The Viper Project

[Snakedoc]

Hi everyone and welcome to my simpit progress report “The Viper Project"

It all started after I got some Cubesims MFD for my home setup and then it all clicked in my head, so I started planning a build for an F16 simpit.

I am recreating an F16CM replica cockpit which I will be using with DCS

My intention is to recreate a medium/high fidelity pit while trying to keep the costs "contained" as my goal is to have all the hardware needed to have a full scale pit but I can't push myself to go all out and purchase real-life parts such as switches, panels, etc. I have already seen some amazing builds here on the forum which I admire so very much and I hope to build something that if comes out half as good I'd be very pleased

For this reason, I will be using a design technique that I've seen first time a few years ago on YT watching a superb A10C self-build pit. I have to give credits to the creator because first his work is awesome and second it uploaded a step-by-step guide which helped me a lot in understanding how to build my own pit and from which I took a lot of inspiration. So to the creator on the warthog project (not sure if he's also here on the forum): a BIG THANK YOU! YOU'RE AWSOME

https://thewarthogproject.com

The plans

I recently acquired some F16 plans from Invicus Cockpit System to build a 1:1 scale cockpit tub & consoles. I've sent the plans to a CNC cutting service to cut out all the necessary pieces, once the process is complete I will begin the assembly. This is being made from 18mm & 12mm MDF sheets. 

The panels

The panels are 100% designed by me using CorelDraw (I've tried other softwares but I always seem to go back to CorelDraw so I'll stick with that).
In a similar fashion to the warthog project, they are designed to be a 3-layer setup using laser-cut 3mm & 2mm acrylic PMMA sheets. The dimensions & mounting holes are 100% realistic, so they will fit a DZUS rail mounting system (I am not planning to use real DZUS rails but I will screw them directly to the MDF panel...)

1. The back plate will be a 2mm black acrylic where all the switches, rotaries and leds will be mounted to. 
2. A middle "diffuser" 3mm opaque white acrylic will serve the funcion to hide the mounting nuts and diffuse the led lights. 
3. A final front plate will be 3mm clear white acrylic which will be first painted black and then engraved with text so the backlight will only shine thought the engraved areas.

The total thickness of the panel will not be 100% realistic but thats a compromise I have to take in order to use acrylic sheets vs other more expensive materials.
Another compromise is the hole sizes for mounting electronics & screws, they are metric sizes to accomodate the type of switches I will be using (12mm/7mm/9.5mm etc) and the M4 screws I'm using to secure them

Once I am done with the manufacturing of all the panels I will be releasing all the .dxf files for free so anyone can have a go and make these or take them as a starting point for their own design.

The MFDs

I am already in possession of 2xTM MFDs w/cubesim LCD screens. They work great and they've improved the immersion already so much! I will be using them in the pit

 

The flight controls

I have a TM warthog HOTAS setup. I will probably upgrade later to a FSSB base and still need to figure out how to make a realistic throttle (probably will go for a TM F16 thrust which I will then modify to extend the arm)

The electronics

I will be using standard 2 position/3 positions etc switches, encoders, rotaries etc to replicate all the functions of the panels. To keep the costs contained I am not planning to use realistic Honeywell switches. 
Everything will be wired to have a functional backlight dimmer in the cockpit and all the switches will work with various arduino boards which I will then program to interface with the PC (and mainly DCS)

The visuals
I will begin by using a regular PC monitor, most likely a large 55' TV later. I would like to build a wide angle projector system but that's for much later.

So that's it for know, I will finish by attaching some pictures of my initial designs. Feel free to comment and bash me if I've done something wrong, but not too harsh please

(click to enlarge)

Edited November 22, 2023 by Snakedoc
new picture upload

[Snakedoc]

The tools

I am using my resin 3D printer to make the parts which will complement the simpit, like the engine side panel, MISC panel, compass holder, etc. This stl files were included in the plans so I just send them into the slicer and printed them on my Saturn 3 12k

 

I had never had a 3D printer before so it took some trial and error but pretty happy with the results. They aren't perfect and some came out with some small imperfections but after a bit of filling and sanding and a coat of primer the end result looks quite good in my opinion. Also printed some DZUS caps which I will put on the bolts I will use to screw in the panels so it looks a bit more like the real aircraft

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Snakedoc

[Spitty]

This is going to be awesome!

