y2kiah

Cut out my first panel with the CNC machine. Well ok, let's be honest, it was my second attempt. The first attempt ended early and was emmm... not so successful. Lesson learned, problem fixed. It's the SAS panel. Next step is painting, then engraving. I will use the scrap piece to test first.

Don't think its a solenoid that holds the switch, but an electromagnet. Basically you would just have to get the magnetic switches. They are momentary type and when they are flipped up, engage the electromagnet to hold them in place. If a failure occurs, disable the magnet and it will fall back. You can also force the switch to fall by overpowering the magnet. If it's an (on)-off type, you would only need 2 pins from your microcontroller board of choice, and probably a mosfet to step up the voltage for the electromagnet. Anyone have a good source on these switches?

Another one down... many to go. This one was tricky, the bottom edge is sloped, but the slope isn't arbitrary. It depends on the structure of the left console. More specifically, it depends on two angles; the angle that the outer row of panels meets the inner row, and the angle that the forward console rises to meet the main instrument panel. I wanted to be precise in this measurement, so this forced me to start planning out the left console. Now I know I will have a tight fit. On the other hand, making small tweaks to those angles later will be a nightmare, but I don't think that will be necessary. Here is an early peak at the left console. Another layout issue I'm facing has to do with the throttle/autopilot panels. I plan to drop the Thrustmaster Warthog unit into a recessed opening so the tops of the panels all match up and it looks pretty seamless. I don't want any unsightly gaps at the edges. Of course, since the product has not come out yet, I don't have the actual dimensions, all I can do is estimate based on photos. It looks to be probably very close to the real thing, but I won't know for sure until I have it. This also means I shouldn't start to build the console until I have those measurements. Not a problem, plenty of other stuff to work on.

Wow, Deadman that's an impressive collection. Are you planning to build a pit, or just collecting them for now?

good source on that 222-402 pitbldr, that stuff is cheap! I'm still hoping the 7328 will engrave nicely, to avoid the extra step of bonding 2 pieces. What kind of paint do you guys recommend? I've read somewhere that flat black model paint (like Testors) works well, but that stuff usually comes in small quantity bottles, and by the time all the panels in a pit are painted, you will go through a LOT of bottles. Any other suggestions?

Did you test with the #2447 color (milky white translucent)? Would the #7328 color be a better option, which has lower light transmission but is a more solid white and would have better contrast. Flim, what type of "engravable plastic" are you talking about exactly? Just a thin layer of acrylic?

Just another new panel to show Wanted: part number/source, or to buy spare 4-way hat switch for this panel Unfortunately I don't have an old joystick with a coolie hat that matches the one on this panel In the yellow areas, there will be a white stripe dividing each yellow section. I'll probably try to engrave the different areas, then paint. If that doesn't work out, I'll engrave the whole strip and overlay a printout of the colors.

Thanks, I'm right there with you, I raised the outside edge by 2 inches and it ended up about 18 degrees

Does anyone have an estimate of the slope of the outer row of panels on the right and left in the A-10 cockpit? I'm eyeballing it right now and it's very hard to tell if I'm in the right ballpark. The SAS panel is nearly done. Also looking for good dimensions of the lamp seen on this panel and throughout the cockpit. Again, I eyeballed it.

8x4 sheet is just the minimum order, they don't sell in smaller quantities, but they offer 2 free cuts. A good source of information on correct bits, feed rates and RPMs for a given type of plastic is here http://www.plasticrouting.com.

Thanks gents. Trigger I have you and your monster thread to thank (blame?) for all of this craziness. My next video will hopefully be cutting out the fuel panel. I found a local plastics supplier that should save me some $ on shipping, though I think they sell 8x4 sheets minimum, which is probably much more than I'll need for the whole pit. I plan to use a translucent white Acrylic for the panels, so the lettering will be white when engraved from the painted black surface, and can still be back lit. I've also been playing with a couple samples of EL sheet. One is pink when off and light green when lit, the other is white off, green lit. I know now to stay away from the pink/green stuff because the green it produces is not very good. The white/green variety makes a much deeper, truer green, much closer to the bluish green tint of NVIS backlighting.

It's alive! It's a home made 5' x 3' machine of mostly my own design, borrowing several techniques from well-known DIY cnc tutorials online. I still need to make the router mount, and smooth out the motors with some calibration. It's capable of jogging at over 4 inches per second (240 ipm), but it remains to be seen what kind of cutting speed can be achieved without stalling the motors.

Thanks Deadman, the screenshots Wags posted make the fill disable switches look like push buttons. I'll have to look for some push/pull switches, or push on/push off would satisfy me too. It's always nice when someone who owns the real panel is willing to share information.

I was also planning to use a pot for the RCVR control. I thought of using one with a built in switch to click into the off position, common on volume knobs, but I think I remember seeing a linear pot somewhere with it. Regarding DCS, I have the same thoughts as you on many of the controls around the cockpit - the environment panel being one that is pretty much wasted on the sim. It has no meaningful contribution to the software or the physical environment (unless you built in an A/C and heater, hehe). If nothing else, I will put them there for looks and procedure. Extra switches can't hurt anyway, could always map them to some random function in DCS instead of what the real world function is. On the topic of cockpit lighting, my plan was to use three-pole switches and pots for pretty much all cockpit lighting controls. One pole would interface with the sim, another would be on a 120VAC isolated circuit for NVIS lighting the panels with EL sheet. The third on yet another isolated circuit for white back lighting of the panels with LEDs. Dimming would only be available for the LEDs.

