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Warhog

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Everything posted by Warhog

  1. Neil, go to the link I posted. It will have everything you need right there.
  2. I guess I wasn't very clear in my description. The first pic shows the backlighting behind two layers of acrylic. The second pic shows the finished panel. What you are looking at is engraving plastic which sits over top of the two acrylic layers. I use engraving plastic for every panel I make. The "paint it white and then black" technique produces inconsistent results so I avoid techniques like that. I also do not laser engrave. I use a TAIG CNC mill to engrave. This type of engraving is called "rotary engraving". If you check out the links in my signature you will see many panels in various states of construction but they all use engraving plastic for the top and final layer of a panel. This pic better illustrates the layering I use to form a panel... two layers .125" thick acrylic and one layer .0625" thick engraving plastic.
  3. Yes Neal, that would be my first guess. But without seeing a circuit diagram and knowing what LEDS you used, resistors used and how its wired up, it is impossible to accurately diagnose. You need to provide more detailed information.
  4. This is how I dealt dealt with multiple or high powered LEDS. http://bildr.org/2012/03/rfp30n06le-arduino/ It is definitely over kill for a couple of LEDS but when you look at the cost of 30n06LE Mosfets, it was cheaper and easier to buy a couple dozen of these little guys and use them everywhere whenever the current requirements exceeded the Arduino specs. One chip for all is my mantra...:music_whistling: :thumbup: This is a bank of mosfets that I built for the exact same purpose as the OP. Nosewheel, Gun, Canopy Beacon, Fire L Eng, R Eng, APU, and a couple others I can't remember at the moment. This is the board with the Arduino Pro Mini removed.
  5. Lately I've been concentrating on refining my backlighting technique. I rebuilt my CMSC panel because of this. As Hans has already pointed out, engraving plastic is used for the top faceplate. Its a laminate of white translucent plastic with a fine layer of semi matt black surface. You only need to cut into the laminate .004" and your into white material. The next layer or two is .125" clear acrylic. In the photo below you can see the PCB behind the acrylic which has a series of thin flat LEDS and SMD resistors. This is now what I'm using to backlight the engraving. The end result looks like this. Its also important to scuff sand both sides of the acrylic which helps to diffuse the light. I know some people also add an aluminum backplate but I use all acrylic for my panels. There is more than sufficient strength if you use several layers of acrylic. There is also the added expense and the effort required for milling aluminum even if you do have the equipment to mill it. There are times when I do use aluminum in the cockpit but not for any of my panels. If you wish to see additional panels in various states of construction, please refer to my signature for the links.
  6. Depends... are they white cotton or LATEX?:music_whistling: :megalol:
  7. I, personally, have used just three board types throughout my entire cockpit. The Mega, for RS485 bus as master. Also for very high pin count applications such as CDU. I buy them for $11.45 each from China. The Pro Mini. This is the most used board in the cockpit. Cost is approximately $1.95 but you need a USB to serial converter to program them. I bought three converters for $2.75 each. Nano. Less cost than ProMini ($1.80) they eliminate need for USB converter and are more convenient to use. I started with using ProMini and developed standard PCB for its pin pattern and MAX487 IC. I didn't want several different sizes in the cockpit for replacement purposes if one were to fall and need replacing. That said, both will do the job easily and cost is a non issue. Also, I recommend you do a search through the home cockpits section of the forum and read all there is on the RS485 bus that we are starting to use. It will allow all of the boards to talk to DCSBIOS and the sim. Ian has made example template sketches for both the master and the slaves. We have also written a tutorial that will be released later in January. It will explain how to incorporate the RS485 bus into your cockpit.
  8. I agree, big hammer. The bigger, the better:lol:
  9. If I might make a suggestion, if you need your servos to swing greater than 180 degrees you can achieve this simply by adding some gears. They are readily available on eBay and AliExpress for very reasonable prices. They also have experimenters packs that have a variety of sizes. You can try out different gears until your happy with the gear ratio that works best for you. My hydraulic gauges were set up that way as you can see below. IMG_0274 by John Wall, on Flickr
  10. I buy most of my boards from here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Nano-V3-0-ATmega328-16M-5V-Micro-controller-CH340G-board-Arduino-/201601613488?hash=item2ef0647eb0 I buy all my toggle switches from this eBay store. You need to know what type of toggle you need whether it's on-off, on-off-on, etc. http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pc-ON-OFF-ON-SPDT-Toggle-Switch-Latching-15A-250V-20A-125V-AC-Duty-T701CW-/401206532862?hash=item5d69c5dafe If would suggest you watch some short YouTube videos on how to solder. It is incredibly easy once you have been shown how to do it properly. :thumbup: Good luck.
