Boltz

Slowly working through finishing instruments. 2 Flow Flow gauges are now finished. I will upload video when I have more permanent electronics built so can have more than one working at a time. The current stepper test rig can be partially seen on the right. Some pictures of the construction. One has an X27.168 stepper and the other a VID29-05P. They are very much the same unit.

Real ARC-164 preset channel switch outputs Gray code I believe

Small update on the engine instruments. Front plate has been engraved and then painted. Very little of the engraving will be seen in the finished MIP but I like the look of it now Not using the original clamps so I cut support pieces out of 3mm aluminium. Got them assembled and started wiring post lights in. Connector for all the post lights is looked out as well. Just got to position the wires around all of the instruments now. It's going to be a heavy panel when complete. Some instruments are different from last time. I just had to find tubes to fit in to check clearances. Some of the instruments I'll be using are in pieces on my desk

Yes PCB pocket milled and cutouts for LEDs and resistors. Going to make the PCB tonight. Then hardest part is the painting

LASTE Panel light plate milled. Still lots of work to do on it :pilotfly:

Haha so true many old versions of panels off to the side. I think I've got it right this time

Anti-G Panel Completed Finally something is finished :pilotfly: Most processes are down for making some more panels Engine instrument mounting plate is engraved and painted black. Waiting for the white paint to fill engraving Some panels in wrong order on the console because wooden structure is in the way. Won't be a problem with metal consoles

Wow Hans. I must have missed this post. Top work my friend!

If whoever won this listing and is on the forum is interested in selling me a unit please message me.

Front panel cut with original post lights and the instruments fitted for a mockup. Waiting for clamps to get them fixed properly. Also plenty more work to get them all finished and running. Front panel needs engraved and painted as well.

No way I'm gonna pay $400 a year now from a free service. Guess imgur is the way to go now

Best place to start is to search up part numbers for each panel and collect the related milspec and documentation for each. For the vast majority of the panels these will contain the pin out which states what function is related to what pin on the rear connector. That is far easier than trying to figure it out yourself with an oscilloscope or other equipment. For the panels you have you shouldn't need an oscilloscope to get them working. That's really only needed for instruments and other odd components used in the real thing. Your panels all look like straightforward digital switches. Even the mechanical frequency selectors are likely large multi deck rotary switches. That is what I've found in real radio panels. Second thing you need to do is decide whether to use the original connectors on the back or not. If you use them then the panels shouldn't need opened up and it is a case of working up wiring based on pin outs in the milspec. But they are very expensive to buy new and often used as well. If you change to a different connector then they would be cheaper but each panel would need opened and rewired to your new connectors. Cheers Boltz

Many thanks DM. Ordered

First Lightplate Made! After a lot of testing and waiting for parts I got the first light plate engraved this evening Last picture shows the backlighting PCB in place within the light plate. This allows aluminium backplates to be used instead of acrylic as I've found these to break on me when connecting them into a frame or just with heavier components. I'm quite happy with it. They can be made better by tweaking the process slightly but each panel will take a long time to make by this method. Next step is to start a couple more lightplates so that if one goes wrong I haven't lost all the work and start on building an IO system.

Looking for the following parts at the moment. If anyone can help then please let me know. It would be much appreciated. - AQU-6/A HSI or equivalent like used in C-130 - TACAN Panel - ILS Panel - Airspeed Indicator - Just needs correct bezel, drum and a barber pole. Scale can be off etc. If I can't find the airspeed indicator with the bezel with 8 small screws, then I'll probably use a cheap (if only) altimeter case with the internals from another gauge. Hopefully they would fit. Many thanks

It is a long time since I looked at this so I might be wrong. In DCS there is an event for both putting pressure on the switch to push it into position and another for releasing pressure. Pushing the physical switch from off to on simply needs to send both commands with a short delay. Coil position is then controlled by the switch position export. If you push switch into on position and coil should not be on then it will send both push and release commands. DCS will then return the switch to off position. As this drives the coil your cool will flip back to off position As long as you don't set the switch up like abnormal toggle switch where you are simply writing the 2 switch positions to DCS there will be no problem with this. I do not know how Dcs bios handles these but this setup should work correctly IIRC this is what we had figured out for these switches

Im definitely interested in consoles and backplates. That would be perfect. Many thanks

Thank you very much mac and gus! The "tubes" each instrument is in are real original 2 inch instruments from eBay. I got them with random faceplates and needles for cheap. Only the 4 dual pointer gauges and APU EGT have the original faceplates. The others I had to replace with my own versions. I also had to change 4 needles for homemade ones and salvage 2 others from some other instruments. You can see 3 neeeles in the bottom row are just hanging down at the moment. They need some small brass tube to fix to the motor shaft.