[BaronVonVaderham]

Impressive! I’ll be keen to follow this!

[AddyRazz]

WOW! Loving this! 

[BaronVonVaderham]

@Snakedoc, I was thinking of getting the invites plans as well. I’m just curious about what is included. Does it include drawings for only the tub, or also front panels, side panels, center console, glareshield, ejection seat, etc?

does it contain any diagrams or designs for the control panels? How about the resin parts that you showed, are the files for those included? (I noticed they sell those themselves as well)

Edited November 24, 2023 by BaronVonVaderham

[Snakedoc]

So a lot has happened in the last few days. I received the acrylic panels and after dialling in the laser settings I've started to cut & engrave my panels

The tools  - Flux Beamo - 30w Co2 Laser cutter 

l
I was afraid that my 30w co2 laser wouldn't be strong enough to cut acrylic, mainly due to the fact that lots of online feedbacks point towards 40w or 50w to cut acrylic. Well, I am pleased to say that 30w is plenty.

I'm using 36% of power and a speed of 4mm/s and it cuts through 3mm acrylic (also transparent) like a butter. I'm sure it will cut even through thicker acrylic (there's a preset for 5mm but haven't tried it as I don't have 5mm panels atm)

The panels
 

First attempt at engraving... good but not great, as you can see the resolution of the engraved text wasn't very sharp and some black dots remained on the text areas.

   
Second attempt was much better. This time I increased the engraving resolution to 500dpi and used infill text & shapes rather than a bitmap image of the text. Unfortunately I had used only 1 coat of black paint so I was getting some light bleeding from underneath the black areas. I fixed this with the next step.

 
As I was happy with the technique I went ahead and cut more panels, here they are ready for painting. I used 1 coat of grey primer followed by 2 coats of matt black paint.

 
And here are my first 3 finished panels. With the 3 coats of paint the finish is perfect and there's no light bleed even with a very bright led light.

I've put together a video explaining the process, just need to finish editing it and then I'll post a link to it here.

Next I will continue to design, cut & engrave the rest of the panels to complete all the side consoles & MIP.

I have also ordered a bunch of switches, rotaries, buttons, etc.. so I will also begin installing those & wiring them next

Feel free to ask any questions and comment as you like

PS:
I've attached to my signature the link to my IG if you want to follow me there for more updates

 

My Instagram - The Viper Project

Edited November 29, 2023 by Snakedoc

[Snakedoc]

Video is up

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0TyCiiIzQ

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Snakedoc

[BaronVonVaderham]

The stuff is amazing!

 How did you design the engine gauge housing that you printed? Did the drawing pack come with files or did you reverse engineer drawings for it?

 I’m thinking of printing them as well, and I’m curious about how to orient the print. I’m using an fdm printer (can’t have a resin printer installation where I live due to toddlers running around). I was going to print with the front side facing down, as that means no support structure required. But mature you have some insights?

[Snakedoc]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:07 AM, BaronVonVaderham said:

@Snakedoc, I was thinking of getting the invites plans as well. I’m just curious about what is included. Does it include drawings for only the tub, or also front panels, side panels, center console, glareshield, ejection seat, etc?

does it contain any diagrams or designs for the control panels? How about the resin parts that you showed, are the files for those included? (I noticed they sell those themselves as well)

1 hour ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

The stuff is amazing!

 How did you design the engine gauge housing that you printed? Did the drawing pack come with files or did you reverse engineer drawings for it?

