y2kiah

it's looking good. text does the same thing on my panels, I have not found a way to prevent it yet

sorry to hear about the job. but your instrument panel is looking really good.

Thanks wriley! I started out slow too, but it doesn't take much time for your proficiency to increase. Hmm lets see... pointers. If you haven't already learned the keyboard shortcuts for each tool, definitely use them. You'll save a lot of time not having to drag your mouse over to a tool icon and back again to change tools. For panels I try to work on a 2d plane for as long as possible, then extrude it out to make a 3d object at the very end. I use the measurement tool a LOT. If I think of anything else I'll let you know.

Thanks guys it means a lot. At the very least I'll have a nice 3d model of the pit! The real challenge is still to come, converting this "art" into a real working pit. It's a possibility, if there is enough interest. I may just release the plans free and offer a kit for others to buy. Before any of this happens, I will have to build it for myself to iron out any problems and make sure I'm releasing something that works. Some have asked me via PM for the electronic file. I can pretty much cover all those requests with a blanket statement that I'm not going to give away the 3d model in electronic format, not yet anyway. Be patient and bear with me, I'll post the dimensions that I've guestimated for all to see and use free of charge. And last but not least, the circuit breaker panel has been designed. This will most likely NOT be implemented with working breakers or solenoids in my pit. I plan to make some dummy breaker caps and attach them for looks. If I win the lottery some day, maybe I'll think about buying some real breakers to make this a working panel.

TISL Panel TISL Panel on the center console. The BCD switch cutouts are for the EECO 1776 model.

UFC Panel Finished the upfront control panel. if you're wondering about the dimensions I used it's 9" x 2" x 2". It may not be 100% correct, I'm not sure of the real dimensions, but it turned out close enough.

would worry me too. there will be casters under the frame (at least for the side consoles) and I'll support the hinge with some metal brackets. The pit won't have any screws going directly into wood or MDF, I'm going to use cross dowels for corners and machine screws/washers/bolt for all joinery. For skinning, I was thinking about tapping holes along some aluminum angle and screwing directly into that. Any other ideas, if you have them, are much appreciated.

Yeah that looks real good, I'll go with that solution to hang the instruments off of the arch. Right you are, TMs throttle will drop right in to the spot and bolt to a platform for support. The arch needs some work, no doubt. For one thing, it needs to be more circular and flat at the top, and less egg-shaped. I'm going to search for a free 3d model to try to get some dimensions from it. I've seen that little detail, but not sure if I'll put it in or not. It would make construction of the base much more complicated As for accessing the pit, the following screen shots should explain pretty well. With all the bells and whistles of a complete working pit, I think this is my favorite feature of all :thumbup: The pit frame is wood or MDF, here's a screen with all of the skinning hidden. Skinning will be a very important part of this construction, I'll have to find good materials to use and good techniques.

Yeah I think you got it right with those dimensions. Mine will turn out to be about 5x5 after all. Same here on the hud, but I may put a smaller look-alike up there just for the visual effect. I feel like any structure placed overhead or within field of view of the outside visuals is worth its weight in gold when it comes to adding immersion to the pit. The overhead arch will be a pain in the ass to build, but I think well worth the trouble. The overhead panels that the KA-50 builders have done here look great.

I've been wondering about that as well as having room for the HUD (not planning a working hud, just maybe a mock-up). I would love to incorporate those things but doing so would really increase the length of the pit. I guess I could hang them off of the overhead arch and extend them back with an arm to get them in the right position. What do you think? I believe I'll have to add another 12 inches or so ahead of the panel for legroom, so that should be enough space to incorporate a basic hud structure, even if it isn't as deep as the real one, it would still look cool. edit: btw that whole thing I mentioned with the arm to extend them back is because the real instruments are supported from the windscreen and not from the arch, and they are set back from the arch a pretty good distance. This pic shows what I mean pretty well. it also shows how deep the real HUD structure is. doing that to scale would about double the length of the pit.

Thanks guys! Design is one thing, but actually building it is another thing completely. The CNC certainly helps, no denying that. At least I get to rework/refit things in software, then I can just build to spec. I already think I need to add more depth under the instrument panel for rudder pedals, seems too cramped right now. I wanted to keep the length of the pit at 4 ft. but I think I'll need to bump it up to 5. I fully expect this thing to take me a year or more to finish, but it's an awesome hobby and a great way to spend time.

Pit design is nearing completion. The side console structure is much more refined now, all of the pieces fit together like a puzzle. It should stand solid just dry fitting the pieces together without any bolts. Still lots of work to do, main instrument panels included. Nice thing is, I can start building now that the tub dimensions are pretty much finalized.

