rocketeer

I've seen one in action at TechShop. Anything you can design in CAD it can churn out. Works even faster if you have a 3D scanner. Then borrow a knob or whatever small parts from the cockpit and scan, then print. You get identical replica without the mess of moldings and casting. You'd then have realistic looking parts. But who has that kind of dough?

I can't remember if there's minimum qty required. Radio shack gives free delivery to your home. You cn order online or pay at the shop first and they'd to your home later for free.

John, don't worry or be overwhelmed. We all start from ground zero. How does one conquer Everest? One step at a time. Constant reading from this and other forums will get you comfortable. Most importantly is to start doing. Then bit by bit the mystery fades and you gain confidence. Soon what others do look too easy to you. For engraving the white letters on black panel top, besides laser, you can also use router engraving, which I believe is most common among cnc machines. The light blue material you see is EL sheet. There are some threads here and there showing how it works. It gives the most even backlighting. A common, cheaper way is putting a string of LEDs under the light panel. Backlighting is not necessary or even recommended for your first project. There are already many things to do-building the basic pit frame, the panels, searching for the switches, learning the wiring, learn the more complex output wiring and software config. You can start with just one big, long piece of wood, then paste pieces of printouts for the panels on top. Then wire all the switches straight to a sim card without breakout boards in between. Or you can create separate pieces for each panel. You can start simple and complete it sooner, then slowly upgrade things later, esp. After learning crucial skills first. Or you can plan and build the most beautiful looking pit. The downside is that it can take too long. You may run out of steam or budget and give up half way. It is up to you to strike the balance between something functional and perfection. Look at bad crc's amazing black shark pit. He did not do backlighting. He did not have individual light and base panels, dzus screws etc. His switches are all on the same wood board. Wiring was straight forward from switches to the Leo boards, no intermediate Dsub connectors or breakout boards in between. And he is one of the few with a finished BS pit, and it looks awesome without individuals panels and backlighting. And he gets to fly it now. So how detailed a put is of course up to you. The more details you want, the more you have to learn and build, and more time it needs. My advice is, for your first pit, don't plan something so complex that will take you 5 years to complete. You'd miss out on the fun of flying. My own approach is the poor man's way to complete it first. Then later improve it bit by bit.

Based on the dimension for the front panel here, would it be right to say if we were to put one big screen behind it, the closest fit would be a 37" HDTV? The next lowest size is 32" which seems not wide enough to cover the sides like the fuel gauge.

RectorOne, thanks for sharing this excellent link. I noticed that in the same thread, someone (Goupil) showed a panel glowing in UV light. I don't read french, google translation gave me some idea what was being said. I suppose the panel was made of acrylic painted black, then engraved with white lettering, then the UV LEDs were placed below to make it glow? Is the UV paint transparent under normal light? I noticed the first picture it showed the panel looking normal, then in the second pictured in glowed in the dark and the lettering nicely visible in the dim light. I know EL sheets would give really good, even backlighting compared to spread LEDs around. I wonder if this UV approach is just as good? At least it showed be cheaper than EL sheets.

I think you are sitting on a gold mine. To me the A model is 90% similar to the C version. Most of us spend a lot of time just sourcing for realistic looking knobs alone, then hunt for appropriate switches, then make the panels, cutting, engraving etc. of course everyone has to do the wiring at the end. But having the A trainer saves so much time and effort on the knobs, switches, panel sourcing and preparation. You just have to handle a few new panels. This is a pit builder's wet dream come true. We have great experienced people here to assist you. Deadman and Red are using real panels. They'd have to sort out the wiring for their panels like everyone else. I see Red has done a nice job with some already. some people have experience with real gauges. And we have Oakes the open cockpit expert. We have Gadroc the Helios guy. Since you have 90% real parts, you should push to make the whole pit as real as possible, esp. if money is not an issue (which excludes most of us). Then to make it even more ultimate after having a almost 100% replica of the C model, top it off with a big CURVED screen with projectors like that done by BHawthorne. Then put it on a big D-box motion platform like the one for Blackshark demo. With real parts, even a cockpit frame, giant screen, motion platform, it'd be good to be put in a museum and charge dollars for joy rides should you need to recoup the investment. Or better yet get the museum to sponsor the pit conversion. Whatever time and experience you lack can be made up with money resource that you have anyway. So making this the most ultimate realistic A-10C cockpit is very possible. I for one would pay for the joy ride. Just like dimebug and Ice are collaborating, maybe you can find some other simmers near you to chip in help. Where are you located?

y2kiah, your panels looks really good! So is your paint station!

This is great workmanship, Gus! As usual, thanks for always sharing your work, which has been a great inspiration to me.

Ducking has an excellent site with the panels with correct dimensions, but for the side consoles so far. Have you checked it out yet?

Boot, the way you label the caps is a good idea. just that I don't have this P-touch labeler thing. It'd ensure the color of the top syncs with that painted sides, since the label is clear. I was thinking of how to print the labels with a color that will match the one I painted. using a clear lable is the answer. thanks! and your UFC looks great! I'm just too cheapo to pay that kind of money for just one panel.