 I’m thinking of printing them as well, and I’m curious about how to orient the print. I’m using an fdm printer (can’t have a resin printer installation where I live due to toddlers running around). I was going to print with the front side facing down, as that means no support structure required. But mature you have some insights?

 

I'm sorry I've missed your previous message.

Thanks for the nice comments  appreciate it! 

Yes the Invictus plans come with the .stl files to 3D print all the required pieces for the cockpit. It's the same parts which they sell separately on their web store. Of course they include .dxf .stp .pdf for building the cockpit tub (basically a skeleton of the pit). The only thing that don't include is the ejection seat plans which is a shame, but they've said they're working on it and they'll be releasing them separately in the future

I've printed pretty much all the pieces faces down so I've had to use very minimal support, I also had to split some of the pieces in two in order to fit them on my work plate. 

Feel free to ask any questions if you like  

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by Snakedoc

[Snakedoc]

Second video is up

Feel free to comment, share, subscribe as you like  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg3Lipbi4wo

 

 

 

[BaronVonVaderham]

I’ll probably will buy the panels from hispapanels, or PSM, as a decent laser cutter costs too much and I don’t have space for one either. Gauge bezels I’ll be printing most likely, as they don’t have backlighting. Plus I can integrate them with analog gauges that I hope to start making soon. 
 

I’m hoping the drawing set includes the bare main front panel. Otherwise I can probably use the vault and come up with something myself in fusion. 

[Snakedoc]

1 hour ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

I’ll probably will buy the panels from hispapanels, or PSM, as a decent laser cutter costs too much and I don’t have space for one either. Gauge bezels I’ll be printing most likely, as they don’t have backlighting. Plus I can integrate them with analog gauges that I hope to start making soon. 
 

I’m hoping the drawing set includes the bare main front panel. Otherwise I can probably use the vault and come up with something myself in fusion. 

they're included.

Haven't made my mind up yet but if I'm satisfied with the final product I might be making my finished panels available for purchase in the future but that's a long way ahead. 

I will however release my designs for sure for free so that anyone can have a go at it. Once I'm happy with the final version and done with all the panels, I'll upload them

[BaronVonVaderham]

On 11/30/2023 at 4:15 PM, Snakedoc said:

they're included.

Haven't made my mind up yet but if I'm satisfied with the final product I might be making my finished panels available for purchase in the future but that's a long way ahead. 

I will however release my designs for sure for free so that anyone can have a go at it. Once I'm happy with the final version and done with all the panels, I'll upload them

That’s quite amazing. Many people don’t make their designs available. I’m guessing out of fear someone will use them for a commercial endeavour. 
I’m happy to see some people still want to help the community, for those who are less able to make stuff.

[Snakedoc]

1 hour ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

That’s quite amazing. Many people don’t make their designs available. I’m guessing out of fear someone will use them for a commercial endeavour. 
I’m happy to see some people still want to help the community, for those who are less able to make stuff.

Thanks  Most of my design is based off the initial work of the warthog project and other free sources of information available online, so it’s only fair that the design will be free  it’s a way for me to thank the community.

Some “artistic license” was used to come up with solutions for text style, switch placements, etc so although the mounting pattern & most of the dimensions are IAW MS25212, the rest of the design follows my ideas & interpretations (e.g. thickness). They’re not intended to be an exact 1:1 copy of the real ones, but a close enough replica.  

Here’s a little preview of the last panel I’ve done. Quite happy about this one  

[BaronVonVaderham]

That’s the thing isn’t it? We need to make concessions on the design for pragmatic reasons. For example, I don’t think many implement a starter switch that returns after startup, simply because a momentary toggle switch gives a close enough effect. 

And many of us use wood as construction material, instead of an aluminium alloy plate, which affects the entire construction. 
 

speaking of construction materials, I used something called “allzweckplatte”, which I found here in Germany. It seems like a good construction material, albeit a bit brittle. I found out it means “all purpose plate “, but no clue what it is actually made of. The brittleness makes it less suitable for hand tools, but it has great potential if it can be laser cut. I used a 3mm plate for MIP mock-up, which allowed me to fine tune my design and learn some lessons. 

