Roiegat's Pit - starting out

Just to give you a background, I've been flying X-plane for about 10 years, and A-10C less then a year. When flying X-plane I did build a premative panel that did work, but always never felt that good about it. When I started flying the A-10C I saw that there was such a great resource that I figured I'd give it another shot.

I decided that going full blown and building the realistic pit was a bad idea. My wood working skills have a lot to be desired, and my electronics work is still improving. So I wanted to build a couple panels to learn from and then improve. So I broke the project up into three phases:

Phase 1:

Build two panels that would have all the buttons/switches required to get the aircraft started. I would use the 8X6X3 project boxes I used in the Xplane panel and everyhing else was based on the stick in this forum. I got my wiz-420 controller last week and started putting it together.

(more on this later).

Phase 2:

Build a panel for in flight switches/buttons that I used most often. I have the Saitek X65 and Thrusmasters MFD, so this would be a panel with things I need during flight, like the master arm, refueling door, flaps, gears...etc. To make this more advanced then the first one, I plan on using a wooden panel and putting the two thrustmaster MDF's on the side.

Phase 3:

If everything goes well with the first two, I can now attempt to build the whole pit. But I might have phases in between 2-3 to advance my woodworking skills.

I'll reply to this thread with how phase one is going.

So phase one has been going well. I started out by reading and watching all the videos you guys have posted. I choose to go with the Wiz420 USB controller. I picked up the rest of the parts from my old Xplane panel and radio shack.

I started by designed the panels in Visio that I was going to use. I used the dimensions of my project box which is 8X6X3. Here's my two panels from visio:

Reading some posts I saw one that recommended to print the panel out and laminate it to use as the front. I did that with the first panel, but didn't laminate it yet since I wanted to get some indication of how it would look. I also figured that since I would be doing this on wood in the future, I should use wood for the panel. So I went to home depot and got a 2X2 1/4 inch sheet of wood. Since it was late at night and the guys there where bored I got them to cut it for me into 8X6 pieces (got 12 from the 6 dollar piece of wood).

I then taped the panel I printed out and used my drill to make the holes for the switches and buttons. Not being laminated, some of the paper got tore up, but overall it survived well. I then installed the swtiched and buttons for first panel and wired them up. I found the WIz420 a lot easier to wire up then the older controller I used on my X-plane panel. It was much easier to use and a couple hours later it the first panel was done.

Again using the knowledge from this board I went into my joystick folder and made the modifications to the Wiz420 file to make the switches work in both directions. After testing it works great. I'm going to start on the second panel of phase one next week sometime. Will keep this thread posted.

Looking good!! Keep up the hard work, I can't wait to see more developments!

Roiegat,

Welcome and good luck

Good work!

Maybe a tip to punch hole in laminated paper!

http://www.jula.se/mediaarchive/6096041/main/331375-jpg.jpg

I use it, and it works nice!

I do not know where u find it in your country, but it cost about 7 € in Sweden.

Good luck with building.

Strix,

What's the tool called? I"ll look it up and see if I can find it locally.

I'm currently waiting for an order to arrive with some switches to finish up the second panel. The first panel is ok but I think I was to rewire it again since occasionally some switches won't work. I'm not soldering the connections which is one reason this is happening. I'm going to rewire and tape the connections to make them more stable.

Strix's suggested tool looks like a leather punch. Might I also suggest a simple X-acto type swivel knife - the blade is designed to turn in the handle, so cutting is almost as easy as tracing a line with a pencil.

http://www.xacto.com/Product/X3241

Hi!

U punch it with a hammer! and then it makes nice round hole.

I don't know what its name is in English.... something like hole-puncher.

I use a more expensive one http://www.jula.se/haltagningsset-189021

And it is good with center pointer.

BTW.

If you mount a 2-4 mm plexi/acrylic with cutout for nuts on top of the board you get a very nice surface to mount the laminated paper on and you don't see the nuts. Not your nuts! The switches nuts....:music_whistling:

Tape the wires!!! Soldering is the only way if you want it to hold. :joystick:

Strix,

I actually re-did the wiring and ended up using quick disconnect terminals I found at radio shack. You crimp the wire into it and it slides nice and snug on the switch connectors. Will upload some pictures this week of that.

I'm hoping my order of switches arrives this week so I can finish the second panel. I've pretty much exhausted all the local Radio Shack's of their swtiches. They have a good assortment combo deal for 3 switches for 5.79, but seems like each store only had one. So I placed an order online for it so I can finish the second panel.

I can't remember if there's minimum qty required. Radio shack gives free delivery to your home. You cn order online or pay at the shop first and they'd to your home later for free.

I think I spent about 35 total. I ordered 5 bags of 3 switches and some wire. I just wish they'd stock this stuff more in their stores. I've literally exhausted all the 3 switch assortment bags from the radio shacks in a 15 miles area of me (there are plenty!).

