rocketeer

Another one. My improvised knob with base. And the transparent replica. Note even the drill hole at the back is replicated.

Recently I started toying with improvising knobs and then making replicas using Tap Plastics' Urethan RTV mould. First attemp was this. I used some container's cap, and glued it to a small plastic disc from Tap Plastics. After casting the resin, the result. Now I just need to paint it. Given that this knob is all transparent, I can paint the arrow white and the rest grey and the white will lit up using backlighting. Additional work is to drill the vertical hole and a small horizontal hole to secure a 1/4" D shaft of a potentiometer.

Talking about making the CDU, see how this guy built his CDU. He made it seem so easy, which it is, to some extend, if you don't do CNC engraving. Simple and functional. http://www.lekseecon.nl/fmc.html He used round, square and rectangular push buttons, placed them on a breadboard and wired them to his OC card. Printed and added the labels. Then added the screen. Voila! CDU done. For our A-10C CDU, we'd need to add rocker switches. For those not getting big interface card solutions, you can use one or more BU0836 cards to wire the CDU push buttons and rockers.

wow, looking at the tools make me drool. Looking at hardware excites me more than girls nowadays. Oops! I need help!

Hey Deadman, did you build that Auxiliary Lighting control panel? It's freakin impressive! The backlighting is just awesome! :thumbup: Have many other panels do you have to show? It'd be a good reference for us. Even the knobs are illuminated. Wow.

I'm done with the moving but not done with unpacking.

For those without the space for a full pit, and plans to have a desktop pit, I'd say the key things to have for the A-10C are the HOTAS, the MFD (both can be bought from Thrustmaster when available) and the CDU as I think these would be the most commonly used controls. No point building panels that you'd seldom use. Making inputs (toggles, push buttons, rotaries, encoders) are easier than outputs (LED, LCD, 7 segment displays). For the CDU, you can buy square and round push buttons, and rocker switches, and wire them to the BU0836 which is USB plug and play. The print, cut and paste the CDU numbers and alphabets on sticky label sheets onto the push buttons. It would not be backlight enabled but at least it'd be a functional CDU once configured using some key mapping software. The CDU screen will be a different challenge. The comms and nav panels can be also done using encoders and rotary switches with the BU0836 card. Of course if you plan to build many panels then it makes more sense to use interface solutions that can handle a lot more inputs per card like Open Cockpits, Hagstrom, PHCC, Flightdeck Solutions etc. than say using ten BU0836 cards. Personally I don't like to use the mouse to flick switches or set radio frequencies. I know we have touch screen solutions which is much easier and cheaper than building a pit but I just want it to be more immersive. And once you start pit building, you'd discover that it's as fun than playing the sim. It's challenging and rewarding to build something than looks like the real thing to some degree and is actually functional. When I built my Cessna panel, my wife who doesn't care a thing about flight sim asked why I went through so much trouble to make dummy switches and levers. I said they were functional and demonstrated them. She was so impressed that she thought of trying out the flight sim! Suddenly when things were functional it seem a lot more fun to her. So if I were just doing a desktop pit, I'd focus on the MFD, HOTAS and CDU, and maybe the comms and nav panels, if I have more space, as I think these are the ones that I'd need to use the most often, thereby cutting down on using the mouse for these. You have to be a bit mentally unstable to join the madhouse. If you are, welcome to the dark side. It is your DESTINY, so says Darth Vader.

It's obvious that I am one of them. :)

At the moment, I plan to use Open Cockpit's IOcards. They have a wide range of cards for inputs, outputs, gauges etc. Initially I wanted to use Hagstrom's cards but they don't have output solution and their input cards are way more expensive if you use a lot of cards. Also, Oakes' excellent youtubes videos have demonstrated how OC can work with BlackShark, so it should work for the A-10C as well. I just moved to a new place. Been busy packing, now busy unpacking. Will give an update soon.

