Combat2468's Pit Build

Well, a month of looking in amazment at threads from Y2kiah,Gadroc,Deadman and agrasyuk to name but a few. Then a month of getting involved with the forum and now here I am with my first thread and it's a striaght into a pit build, thanks guys my bank manager hates you all:lol:

But I love you. :thumbup:

A bit of background stuff, I'm a retired RAF Armourer so good with a hammer. Now in laptop repair and refurbishment (electronics good, programming bad) so looking at the easyest solutions with panal intergration (Thank Gadroc for Helios).

The build is actually for an Air Cadet Sqn that i'm an instructor at and will be getting them involved in the work, Many hands make light work. Which will be needed as have to get it to a minimal working simulator before the end of Febuary.

The pit uses Y2kiah's shell, big thanks to him for publishing all his work, and a lot of inspiration taken from the guys above. I've got a few of my own ideas mainly around the seat and electrics area that I hope to implement aswell and maybe inspire others.

And on with the build, sent the .dxf to be cut last week and arrived on wednesday. Took a bit longer as the workshop emailed me with some questions about the cutting, since i'm completly CAD iliterate at the moment had to post for help and I think it was Linden that came up with the answer. For anyone in the UK who are looking at doing this if you include the below instructions and it should save some time in emails.

"All module layouts are designed for a 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" nominal plywood (.703 actual) and .005" spacing. Using a 1/8" bit for drilling, and up to 1/4" bit for cutting, .02" tolerance on the notches. The drawings are in imperial measure, and so need to specify inches during import. Also the screen grab which outlines three pieces is for a plunge cut 0.5" deep."

We spent today preping, to screw it together tommorow, cutting right angles into the slot cuts and then testing the fit. This is due to router bits being round and so the corners in the slots are round too after the workshop, and as such the parts dont quite fit flush until their made square.

Think we got a bit carried away:doh:

coming along very nice.. When I was in air cadets (35 years ago:music_whistling:) I would have jumped at an opportunity to be involved Keep us informed

2 thumbs up:clap_2:

Randy

all or nothing i see, going for a replica pit. very nice,

looking forward to see your build

As an ex air cadet also, i'm glad to see this kind of 'community' project. If this had existed in my day, I don't think you'd have been able to get me out with a crow bar!

Good work!

Looks great Combat,

Not sure there is such a thing called carried away when building a pit :lol:

Wow so many ex Cadets on here, and you can now add me. Ex cadet and ex RAF, just love that blue uniform. ;)

What a great project for them, if we had anything like this at 381 Sqn, you would never have got me out of the barracks. :)

Some of the best years of my life spent with the ATC, not to mention I met my wonderful wife there as well.

Cowboy10uk

Combat,

Looking good my friend.

I will, as we discussed, also be following this very closely. Especially as I will be using the same company to cut my boards for me :).

Just one question. are you going to do the center display too or just do that via HELIOS or another route?

Best regards and best of luck,

J.

Great job.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys.

Jase: Yep, the instrument panal is going to be a 23" 1920x1080 monitor to start, using helios. I'm watching a thread of hegykc's in anticipation, he's looking at making all the dials, http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=100076 and even posibly to sell. But looking more near the end of the year for that.

I've had a lot of PM's from UK based members asking where I got the designs cut and for how much. The company is called CUTCNC www.cutcnc.co.uk based in Uxbridge and cost me £564 for materials, cutting and delivery inc VAT. Thats for the left and right sides, base and front sides. dont be surprised tho if they quote you a bit more as I think they knocked off some of the delivery charge after I said it was for an Air Cadet project. Not 100% on the rules here so just incase, I have no afiliation to this company or any employee, so not attempting to advertise just help others in this forum.

Not much more visually on the build, just a load of screw heads. Did come across a couple anomolys. In the first pic highlighted are 2 brackets to attach the back plate to the side pods, these have been pilot drilled but the back plate hasn't. Double checked the .dxf and not in the design. Nothing a G clamp and pencil couldnt sort out.

Next one a think is down to the workshops where i got it cut. The bottom plate for the throttle mount sits on top of one of a ribs so needs to be routered out but mine wasnt. Might be worth pointing out to them if going to the same place. luckly I had a hammer and chisel with me.

Thanks for the info on where and how much it would be to get this cut.

I wonder how many others out there are interested? If demand is high we may be able to do a larger run and save a few quid. Any takers?

Great start! I look forward to seeing your pit progress!

Weekend 3 and finally it's looking different from the 1st. After another box of 200 screws and cadets asking which way is the front have now got 1 side skined and started on the panel rails.

A few updates for those using Y2kiah's plans. Theres not much in the way of tolerences with the rails so be ready with a file. Had some of the longer peices cut by the supplier but still needed to take a few thou off to sit right, smaller peices by hand to begin and now ordered a scroll saw, needed anyway as going to do the panels with it. Also the first pic shows how the upper panel rail sits proud on it's mounting so will need to router out a half inch width and 3mm depth for the assembly to fit flush all round.

Had a play around with some detailing on the skin, hopefully as the paint layers go on it should smooth out a bit.

Beautiful framework. Best of luck with your project!

So 4 days to go before needing a phase 1 sim running. Cadets have put in their all and here are the pics to show.