  11. The values 544 to 2400 are the pulse width values that the manufacturer has established as what is required to move a servo approx. 180 degrees. Not all servos are based on that range. There is a data base on the internet that lists all servos made and their associated range that they use. A majority of servos use the same range of values...but not all. There are some makes that use a completely different range but I can't say more as I haven,t been able to locate the list again. Not that it matters though as all of the affordable servos use the 500-2400 range. Update: the data base that has specs on pulse width range is: http://www.servodatabase.com Pick your servo from that list and it's spec sheet comes up. That is where you will find the range of pulse width values that control position for that particular servo. i.e.). http://www.servodatabase.com/servo/towerpro/sg90
  12. I've been working on this project off and on for the past year. Whenever I get frustrated with it, I put it aside until I have settled down and decided that destroying it would be a bad idea. It wasn't as easy as I had originally anticipated but I have most of the bugs worked out so I thought I might share some pics before its all back together. The first area I started to rework were the indicators. When I began work on them I didn't have the same knowledge base as I do now. So my immediate thoughts were to replace the coils with servos. In hindsight, I should have left the coils/indicator in place and undisturbed as there are other ways to drive them. Gadroc had mentioned this in an earlier thread and said he may post how he reworked them electronically. Here is a pic of the coils for the glide slope indicator. The next pic is with the coils having been replaced with a servo. You can also see a coil spring that I added to preload the indicator. There is always a bit of play when gears are involved. Preloading the indicator ensures that the play will be completely eliminated. Adding servos wasn't that difficult. The easy part was that all four indicators have identical mounting bases. I re-used those parts and then built 4 identical frames to hold the servos. Here is the original bases that I re-used: I added acrylic frames... ... and then glued and screwed (drilled and tapped holes) them to the original parts. The servos were now well seated and ready to use. But then I discovered a problem with swing. Servos have a swing of 180 degrees. The indicators have a swing of may 10 to 20 degrees at the very most. So re-mapping the 2 different swings in the code would reduce the precision of each indicator considerably. I wanted to use as much of the swing available in a servo to maximize the precision I would get from each servo. Hence...GEARS. I dislike using gears but this was a situation that warranted their use. And it wasn't that difficult to implement has I had a reasonable inventory of spare gears to choose from. So I used gears on each indicator and although it looks a bit like an afterthought (because it was):music_whistling: it worked. Next on the list was the ADI ball. I started with the roll as it was definitely the easiest. After removing the synchros and their gears I was able to reuse the gear from the synchro as well as the slot it occupied in the ADI frame and replaced it with a small NEMA stepper motor. I did have to build an acrylic frame for the motor and that frame incorporated slots for the screws that would ultimately hold it in place. By doing that, I had some latitude in moving the motor around on the ADI frame before it was actually tightened down. It allowed me to mesh the gears together with a minimal amount of play. These gears already have a built in backlash reduction device which preloads them in either direction. Very sophisticated stuff. As I was saying the roll was really easy to do. Just find a big flat spot from a synchro you removed and close to one of the main gears. Reuse the synchro gear and fabricate something to let you adjust the motor in relation to the main gear so it meshes smoothly. It requires a lot of creative thinking in how you approach this. But what about zeroing the motor. Next pic please.... On the right side you see a gear with a splotch of black paint on it. I removed that gear and drilled a small hole in it. I then fabricated a small frame to hold an IR LED