romeokilo

Nearly at the point when I can start wiring. Im going to finish the right hand console first, as it has the PSU as well as the dimmer circuit for all the panel backlights in it. Before I start the wiring I finished the painting and external detail. I added upholstery nails as rivets- although I think I'll add another line of them along the top edge. I was planning on getting some decals made up but decided to try something else instead. I just laid out strips of masking tape on the laser bed, then cut my own stencils. The results were better than expected! I know the colours aren't A10 realistic, but I wanted to add more contrast to break it up a bit. I'm sick of the same shade of grey on everything. I'll do the seat in the same darker shade as well. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

:thumbup: Ignore the Downlock override button and markings- temporary place holders only

Lots of modifications going on. I have raised the entire pit up about 15cm to allow for the seat rails. Also had to change the front to allow the pedals to sit in the right spot. Seat rails on. Lots of grinding to get it to fit... Seat in normal flight position. You can see the stick is mounted now as well, and I made a quick pvc extension to get its height right. Still centres and feels almost perfect in this spot. It's mounted to the seat, not the floor, so that I can move the seat and still have the stick feel natural. I may drop it slightly lower, but I'll wait until I take a few long sorties when it's up and running to iron that out You can also see I have made a 'tunnel' over the pedals. Makes the front much more sturdy, and I can put the PC on it to get it up off the floor and tidy up the cable mess. Oh and also note I lined the inside of the consoles with some material I found at a local store. I think it looks the part. Here is the seat all the way back for access. The right console swings out, and getting in is easy. And forward but tilted back. This photo is at maximum tilt, but it's actually quite comfortable with a slight tilt. Still doing more woodwork. I'm not happy with the glare sheild, I'm going to extend it out about an inch more. Hopefully I'll get a coat of paint on it tomorrow to get it looking much more tidy.

Cheers lads. I'm happy with the results so far. Few changes I'm making- Side consoles are being raised about a 30mm so they are flush with the bottom of the fuel/LG panel. Throttle is being raised up a bit. The real one obviously has longer handles. With the shorter ones it's not exactly ergonomic to sit resting your hand on them. It will be about 10mm above the panels but shouldn't look to bad. Also- I'm having problems getting Helios to work reliably nowadays. Guages are slow and stutter a lot and it crashes frequently. I've moved to Icarus which seems better, although my Phidgets base caution panel is an issue. Helios is required to run it, and try as I might I can't get Icarus and Helios to run at the same time. I can see making a DCS BIOS based caution panel from scratch in my future. Shame to ditch the Phidgets though- it wasn't cheap... I bought 100 of those individual WS2812B RGB leds to experiment with. Will be good if I can get a strip of those to be individually addressable and function as a caution panel without wiring a matrix. Also- I ordered some of Deadmans 3D printed knobs from shapeways. Get on it lads. The frosted detail finish on their 3D printing is brilliant. Not even any sanding required before painting. I'll add pictures here when I get home. On a side note I f#$@n lost one of the AAP knobs. I swear it was on my workbench and it just vanished. I have literally torn the whole house apart looking for it- even unbolted my benches and pulled them from the wall in the off chance it fell in a non-existant gap. I bet you it turns up once I buy a new one. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

No problem at all. Just be careful though because once you start you may not be able to stop. What started as this- Is now this- Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

First time it was all in one place today. Rough set up while I plan the floor to get the stick in the right spot. Nothing bolted down and all panels just resting in place, but about 50% are now complete and functional in the sim. Lots of detail work to go but sitting in it for the first time I'm beginning to get excited!!

This project was retired. See this thread for it replacement I just uploaded them to a Flickr album for you

This and the AHCP are run buy a GGG card. Indicators and the handle light will be run by the arduino nano that will run the flaps guage. Waiting on some mosfets and a stepper driver card from China before I wire them up. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

With the indicators installed Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

And because they swap out easy I did this one for shits and giggles. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

LG panel complete Downlock override is only a temporary placeholder. I'll get another NKK switch for it later on. And the AHCP now has Lynxs switch tops on standard switches. I had NKK locking toggles for this but have decided not to use them. With an MDF main panel there was too much movement in it when pulling them out to toggle. Made it feel cheap and flimsy rather than a simulation of the real thing, so I went back to normal switches. And cut, painted and engraved the indicators

Used the same principle as the ejection seat arming lever for the landing gear lever. All aluminium and it feels brilliant. Nice solid clunk into each position. Ignore the scrapes on the aluminium sides, they were done during prototyping. The handle is set off it with washers so it's nice and smooth. I will do a bent handle to go on the final product. Will use the same basic design for the fuel door lever and the canopy lock.

I don't see why not. Depends on coding of course, but in my opinion it could be done. I'll take it on when I get onto my Hornet pit after this one is complete, although I was/am planning an E model with the touch screen UFC. I haven't started researching it yet- the limited time I have I throw at the Warthog. Today I played around with modding a few of my real parts. I managed to backlight the IFF panel without cutting into it or even removing the backplate. I just unscrewed and smashed the original incandescent globes and managed to solder two 3mm leds and a resistor into each one. The top of the globe covers no longer screw on but nothing a bit of double sided tape didn't fix. I'm very happy with the results. This panel will wait until the very end to be fully functional, I have no idea how to get the real code dials to work with an arduino... For now the on-off switch is wired only, and I'll also get leds in the two indicators. Also smashed the globe in the utility light and modified a car T10 size led to fit in its base. Only took about two minutes, and its the right size so the twist for red still works also.

