seat, computer and monitors attached. If I decide to change my mind on that I can easily incorporate that if I need to. So the pit is built out of MDF, Ive made my own panels as well ( based off the sizing of the PC Flights panels ). I decided to copy their exact dimensions as if I decide to backlight everything later I can easily swap the panels out. The main reason was cost ( obviously ) and switch hardware - unfortunately there are to many people making panels and such but you can never know what type of hardware they base their sizing around. So easier to just make my own so it all fits together. Ive taken a few design liberty's to fit the monitors and hardware Im using. The MPD's are from Total controls, and this weekend Ill be building the KU housing to mount Total Controls KU unit ( which they confirmed is coming!). Pedals are TM's and I will be getting the gas strut mod to eliminate the spring return to make them function more like a helicopter. Cyclic is a Komodo Simulations EC135 that Ive had for a while and Im currently building my own collective. About the Cyclic and Collective - Ive had a set of Komodo's controls for a long time, and my feelings on the products are mixed. The cyclic is excellent and still going strong - the collective, well, not so much. Like many people have reviewed, my collective at the time( Bell 407 ) was really poor in build quality. It was mostly 3d printed, the throttle broke within weeks, the friction got loose and the buttons were simply crap. And it actually snapped at the attachment point on the base, rendering it useless. I threw it out. So Im obviously put off by their products now and this is why I wont be purchasing the Apache set that they have now. To expensive, and the quality to me is just not what it should be at that price point. With that said, I do realize this is a niche market and his products are actually really nice looking and I commend the effort he has put into bringing helicopter hardware to the market. We always take our own risks in purchasing "hobby" products. But for now, I will be building my own collective based on the Winwing gemini collective base. Ill post up pics and build updates as I go if people are interested in making their own in a similar fashion. Maybe Winwing or Virpil might come out with an Apache collective, so we will see. For me, as long as the it functions like a collective and has all the switches represented, that is good enough for now. The cyclic, while obviously being quite different from the AH64 cyclic, has all the buttons I need and is working well so no need to replace that right now. The throttles are "hacked" saitek throttles with some 3d printed handles on them - I sacrificed a Saitek TQ throttle but its a very simple solution and works great. So obviously its still in its raw stage right now, Im slowly getting to the finishing stage but thought I would finally share it to the group as Id like to keep in touch with likeminded AH64 builders to share build ideas etc. If anyone wants to know anything about my simpit feel free to ask - Ill be posting up some more pics as I go along. Jonathan.