Emitter that lined up with this hole and installed the same on the opposite side with an IR detector. That what I use for establishing a zero reference point for the code. Now comes the hard part, the pitch. I started by dismantling the entire ball/bracket assembly. This ADI is from an F4 and it rotates in roll pitch and direction. Inside the ball there are 2 synchros and their associated gear trains that allow movement in 2 directions. Here you can see the 2 shafts that the ball rotates about. At first glance I immediately realized trying to insert 2 motors into this frame was going to be extremely problematic. I decided to retrofit just the pitch axis and forget about anything beyond that. From looking at the photo you can see the synchros and the existing gear train. I removed all of the synchros and kept their gears. In some cases however, that meant breaking the synchro down so I could retrieve just the shaft as the gear was cut as part of the shaft. With some basic machining I was able to make an adapter to attach the gear to the shaft of the NEMA motor and then install this motor in the exact same location where the synchro and it's little pinion gear were previously located. The next problem was how to zero this axis. After close inspection I discovered that there was already a zero detection device installed on the pitch axis. Its the big bulky device on the side of the frame. Inside, it has a central arm that swings about 360 degrees and as it turns it makes contact with several points that protrude into the drum. You can see the attachment points around one half of the drum. So I actually had my choice as to which point I wanted to use for a zero point. One more issue I had to deal with was the wiring coming out of the ball at the shaft. It was badly damaged when I got the device so I had to install a new slip ring (thats what its called) which would provide the wiring into the ball for control of the motor and the zero detection device. You can see where all of the wires were cut at the end of the shaft in the above picture. And this next pic show the new wiring. The slip ring is actually installed behind the zero detection drum so you can't see how it is installed. Slip rings can be purchased on eBay. The price of these little components is quite reasonable considering what they allow you to achieve when working with devices like and ADI or HSI. So I now have to end this post. I have apparently maxed out the number of pics you're allowed to use in one post. As to completing the ADI retrofit, I have made the PCB's. They are installed on the ADI and the Arduino boards and MAX487 IC's are in place and ready to be programmed. I'm just now starting to write code to synchronize the simulators movement with the physical movement of the ADI. This is my next challenge. I will post more when I complete this next phase. I hope you have gained a bit of insight into what it takes to retrofit an ADI. It definitely requires some creative problem solving to get it functional. If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the ADI in various states of assembly or disassembly please follow this link: http://s1168.photobucket.com/user/PitBldr/library/My%20A10C%20Cockpit%20Parts/ADI%20Retrofit%20Project?sort=3&page=1 Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoyed it.
  13. I think when Ian gets you that test sketch for the chip, that will remove one major possibility. As he mentioned, I had a batch of some 30 MAX487 chips and every single chip was bad. That sketch let me test a bunch of them quickly and with no doubt about what was good and what was bad.
  14. That's some really impressive information Gus. Interesting, that other than a few OpAmps, I already have all of the parts in my inventory. I may try this and maybe bounce this off Mike Powell. See what he thinks. I do believe he had developed a proof of concept. I'm just getting my ADI functional. Once it's off my desk I'll look into this and see how doable it is. I really like the idea of using a screen that's much more in keeping with the real thing. The high voltage isn't anything I'm at all concerned with unless it causes a great deal EMI. In the mean time if anyone else has something to add, please feel free. It's going to be a problem we will all face assuming we want to keep everything as close to scale as possible.
