Grass's pit, a redo

my "004" is here :D

Wow! Where did you get those from?

Slaw device. Recieved the package from Poland today.

my "004" is here :D

 

:shocking::worthy:

How's the spring tension and the travel distance for the toebrakes?

What's the total width of these? Look like a higher quality alternative to the Saitek Combat Rudders, but not sure if I have room

Ragtop, the width is 520mm. Slaws thread is here : http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=118006

Lucas, the spring tension for the breaks probably could be even more stiffer, but I would say sufficient . world of difference between the floppy brakes on saitek . as far as travel can't tell yet, seems ok.

All in all I'm very very happy.

Construction is solid, the action is amazingly crisp. I can't spot any freeplay at all, nothing rattles nor squeaks. Transition from saitek combat pedals to this feels very similar to when I upgraded to TMWH from x-52 joystick.

I still need to get the hydraulic dampener, was going to skip it but now i think it will really add to the feel, especially near the center.

Thats a beautiful piece of engineering you have there Anton. I have been thinking about my pedals as well. I will, at some point, replace mine with something home built. I have the essentials... good thrust bearings, and a pile of other bearings that I will be using throughout. I think using bearings everywhere and Hall sensors is the key to good pedals.

Let me know how you make out with the dampers. All I found were really expensive ones.

John

I was also planning to build my own pedals. Started with similar cam force load, but was exploring the entire centering assembly being movable by a linear actuator to have adjustable center point. "Hardware trim" so to say. But given I still yet to start on the frame I figured I will not get to pedals this year and in meanwhile I'll get something

Slaws pedals are already designed with mounts to add a motorcycle steering dumper and were tested it with a china-fantastic cheapo one. While I wouldn't trust that 50$ thingy on my bike , for these pedals it will be just fine.

Making PCBs for my CDU device.

i completed the backlight PCB some time ago and started on one for buttons.

traces on etch mask. since this board is single layer i will need to solder bunch of jumpers on the other side to complete the matrix, or do what John Warhog does -make the traces on another PCB and sandwhich with pin-headers

in the acid pan. i built a small box with two lamps standing. glass cooking form sits on the bulbs heating the etchant. when the copper is removed the traces are glowing red making inspection a snap. i'm still learning to work with the muriatic/hydrogen peroxide solution. after almost half hour of nothing i discarded the etchant i used earlier (that stuff does not need special disposal) and mixed fresh batch - was done in under a minute!

etch mask paint is stripped and started drilling. drill bit is to dull to continue, will drill later after honing the bit. scroll saw blade is busted since the last cut, will need to replace that before cutting the screen area out. that fiber really eats non carbide tools ...

Looking really nice Anton. Looking forward to see the final result. Top work :thumbup:

cheers

Hans

That looks great Anton. Really nice. It will make life so much easier with a PCB for the entire CDU. :thumbup:

On the next board you make, try using circles for your solder points. I think you will find it much easier getting a perfect solder joint on the copper than using a square solder point. Its how the solder naturally flows. But in the end I don't expect its that big of a difference.:smilewink:

Thanks guys!

John, I highly doubt that soldering will be any different for round or square pads. And I do realize round pads would look much better aesthetically( I actually experimented with round pads),l. The final shape however has to do with the overall atrocious and ineficient routing and drawing process that I do. That area I have loots of room to improve on.

Drilling is b...ch, but time saved on not dealing with wiring mistakes for over 60 button matrix will be well worth it.

Whats the problem your having with drilling Anton?

Drilling fiberboard is quite taxing the drill bits it seems, first holes were so much easier. that and the sheer amount of the holes to do. i thought i'm going to go nuts pulling on drill-press handle over and over today.

that is behind me however for now - done and started soldering buttons.

failed to spot several routing mistakes on the drawing and they slipped by into the PCB. soldered couple extra jumpers on board and correctedthe drawing as i went .

Fantastic work Anton! Can't wait to see the final result!

Not Final result but its things more shape

since i do single sided PCBs additional board was done to accomlish rest of the key matrix . the two will connect via pin headers.

8.5mm buttons soldered. (6mm tacts with 17mm long shaft are on order). soldered USB breakout wires to the PI and headers to keyboard controller.

attached it will look like below. button rows and columns still need to be wired to controller

Anton...looks f**cking eh! :thumbup: Really excellent job there my friend.

So tell me, How do you like this stacking technique. I find it helps so much with keeping everything nice and clean and easy to trouble shoot. It's also easier to design parts as individual modules rather than one packed little pcb. Thing is, as you have already discovered, making boo-boos on your drawing is something to be avoid.

