geneb

As far as I know they've got a receiver and a resolver for each axis. g.

Certainly! It may take me a couple of days though. I'll make a note to remind myself. g.

All the instruments that I want to use synchros on are for the most part Malwin simulator instruments. I like Mike's design, but unless I want to re-draw the whole board, I get to be obscenely over-charged by ExpressPCB to have them make the boards. I've found a source of both 26V and 115V static inverters - I'm just waiting to find out how much they'll cost me. :) tnx. g.

Ahh, ok. I get it. I typically use either 600 or 1200 dpi. g.

I've never seen a "scan gap" parameter to work with. I just treat it like a printer (literally). I set the power & speed of the laser and make sure I tick the "auto-focus" box. :) (I use an Epilog Mini-24 with a 45W laser) g.

This helps meet the "He who dies with the most toys, wins." mandate in the Man Caves 101 Handbook. :D g.

I've got the pinout for the primary ADI, but not the backup ADI & the HSI. The connector on the HSI needs to be replaced. It was "de-milled". :( For the sake of saving money, I'm planning on driving them with synchro transmitters coupled to stepper motors. g.

You're preaching to the choir. Check out http://www.f15sim.com/index.html - that links to the pre-blog site and the first few entries show how the fuel panel was done. That's as close as you're going to get to a real Type 5 without screen printing it. At that time I used VCarve Pro for all my tool paths. I've since upgraded to Aspire. g.

When I made the panels that I needed for the F-15, I didn't engrave deeply at all. In fact I set it up such that it would only ablate the paint mask and the black layer of paint. I'd go back over it with white paint to catch any spots that under-engraved. The end result is a museum quality Type 5 panel replica. The only way to make the process more technically accurate is to screen print them. (which is something I'm going to check out at some point) g.

I hate to say it, but you'll get a much better finish if you can scrounge up a laser engraver. g.

I recently built & tested a simple diode-isolated 32 channel input board. You can download the Eagle & Gerber files (the gerber files are the same ones I sent to Seeedstudio to have the first run made) as well as a rendering of the board: http://www.geneb.org/projects/input/32ch-board-gerbers.zip http://www.geneb.org/projects/input/32ch-board.zip http://www.geneb.org/projects/input/32ch-board.bmp The board uses cheap 1N4148 diodes and gives you four columns by 8 rows per board. The 8 pin connector along the bottom of the board allows you to daisy chain the board to add more columns. You could easily build a 32 column by 8 row setup (512 switches) on a single Arduino Mega 2650. Because of the isolation diodes, you'll be able to decode individual switches no matter how many are closed at once. I've tested the board using the Keypad library that comes with the Arduino IDE and it works great. You'll have to tweak some of the hard-coded settings in the library to account for the larger row & column count. Here's some sample code you can use (this will work with any diode isolated input matrix) to see how it works. // This example only uses a small 3x2 matrix. A standard Arduino Uno should be able to // work with up to an 8 by 10 matrix. // #include <Keypad.h> #if LIST_MAX != 128 #error You need to modify the LIST_MAX constant in Keypad.h to be 128. #error LIST_MAX #endif const byte ROWS = 3; // three rows const byte COLS = 2; // two columns byte switches[ROWS][COLS]; byte rowPins[ROWS] = {4, 3, 2}; //connect to the row pinouts of the input matrix byte colPins[COLS] = {7, 6}; //connect to the column pinouts of the input matrix Keypad keypad = Keypad( makeKeymap(switches), rowPins, colPins, ROWS, COLS ); String msg = ""; void setup(){ byte row; byte col; byte switch_num = 1; Serial.begin(9600); keypad = Keypad( makeKeymap(switches), rowPins, colPins, ROWS, COLS ); keypad.setDebounceTime(1); Serial.print("LIST_MAX is "); Serial.println(LIST_MAX, DEC); for(row = 0; row < ROWS; row++) { for(col = 0; col < COLS; col++) { switches[row][col] = switch_num; switch_num++; } } Serial.println("Ready."); } void loop(){ if (keypad.getKeys()) { for(int i = 0; i < LIST_MAX; i++) { if (keypad.key[i].stateChanged) { switch (keypad.key[i].kstate) { case PRESSED: msg = " On."; break; case HOLD: case IDLE: msg = ""; break; case RELEASED: msg = " Off."; break; } if (!msg.equals("")) { Serial.print("Switch "); Serial.print(keypad.key[i].kchar, DEC); Serial.println(msg); } } } } } These boards should also work well with Boltz's software. g.

I need 110VAC @ 400Hz. Because I'm feeding 2 real ADIs and an HSI, it needs to be as clean as possible. tnx. g.

I wish I could find a static inverter for a reasonable price. :( g.

http://www.f15sim.com/?p=335 Of special note is the work I've been able to get done on the engine gauges. Once the mechanical design and the software is done, I'll be publishing the part files & code for folks that want to build their own. tnx. g.

The F/A-18 stick shouldn't be metal. The real one is plastic. g.

At the $1M goal mark ($68K or so to go), they're going to add a Maya 3D plugin for it... g.

Even if you don't want a full cockpit, you could easily create a full, wrap-around display with a couple meters worth of the RR fabric and a castAR. :D g.

It uses a "retro-reflective" material. It's basically fabric that's got millions of tiny glass prisms embedded in it and most (if not all) the light coming out the projectors gets reflected straight back. This allows multiple users to share the same RR surface, which makes creating things like tandem cockpits a practical endeavor. The glasses can also track multiple tracking targets, which means that you can build a cockpit that allows you to move your head anywhere you need to and the system won't lose tracking. With the recent meeting of the $900K goal, they're adding a full IMU which means that even if the IR tracker loses all the targets, it still won't lose tracking. g.

While this demo is WAY too short, it is enough to give you a taste of why castAR is a MUST HAVE if you're a cockpit builder. The castAR Kickstarter only has 13 hours or so to go, so get in on it! g.

Contact SeeMeCNC - they might be up for it! g.

Well yeah, but when you've got five 3D printers (long story) doing nothing but taking up space...:D g.

Those knobs beg to be 3D printed. :D g.

Nothing like visual aids. *laughs* The manufacturer for both has a nice glossy they've put together of their product line. http://essexindustries.com/sites/default/files/AD-B-022212_Platform%20Controls_7.pdf The F-15C/E and F/A-18 grips are shown on page 2. g.

The stick grips on the F-15C and F/A-18C are not the same. The side switch on the F-15C grip is very different in molding contour than the F/A-18. The hat & castle switches are flipped left/right between the two as well. g.

FYI, my count just went up by one: :D g.