  15. The spelling of my name is WarHog, not warthog. Second, the sketch was written for a two pin (step and direction) Driver board. You cannot drive a VID29 motor directly from an Arduino board by using that sketch. You must use a driver board such as the Easy Driver board. I specifically wanted to include a driver board with the motor so I could select the rate at which the motor would move, as in half step, quarter step, etc. You cannot change the step rate when you run the motor directly from an Arduino board. I assume the person Ian was responding too was using a Driver board as well. If he was not, then nothing would have worked at all. The line of code that you can't find, the one that creates the instance of a stepper is: Acelstepper stepper(Acelstepper::Driver, 8, 9); // pin 8 is step and pin 9 is direction But it does not define the motor pins as your wanting it to do. It defines just the step and direction pins. The motor pins are attached to the Driver board, not the Arduino . That's why I said it's not a straight copy/paste operation with code as the entire motor, Driver board, Arduino board configuration is very different than from what you started with. The idea of including a driver board for each instrument was to minimize the "step" motion of the motor which can be quite noticeable at slow speeds. It actually looks terrible in certain situations. Just going from full step to quarter step makes for much better visual movement. But you can't just arbitrarily set the step rate to say 1/8th steps as speed and acceleration can cause unwanted issues. It's a balance of speed, acceleration, stepping rate, motor type and even the type of pointer you use. All of these variables need to be set just right for the gauge to perform properly. These are all part of what I am trying to come to grips with. What might work for the EMI will not work with the VVI. Each instrument has its own veryspecific requirements in order to maximize performance both mechanically as well as visually. If all you want to do is run the motor as you have been, just use that old sketch you started with and forget about this new sketch unless you are prepared to buy an Easy Driver board and add that to the mix. As you can see, I have an Easy Driver board for each gauge... the red boards. IMG_0805 by John Wall, on Flickr
  16. Before I comment, I want to point out that this sketch is not part of DCSBIOS. Although I t was written to work with DCSBIOS, it is in fact, NOT a class within DCSBIOS nor is it supported as being part of DCSBIOS. Ian has not included a stepper motor class in DCSBIOS as there are too many different motors and a variety of ways of driving them. Trying to support something of that magnitude is extremely problematic. It also means you must have an in depth background using stepper motors. Ian's background is programming. In the future, please create a separate thread when discussing stepper motors. The sketch above was written to drive my VVI in concert with DCSBIOS using a VID29 stepper motor and an Easy Driver board. Is that what you are using. If so, your motor may not be running because you are driving it too slowly or to fast or maybe the acceleration is not set correctly. Are you driving it at full step, half step, quarter step...the step rate, speed and acceleration all play on each other so each one has to be set correctly. Have you wired your Easy Driver board step and direction pins to the pins you defined in the sketch. As you can see, this is not a cut and paste type of operation. And this is why it is not part of DCSBIOS. A note of caution, anyone trying to use my VVI sketch should have a background in stepper motors and stepper motor drivers as there is presently no support for their use as it relates to DCSBIOS. I plan on writing a tutorial on how to make gauges with stepper motors. But that won't happen unti I have completed my investigations into finding the best motors, drivers and the most efficient parameters for driving the motors. Once I have that, I will provide instruction on making gauges and what to use to make a proper functioning instrument.
  17. I contacted a fellow who takes oscilloscope tubes and turns them into clocks. He has also made some RWR units for other pit builders' The cost is $1000 for one unit. He does say that a bulk order will reduce the cost substantially. But I suspect it will still be out of reach for a majority of the builders here. http://oscilloclock.com/gallery/3-inch-vga-display The proof of concept has been done and all we need is someone here who has the expertise to step up and design the circuit boards for us. Once we have those it would be an easy task to solder them up. 3" CRT tubes run about $35-50 a piece. I'm sure the actual parts would not amount to more than $50-75. I would think a DIY kit that costs less than $200 would not be out of reach for most of us. Of course, it's all meaningless without having someone who can design the boards and prepare a BOMs list.
  18. Congratulations Calum. Your potential for creating excellence has just been presented to you. There isn't much that machine can't do as you've seen from my work. Spend some time on Nick Carter tools web site. Lots of users on there with some great ideas. Once you learn to master this machine you will be amazed at what you can do with it. And not to worry, I'll be here if you need help. John
  19. Thank you Gus, the pics are great. That's pretty much what I had been thinking about doing if all else fails. I had also considered using a smaller display and then use a fresnel lens in front of it to magnify the image to the size I require. Has no one built the correct size RWR yet without the use of a crt display? Gus, what quality of projector do think one could use without spending a small fortune and still get an excellent image? Thanks again for posting the pics.
  20. Actually 2 of them. That will teach you to move to New York.:smilewink: I couldn't live without my 1911's, or my 686 or my SIG P220 or my 3 AR15's:music_whistling: I won't go on. I know it hurts.:( But you have DCS now. What more could you want.:P :lol:
  21. Hey Gus I was thinking of something similar for my RWR. I'm getting close to actually needing to deal with this dilemma. I haven't been able to source and kind of acceptable display that will work without it sticking out one side of its enclosure. So I am going to experiment with a pico projector and try rear screen projection for RWR. No idea whether this will work but I'm running out of ideas.
