F-5E simpit cockpit dimensions and flight controls

[Bucic]

3D arguments from lua

Advanced Cockpit-based Triggers in the DCS Mission Editor Tutorial - https://youtube.com/watch?v=MGhyQ7eVDnE

 

 

Edited March 5, 2024 by Bucic

[Bucic]

It doesn't fit for s!%t but still a nice piece Nicely marked at the back with P/N, manufacturer, backlight voltage etc.

[Bucic]

1 more non-simpit project to go and I'm going to be able to tack the most pressing issue - is there a simple way to transform the panel outlines referenced from DCS 3D model to be compatible with the RL panel(s).  If not, I think I'll stick with DCS 3D model referenced panels for now.

@agrasyuk Have you tried to connect the backlight? It's nicely labeled as 5V but it didn't come on when I connected it. I tried (+) to the pole and (-) to one of the grounding aluminium grommets. The connection seems to be universal, as seen in this Warthog's video (what's the name of the guy?)

Restoring a REAL aircraft panel for simulator use! - YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtlCV1ZSsDI

 

 

[No1sonuk]

The data I have for an Airbus landing gear control lever says the panel lighting power is 5VAC 400Hz or 5VDC.

[Deadman]

5 V Dc positive goes to the center stud . Neg to the outer circle. I can not remember the name of the connector but they are on Military and commercial panels. I am sure you can find some thing on eBay

Edited March 4, 2024 by Deadman

[Bucic]

I'm not getting reply notifications for this topic...

 

I connected it to 4.9V DC but the supply is only capable of outputting 1A. I might try with something more hefty if I find such a supply in the bin. The connector is damaged as well. It's all integrated so hard to tell whether the actual electrical connection is affected. I'm not into backlighting all that much but the panel is a rarity and it would have been nice to demonstrate it fully to the fans of the little-mighty 5.

[No1sonuk]

If you can, do resistance checks with the leads both ways round.

[Deadman]

that supply should have lit it up my old test set up was a phone charger you can all so get by with a 9V battery

[Bucic]

It's all busted. There's no continuity either way between anything. Connector +, connector - or the bonding pads (bushings) or the small (beautiful, non-philips) screws. The connector rattles around.

I'm not worried a bit. I didn't aim for backlit panels anyway and it's still a freaking gem. Thank you @agrasyuk !

No way. Look what I've just stumbled upon!

[No1sonuk]

He's a bit annoying.
Myself and one of the DCS-BIOS Fork devs have posted a few responses to questions from others on there, but he's deleted them.
I can only assume it's to increase his traffic when he finally gets around to making tutorial videos for things we've already done a while ago...

[Bucic]

I'm adjusting the left vertical panel to agrasyuk's real panel. Note that its revision is unlike anything you could see on the inner webs. I assume its right vertical edge coincides with the common revision panel right vertical edge.

The engine starter shutoff controls:

I was unable to correct the distorion on the photograph by H.J.Yen and the photograph by TSAI has it out of frame. So I re-created it by hand from photo references. Looks OK to me. Now I can finally start drilling.

 

The right vertical panel is going to be created mostly from the model viewer reference, with slight adjustment to make it uniform with the agrasyuk's-referenced panel, is some cosmetic stuff stands out really badly. One of the main goals of the project is "beautifying later."

 

As you can see here I have left the edge bending operation for last so I can correct left edge offset and angle however I want.

 

Edited April 15 by Bucic

[OldFlyer]

I really like what you’re doing here and hope you don’t mind me asking - you mention in an earlier post being able to determine dimensions of the various cockpit panels using the model viewer.

May I ask how you do that? I’d like to recreate some Hornet panels but not sure where to start when it comes to dimensions.

[Madpie]

https://mycockpit.org/tutorials/Panelbuildingfocussedondimensions.pdf
 

This reference really helped me @OldFlyer

Also @Bucic is that a 6.35mm thick piece of acrylic too?

Also do you have any idea how wide the rudder pedals/footwell is?

 

 

[OldFlyer]

1 hour ago, Madpie said:

https://mycockpit.org/tutorials/Panelbuildingfocussedondimensions.pdf
 

This reference really helped me @OldFlyer

Also @Bucic is that a 6.35mm thick piece of acrylic too?

Also do you have any idea how wide the rudder pedals/footwell is?

 

 

Thank you for the link, @Madpie - looks like a fun and interesting read! 

[Bucic]

On 3/17/2024 at 5:12 PM, OldFlyer said:

I really like what you’re doing here and hope you don’t mind me asking - you mention in an earlier post being able to determine dimensions of the various cockpit panels using the model viewer.

May I ask how you do that? I’d like to recreate some Hornet panels but not sure where to start when it comes to dimensions.

For Hornet I highly suggest getting a hold of the open hornet project files first. Or from another project. I use the ModelViewer route because I have no choice.

[Bucic]

6 hours ago, Madpie said:

https://mycockpit.org/tutorials/Panelbuildingfocussedondimensions.pdf
 

This reference really helped me @OldFlyer

Also @Bucic is that a 6.35mm thick piece of acrylic too?

Also do you have any idea how wide the rudder pedals/footwell is?

 

 

You mean the real (RL) weapons panel? I'll check later. And yes, it looks like acrylic, with integrated lighting.

Same for the footwell. I'll try to figure it out later. But you can derive the footwell dimension from the standard avionics width of the center column (comms panels).

 

Edited March 19, 2024 by Bucic

[Bucic]

As for the modelViewer I still do not know how to actually MOVE the damn camera! I yank it for half an hour pressing random buttons and sometimes I arrive in the area I intended. I've asked some 10 people about this so far and no one was able to help me. I think I even started a dedicated topic.

Edited March 19, 2024 by Bucic

[No1sonuk]

49 minutes ago, Bucic said:

As for the modelViewer I still do not know how to actually MOVE the damn camera! I yank it for half an hour pressing random buttons and sometimes I arrive in the area I intended. I've asked some 10 people so about this so far and no one was able to help me. I think I even started a dedicated topic.

Mouse buttons seem to work for me...
 

[Bucic]

17 minutes ago, No1sonuk said:

Mouse buttons seem to work for me...
 

Enlighten me, please. E.g. from start of ModelViewer to moving camera to throttle area in Orthographic mode.

[No1sonuk]

Open the model (e.g. f-5e_lod_00.edm)
Set to ortho view
Select TOP VIEW

Left mouse button for moving the camera.
Right mouse button for zoom.

For f-5e_lod_00.edm:
Move slider for argument 38 to -1 to remove the canopy.
Move slider for argument 50 to around 0.6 to remove the pilot.

[Bucic]

19 hours ago, Madpie said:

https://mycockpit.org/tutorials/Panelbuildingfocussedondimensions.pdf
 

This reference really helped me @OldFlyer

Also @Bucic is that a 6.35mm thick piece of acrylic too?

Also do you have any idea how wide the rudder pedals/footwell is?

 

 

The label plate is ~6.3 mm. For the footwell try deriving the dimension from my GIMP reference set (xcf file) and verify with the cockpit photo set by Bill Spindle plus the two best photos by Yen and Tsai (see the previous posts).

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle_f-5e/

The GIMP project is attached in this post

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/318106-f-5e-simpit-cockpit-dimensions-and-flight-controls/?do=findComment&comment=5359730

 

EDIT:

Agrasyuk has provided some measuring tape shots as well. It's from T-38 but that particular dimension should be the same.
https://forum.dcs.world/topic/149476-f5e-panel-dimensions/?do=findComment&comment=5144802

 

Edited March 20, 2024 by Bucic

[Bucic]

10 hours ago, No1sonuk said:

Open the model (e.g. f-5e_lod_00.edm)
Set to ortho view
Select TOP VIEW

Left mouse button for moving the camera.
Right mouse button for zoom.

For f-5e_lod_00.edm:
Move slider for argument 38 to -1 to remove the canopy.
Move slider for argument 50 to around 0.6 to remove the pilot.

Any attempt at rotating causes the camera to rotate around the origin, which is where the pilot's head is. That's the main culprit. And that's why I gave the "E.g. from start of ModelViewer to moving camera to throttle area in Orthographic mode." as an example task I'm not able to pull off intentionally.

 

Also, I've always been using

:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\F-5E\Cockpit\Shape\Cockpit_F-5E.EDM

instead of

:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\CoreMods\aircraft\F-5E\Shapes\f-5e_lod_00.edm

 

The latter seems to be an external model with poorly detailed cockpit.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2024 by Bucic

[Madpie]

Hey @Bucic

I'm not sure what you're looking for but I had a bit of a journey of discovery with the F5 in model viewer, I've only used it once before so I just pressed every button i could think of and tried to see what happened

Firstly 775 is the argument for the pilot.

Obviously I used ortho mode.

At first I went into back view to get the width for the panel. I found it useful to go to Show>Free camera mode too. Then you can hold W key and on the bottom right you will see the camera distance change. Eventually it starts chopping through layers of the cockpit until you get to where you want. You can adjust with S as well.

Then ctrl and shift control up down. A and D do left right. Q and E rotate (dont use)

Lastly to get a front on shot of the panel I went to default view and moved it around with a bit of trial and error then holding W till I could see the panel. I got these results. I figure I can enter it into fusion 360 as a canvas and blow it up until it matches your measurements. Are you able to tell me the exact height of the irl panel and the max width of it?

 

Edited March 20, 2024 by Madpie

[Madpie]

After much mucking around I think the t-38 measurements and the f-5 in game are completely out of whack.

I also tried making the centre panels 146mm wide

and also using your figure of 1 inch between the switches (so I did 6 inches for 6 switches)
None of it really worked out properly

[Madpie]

Maybe I’ll try see if this works tomorrow.