[BaronVonVaderham]

21 hours ago, Snakedoc said:

Thanks  Most of my design is based off the initial work of the warthog project and other free sources of information available online, so it’s only fair that the design will be free  it’s a way for me to thank the community.

Some “artistic license” was used to come up with solutions for text style, switch placements, etc so although the mounting pattern & most of the dimensions are IAW MS25212, the rest of the design follows my ideas & interpretations (e.g. thickness). They’re not intended to be an exact 1:1 copy of the real ones, but a close enough replica.  

Here’s a little preview of the last panel I’ve done. Quite happy about this one  

What cad programs are you using, and how do you separate the cadets layers for cutting and engraving?

 By the way, I believe the open hornet project has a lot of relevant fonts. Should be the same that the viper uses. 

[Snakedoc]

 

On 11/22/2023 at 2:04 AM, Snakedoc said:

...

The panels

The panels are 100% designed by me using CorelDraw (I've tried other softwares but I always seem to go back to CorelDraw so I'll stick with that).
In a similar fashion to the warthog project, they are designed to be a 3-layer setup using laser-cut 3mm & 2mm acrylic PMMA sheets. The dimensions & mounting holes are 100% realistic, so they will fit a DZUS rail mounting system (I am not planning to use real DZUS rails but I will screw them directly to the MDF panel...)

1. The back plate will be a 2mm black acrylic where all the switches, rotaries and leds will be mounted to. 
2. A middle "diffuser" 3mm opaque white acrylic will serve the funcion to hide the mounting nuts and diffuse the led lights. 
3. A final front plate will be 3mm clear white acrylic which will be first painted black and then engraved with text so the backlight will only shine thought the engraved areas.

The total thickness of the panel will not be 100% realistic but thats a compromise I have to take in order to use acrylic sheets vs other more expensive materials.
Another compromise is the hole sizes for mounting electronics & screws, they are metric sizes to accomodate the type of switches I will be using (12mm/7mm/9.5mm etc) and the M4 screws I'm using to secure them

Once I am done with the manufacturing of all the panels I will be releasing all the .dxf files for free so anyone can have a go and make these or take them as a starting point for their own design.

...

 

 

1 hour ago, BaronVonVaderham said:

What cad programs are you using, and how do you separate the cadets layers for cutting and engraving?

 By the way, I believe the open hornet project has a lot of relevant fonts. Should be the same that the viper uses. 

I'm using MS33558 as font, it's the standard used in most US military cockpits

In the videos I've made I talk about the design, cutting & engraving process. Not sure if you've seen it but here they are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0TyCiiIzQ&t=155s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg3Lipbi4wo&t=51s

If you've got any questions feel free to ask

 

[Snakedoc]

So a lot has happened in the last few weeks, I've been trying new designs, materials, led placements etc to find the best compromise in order to make the best possible panel reproduction.

My original idea of 2mm/backplate (black) plus 6mm/lightplate (3mm matt/clear + 3mm opaque white) didn't quite work as I would have liked because of two issues:

- the backplate was too thin, and although more realistic looking to the real one it didn't offer enough strength to remain straight and level, even the slightest pressure would cause it to warp and once mounted to the lightplate it would lead to a lot of light bleed from the gaps on its sides. So a decision to go for a 3mm thick plate was made

    (2mm plate, warped)

- the lightplate is made by two halves, bottom transparent semi-gloss and top a opaque white. The bottom part was meant to diffuse the led lights but it just wouldn't do it enough and to avoid hotspots I had to space the led quite close to each other (and way too many led were needed for a single panel). The top part was opaque white and although it offered a good light transmission it was actually too much and the text was super bright. Also, with no backlight on the text wasn't exactly white instead it was transparent white, so it didn't look really nice. I decided to use the opaque white as the bottom half to diffuse the light and to use a 3mm solid white panel as the top half.