Trying to find a small roundover bit for the front edge of panels at the moment. It will only be 1mm but will take the sharp edge off easily. Started working on engine instruments now. All faceplates and needles cut but waiting on more motors to mount them. These are original tubes with some faceplates changed and all converted to be driven by VID29 stepper motors. Oil pressure gauges are finished. APU gauges need backplates and motors. Fuel flow needs soldered motors and then can be finished. Fan RPM needs gears to increase travel of motors. Dual pointer gauges need a bit more work :) Working on a faceplate and mount for them all at the moment

So with much great advice from Warhog and others I've started making some parts. Most of my time is spent testing and adjusting things but hopefully I'll start speeding up now. For panels I plan to use 6mm acrylic for the lightplates and 1.5mm aluminium backplates. Backlighting is provided by a PCB pocketed into the back of the lightplate. This construction will mean the panels are built very similar to real CAT 7 panels. I'm working towards a proper lightplate now I've got engraving tests done so I'll put up some pictures when that is done. Panel backlighting PCB: LEDs are 3528 package and resistors 0805 package so quite small for soldering. LEDs weren't super cheap because I needed specific wavelength, brightness, package and in 125 degree viewing angle but there not bad price either. I've tested the backlighting in the various lightplate ideas and it looks perfect. Next image shows 3 engraving tests From left to right: 6mm white acrylic painted black; 6mm clear acrylic painted white layer then black layer; 1.5mm Rowmark engraving plastic. These pieces were simply cut to test the process so have plenty of scratch marks and lines cut by tablesaw :) White acrylic does seem far too "milky" for me and light does not work great behind it. 6mm clear is my favourite method and I think looks the best. I need to work on paint process to get its quality better. Engraving plastic has too much of a glossy finish for me. It looks more professional but I'm a big fan of sharp white text on a matte panel so clear acrylic is the way to go for me. It saves having to cut multiple layers and stack them together. Also room to round over the front edges before paint for a neater finish but again this needs testing. I've got parts cut for engine instruments so they are coming along nicely but parts to reassemble the tubes are not due until Monday. But I have plenty more to make for when they arrive. Cheers

Looking forward to making parts but I decided to move the mill and build an enclosure for it. Didn't quite expect so many chips to come off it and being inside the house I need to keep them contained. Started to paint some 6mm acrylic to try engraving that. Then I'll try a proper lightplate with backlighting. John, I'm not using single line fonts as I'm actually not a fan of very thin engravings on panels. Instead I'm using a pocket operation to engrave every letter. 0.010" bit is making a couple of passes per letter so I could go smaller by easily reducing the thickness but I much prefer thicker letters on light plates. It really helps me to see the labels a lot easier when backlighting is not on. I've also been learning about how to make PCBs and got a couple test files made up to try out. I can't wait to see these come to life. Just need to finish this enclosure and wait for a couple more things to arrive then it will be good to go

Last parts I needed for the mill finally arrived today and got it up and running. Bit of tweaking and changing numbers and this is first engraving. Small font is 10 point font (~3.5mm) I'm very happy with this machine and working on a first panel to test engraving. Then I need to change to 6mm acrylic and get a proper lightplate made.

Hi Hans, nice work Regarding the Signal Lights switch this is what I have on it: Signal Lights Switch. The signal lights switch (Figure 1-157), placarded SIGNAL LTS, is a two-position spring-loaded toggle switch, powered by the auxiliary DC essential bus that provides for either of two illumination levels, BRT and DIM, for warning, caution,and advisory signal lights, except for approach indexer and air refuel status lights. The warning, caution, and advisory signal lights are reset to bright automatically when the FLT INST lighting control is initially turned on. As the control is turned,the lights will return to dim. All signal lights are reset to bright automatically when the thunderstorm lights circuit is energized,or the signal lights bus power is lost. There are only 2 brightness settings (Bright and Dim) but since the brightness is changed by turning on instrument lighting, a 3 position switch is used to prevent there ever being a mis-match between the physical switch position and the brightness of the signal lamps. I'm going to incorporate this feature even though it will be a pain to setup and rarely touched but it will be a fun little addition.

Nice work Hans! Will be brilliant to have working

Thanks guys. I'm still waiting on more parts at the moment. @Lobinjaevel User agrasyuk designed and made the brilliant panel. hopefully he can help with what material to use