3D Printed F/A-18 Cockpit - Update

[Jself]

I wanted to start new thread for the update of my sim pit.  I designed and built the front panel a little over a year ago and finally got around to doing the side consoles and vertical panels.  

 

The original thread on the front panel is here - https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/236378-3d-printed-hornet-front-panel-vr/#comments

 

 

This was a much different kind of project as trying to get some of the controls to act remotely close to the way they are in the jet was a challenge.  Here are some pics of the completed project.  I'll work on adding some details

 

 

 

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/7_goqBNcTrE

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jself

[Jself]

 

I didn't do a very good job of taking pics along the way of the internals so I'm not going to post a bunch of details.  If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them

Edited September 20, 2021 by Jself

[raus]

@Jself those brake and gear mechanisms look interesting… would you mind sharing the 3D files?? I am just trying to work them out at the moment… did you also find a solution for the wing fold?

 

thanks!!

[Viper1970]

Wow!

 

Excellent work! How long did it take to print all those parts? I'm also doing a pit and also most of it will be printed. Although 3D printing is a wonderful thing in cockpit building, the time it takes to print the parts is one of the annoying concerns.

[agrasyuk]

The level of effort is obviously great and the end result is impressive.
with that I feel that it leaves a lot of room for improvement. Those panels would have come out much better if you simply paper printed them out and laminated to a piece of ply/acrylic. there is never a need to 3d print something that can be cut and drilled out of a flat stock.

 

Spoiler

. 

yes, yes, I know. "I fly in VR so I don't care how it looks"... oh well.

[Jself]

it took a good month of printing to do the side consoles.  I did lose some days due to running out of filament and needing to replace my hot end.  As far as cutting the panels out of flat stock.  Completely agree but I just don't have access to the proper tools to be able to do it.  Looks were secondary to function for me.  

23 hours ago, raus said:

@Jself those brake and gear mechanisms look interesting… would you mind sharing the 3D files?? I am just trying to work them out at the moment… did you also find a solution for the wing fold?

 

thanks!!

I 'm not super happy with the way the wing fold came out.   I tried to gear it to get the correct amount of rotation.  3D Printing isn't the best solution for gears.  It has quite a bit of slop in it but it works for the most part. If you notice in the video I have to "straighten" it after rotating it back to the fold position.  Toggle switch mounts in the bottom there for the push pull and a 3 position rotary on the back for the rotation

  

 

 

All the 3D files are in OnShape.  If you have an account, PM me and I'll share them with you

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Jself

[Viper1970]

Which layer height did you use? I print my HOTAS parts with a 0.5 nozzle between 0.1 and 0.125 layer height and with a speed of 55mm/s (sometimes even slower). The results are very good for my simple Ender 3 Pro, but it takes ages to finish only one print. A half shell of an B8 Standard grip takes about 17 hours to finish, not to mention more complex parts.

 

Edit: missed the 1 at 17 hours, sorry

Edited September 22, 2021 by Viper1970

[Uxi]

Very cool.  Looks like a great pit. Interested in more detail on the ejection safe-arm handle and how your 3d printed part is activating it.  Button under the bottom?  Could you show some close ups? 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Uxi

[Jself]

On 9/22/2021 at 1:05 AM, Viper1970 said:

Which layer height did you use? I print my HOTAS parts with a 0.5 nozzle between 0.1 and 0.125 layer height and with a speed of 55mm/s (sometimes even slower). The results are very good for my simple Ender 3 Pro, but it takes ages to finish only one print. A half shell of an B8 Standard grip takes about 17 hours to finish, not to mention more complex parts.

 

Edit: missed the 1 at 17 hours, sorry

.2mm and 100m/s speed, most everything has very little detail in the z axis so smaller layer height doesn't really give you any better quality, just slows everything down

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jself

[Jself]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:28 AM, Uxi said:

Very cool.  Looks like a great pit. Injured in more detail on the ejection safe-arm handle abs how you're 3d printed part is activating it.  Button under the bottom?  Could you show some close ups? 

 

A micro switch mounts where the blue part is.  I wired the normally open and closed both as two separate inputs for the Leo Bodnar controller to get the correct functionality

 

You can see the micro switch sticking out

 

 

These are the microswitches I used:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BL33XXT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jself

[War_Pig]

On 9/20/2021 at 10:17 AM, agrasyuk said:

The level of effort is obviously great and the end result is impressive.
with that I feel that it leaves a lot of room for improvement. Those panels would have come out much better if you simply paper printed them out and laminated to a piece of ply/acrylic. there is never a need to 3d print something that can be cut and drilled out of a flat stock.

 

  Hide contents

. 

yes, yes, I know. "I fly in VR so I don't care how it looks"... oh well.

Respectfully, you’re dead wrong.

 

I can 3D print anything while I’m at work and come home and start printing again.  That’s much easier and accessible than going and finding metal, cutting and grinding and everything else.  I don’t have a shop, if it cannot be accomplished with sandpaper and a dremel, it won’t be done.

 

I printed @Jself ‘s front panel, and it turned out amazingly well.  I love it, and it’s incredible to fly with in VR.  Could I have also used OpenHornet and a cabinet shop to cut MDF, and either lasercut acrylic or engraved metal for the panels?  Sure I guess, but I would still be working on it.

 

The results speak for themselves.  And, no offense to anyone, but the picture you’ve cherrypicked to show the output of 3D printed parts is not representative of the quality that can be achieved by 3DP with a little bit of tuning and tweaking (not much in the case of my Prusa).

 

On my build, I increased the size of the lettering by 1%, which allowed the printer to print them very cleanly and clearly.  Printing the letters directly to the part is awesome, it makes the product require no sanding, painting, or finish work.  I did zero post processing, and I’m very happy with how mine turned out.

 

@Jself, I would love the opportunity to print these as well if you decide to publish them like you did you front panel.  If you decide not to I understand, you certainly don’t owe anyone anything, but your work on these is awesome, just incredible!

 

ETA: Here’s a couple pics of my print of the front panel, still waiting on UFC screen plexi and proper colors for the OSB buttons.

Edited September 25, 2021 by War_Pig

[BamJr]

Amazing work, both in terms of quality and time effort spent on it. I printed my own gimbal + grip, and that alone took days of printing and months of design work. Can't even imagine how much time and care was needed to design and print almost an entire cockpit! I'm curious about how you achieved the lettering, filament change at a predefined layer height?

[Jself]

11 hours ago, BamJr said:

Amazing work, both in terms of quality and time effort spent on it. I printed my own gimbal + grip, and that alone took days of printing and months of design work. Can't even imagine how much time and care was needed to design and print almost an entire cockpit! I'm curious about how you achieved the lettering, filament change at a predefined layer height?

you nailed it.  I raised the text 0.6mm (3 layers) then printed the last 2 layers in white

[BamJr]

4 ore fa, Jself ha scritto:

you nailed it.  I raised the text 0.6mm (3 layers) then printed the last 2 layers in white

Neat! I've seen a couple of attempts with hand painting (both with raised or "engraved" lettering) but they didn't look as clean as yours do. Only downside I can see with this technique is you can't print that side of the panel on the printing bed. At least on my machine, the bottom layer comes out much cleaner then the top one. I might have to start messing with ironing settings sooner or later.

[Uxi]

On 9/24/2021 at 7:31 PM, Jself said:

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome. Is this part in the STL files?  I have the handle from OH but not the black base 

 

Your switch appears sold out so looking at this one

 

https://www.amazon.com/MXRS-SPDT1NO-Momentary-Roller-Switch/dp/B07MW3W79B/ref=dp_prsubs_2?pd_rd_i=B07MW3W79B&psc=1&th=1

Edited September 26, 2021 by Uxi

[Jself]

28 minutes ago, Uxi said:

Awesome. Is this part in the STL files?  I have the handle from OH but not the. black base 

 

Your switch appears sold out so looking at this one

 

https://www.amazon.com/MXRS-SPDT1NO-Momentary-Roller-Switch/dp/B07MW3W79B/ref=dp_prsubs_2?pd_rd_i=B07MW3W79B&psc=1&th=1

 

not yet.. working on getting them uploaded..check back in a few days.  That switch will work fine...

[Jself]

STL files have been added to my shared google drive.  Info in the Read Me pdf.   Donations appreciated but not mandatory - paypal - jself1@gmail.com

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CxYMFzfWFkWKXHwS2IiQCrdIfeTMGgU4?usp=sharing

[War_Pig]

You are incredible Jself!  Thank you for sharing!  I will pass along a token of my appreciation for you sharing your hard work and effort.  I lack the talent and skills to design these kind of parts, and really appreciate you sharing your work!

[Jself]

On 9/26/2021 at 3:29 PM, War_Pig said:

You are incredible Jself!  Thank you for sharing!  I will pass along a token of my appreciation for you sharing your hard work and effort.  I lack the talent and skills to design these kind of parts, and really appreciate you sharing your work!

I appreciate it man.. Hope you enjoy your pit as much as I do!!

[War_Pig]

Thank you for making it possible!

[War_Pig]

@Jself, I have a question regarding the WinWing throttle mounting:

 

I'm not familiar with the monstertech mounts as I'm using a mount I fabricated that bolts directly to my seat; I've looked at the .STL's and I'm not quite clear; in the documentation you note that if we do not have the monstertech mount we will need to make an adaptor.  Is that adaptor one of the "winwing adaptor" or "winwing adaptor L/R lower"  parts in the files?  I just want to make sure I'm printing what I need.  Thanks again.  I'm about to warm up my Prusa (maybe do a nozzle swap, it's got about 600hrs of PLA on the original oem one!) and start printing again, can't tell you how excited I am!  

[hasole]

Amazing work. 

[Sectech]

@Jself Grateful for all of your hard work. I have already printed and built the front panel and it is fully operational, looking forward to starting the side consoles. I see in your documentation that you have the wing fold mechanism but I did not see it in the STLs. Is this something that you will be adding soon? Also was wondering about the canopy open/close switch setup I saw in your pictures.

 

Thanks again for doing this and releasing it to us that had the desire but not the skills!

[Jself]

On 9/28/2021 at 10:07 PM, War_Pig said:

@Jself, I have a question regarding the WinWing throttle mounting:

 

I'm not familiar with the monstertech mounts as I'm using a mount I fabricated that bolts directly to my seat; I've looked at the .STL's and I'm not quite clear; in the documentation you note that if we do not have the monstertech mount we will need to make an adaptor.  Is that adaptor one of the "winwing adaptor" or "winwing adaptor L/R lower"  parts in the files?  I just want to make sure I'm printing what I need.  Thanks again.  I'm about to warm up my Prusa (maybe do a nozzle swap, it's got about 600hrs of PLA on the original oem one!) and start printing again, can't tell you how excited I am!  

Its a flat aluminum bar that runs the length of the winwing (inside) and bolts to the mounts on the front too.  If you have trouble, I can make the STLs for an adaptor pretty easily , just let me know

Edited October 10, 2021 by Jself

[War_Pig]

Thanks, that explains it perfectly!  I bet I can hacksaw up a piece of bar stock and drill some holes to make it work.  Appreciate the reply!

 

Alas, I thought I’d have some progress pics but my work schedule has kept me on the road and away from my printer for a month now.  Haven’t printed the first part yet.