HitchHikingFlatlander

Ragtop it might help to get a long straight edged piece of metal or wood to use as a saw guide. There are many good guides and tips here too: http://www.familyhandyman.com/

Nice work! How do you like flying your own pit?

That is an awesome solution there I think I'll be taking your approach. Like you I have no access to laser engravers or CNC's. Great idea.

That's an incredible projector set-up BW nice work. Do you work for them?

Yeah I'll try to shoot (decent) video this weekend when I'm back home. I need to stop using my iphone for pictures until I score a 4 instead of a 3GS, at least the 4 has a flash...... Thanks for the comments guys. Now if someone can tell me what all these buttons do........:doh:

Well with the help of squad mates Airdog and Cat_101 I was able to line up everything on the monitor and ATM I have both MFDs and the RWR working (all other gauges work too)! Now I can fly while the rest of the pit is under construction!

Back home for the weekend and since that last post a lot has changed. First, last weekend the monitor above had issues and didn't work right (barely at all). Many swear words later I learn that my brother had a spare monitor. It was the same height and only an inch or two wider, best of all it worked! So I ripped off the bezel and fixed my panel to it. I had enough time to start messing with HELIOS and ran out of time with nothing to show. Fast forward to today I was able to re-work my monitor mount and get all my gauges set up within the software. Next all I need to do is export the MFD screens which is killing me right now. I'll post an update if I get the MFCDs exported and working! Here's some pics of process of sizing/placing gauges with HELIOS (awesome software).

A little bit more progress today...... Since I need something to fly with and need to make some major changes to my front panel I put my overlay on my monitor. I'll attach the monitor to one of my adjustable arms and mount it to the existing pit so I can actually use the display and MFD's while construction continues on the pit. Check it out: After the overlay was cut to size just a test fit to see how it looks. Test fit with one MFD. A small shot of what the monitor mount looks like. I acquired these years ago and these swing arm mounts are great for so many different uses! There we go, now I just need to mount it to the pit and make a HELIOS profile for the gauges. I guess I need to export the MFD screens as well. I'll definitely take some pictures at that point but better yet I'll try to get some video of it in action too!

That is a thing of true beauty right there and great reason people like me use monitors instead! :helpsmilie:

Made a little progress today. Since I'm switching to a monitor I needed to re-cut all my gauges. I had a pc of 1/8" thick plywood lying around and decided to use that as an overlay. The monitor I'm using is the same height wise but about 3" shorter width wise. That said I had to re-draw everything and re-size some gauges to make everything fit again. Here we go....... again...... Comparison. Give you an idea oh much difference between the widest parts of the display. I'm using a Samsung 226BW monitor. I'm going to try and get a bunch more done before the weekend is thru. Have to travel on business next couple weeks and will only be home on the weekends.

The real issue for the projector is the size of the front portion of the pit. Using the proj. was making that section HUGE, it would have worked but it led to other problems. My man cave is 8' x 10', has an armchair and a sofa in it. To make matters worse my projector for main visuals beams across the 8' wide part of the room. Using the proj. for the panel required the pit to be about 6' long roughly. I don't want to lose the dual purpose of my man cave for watching movies and such. The other reason I was using the proj. was that I had no monitor to use, that was solved when my boss replaced his and gave me the old one a couple weeks ago. Now I just have to get back to work on the thing. Once again life has reared its ugly head and keeping me from the important stuff! :megalol:

Most people use one big monitor for the MFD's and use the extra space for gauges. Way cheaper, easier to setup and more efficient IMO.

I scrapped the proj. idea the other day when I came across a used 19" widescreen. Its a little shorter than the area I wanted to cover (22") but will be much easier to finish everything.

Nice work Brydling!

Cali's pit FTW!!!!!

Nice work Dimebug!

There was a member making them but I'm not sure if he's still doing it. I asked the same question and am awaiting an answer. It was a solo operation and the member made them in his spare time, a number of members here have purchased them and say great things about it.

Thats awesome! Personally I'm not willing to go the extra mile for something like this but its awesome all the same!

I might Walker but I have to insure I have funds available first.

Thats what I want to know? LOL I haven't started building the matrix yet and I have a headache from looking at the pieces!

IMO a router will create more work as you can keep a steadier hand with the jigsaw. I did have a router available to me with what I've built so far but decided against it. I even used a neighbors Dremel rotary cutting tool (kinda like a Rotozip ) I didn't like that one either.

Thanks a bunch for this this is a huge help!

Looking great Cub.

Terrain is looking great. Good things are always worth waiting for from ED, you guys always deliver on the updates regardless of how long it takes! I say _______ weeks and it should be out.............

Very cool Sickdog thanks for the update. Really like using your app!