So with the throttle base, is this base plate mentioned removable from the bottom or does it bolt to the sides? When it is removed, does the height change? If the mounting plate is left on, what is the length of the top surface of the throttle base? 9.5625? Sorry, not trying to be a pest, but I'd like to be confident in these dimensions before starting my pit build. Thanks again

sweet, thank you thank you thank you I take it those are accurate and not rounded?

any chance you can share dimensions of the throttle base, or is that information restricted by an NDA?

max7219 test I made a video of some electronics that I've been fooling around with, based on the Arduino. The chip driving the 7-seg LEDs is a MAX7219. I wired up a rotary encoder with a pushbutton. The encoder is hooked up to the real-time interrupt pins of the mc. The program running is a simple counter, rotating right increments, left decrements. When I push and hold the button, all 8's appear for a lamp test. I made it so when I rotate as I'm pushing the button, it will dim or brighten the LEDs. The last bit just shows the wiznet ethernet shield that I'll be using throughout the pit for communication between cards if necessary, and back to the PC. This isn't anything official yet, just a test, but the same concept will be applied on a slightly larger scale to run the Comm, UHF, ILS, and TACAN panels. The last digit on TACAN needs a 14-seg LED for the X and Y characters, so I have a couple MAX6954 chips for that purpose.

You bring up a good question Mr_Burns. IMO the visuals are very important for the type of flying we do in the A-10, which is primarily visual flying. We should be scanning the ground looking for glowing golf balls or flying telephone poles headed our way. If this were an instrument trainer (which I suppose it could be as well) the outside visuals wouldn't be as important. In real life I'm a flight instructor and have a couple hundred hours teaching in Level 6 FTDs, which are basically the real aircraft cabin sitting at the center of a very large ~200 degree curved screen for visuals. It is very convincing, and the visuals add a lot to the experience. My Samsung DLP TV's color wheel bearing destroyed itself last week, so I broke down and got a new Plasma for the living room. So once I replace the part, looks like the 50" main screen is going to happen after all.

ok so mode 1 codes are 00-73, and not 00-37 like I thought - thanks that clarifies it

IFF Panel round 2 Changed my mind about the thumbwheel switches on this panel. The switches I was originally going to use are too small. It looks a lot closer to the real deal now. The EECO 1976 series switches will work very well for this panel, and the 1776 series will work well for the TISL panel. I'm still not exactly sure how I will mount these switches on this panel. The "quick connect" panel mount brackets can't be used here, so I'm thinking they will have to be back mounted on a perf board set on standoffs. The thing I'm worried most about are the thumbwheels extending above the panel. I'm not sure they will with the EECO switches. If not, I'll have to cut out an opening for the whole thing and accept that it doesn't look like the real panel. Mode 1 has 32 codes, so in octal the highest code is 37, meaning the first switch should be 0-3 and the second 0-7. Not sure if the real panel's switch is 0-3. Deadman, Gus, maybe one of you knows?

Would be nice is BSVP was made open source, GPL license or something. We could do some cool things with it.

got it here http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=35b131a660f7e6dabd09f234c619e6e3&prevstart=0

No short term plans right now to set up a web repository. It may be something I'll think about doing after the pit is built and I have no other projects to work on. Besides, Gus already has an excellent website that basically has all of this already. If there is enough interest, I would consider putting together a set of plans for my tub. I think I need to build it before I'll know if it's worthy of distribution.

Main panel and stuff Quick update on the pit design progress Here with an optional canopy structure I may consider building And here without that piece I found this ACES II with pilot model and threw it in there to give some perspective on the scale of the pit. You may notice cutouts in the center pedestal near the feet. I plan to mount my rudder pedals within the pedestal. I also fooled around with some ideas for visuals. Here is one with a 50" screen providing forward view, and 22" monitors on either side. Main instrument panel showing some cutouts, and the stepped mounting surface. There are some very very thin edges created on this piece after cutouts, so I would not trust MDF or wood for this piece. I will probably fabricate the stepped section as a single piece from some type of rigid plastic. If not that, I'll bond several layers of plastic to achieve the final structure. Once the piece is built, it will mount right onto the flat instrument panel, which must also have cutouts. My plan for the ADI and HSI is to make them into an electronic ADI and EHSI. The center step is just big enough to fit a 5" LCD for each instrument, rotated 90 degrees. I'll want these instruments to look like real life EFIS displays, so I won't be trying to display a representation of the actual instruments on the monitors. Call it a fictional future EFIS update to the A-10C fleet.

I mean the nav select panel, 2" seems about right. I left 2.25 on that step for some spacing

I found the following site a pretty good reference for mil spec instrument cutouts, bezels, housings, etc. http://www.msp-aviation.com/products_avionics_cases.aspx open up the chart on the "View Complete Parts List and Specifications" link for any page to get dimensions for all common sizes. I think the dimensions are ADI 5 x 5.25" HSI 5 x 4.25" correct me if I'm wrong... What I'm looking for is the height of the panel just below the HSI. I was thinking 2" ?