Thanks. No I did not find out the actual dimensions of the UFC, but I believe my dimensions are pretty close. using the 9mm square cap as a guide, I expanded a picture of the UFC till its square cap fits the 9mm length and then I placed everything accordingly as close to the actual as possible, but exact placements are determined by the pin holes on the perf board. I don't want to be crazily exact and take a long time to do each panel. At that rate it'd take 5 years to complete and I don't want that. Anyway, who knows? Who cares? Maybe I'm just lazy and impatient. You'd notice that so far all the panels I've done I've taken the 'good enough for me' approach, to a big part due to budget, and of course time. So I didn't use CNC cutting and engraving. I didn't even use acrylic for each panel, just drilled holes directly on the same $1.25 wood on the console! Now that's cheap. Surface is just a print out, after spraying with clear enamel, it actually darkens the black I found out, nice! and protects it as well. it's a personal thing, how much time and money you want to spend building your pit, and how much you want to fuss over every detail. So far I'm happy with the close-enough dimensions and the way I've done my panels. They'd pale in comparison to those by Feed, Avilator, DM, Duckling etc. but I'm ok with it. Somebody will always make a better pit than me. I just want to finish it and learn to fly this thing! Being my first pit I'm pretty satisfied with it. At least it's not just a hotas and rudder and some printouts. I've got real switches. guess my motto is-function over fashion. I know this won't be my last pit. And I'd probably keep upgrading the same pit too. So who knows, maybe after some upgrades next time it'd look better. Uh sorry for the rambling.

Like you said, the light gray cap is too light. I got the square caps in light gray, the round caps in black as that's the only color available. Then I sprayed both types with OSH's spray paint primer gray. The primer is darker than the gray paint itself so I left it as it is. I didn't bother trying to match the correct A-10 color, as long as it is not light gray and not black I'm cool with it.

Impressive! How are you interfacing the switches to the sim?

thanks. yes I plan to use OC cards. UFC work in progress. Yet to do the enlarged Enter key and the Master Caution button with light, and a better printout.

yes thanks

Nice setup Paul! You need at least one more big touchscreen on the right and you'd be all set.

3. CDU Omron tactile switches recommended by Boots (thanks!) placed on perf board. I couldn't be bothered to cut so many square holes so I 'cheated' and just made a big one for all with the back plate. There'd be support at the sides of the panel but not for the space in between the switches, which i suppose will not be necessary anyway. With the faceplate added (just kodak paper, not acrylic, cheapo me : ) ) Instead of wasting precious printer ink to print all black on paper I sprayed black paint on paper. End result with square and round caps and rockers added (again thanks Boot!) I'm very satisfied with the caps. They hold on securely to the tactile switches, compared to my earlier design of self cut acrylic cubes on taller omron tactiles which proved too wobbly. These switches are sturdy and don't rock sideways that much. The rockers are kinda stiff to press but the size is the closest acceptable dimension compared to many others I researched. Again my preference of function over fashion. No fancy laser cut acrylics and engraving to keep cost down, just paper on wood for simple presentation.

2. Knobs for the Inter panel. Need the pull switch and turn functions. I connected the pots to a piece of wood each with a hole drilled to place a head of slide switches. I switched from the usual 24mm pots to 16mm pots as things get very crowded here. How it looks like with the pots shaft sticking out. Knob added. With the knob pulled up. Turning the knob. Knob pushed back down.

Three updates. 1. Emergency brake and seat toggle the toggle is a (on)-off-(on) flat toggle. the emergency brake is connected to a slide switch as you can see from the back. I am not very satisfied with this set up. The handle doesn't try enough distance. I may change this to two contact switches later with a metal rod to look more authentic and have a longer travel distance. But at least there is something for now.

I won't be surprised if this seller has been buying bulk from the manufacturer, or maybe even from other suppliers, so that when everyone is depleted, he is the only one with stock and then he can charge whatever price he likes to those desparate for one immediately.

thanks for confirming the functions. Now I can proceed to build the knobs accordingly.

Back to the topic on the knobs on the Inter panel. I heard someone said the rotation part is not functional, but in the sim each of the 8 knobs can be both pulled/pushed and rotated. The 9th knob 'HM' seems to be only pulled and not rotated. I've found a way to make both the pull switch and pot-like rotation but is the latter even necessary? Is the master volume switch supposed to control all volumes on the 8 knobs such that these 8 knobs are just push-pull functions with the rotation on all 8 knobs being irrelevant? If so we can just get push pull switches for all and forget about the rotation part.

Yes I was using Leo board. I don't have OC cards yet. Helios should work for OC inputs and output. Whoever has tried it please post your experience here. So far even just with dx buttons it has been awesome. I think more people will be building cockpit because if Helios.

Wow! Your prototype just looks 10x better than my paper with masking tape version! By the way the panels are separated it doesn't look like using a monitor as glass cockpit for the whole surface is possible. Thought you'd be using Helios for sure. Can you share your dimensions?

Alex, what you are doing is beyond my budget and skills. I can only do quick and dirty stuff and make it functional. But your design is so awesome! A bit OT here. Somebody rang the bell yesterday and ran away and left a gift basket. Didn't get the chance to see who it was. I took the most important item inside and told wife she can have the nuts and chocolate and everything else.