Mike Powell

A very long time ago, I managed to just barely avoid failing three years of Spanish and two years of French language classes. (Maybe I wasn't quite that poor a student. Maybe.) Perhaps if my teachers had said "In 45 years or so there will be a global communications network that will allow you to connect with people throughout the world. You'll want to be at least marginally conversant in languages other than your own.", perhaps I would have studied harder. (Okay, probably not.) So, better that I say: Sorry for my nonexistent French. Thank you, R1, for posting and sharing your work. I very much appreciate it. Regards, Mike p.s. Your English is fine.

Quite likely I don't fully understand what you're trying to do. :) My thought was an off-the-cuff idea that since the cleardome.com people can make large domes it might be possible to use one or two of their products to assemble the image surface from acrylic. I didn't mention originally that the viewing side would need to be treated or coated for light dispersion with something like GOO Systems rear-projection screen paint. That seemed obvious. However you approach the project, I hope you will post a great many details and pix. It's a very interesting subject.

Perhaps it would be less expensive to have an acrylic dome made for you. The people at www.cleardome.com make them up to 69 inches in diameter. They are located in Maine, USA.

Your covering/lighting idea sounds good. It should boost immersion by blocking out the real world. "...expensive hobby!..." You have no idea:)

If you want to try making a Jay-El/Korry style push button switch, here's a resource for you: http://home.hccnet.nl/jwopdenakker/building%20tip.html

Hey, yourself! Good to hear you've still got the project on the active list, even if it's been punched down a few steps by RL. I hope the swelling or whatever from the "swift kick" has subsided. Cheers,

You might take a look at Honeywell AML series switches. They're not cheap, but they're much less expensive than Jay-El and Korry.

Sweet!

Here's some info about HUDs: http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/hud/head_up_displays.html

FSX does not use LUA. You have your choice of the FSX-native interfacing API called SimConnect, or FSUIPC, a third party interfacing utility which rides on top of SimConnect.

Hey! How about an update? This project is too neat to disappear. What's happening?

James Price is one of the original hobby flight sim guys. For years his sim was located in a hangar in Livermore California. He was one of the first to use big iron, aircraft salvage as the basis of his project. His is an eye catching project that is all the more impressive when you realise that he built it before there was a large support community of flight sim fanatics. More about his project here: http://www.737simguy.com/

Looking very good, Gus!

The DTS uses a PIC, but it mostly manages communication with the host. While it could be re-coded, it would be straightforward to use an Atmel device. All it needs to do is serially load the MDACs and assert the sign bit.

Sounds good. Where can I find specs for the EOS bus?

Great work!

The Tap Plastics website has a lot of information, both text and video. www.tapplastics.com Acrylite is step higher in the plastic production food chain. The Acrylite website has more information. You'll need to register (free) to access the tech support stuff, but you can use the downloads section without doing so. (The link to downloads is on the bottom of the page.) www.acrylite.net

I'll second that! Well done, PeterP!

Thanks, this is helpful.

I have the structure together but have not added the threaded spacers into the corners. I ordered sheet aluminum to make the MIP sub-panels. I'm planning on cutting the sub-panels to size and using them to hold the threaded spacers in alignment as I epoxy them into place. Well, the sheet aluminum arrived, the temperature in my unheated work area dropped uncomfortably low, and I was reminded that I hadn't been working on the manuscript for Building Simulator Display Systems. Most of my time is currently focused on manuscript revision. I have a draft that doesn't suck too badly. In fact, I'm liking the direction I've finally got it heading, but there's a fair amount more to do before it's ready for publishing.

Yes, looking very good.

There is information on Hall sensors here: http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/oldnews/oldnews_2009.html Scroll down to the 5 May 2009 and 25 March 2009 entries. Also here: http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/oldnews/oldnews_2008.html in the June 2008 entries.

The article "Fighter Plane MIP Design and Layout" in the November "Mike's Tips" column on MyCockpit.org lists a number of mil specs that have dimensions for instruments.

Very versatile and adaptable. Looks good.

A few tweaks and a lot a clean up remain, but I'm about ready to start adding sheet metal.