Too many times I've had to add jumpers, cut traces or add a trace because I didn't check thoroughly enough. :doh: I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to print out the drawings on just plain white paper first. Do my stacking and component layout on the printout and use that as a check plot to make sure it's correct before moving further ahead. It so much easier to spot mistakes on a physical layout than on the screen.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.:)

thanks John .

this stacking technique definitely works. soldering pins on the front was a challenge at first, melted some plastic . but as i went i developed the muscle memory to do it right. i'm now looking for some lower profile pin-header solution to bring boards closer to each other. i think boards being so far apart is my only gripe

i'm definetly guilty of missing the obvious when drawing. Devised "foolproof" solution, the traces start as a line and then outline is drawn around it. seems simple , if red and green intersect there is the mistake, easy to spot, can't miss it. did several reviews even. yet for some reason i did not spot some until they were etched.

so some cuts and jumpers do exist on my first board. while i fix things i actually added more functionality - next iteration board will have a 12V passthough headers from the top layer to the bottom one, so no extra wiring will be needed for back-light power.

not show on pictures is the car-lighter powersupply (took apart a nice samsung car charger) to convert 12V into 5V for the Raspberry. so my PiCDU device will need single 12V input to power lightitng, LCD and the PI

still, i can't but think what would this have taken if i went with perfoboard. shudder :fear:

Beautiful job on the matrix there m8. Just a quickie. To save ripping apart chargers etc to get a voltage stepdown, I use these when I need to vary circuit voltages. They are very small in physical size, cheap as chips but very effective. You can set the Voltage/brightness of LEDS, takes a bit of trial and error though. Bought a few of them and even got a discount.

Can you see any problems with them?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161419156290?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

weeb

Weeb,

those step down converters should be good, but I have quite a bunch of car chargers laying around. will keep cannibalizing these for now :)

the masters (manual milled), silicone rubber molds and some buttons from the first run. clear epoxy cast.

second batch is curing already

That's a great idea with the moulds!

Антон, очень впечатляет твой прогресс! Очень классно! Буду следить за новостями.

Антон, очень впечатляет твой прогресс! Очень классно! Буду следить за новостями.

спасибо, но работа над симом к сожалению стоит. заготовил формы для отливки кнопок и вот два месяца как ничего не трогал. мой главный главный проект строительство балкона/веранды взамен разваливаюшегося. началось все здорово: разработал, расчитал, начертил, подал на рассмотрение. инженер нашего поселка одобрил и выдал лицензию на постройку. ну а дальше угораздило меня нанять рабочих, не хотел с лопатами, бетоном и фундаментом возитсья... первая "комaнда" убежала после первого-же рабочего дня, фиг с ними, денег заплатил им только за тот день. решил нанять контору посерьезнее, ну и вляпался намного серьезнее. в итоге получил недорытые и не там вырытые скважины, две проваленные проверки, промокший под дождем цемент, украденный инструмент, потеряно 4 недели лета. так что сейчас осваиваю професию землекопа, за недлю вечерами сам все выкопал, завтра утром третья инспекция (теперь сдам точно) и на выходных буду заливать бетон. и готовлюсь к суду - изучаю материл и работаю над иском к той конторе - они даже деньги вернуть за не сделанное отказались что в итоге обойдетса им нааамного дороже.

вообщем мораль подтвердилась еще раз: чтоб было сделано как надо- сделай САМ. фото приложенны

well, since lexusmuse bumped my thread i'll share/rant what i spent time on these past two month. our not so long chicago summer is perfect moment to complete outdoor projects, otherwise digging in snow is not fun. our deck began deteriorating and it was about time to build new one instead the rotting cutoff we had. start was awesome: i studied the requirements, designed, drew and submitted my first ever "architectural" drawing. our village doesn't require pro sealed plans for deck jobs and I managed to pass and get approved by village engineer first try without rejects. yey! i planned on doing the woodwork, but foundation and concrete decided to contract. big mistake. first team never returned after day one, no big loss, only paid them for that day. the second team looked much more serious. and the consequences are also much more serious... 4 weeks lost, foundation peer holes not dug deep enough, placed incorrectly even though i measured and marked. how on earth can you miss big X on ground... and skipped altogether. i have no idea why they called for inspection twice - both obviously failed. and all that topped off by stolen tools. so this week i've been digging for couple hours every evening preparing for tommorow's inspection number 3... now all is passing for sure, so weekend i hopefully wil be pouring the concrete.

and i'm preparing for court , those buggers are getting sued as they decided that they don't need to reimburse me for all the mess. will cost them much more.

moral of the story is the usual - want it done right then do it YOURSELF. i start to doubt such thing as professionals do exist in nature.

pictures under spoiler:

Сочувствую тебе Антон. Я полагал что со строителями только у нас подобная беда может случиться.

Надеюсь всё утрясётся и ты продолжишь постройку кокпита.

My biggest ever woodworking project, deck, is all built and passed final inspection.

pics under spoiler

now with it out of the way time to get back to the sim, picking my RPiCDU project back up.

finished casting of first full button set. put pieces of lasermax on bottom of the mold before pouring, will provide excellent quality of engraved lettering when back-lit and un-lit. preparing to airbrush layer of primer, black and then grey. it's a lot of buttons to keep track of, tray pictured will help organize and will also serve as a jig for the engraving process