  22. Wayne, Just try a bottle of Model Masters and Tamiya paint to start with. They are inexpensive, non toxic and easy to clean up with just soap and water. I have had some experience using a two part paint in my airbrush (my Paasche) when I had decided I wanted to refinish my .45 1911. I painted both the frame and the slide. It looked awesome when it was done. Still does actually and yes with paint like that a vented power hood is really important if you don't want to die in the near future. But the paints I use now, work great and they will last a long long time. And if you need to do some touch up in a couple of years, well , you have the tools so it's no problem.:thumbup: Start with easy stuff and experiment. And don't forget to tell your lovely wife that she is welcome to have some fun with it as well. It has so many uses and crosses over many hobbies.
  23. Do a search here on this forum for RS485. There should be a lot of info available. Ian and I will be releasing documentation on how to make an "RS-485 Bus for DCS-BIOS Dummies" (like me). Its written so people like me can understand how to set it up with DCS-BIOS and a bunch of Arduino Boards. Should be ready before Xmas. It will include PCB designs for you to copy and make your own if you have the facilities for doing that kind of thing. Initially though, I think you will find lots of info buried in our forum on RS-485. At least enough to get you started.:) And some pics to show you how I did some retro fitting to existing panels with a Pro Mini: Don't look to carefully at these boards as I made a mistake in the design, but you get the idea. Its not very difficult to add one to an Arduino. Later on I just started adding them to every PCB I designed so no more retro fitting.
  24. Yes Wayne, it has been one of those years you want to forget. I had 3 heart attacks (Dec, Jan and Feb), was diagnosed with diabetes and was suppose to have a bunch of lymph nodes removed because a biopsy came back as n stage melanoma. I survived the heart attacks, dealt with the diabetes and found out that the cancer diagnosis was wrong 2 days before the operation was to take place. So I can sympathise with you. And then, of course, there's the arthritis. Getting old SUCKS my friend. However... Thank you for your very kind words. I am so glad to see that you intend to continue with this awesome and overwhelming project we call a cockpit. Its about the only thing that has kept me from falling into a state of major depression. I spend every day working on it. I'm also extremely thankful for my good friend Ian. His fabulous DCS-BIOS has had an incredible impact on all of us cockpit builders without which, we would all be heading off in different directions. Now lets talk about painting. I have been a model builder for most of my adult life. You may have seen some of my more recent builds on my photo sites. All of my models have been painted with an air brush. An air brush is similar to a rattle in that it sprays paint BUT an airbrush is far more precise in how much color you lay down. I would suggest a rattle can is comparable to using a hand saw to cut your panels with. An airbrush is incredibly easy to use and you can purchase small kits with everything you need. Be advised that a compressor is also necessary running at 6 to 12 psi. As to paint, I use good old Tamiya or Model Masters acrylic paint (water washable) and then lay down several coats of clear semi gloss as a sealer. The black I use is Model Masters "Aircraft Interior Black" which is a soft black and matches the engraving plastic I use. I also use Tamiya X-19 flat grey for knobs and buttons. And, again, I always lay down severals layers of clear coat. Material prep is too scuff sand the acrylic with some 800 paper and then spray paint several coats of color and then seal it. Your done. BTW, when you use an airbrush, the paint dries almost immediately. You can lay down 3 or 4 coats in no time at all. Only thing with an airbrush is its a little fussy. It needs to be cleaned properly after every use. Its not hard to do but some people find it tedious as there are smallish parts involved. I would suggest that an airbrush is really the only way to get consistently good painted finishes. When I hear the term "rattle-can" I cringe. Its like nails on a chalk board. Not including a compressor you would probably spend $60 to $125.00. The Paasche airbrush is what I started with and it was under $100.00. http://www.paascheairbrush.com/products/airbrushes-airbrush-parts-and-accessories/Airbrushes/single-action/h-1l I hope that helps you Wayne. I would check out a few YouTube videos on using an airbrush. In my view, an air brush is not only a wonderful tool, its an indispensable, tool. :)
  25. I was just looking over the MIP base you made. What thickness of plywood are you using. I was also wondering if you feel that wood is strong enough considering there are quite a few rather thin support or divider pieces between some of the panels. I'm still trying to decide what material is going to work best for the master instrument panel.
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