I started the design for the fuel lever, just wanted to quickly post what I have so far. It's designed to be built out of only a few common materials: 1) 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" aluminum angle 2) 1/8" aluminum sheet 3) 1/4" bolts, nuts, washers 4) #8 machine screws, nuts, washers 5) glue for bonding metal 6) magnets I decided to use a magnet on each side of the lever's travel, not shown in the screenshot but would be attached just below the microswitches on each side of the contact point. This will provide exactly what I'm looking for - a positive snapping action on each side of travel and no obvious pull in the center, minor resistance to movement out of a position, force to keep microswitch pressed. The lever has 30 deg. total travel, 15 to each side. The routed arc near the top of the plate will have a bolt through it from the lever to provide lateral stability and adjustable friction (will use some non-metallic washer as a friction disk, tightened with a wing nut. To address the issue you talked about with wobbling of the lever around the shaft, I will use a bearing block with a 1/4" bore. The block will be secured to the plate with small screws, and the shaft will be secured to the outsides of the bearing on each side with a nut or washer+nut combination, which will make contact only with the inner ring of the bearing, thus tightening the shaft for stability, but allowing it to rotate freely with no friction. I learned this little trick from the guy at www.buildyourcnc.com - he builds his linear bearings using bolts, nuts, and skate bearings, which I've done for my CNC build as well.

nice Rocketeer! very thorough. Maybe add some way to indicate the toggle type (standard, locking, momentary, etc.)?

Thanks all. I won't be using real toggles, too expensive. Instead, I based my cutouts on the actual hardware I will be using. The switches I have unfortunately don't have an anti-torque notch, but you can see the notch cut out for the rotary switch. I do plan to compensate for twisting on the toggles, just not sure how yet. Good point on the RCVR mechanism. I've studied your pictures and I think I will mount it to the back plate. I'll place the holes for standoffs once I design that component. I may decide to use a pot with a center detent for that lever, or I may use two microswitches as you did. If I use a pot, it will be a simple matter of edge detection to determine when it goes from CLOSE to OPEN and vice-versa. I'd also like some kind of spring action to slightly pull the lever to one side or another from the mid point, with no pull at the mid point. I'll have to think about that one. Measurements: The only measurements I'm sure are accurate are the overall dimensions, and the DZUS positions. Other than that, the cutouts are meant for the specific hardware that I will be using, so your results may vary.

I suppose it's time I started a thread. Since I haven't actually started construction yet, I'll probably start by posting some pics of my home built CNC. I hope to get it up and running within the next week or so. For now, here is the first of many panels to come, to be cut and engraved on the CNC. I split the light plate into an upper and lower half since they will require different cuts. The actual material will just be a single piece of acrylic, flipped over for the back side cut. just the base plate... base plate with lower half of the light plate (disregard the color)... just the top half of the light plate... full panel, with DZUS...

Don't worry about how it looks on the monitor, just assume a 1:1 pixel... so the real thing is 5.75W x 7.125H making H/W = 1.239 so if your picture width is 100 texels the height should be 124 texels to be in proportion. Then you can take the texel width of the CDU screen, divide by texel width of the panel, multiply by 5.75 to get the screen dimensions in inches. Is 3.25" x 2.6" a known dimension? I ask because when I did a rough estimate based on that screen shot, I got around 3.15" x 2.4" for the viewable area (the area inside the innermost ring of the screen frame).

Nice Oakes, thanks for posting. For 360 deg. range of movement, are you using a modified servo, or standard with gears? I thought I read somewhere that for a modified servo, you have to pass start/stop pulses instead of absolute position, so then the problem becomes sync errors over time just like a stepper. Any truth to this in your experience? Also, where did you get your end mills?

Really? weird. What is the point of the manual HOT and COLD modes being momentary? To get cold air the pilot would have to hold the switch down in that position constantly? Doesn't seem logical. I was going to implement that switch as a 3 way on-off-on where left would be manual cold, center would be auto, and right would be manual hot. I guess that won't work though?... doesn't leave room for an off position

The A and C model have a different shape for the main instrument panel. The C model is wider at the top, and I believe the slope of the sides is steeper accordingly. If you compare pictures side by side, you'll notice that the glareshield "eyebrow" areas (where the ext stores jett button and fire exting disch switch are located) are wider on the C model than the A. I believe this extra room was added at the corners to accomodate the large 5"x5" MFDs, and gives the whole panel a more squarish look overall.

Thanks for commenting Chibawang. Since that post, I've ordered the Seeeduino Mega for $46.50 free shipping, which has 70 digital I/O pins, more than the original Arduino Mega and at a lower price. This is one of the best values I've seen yet, considering I/O's per dollar. If you do plan to order from Seeed Depot like I did, a word of warning. I ordered on the 1st and it took them 8 days to deliver the package to post, then another 3 days for it to actually ship. It will take the better part of a month before it gets here... waiting... waiting... still waiting

Yeah I don't know about the whole platform on casters thing in general. I"m not trying to rain on your parade or anything, just thinking out loud really. I mean, I'm sure you have your reasons, but once you get that platform loaded up with weight, it's going to be an absolute bitch to move. Even more so if it's on carpet. Like others have said, you'll need support in the middle where all the weight will be concentrated, or you'll get some serious bending/breaking. I think the corner wheels will be ok actually, if you used 3/4" MDF, that's some pretty strong stuff. If it were me, I would have put the wheels directly on the framing though. What's the point of being able to move the sim 10 ft on wheels anyway? It's not like you can get it through a doorway rolling on that thing, you might as well carry it in pieces if you need to move it. The materials for that platform could be used for the pit itself.

MDF guys, not MFD