I think I spent about 35 total. I ordered 5 bags of 3 switches and some wire. I just wish they'd stock this stuff more in their stores. I've literally exhausted all the 3 switch assortment bags from the radio shacks in a 15 miles area of me (there are plenty!).

Where did you order them online? I'm in the same situation here.

Thx - Deacon:pilotfly:

A good source for switches and anything else electronic is here

http://www.digikey.com/

it can take a minute or two to find what you want but in general they have it.

i ordered switches at http://www.bgmicro.com/ , didn't find anything cheaper

Ok so all my switches came in and I wired up the two panels. Here's a picture of what it looks like so far:

I still have to clean it up a bit and get a laminated printout so it doesn't look so raggidy. I did test it out and it does seem to work very nicely (some switches are backward...working on fixing that). But overall a success. Makes starting up a lot more fun.

So I learned a lot of good info from building these two panels and will start working on designing a forward panel that can be used during flights. Will sketch it up and post here when done.

Thank you for sharing :)

Just a short question about your controller: it seems that I am unable to find the wiz-420 controller anywhere in the search-engines.

Do you have a link? ... that would be awesome :thumbup:

Check out:

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76_81

It's the first one on the list...guess I misspelled it. It's a GP-Wiz40.

Great idea and thanks for the link!

+1 ;)

So I've been testing the panels for the last week or so and things have been going well. Pretty happy with them. So time to take it to the next level. I was talking with a fellow virtual squad member of mine and he was telling me how he got plans and built a little PVC cockpit from this site:

http://www.rogerdodger.net/diyflightsims/floor_unit_f321.html

The cockpit he built is pretty cool and he shared some pictures with me. I like the center joystick concept, but wanted more of a cockpit look and feel. So I found this on their website:

http://www.rogerdodger.net/diyflightsims/pacs.html

I got the plans and started working on it. The first thing was I wanted to modify it in a couple ways. If you look at the way the seat is, the people are always looking up to see the screen. If I fly my normal flight, I think my next would kills me. So my plan is to use my current chair at the height I like. Second, I don't like the sloping mid section. I figured my chair is around 15 inches high so I'll slope it from 15 to 20 in the back. So there'll be a slight slope but not a drastic one. Lastly, I'll change it so instead of having the flight control on the right, it'll be in the center. They have a video on how to do it using the chair rig, but since I'm not using their chair design I'm going to copy the concept from my friends pit and use that.

So I got the nose part done. And only had to adjust a couple things so far. I'm pretty happy with the result. I do plan on getting two more 45 degree elbows to make the joystick surface level instead of angled like it currently is. I also still have to screw all the pieces in place so they'll be stronger. But it's a good start:

I'm going to design my next panel to fit the opening in the front. Going to mount my MFD's there and add more buttons and switches. Lots of room there so going to plan it out in CAD app first.

So today I stopped by Lowes and picked up some more PVC and fittings. I spent some time with my eldest daughter cutting it up and putting it together. She had a good time using the mallet. Overall it came out nice. A lot more sturdy then I expected.

I aslo modified the joystick panel so it's a little further out (so I can build a panel and not be bumping into the switches all the time) and also made it flat. I used an extra joystick I had to test it out for height and feel. Seems good so far. I had my daughter get on there and test it out so I can take a picture.

I"m working on designing the main module now, but I also want to build the monitor stand soon. The documentation mentioned that anything about 15 pounds will make it top heavy, so I'm looking for ways to re-enforce to the nose section since my monitor is 20 pounds. I'm hoping once it's all screwed in it'll be able to carry the weight ok. But to test it out I'm going to put a 25-40 pound object on it and see if it survives overnight. I'll also figure a way to re-enforce it in other ways as well.

So far moving along nicely. Will have to work on main module design since I want to change the angle and height.

Shaping up and looking good.

Interresting concept!

I am looking forward to seeing the pit completed!

Greetz

Tim

So I build the monitor stance and decided to test it. I at first used several weights to test it and it passed ok. I also screwed a lot of the parts to make sure the weight is distributed well. So I decided to give it test run and put the computer on there and got it all working. I originally was going to put the MFD's on the panel, but found they looked good right below the monitor. I

l'll eventually build the main panel.

So after a bit of testing I found the monitor was a bit high for me. So I lowered the rig two inches. Tested it after that and it was just right.

I also used my shredder and an old PS2 to test the height I was to put my throttle at. I find that 22 inches is a comfortable height. So I'm going to build the middle section to that spec. Will start designing it this week some time.

here's a shot my wife took of me flying. Sorry it isn't too focused, my wife was in a hurry to walk to the dog.

Look like it fits perfectly.