Mine has started doing that as well after the update. Are you using more than one monitor? I found turning the others of until after it loads fixed it for me. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

CDU. Changed the design so it's a standalone unit with the AAP incorporated into it. Easier to wire this way as they are sharing leo bodnar cards. And obviously tweaked from the original layout to suit my needs and VGA screen. 16mm long tactile switches on prototyping pcb. Averted the need for a custom pcb. They all share a common ground so each switch will have one wire from it direct to a bodnar board (there is two). Soldering that should be fun... 4.5mm acrylic spacer that the led strip for backlight gets stuck too. From the rear. Small standoffs are what the acrylic backlight panel gets attached too, then the button pcb gets bolted to that. Large standoffs are for the rear panel that the boards are mounted to. You can see the AAP is backlit not with strip but with individual 3mm leds like all the other panels in the pit. I've already soldered up that circuit, but am adding more LEDs around the knobs. I've got backlightable 3D printed knobs on the way. And backlit. Not as smooth as custom placed leds but its just so much easier to use striplighting. The round buttons are leaking around the edges because they are only partially painted- will fix that. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I was going to use a mega for the CMSP, but I don't want the pit to be completely run by DCS BIOS. I decided I'd rather have at least some of the switches throughout the pit as USB HID devices, so when I fly other aircraft or sims (rare but it does happen) I don't have to re program any Arduinos and will still have enough physical switches to play with. The CDU is going to be a HID device run by a leo bodnar board for this reason. I'm still deciding about the UFC. I'll probably use a mega for that so I can use it to run the front panel indicators, fire handles etc.

Thanks lads. CMSP Finished! Amazing the difference a simple piece of green plastic can make when put over a white OLED. Also hot glued on Lynx's replica switch tops and changed the Allen key bolt for a black painted Phillips head screw as on the real one. I'll paint the knob later on when I do them all. Big thanks to Duckling for sending me the green cellophane/plastic as a freeby. I've got the CMSC on the bench now and working in the sim. Unfortunately my damaged OLED has gotten worse so I've bought a new one to replace it before I unveil it on here. Safe to say I'm happy with it... For anyone chasing them the seller (who is also the manufacturer) has put more up on eBay. The 20x2's are usually hard to find. Item number 131059330863. Next on the workbench- the Radio Stack. It's a mess of solder and wire that one... Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

The seat is coming along. I decided my modification to the headrest made it way to flimsy, as I realised it will be human nature to grab at it when climbing in. I cut the whole thing off and am redesigning it to incorporate the chute container as well as working belt rollers. I have now become tired of wood, paint and power tools so have taken a break from the seat for now... Fired up the soldering iron and got to work on panels. CMSP is 95% finished and I love it. It now fully operational in the sim. I've learnt a few things- 1) DCS BIOS is f'n brilliant. 2) DCS BIOS is easier than it looks. 3) DCS BIOS is f'n brilliant. Its running via an Arduino Uno for the display, switches and rotary however I ran out of pins, so the seven tactile buttons are running off the GGG card in the ELEC PWR panel. Only thing left to do on this panel is glue on the switch top replicas, repair the genuine knob with some paint and try to remember where I put the green transparent plastic cover for the OLED. Also- The CDU and UFC are almost at the same stage but unfortunately I'm just waiting on some more tactile buttons on the slow boat from china before I can get them back together. The TACAN and ILS panels are finished and working on breadboard, however after playing with and loving the I2C OLED on the CMSP I'm considering redesigning them completely, ditching the 1602 LCDs and using a smaller OLED as well. The Radio Stack is also now working on breadboard, just trying to work out how I'm going to do the dual digit preset channel displays, preferably without having to do up my own PCBs.

So I figured the export.lua for Helios I can't find would have been the one I overwrote to get Icarus working? I removed Icarus, repaired dcs, re configured Helios and got a Helios profile working. I then added the Icarus files, did the mentioned rename and changed the export lua and got nothing. Helios and Icarus are no longer receiving any data. Tried it in both the Dcs and dcs open alpha folders. Don't know what I've done now but I'm over it for tonight. I've uninstalled dcs completely, doing a full clean install of dcs tomorrow to try and figure it out. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Running Icarus in my cockpit now- looks fantastic! Much easier to set up than my Helios profile and no crashes or freezes so far. Well done! I still need to run Helios so I can get my Phidgets 64 LED based caution panel to work- For the life of me I cant find the Helios Export script i need to rename? Can someone please point me in the right direction? :helpsmilie:

Sweet baby jesus that is fantastic! Subscribed. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Seat had a rough coat of paint before the detail starts going on. I'm happy so far. Next up- sanding and filling minor imperfections before rivets detail goes on with upholstery nails. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Got the eBay shocks and the idea works! I used ones with internal springs so it's nice and clean. Snaps to either position well. The lever is just a place holder for prototyping. Final one will look more realistic.

Headrest re designed, not 100% realistic but does the job. Still sanding and filling the bolsters on the back. Made the seat base itself more for comfort than realism. It will be covered in foam and wrapped in a suitable material. The front parts will be built up from high density foam. Still working out the parachute container, oxygen bottle, hoses and fabricating brackets from sheet metal. And still waiting on the eBay shocks to try the arming handle. Lots still to go on the seat but I'm happy so far. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Thanks Deadman. That looks much easier to implement as well. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk