Universal military aircraft homecockpit project

[Viper1970]

Not the perfect looking parts, but ok for me at the moment. I have to paint most of it with a brush and model colors.

Cause of the cold, wet weather at the moment spray painting is very limited. I spray painted the grips only and even that was a nightmare, because it's simply to wet outside.

You have to bring the parts directly after spraying in the warm flat, or they will show some kind of condensation and get something which looks like an oil film on water.

For the large surfaces of the base cases I used a paint roller. Although it's looking great while painting it get's some small bubbles while drying. At the areas this happened I had to sand after drying and paint again a little bit. After the lettering I will coat the whole devices with a thin layer of satin clear paint, but this have to wait until it's warm enough outside.

I HOPE FOR WARM WEATHER CONDITIONS SOON! It's sooo much easier to spray paint parts.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Viper1970

[agrasyuk]

Have you considered building a collapsible paint booth?. exhaust out the window directly, or ducted. Doesn't have to be huge. Scale model guys have some really neat solutions for crumped spaces. 

Yes you will loose some  house  heat to the outside. After painting is done fan can be switched to low setting - keeps up with the residual fumes like that and stealing less heat.

[Viper1970]

I have thought about this. Problem with those airbrush systems and a paintcabinet is, they use special colors, mostly aqua based, which aren't handproof or wipeproof. Not a big problem for models which you don't touch anymore after they are done and only placed in a showcase, but for HOTAS systems this is no solution. And normal car color aerosol cans make to much spray dust for such airbrush cabinets.

You can for sure also paint car colors with an model-airbrush, but you have to dissamble and perfectly clean the airbrush gun after each paint work and even between different colors. This must be done with nitro or something compareable and smells really bad in the flat and is also a big work each time.

I made an acount in a model maker forum and have asked for aqua based colors which are handproof to eventually use such an airbrush system with aqua based colors for my parts, but they did not know any colors which are strong enough to withstand the use of a HOTAS system or knobs and switches. All those colors are only meant for display models, not for parts which you frequently touch.

I also use model colors, but only email colors and only for very small parts, and before using the parts I seal them with a car color clear coat to prevent the colors from rubbing. I also tried this with aqua color but aqua color doesn't like the car clear paint and it comes to a reaction with bubbles, even if you dry the parts for a week or so. Aqua based clear coat is also not really handproof.

The best solution is still to use normal car color spray for all the big parts and email color with a brush for small things like buttons, switches, hats and knobs and seal all after finishing with a thin layer of satin car spray paint. No problem if you can use aerosol cans which you don't have to clean after use, but this is only possible at the balcony and if the weather is warm enough. For other cockpit parts like consoles or the panels I use aqua color and a roller. The results are very good. Only the HOTAS parts are the problem, cause you constantly touch them.

[No1sonuk]

1 hour ago, Viper1970 said:

I have thought about this. Problem with those airbrush systems and a paintcabinet is, they use special colors, mostly aqua based, which aren't handproof or wipeproof. Not a big problem for models which you don't touch anymore after they are done and only placed in a showcase, but for HOTAS systems this is no solution. And normal car color aerosol cans make to much spray dust for such airbrush cabinets.

At work we use a hobby airbrush for doing minor touch-up to paintwork where the big spray gun is too much.
That's 3-part exterior paint for commercial aircraft...

[Viper1970]

The little UFC for my command unit, for its upfoldable panel. Some minor paint work and the lettering is still missing.

Very simple. The keypad is a programable cherry numpad and the rest including the following small consoles will also be driven by a Pokeys 57U.

As said this place is mainly used for "retro flying" or without the panel (folded down) for tank and naval sims, so nothing very complex here. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The "command unit" how it should look like. Only a small test, with the parts loosly "connected"

The stick is still missing, and also only one console cover is loosely in fron of the throttle. In this consoles I will integrate some additional switches for the "pit" and also a very small gear lever in the left and a hook lever in the right console. The front panel with the UFC and the MFD's can be folded down and pushed under the desk for using the unit with naval fleet or tank simulations. There is an additional fully programmable keyboard on top of the desk, which has caps for labels, to program it with special shortcut macros for those simulations.

Behind the old Quickshot Masterpilots (which still functional even in Windows 10, once they are programmed) will come some small FPV-monitors I have lying arround from my RC hobby. They have a HDMI connector and have a resolution of 1366x768. They could be used for "test- flying" DCS stuff in the command unit or if a second guy wants to play WSO/RIO etc. But the best computer at this place is only a Ryzen 2700X with a RTX 2060, so DCS will be very limited here, considering a triple view and two additional MFD's, I think .

The flight-stick can also be moved from the right to center in front of the UFC if wanted. Sill a lot of work and painting to do.

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Meanwhile printed the "jet-extension" for my Cougar center base, for the sim rig and just have seen that I missed the holes for mounting the stick in my construction.

WHAT A FOOL I AM! Now I have to look if its possible to drill those holes exactly, or I have to do this 16 hour print once again

[Viper1970]

The whole construction in TC. UFC is already done, consoles still missing parts and have to be build together.

 

[Viper1970]

The UFC's paint work is complete. I also added some small caps at the buttons. All parts from the HOTAS and also the UFC were FDM printed, even those small caps and the all the switch-lever-caps etc. I reworked them a bit with my lathe and sanding paper. I have an Anicubic Photon SLA printer but rarely use it, cause the cleaning after printing is a work I didn't like very much. I'm a lazy guy and ift things could anyway printed with FDM, I do so .

The surface of the UFC looks better in reality as on this photo, cause of the reflections on the photo. The roughness on it is regular and comes structered surface of the magnetic mat that i use on my printbed.

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The lettering for the UFC and the consoles, how it should be later. Segment displays aren't functional only printed, and only for different AP modes . All very simple cause it's mainly used for retro sims.

 

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Jet extension ready printed. Both extensions here, jet with paddle switch and helo. The gap is for the cable coming from my grips and going to the base. 

Sadly I missed the holes for my grip connection. Now I have to exactly drill them. Already made a pattern for it, to prevent printing the two big half shells again .

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The control stick of my command unit Now the electronics have to be integrated in all parts.

 

 

[Viper1970]

Extensions painted with primer. Now they have to be sanded again and painted with grey (RAL 7001), I use for the consoles, panels and all grey parts.

The paddle switch is dark grey and the structured front part I will maybe paint in black matt. Will test the look tomorrow. 

Meanwhile I print the rest of my center stick base parts. After this the first HOTAS parts will follow.

In parallel I am finishing the consoles of the command unit.

[Viper1970]

... and ready now. Next parts also printed

 

 

[Viper1970]

Just doing the prints for the center stick housing on top of my Cougar base and the socket for the "no paddle switch" convertion of the Virpil VFX F-14 grip. There are also a few additional other printed parts needed to convert the VFX for my system without grip pcb or better said shift register inside.

All the electronics inside the grip will be removed and only the electrical parts like the buttons, hats, the weapon selcet etc. will stay inside the grip. The shift register for all grips are part of my bases. I will do this also at the Viper and Hornet grips, which can then also be mounted at the jet extension.

The extensions are inclined 10° forward. This is the case cause my center base is also 10° inclined toward the seat, so at the end the grips have a compensated 0° vertical alignment. The center grips will be rotated 15° to the left (seen from top down) for better ergonomics. This is done by the mounting holes alignment in the helo and the jet extension. Grips mounted in the side stick base won't have this rotation to the left.

At the end the VFX should look a bit more like this original one

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Removed the shape part of the grip for the paddle and aligned it for the socket. Only first half is done, second half of the socket is still printing .

At the front (the rest of the shape where the paddle was placed) I will use epoxy and do some sanding to have a nice transition to the socket. One half of the socket and one half of the grip will be one joint part at the end.

 

 

and how all should look like if connected together

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Not much to show at the moment, cause my printer makes trouble. Looks like the hotend has a cable break.

Started a printjob at night and in the morning there was nothing more as a half piece printed. Just have repaired it a few weeks ago and it did run so perfectly. Now this .

[Viper1970]

So, printer repaired and running again! It was only a loose contact in my Molex plugs I added, to be able to remove the whole print-hat without desoldering anything.

The old Cougar base with the jet extension and the parts between. The first from the bottom is the nut-part. Inside is a steel nut. The second is just an adapter to get some more lenght and a transition to the third part. Here the springs to the four corners on top of the Cougar base will be connected (original torsion springs inside will be removed). The fourth part gets four screw bolts and there will be all extensions with knurled nuts connected.

The whole mechanics up to the extension will be cased by a big housing, which is just in the work. At this housing you can integrate different guide-plates for the travel of the stick. One with normal rounded square hole for normal use. One with a slot only, to prevent x-axis movement for the yoke (I had the idea of a pendular yoke for the big birds before TM came arround with the Boeing Yoke ) and one with a round hole to limit the x/y diagonal movement.

Inside the mechanics there will be a 10mm bolt, which also fits with a small part of it's lenght inside any extension. So the whole thing is really stable.

The Cougar base will also get grey paint, but if the housing is mounted to it you didn't see it anyway .

 

P.S: At the photo the part where the spring will be conneted is in a wrong direction. The slots for the springs should point to the four corners of the Cougar base for sure, but this was only a test wtih still loose parts. The springs will be holded at this part by a simple cable tie, which fits in the notch arround the part. I did this, cause it's much more stable as printed pins with a srew or a bolt to connect the springs. And if it's worn out you simple replace the cable tie. There is nothing which could brake of.

 

 

and the center console with the housing for the Cougar base and it's mechanics (it's seperate and will be screwed to the console). All is only just painted with filler at the moment. The guide-plate will be fixed with four neodym magnets inside the frame and the plate itself has four little srews inside that vouch on these magnets. If you want to change the guide, just pop it out and take another one.

On top of the console the panel, respectively the TFT for the MFD's and the instruments is connected at the rig (on the place a wheel is mounted originaly). The panel is attached to this TFT and can be changed for jets or helicopters and maybe also one for the big birds in future.

