londo-cat

Not sure if anyone has asked this (appologies if it has though) but is this screenshot from the new Flaming Cliffs 2.0? Where did you get the screenshots from this virtual cockpit from? Thanks!

I hate Oaks. He makes me want to go out and BUY a CNC router! Grrrr! Ok - I am seething with jealousy. ;-D

Yo! PanelBuilder - You have got to share your secrets here. So did yo CNC the WSC panel? What kind of interface did you use? Thanks for showing that - absolutely cool!

This is actually pretty good! I just saw this and thought "Hey - why didn't *I* think about that!" But, I'm already 90% through my solution, so guess I will just put them in place, but I can always use this in my NEXT pit! :smartass:

Hey there Oakes - yes, have to upload them to my Photobucket account. I took about 10-12 pics of the prototype and then 10 or so of the assembled ones I had manufactured. But have not gotten around to uploading them to photobucket and then linking them on here. I've been working waaaaaay too many projects, and uploading pics has kind of slipped to the bottom of the pile so it would seem. I'll try and upload them later this week though. :-)

One last thing. I prototyped what I wanted first and experimented with how it would all work before I decided this is how I wanted to go. It didn't matter if it was clear or opaque plastic that I used. Clear worked fine so did white opaque. But for some reason - clear was more expensive at Tap (for some odd reason) so I said go with opaque. The holes I drilled with a drill press and drilled right through them, two holes, just 2mm width between them off dead center that the LED would fit into.

You know, I don't know if there *IS* a place in North America that actually sells anything like that in the size or shape. I wish I knew because that would save me a LOT Of trouble from having them manufactured. I had a local Tap Plastics company create 11mm x 24mm plastic blanks in opaque white plastic plus a small 1mm clear cover (also 11mm x 24mm). I had another company stamp out 12mm x 25mm x 4mm tin (black anodized) with a small black rim running around the opening of them. I drilled two holes in each white opaque blank and glued in with crazy glue a red and a green LED. I printed out a black page with white text for all the cover text I needed for each indicator, then cut them with scissors and then used a bit of elmers glue to adhere them to the white opaque plastic blank. Then I took the tin metal blank, dropped in the 1mm clear cover and inserted this over the opaque plastic blank with the LEDs and - used a dab of silicone on the inside of the tin blank to make the opaque plastic blank stick in there. They hold together pretty good. I can get them to show red or green now. The metal shop charged me $85 to make 50 of the black anodized tin covers. Tap Plastics charged me $45 to make 50 11mm x 24mm plastic blanks in opaque white plastic plus 50 1mm clear covers (also 11mm x 24mm). The LED's cost me $19 for 100 red LEDs and 100 Green LEDs. Hope this helps! ~ Londo-Cat

Yes - but I am using an EPIC USB board, so I have that capacity to allow for that. When I crash and reset the sim the switches are matched in the sim on screen, so things can go funny if I don't set them to thier starting position. I end up flipping switches prior to resetting the simulation. On my boards I have a small green dot on the starting position to show where they should be. This is how I speed up the process of re-setting the switches to thier correct starting position.

Oh My God... this is pretty fantastic!

Hey there Talisman - well not entirely true, at least not for me. I use an On-On SPDT (Single Throw Double Pole) toggle switch. Each way is mapped either [up] for gear up, and [down] for gear down. So On-On toggle switches can actually perform *two* mapped functions. If you get an On-Off toggle switch, then yes - it has that limitation. I buy pretty much every toggle switch as a SPDT never as a SPST.

Yeah - I finally started putting a thin layer of aluminum under my boards after I literally caught my F-16 pit on fire! I was able to knock out the burned piece of wood and replaced it but it taught me the valuable lesson of putting either an old PC case or aluminum backing under each board! :thumbup: I'd love to have some CNC skills or a CNC like some of the lucky members on here, but I have to settle for woodworking skills. :smilewink:

Don't do that! I liked your pit. If you really want to do another one, just start one in parallel like I did with my F-16 pit. For years I had an armchair one and then finally built a full size one even while I used the other one. Right now I have my upstairs armchair pit for the KA-50, it has a Cougar Hotas and a keyboard with my TrackIR4 and a 30" Gateway XHD3000. That will suffice until I have the KA-50 pit completed in the garage. I like to make the pits I build as photo accurate as possible. That's why I try to get things like the floor mats and scale as close as possible. My first pit was just whatever I had at the time, so now I have extra cash, so it's a little easier to spend it on this hobby. For me - it takes about 2 (two) years to finish a pit! That's a lot of time spent milling, making parts, getting boards, wiring up and testing stuff!

Oh - also thought I would drop a link for my Photobucket site with all the rest of my boring pictures. I am currently suffering from H1N1 at the moment, so working late and coughing up a storm. I got the vaccine a week ago, but apparently it doesn't work very damn good! http://s860.photobucket.com/albums/ab163/londo-cat/?start=0

Well - here is a side-by-side image that I was hoping that my pit would look like. Yeah - it's not 100% to scale, but it's close enough. KA-50 DCS Virtual Cockpit / My Real Pit

Thanks! No worries! Yes, your thread did spark my idea on the throttle assembly. I'm not done yet, the brake assembly for the collector still has to be put on - my brother is actually making the brake handle assembly per some drawings I put together. I took an old aluminum brake from a ten speed bike and stripped out the cable, so he is taking the handle and making a new one that will fit into the slot, but look like the one from the KA-50. He's good with metal working (Works for United Airlines) and likes to make stuff like that. Once finished, that will be used for the brake and keeping the collector in a specific position, and I am also building a braking system but so far it's just in the initial planning stages and I haven't built it out yet. My brother suggested a air-piston which could work rather well, but that would be overkill I think. Not really sure - thats part of the fun in building a pit! But when I finish it I will display it for all to see, good or bad. :helpsmilie:

YES! Looks fantastic, I would *LOVE* to see how you made your prototype of the working switch cover! I'm working on mine as well and first one was made out of a piece of hard rubber which I dremeled down, but it doesn't look quite as good as yours yet!

Thanks - it's coming together slowly, but I think it will turn out pretty good. As the winter months are upon me now, it's time to move this operation in-doors!

Ok - collector is now in place. Ground down the EMT connector to allow the ABS plastic pipe to fit over it. Now that the EMT connector has been ground down enough, I was able to fit the ABS over it and push it up snug against the collector box. Once that was fitted over the EMT and snug against the collector head, it was time to fit it into the pit. Using two L-bar pieces, I drilled a hole in the end of the pipe where I wanted to attach it to the base and then fastened them down. Pretty much guesstimated the location and then dremeled out a hole which I will of course round out better later next week and install the cover shield for it. Once that was bolted down, I tested the assembly. Completed collector in place! :thumbup:

I have two hat switche's from a couple joysticks that I have canabelized so that and a slider switch and two push button momentaries will round out the collector. Now - the wiring will go down the throat of the 3/4" EMT to the central wiring panel and to the EPIC board.

New Update: Brother finished the collector, so painted that this weekend. Because my brother used 3/4" EMT and used a rigid to flex connector, it made it a little hard to wrap the handle - so I came up with an idea to use 1" white PVC and then wrap the handle with some thick string I use for laying lines in foundations for houses. I then painted this black. This will then slide over the 3/4" EMT and cover it completely. The Rigid connector at the end of the EMT that connects to the collector box will be filed down to allow the PVC plastic pipe to slide over it and push up flush to the side of the collector box. The end result (I hope) will look like the picture below. And *THAT* is what I did this weekend. :pilotfly:

Got it - Thanks! :thumbup:

I wish I was into the programming right now, which is sad to say I am not. Right now I am still into building the pit itself. I'm following this thread though because eventually I will be doing the wiring and panel building, so will have to work on the backend code to finish this - however I will be using the EPIC board on my pit. The EPIC board uses something called the 'EPICenter' programming interface, which uses EPL files to interface with the simulation. It's a lot like C++ in programming. My main concern is that there isn't a whole lot of interest in EPIC programming for BS and a lot of people here are using the LUA route with alternate boards which causes me some concern since it looks like I'll be the only one using the EPIC USB boards.

Thanks JG14_Smil - I never knew about Notepad++, so thanks for the info on that. I downloaded from lua.org the latest version of LUA "LuaForWindows_v5.1.4-30.exe" and installed that, so I think I am now on my way to doing the same LUA programming. :thumbup:

I just started with LUA and I am setting up my Vista machine with it, since I am using LUA for Windows, what version are most of you running? Also - what editor are you using to modify the .lua files?

Ok - well found the ribbed rubber matt and added that to the pit as well as put in the metal foot area and painted it to reflect use. I still have to add some brown to it, but it's moving towards the effect eventually. Next week I will be working on the area for the leg shields.