I cam across this site last night. Good info about Open Cockpit's IO cards. Examples. Description of IO cards http://personales.ya.com/micabina737/iocards/hard/descripcioni.htm Connection between cards http://personales.ya.com/micabina737/iocards/hard/numi.htm Display cards connection http://personales.ya.com/micabina737/iocards/hard/displaysi.htm Connecting different devices to the master card http://personales.ya.com/micabina737/iocards/hard/elementosi.htm SOIC language example http://personales.ya.com/micabina737/iocards/soft/ejemplo1_sioci.htm

Yes I can go get A3 paper but it won't fit into my tiny printer that only takes smaller paper.

The panels I printed were prepared for A4 size paper, with the intended width of 5.75". But being in US we use letter size. Maybe that's why it's a bit off. Printing at 100% of A4 and at 100% of letter is different I guess.

Thank for the link. Now we know the exact dimension of the panel and the window.

Very impressive. Did you use rub on letters to label your switches?

Thanks for your input guys. For the linear pots, I notice there are two types, those with a switch and those without. For those with a switch, basically when you rotate all the way counter clockwise, you'd feel a click and it switches off. I suppose for volume knobs even though we should use linear switch, it makes sense to have a on/off switch built in? I guess those for lights etc. doesn't need the switch. what do you guys think?

Alex, thanks for the clarification again. Deadman, seems like you have some authoritative source on the F-16 or A-10 info. I think the panel above is in the F-16. Did you build the F-16 cockpit? Anyway, good to know that you have good info on the A-10. Whatever I build I am going to show it here and hopefully if I am off or wrong you can point out to me. Thanks in advance!

Alex, I see many knobs are for volume. Those for lights will use pots as well. You recomended to use linear pots. But those for volume, must they also use linear pots? ie. stay away from audio pots totally, even for volume?

Deadman, thanks for the info. Seems like I was almost 1/2" off, which is more than 'a bit' off. But I'm not particular as to insist on exact dimension as real life's. Are you saying that all US combat planes have the same width in term of backplates? Your reference is for F-16. I thought the A-10, or any other plane, would have its own dimensions from the F-16. It's not like they are made by the same company?

Thanks Chris. Alex, thanks for the input on linear pots. I'd get those instead. Stranded Duckling from Viperpits.org has a personal site on his A-10 cockpit progress. http://www.strandedduckling.com/index.html He has very kindly shared PDFs of his panel drawings and even baseboards. If you print them to 100% size, the panels are 5 1/4" wide. Then take a CDU picture released from the A-10C preview by Sim HQ, crop it and then size it to that dimension, the CDU is about 3" by 2 1/4" or 7.5cm by 5.5 cm approx. Now that you know the CDU dimension, please do as described above. When printed out, cut out the CDU window and overlay the paper over the most appropriate LCD screen size you have there and show us the result! I'm sure it'd look great.

Hi Cat, good to hear from you. Bet you are done with your BS pit. Are you going to build one for the A-10C? Or are you holding out for the Apache. That'd be quite a wait though. The A-10C will be a blast. You should do it! Alex, good to know we have the same dial. By the way, does it matter if I use a linear or audio pot?

Thanks. Chris, congrats to your baby! Hope he or she grows up to love flying like daddy. Does that mean you have to give up your intended cockpit room for the baby? Both are so important. What a dilemma. :music_whistling:

This is the way I mass paint in one go. This one I used long screws stuck in a piece of foam. I sprayed each side and then rotate around the four sides. then sprayed lightly on the top. This repeats a few times, sometimes with primer first. When done, I sprayed two three coats of clear enamel for protection against finger prints and dust etc. This one I used my wife's hair pins. Sshhhh! Same routine. Primer, paint, clear enamel. I try to stand at some distance and give several light coats at intervals than stand too close and spray too heavy. That'd end up dripping and the result is not as good.

For this dial, it has 0 to 90 degrees turn. I found this dial from 0 to 9 in Fry's. Increments steps of 1 instead of 10. Oh well, at least it's about the right size. It'd do for now.

Hi Chris did you get to build your Black Shark pit? I suppose Cat is done with his BS pit. Yeah I've been away for a year. It's good to be back, to prepare for my favourite plane the A-10.

Similary for the big round tops. I used another 29 cents plastic cap, and painted it metallic gloss. It doesn't look exactly the same but at least it's bigger than the normal ones.