I still can drive racing cars in the rig, cause all can be removed and a steering wheel with gearshift, handbrake and car pedals etc. can be mounted. As said this thing is "universal".

Edited February 5, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The spring mechanics on top of the Cougar. And also with housing mounted. Still a test nothing is fixed with screws in the "grip shaft" and the original torsion springs inside the cougar are still mounted. I will remove them and do a greasing with NyoGel later.

 

 

and the first part of the F-14 throttle grip in print. I have two LED's inside my air-flow-nozzles in the print head, to be able to better observe what is happening directly at the printing-nozzle. The printer is an Ender 3 Pro with a modded print head and a dual z-axis system, where the second axis is simply driven over a toothed belt on top of the z-axis frame. This improved the print quality a lot in my opinion. I made this instead a second stepper, cause it's easier to do and both axis are running substantial in parallel this way.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Just removed the original springs inside, used micro washers to remove every little play inside the axis mechanism and greased the whole mechanics with a grease similar to NyoGel 767A.

Magic!

It is so smooth, there is not a single bumb, clonk, detend or anything that you could feel while moving the stick. It returns absolute precisely to center and there is no extra resistance you have overcome to leave the stick out of it's center position. It's really a dream and so simple, no cams, piston spring mechanics or anything other complex rocket science, just four diagonal tension springs.  Stiffness can be adjusted with different springs mounted, but for me it feels just as good as it is and I can always mount another set of springs if needed.

Now I have to integrate the Warthogs "hall-sensor" and the magnet at the end of the axis (essentially the same way like in the Warthog itself - will print some small parts for this)

Edited February 7, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

All put together, still loose

 

 

[Viper1970]

For the TM Viper and Hornet grips I will need stiffer springs or a fifth adjustable spring at the front to compensate their weight. Cause of my towards to the seat angled base and the upside down L-shape of the extensions (I made this to have the stick more near towards me and also to have more travel to push without getting problems with the main panel) they tend to move towards the seat out of center

I just testet it with the TM grips and they are heavy as hell . But I think I will make the idea with the fifth adjustable spring, that can then regulate the "counterweight" to the grip, cause I don't want much stiffer springs. They are just right now, except for the TM grips.

[Viper1970]

The extension parts that are on top of the Cougar base.

The knurled nut is freely rotatable from the rest, which is srewed to one part together. This first extension can be slipped over the M10 srewbolt, and srewed to the base like an original grip. The rest of the screw bolt on top slips inside the bottom of my other extensions and is an additional stabilization.

On top of this base-extension my other special extensions are mounted (helo, jet, yoke) with four small knurled nuts that are screwed to four M6 bolts which will be inserted on top of the first extension and superglued. Threads are already cutted, but I have to saw four bolts from a large thread bar and then do some rework with my lathe.

The Cougar base has two holes that run through the whole base including the bottom plate in which to long srew bolts fit. This will fix the Cougar base at my center console. Over this all the housing with the extension guidance plate is mounted.

I have also constructed a mount for the fifth spring at the front, which will act as a "counterweight" for the heavy TM metal grips. This one will be adjustable in strenght and can also be completely removed. The parts are still printing.

The Cougar base has also still to be painted in grey .

All of this was possible, cause my cables to the base are transfered outside of the extensions. It's a bit like WinWing does it with their cables at their throttles.

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Just finished the "counter-weight mechanics" for my center base.

The spring can be adjusted with the knurled nut. This spring has not much strenght, just enough to keep the TM metal grips balanced in the center if the base is angled mounted on my center console. It's so smooth that it will even not affect the movement of the stick anyway noticeable.

At the moment the four spring inside the housing on top of the Cougar aren't connected, so I had to hold down the extension for a better understanding of how it works.

I had to remove the springs again for the paint-work that follows on the Cougar base. The counter-weight mechanics has also to be fillered and painted in grey.

 

 

Edit: ... and just mounted the inside springs for a better test and also put the Warthog stick on it. Sadly I have not printed the sockets for the TM-grips right now, to be able to mount them correctly, but the weight is the important thing to see if all is balanced. Works like a charm. Just enough space to let the spring completely remove it's tension when in the up position without being loose. You did not notice the fifth spring at all. For lighter grips I can remove the spring completely or,  what I will prever, add some weight to the plastic grips also, using some balancing weight for aluminium rims glued inside the grips.

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

F-14 throttle grip in the works.

Last part will be printed tomorrow .

Just sanded it a bit an after this I will adapt it to one of my Warthog bases.

I hope for a bit better weather the next time to be able to spray filler and paint it.

I used 0.12mm layer height here (0.12 fits better to the ender z-axis stepper as 0.10), a 0.5 nozzle, a speed of 0.55mm/s and an infill of 60% (bed temp is 55°). I always print with a relatively high temperatur for PLA (original Creality PLA) of 228° which turn out perfect in my case.

The surface is smooth directly after printing and what is much more important, it's really tough so you can do a sanding very well. I also tried PETG, but it makes not much difference. If you print PLA relatively hot it's also very, very stable and can be sanded good enough. And although PETG is also nice to print, I prefer PLA over it. It has much less stringing during the print.

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Viper1970