Dino Might

Wait, wait! I haven't even started cutting the finalized panels for the cockpit build! Who am I kidding? I'd play this module on a 14" CRT screen if I had to.

Thoughts on these for the warning light panel? https://www.adafruit.com/product/1426 They also sell a 5x8 board of them, but that won't cover all the lights, even if I did modify the layout. I think the sticks give the most flexibility, and then I might get individual lights for the bottom rows. EDIT: Just saw the actual size - would take 26 of them, or about $150 worth of them to do it right. Going to seek cheaper alternatives. EDIT again: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3094?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1rHWgMbL1QIV0KZpCh1s-gxdEAQYASABEgIujfD_BwE Can get individual neopixels. I think put two for each light and I'm good to go. Should provide decent enough illumination through the clear acrylic. Saves me having to cut little rectangles of difference color acrylic. Of course, I will have to figure out what controller board(s), coding, and wiring setups - sounds like a whole new project already.

Is the warning light panel also 5.75 in wide? I plan on etching it in clear acrylic and 3D printing a lattice to attach behind it to keep each LED light from bleeding into adjacent indicators. Shouldn't be too tough, but just have to figure out the right way to etch it. Could go black surface and etch out letters and box outline in clear, or do box etched clear with letters left as black.

Thanks. Going to start working on the warning light panel next. Got a few ideas on making it work with individual LEDs.

Also, what voltage/amperage should I be going for? Better that they all share common voltage/amperage? Most selections are 125V/3A or 125V/15A. Should be able to wire in some resistors as needed, but I'm guessing I'll need some kind of transformer to deal with the voltage change? Not sure what voltage will be delivered through the controller boards.

Did test cuts on 1/8" I really want to use 1/8" because of the rigidity. Feels a lot better. Downside is that the push buttons I bought don't have long enough threads. So I'm out about $10 on those, but I will find another use for them. I think switches and buttons are going to be the really expensive part of this whole deal. Here is the 1/8" panel with the miniature switches in it. Looks okay, but would prefer the longer throw full length switches. Resizing the holes was easy and can be done for the different size switches. Overall, this looks okay, but I'm undecided on investing in the bigger switches. Tried a few different mounting hardware stackups. Seems nothing on the bottom face and a nut on the top is best. The washers don't really do much good (actually allow the switch to rotate more easily) and I lose some important thread length for the nut. I will buy some full size switches and do another test piece on clear acrylic (since they have a bunch of it available) and see which one is better, and judge if the additional cost is worth it. I had another idea to use clear acrylic (paint black and etch through it) and backlight all the panels, but I'm not sure that's going to be easy to do with all the wiring that will be present. That method would save me on buying white acrylic, and there are enough LEDs available to do it, but the extra wiring work makes me not want to go that route.

Recognizing all the arguments for and against, I will continue to second this. Love the F5. Would love an option for AAR. Understand its a lot of work. I wouldn't mind it as an additional module (maybe with a discount for current F5 owners? :) )

Need to resize holes for switches (easy to do). Got some of them mounted. They are too small. Now the conundrum. I can get bigger switches, but they are about $5 each. Or I can stick with the miniatures, which are about $0.50 each. I am thinking maybe 3D print some switch levers that will go over the existing ones like covers to make them bigger. The angle of throw is a little bit small on these mini switches, though, so it's not as easy to see which position the switch is in. Wondering whether there is a reasonable source for large lever switches - even just $1 each and I'd go all in on those, but at $5 each, I'm thinking nope nope nope.

Thanks, that's exactly what I will do. I ordered a bunch of cheapo (probably unsealed) switches, and once those come in, I'll source some white acrylic, paint it up, and have a finished panel to show. Need to remember to put painter's tape on the top so acrylic vapor doesn't deposit all over the face (smokey streaks on the clear are from that). Should look pretty nice once finished. I redid the flight panel today and updated with corrected labels and markings. May get another picture up soon.

Flight Panel in progress. Will do a couple trials on how to get the letters done the way I want them. Also need to decide on switches and buttons. Anyone have good sources for "the right ones?" I also don't know about throw length, but I figure I'll just get ones similar to what's on the TM Warthog and call it a day. Crappy cell-phone pic (looks pretty good in person): Did not finish labels (couldn't read a few, and wanted to go home on the earlier side - will resize holes and fix up labels later this week)

I'm wondering if some enterprising individual can come up with a program similar to VLSO for DCS, maybe done in a similar fashion to or as part of TacView.

Got 'em. Thank you! I will try setting up a cut this week. Some of the jpegs I can take out the switches and do a direct import for cutting (laser cutter runs off coreldraw or inkscape files).

Another option is use white acrylic and a vinyl cutter to make a black vinyl cover with the labels and holes cut out. I kind of like the idea of full acrylic, though for more permanence.