Centre console is temperary till the instrument panel is built. The monitor shown is touch screen and will run helios for the interim, got tommorow night to make another plynth for the main screen then install all the hardware. Yep the CMSP is in the wrong slot for those keen eyes among you, but dont know if gonna have time to make the upper rails before Thur so just for show for now. And thanks to Gadroc via AgrasyUK for that.

Was hoping to have the full paint scheme done by now but got called into work a couple weekends and about a week behind schedule.

We did get a bit more time to spend on the left skin with definate better results. Will probably re-visit the right side when it's complete.

Some of you might be wondering why bother painting silver when it's all gonna be grey eventually. Figured as the Sim will be getting a lot of use and not nessicerally from caring individulas, i'm going to layer up the potential wear areas Silver/Yellow Primer then Grey to save having to patch paint in the future. Should hopfully give a bit of realism as well.

2454 North Blackpool ATC then BAE Systems.

I too wish this kind of thing were available to us, far too much marching for my liking and not enough flying.

Would be nice to go back and start a project like this with the kids, but that sex offenders register isnt going to vanish in a hurry...:music_whistling:

(disclaimer.....Im not a nonce and dont live in the UK any longer)

That looks very pro. A solid approach to cockpit building. Thumbs up !

Hey all,

Been a while since posting, just not had the time. But the build is still going, hoping to give a big update on Monday. Thought I should get this one in now tho as it could help a lot of people out.

With regards to panel lighting I was dreading the prospect of all the soldering involved with LED's or more to the point preventing the cadets from burning themselves every minute so had been looking all over for cheap EL sheet which at best worked out at £20 a panel average. but keped seeing EL wire. Then the other day I noticed one of DM's pictures of a real Emergency Panel that was split from the switch plate and saw that the wire for the lighting was all recessed into the panel. This gave me an idea, I bought a few 1metre lengths of different size and colour EL wire, and with a panel I got from Linden I started to experiment. The colours from left to right are Turquoise Green, Lime Green, and Tron Blue altho this has come up more blue on camera than it actually is for some reason, hard to describe it but more of a true Turquoise. The second 2 were with the thicker wire and couldn't get it to fit in the channel i'd routered.

Bottom line is on the premise that a 1 metre strip can be cut in half for 2 panels the cost would only be between £1.75 - £2 a panel depending on the size. At the moment these are running from a 9v Battery powered inverter, a mains inverter is only £30 which can run upto 50 metres of wire either in 1 go or daisy chained. Hope this has got the grey cells working for some of you.

Interesting bit on the EL wire. Curious, if you implement, please post pictures! I'd like to find out how to daisy chain them, and how you would hook them up to an inverter. I can't imagine using a battery inverter, (which is all I have seen,) as power.

I had thought of using EL squares with my panels, but was unsure how to wire them all together with the inverter. For that matter, I didn't know if you needed one inverter per panel, or square, or if you could find a single inverter card with multiple outlets - kind of like a PhidgetLED for EL.

The EL squares I found are only white. They are approx. 71mm x 56mm. They were pretty cheap at $1.35 USD at AllElectronics. They work great with ~100VAC though!

Only a day late this time. So got the frame painted finally, gave up on waiting for the weather to change so covered a room in plastic sheet and sprayed away. It was a bit more time consuming going for the realistic scheame but has allready paid off when i was under the floor mounting the control columb, was nice and bright underneath which should also help with the electrics once more panels go on. As it's been so long i could write a couple of pages, so rather than bore you all if you have any questions please ask away and all answer them all.

I'l be posting a guide on how I made the stick extension, based on the familier gardner type attachements but with a karcher adapter instead. A few mods and a lot less shaving of parts. Just need to find some pics that have disapeared.

Enjoy.

Like the idea with the EL wire. Ordered some to try it! Thanks for the tip!

Cheers Gremlin, means a lot for a builder like yourself to take a tip. The pictures hadnt uploaded first time round so might want to take a look on the previous page.

Great looking pit Combat :thumbup:

Cheers

Hans

Hey all,

 

Been a while since posting, just not had the time. But the build is still going, hoping to give a big update on Monday. Thought I should get this one in now tho as it could help a lot of people out.

 

With regards to panel lighting I was dreading the prospect of all the soldering involved with LED's or more to the point preventing the cadets from burning themselves every minute so had been looking all over for cheap EL sheet which at best worked out at £20 a panel average. but keped seeing EL wire. Then the other day I noticed one of DM's pictures of a real Emergency Panel that was split from the switch plate and saw that the wire for the lighting was all recessed into the panel. This gave me an idea, I bought a few 1metre lengths of different size and colour EL wire, and with a panel I got from Linden I started to experiment. The colours from left to right are Turquoise Green, Lime Green, and Tron Blue altho this has come up more blue on camera than it actually is for some reason, hard to describe it but more of a true Turquoise. The second 2 were with the thicker wire and couldn't get it to fit in the channel i'd routered.

 

Bottom line is on the premise that a 1 metre strip can be cut in half for 2 panels the cost would only be between £1.75 - £2 a panel depending on the size. At the moment these are running from a 9v Battery powered inverter, a mains inverter is only £30 which can run upto 50 metres of wire either in 1 go or daisy chained. Hope this has got the grey cells working for some of you.

Hello...

I want to ask what diameter is your el wire ?

I have a lime green 2.3mm and put it behind my panel (white plexiglass paper sticker black bouckround and white letters) but the light dont come throu...

any advise ?