I still have a few DZUS kits from my old track bike. Will probably source the fasteners individually. Didn't think about that sandwiched acrylic, great idea. What thickness do you think? 1/8"?

Also, the laser cutter I'm using runs right off of CorelDraw image files, so any manuals that have simple B/W instrument pictures are probably directly importable and I can either cut the whole thing with raster or try to convert the cuts to vector format.

Any pics or drawings are greatly appreciated. Email is: theotherdino@gmail.com I'll see if I can't get cutting on them next week some time. The amount of acrylic stock available is rather small, and no flat black that I can find. So I might do some cuts on red or blue scrap to get the program correct. Hopefully I can cut one of the panels and the engraving and then I'll have the file saved to recut on a flat black piece. There is a fiber laser as well for cutting aluminum, but my plan was to just to have aluminum sheet base plate with holes drilled, matched up to the laser cut/etched acrylic top plate with all the labels. http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-cp-a-pilot.htm As far as layout, this is the only thing I've dug up so far, but from what you listed, I think maybe what is denoted as the left and right instrument panels on that site would be good to start on. If things look promising, I'll throw up a couple pics of the pieces as they come out. The other hard part will be not having any kind of frame to mount them to for a long while. This is long term build in which I will not be able to wire up or test any of it for at least a year. I think finding actual instruments and wiring them up with emulators/servos may be a bit beyond my capacity, but there are a few instruments I'd really like to have. Working HSI and ADI. I will probably frankenstein a bit of the layout by putting in two screens to use as MFDs for when I fly the A-10, and hopefully be able to put F-14 instrument views on them in close to the right places when flying the Tomcat. I will need to do some serious thinking about what to move and where to make it work. I think putting the MFD screens in place of the left/right knee panels, and then exporting those instrument views onto the screens will work relatively well, but I need to see the dimensions of everything first.

Now have access to a laser cutter. Plan on starting on some panels. Any recommendations on the most important ones for basic flight and weapons? Any design drawings available? Will also get access to a small CNC mill, drill press, and 3D printer in the coming months. What kinds of parts should I be looking at making?

Does anyone have armament panel or other panel design drawings for the F-5? I currently have access to a laser cutter and want to cut and etch acrylic panels for a home cockpit build, which will be a hodgepodge of different aircraft panels. Weapon armament panel is one of the most useful ones for me in the F5 and looks simple to make, but I want actual dimensions of the panel, size and location of switches, etc. Devs, maybe you guys have something easily accessible? Any info greatly appreciated.

I see you've been reading my P3D VLSO logs...

Question: Should a CBU-52 with pattern coverage on a Shilka be able to kill it?

I'm confused. If you have used Starways, you recognize it makes finding objects more difficult and not less. I understand that you are now concerned with people making custom textures that make spotting very very easy. While that's a possibility, I again ask, why should we be so concerned? You keep parroting that we need a guaranteed level playing field and you are worried about hackers, but you never explain why. I don't believe there are many if any hackers/exploiters that frequent BF. I don't believe, if there are, that they significantly impact my playing experience. To that extent, the textures matter more to me than the potential prevention of a texture exploiter in BF. Do you also buy all your food farm to table, wear natural fiber clothes, no synthetics, etc. because you know how processed stuff could cause cancer and many other diseases? That's the analogue to your "solution" for your desired "pure" BF experience. Let's assume someone is running the all white textures mod that would make them able to spot you at the very edge of visible range in DCS all the time. Let's suppose they can then also spot ground targets without fail. What does that get them in BF? How much of an advantage? Give me your rough estimate quantification in terms of 1v1 win ratio. Is that enough that a person using this type of exploit is reason to ban all texture mods that people enjoy? Personally, I don't think so. Given the low likelihood of it being used and the low-relative advantage it gives him, the expected value of preventing such an exploit is very low, and the cost is disproportionately high. This is like a separable differential equation. There is a trivial solution. It is valid. But it's uninteresting, useless. Banning all texture mods just to prevent the one or two people that might (probably don't) cheat by exploiting textures for a spotting advantage (in a server where most people use radar 95% of the time) is heavy handed. It is the trivial solution. Not worth it.

And is this a sufficient concern to eliminate the use of bartek, starway, mustang, and other good texture mods that add to our game? I can't see this being a serious game breaking problem. Who is going to want to do this, all for the sake of maybe getting another kill or two?

I'm not even understanding your point. You are saying that someone else's texture file on their computer can make their aircraft invisible to me on my computer? Maybe I am too daft to understand this...

That 109 look alike is fugly, but better that than any cgi stuff.

Agreed - much prefer a Tomcat offering, but I guess they know there's a bigger market for the Hornet. Anyone else still have replays of "he's too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns" and the selector switch cut playing in their head all the time when they think about a stick for DCS: F-14?