         (3mm plate, too many leds)

A lot of testing was also done to find the best engraving setting to avoid text deformation, as you can see below I made many passes with various speeds & power setting. I found that speed 160mm/s & power 18% worked well for my setup. You can also see the difference between the "opaque white" and "solid white" panels (bottom left & right)

 (5 coats of black paint was used, then engraved)

The engraving now is much better and the text is more accurate to the digital version, I've took a picture of a real aircraft panel (737-8) and you can see that the effect is almost the same. I maxed out my axis & laser resolution (1000dpi) so I can't get any more from it, but I'm happy with the results.

     

And finally some pictures of the evolution of the designs, enjoy!

       (old at the top, new at the bottom.. ignore the many "crosses" on the top panel they were just more tests)

      (3mm backplate. I'm using matt-clear acrylic to diffuse light from the bottom, painted black & wrapped on the exposed areas)

      (old at the top, new at the bottom; same led full brightness but the bottom one has more diffusion and even backlight)

I've been also messing with various Arduino boards and successfully connected them to the switches & DCS. Next I will be continuing to produce the rest of the cockpit panels and later coding the Arduino boards. I'm working on a video to explain the updated process, stay tuned  

 

PS: if you want to see more pictures and some short videos check out my IG I'll be posting more stuff there as well

Edited December 30, 2023 by Snakedoc

[santinif4]

Looking really good there! Following your build closely. I am having a bit of a hard time finding the middle diffuser layer of translucent acrylic. Where are you finding that? Thanks

[Snakedoc]

3 hours ago, santinif4 said:

Looking really good there! Following your build closely. I am having a bit of a hard time finding the middle diffuser layer of translucent acrylic. Where are you finding that? Thanks

Thank you sir!

I buy my acrylic panels here:

https://kunststofplatenshop.nl/
 

they have different branches of the same shop in many European countries

[Mr_Burns]

On 11/22/2023 at 11:51 AM, Snakedoc said:

The tools

I am using my resin 3D printer to make the parts which will complement the simpit, like the engine side panel, MISC panel, compass holder, etc. This stl files were included in the plans so I just send them into the slicer and printed them on my Saturn 3 12k

 

I had never had a 3D printer before so it took some trial and error but pretty happy with the results. They aren't perfect and some came out with some small imperfections but after a bit of filling and sanding and a coat of primer the end result looks quite good in my opinion. Also printed some DZUS caps which I will put on the bolts I will use to screw in the panels so it looks a bit more like the real aircraft

 

 

Looking at your amazing work I just pulled the pin on that printer, should arrive in a few weeks.

Never owned a 3D printer before so a bit of learning!

[Snakedoc]

1 hour ago, Mr_Burns said:

Looking at your amazing work I just pulled the pin on that printer, should arrive in a few weeks.

Never owned a 3D printer before so a bit of learning!

Awesome! Enjoy it!

[Snakedoc]

Still working on finalizing the design on the cockpit panels... Also, the first CNC shop I hired to cut the tub went on radio silence after 2 months of back and forth    I've contacted a second shop and waiting on their reply 

In the meanwhile I've been working on some 3D objects like radio & panel knobs, annunciator lights, korry pushbuttons etc and I've also redesigned the DZUS screw caps 

I've attached the .stl file here in case anyone wants to print them ;D It's designed to fit an M4 bolt 

 

 

DZUS v3 M4(TVP).stl

 

 

sneak peak of the other 3d objects

PS: I may have purchased a fiber laser for better engraving quality

Edited February 4 by Snakedoc
.stl v3

[BaronVonVaderham]

Love the progress you’re making!

would love to see the radio & panel knobs, annunciator lights, korry pushbuttons etc. Would you be willing to share the stel files for those? 
i don’t  t have a laser cutter/engraver or resin printer, but I do have a filament printer which will be good enough for my needs.

I plan to print my panels with PLA. Haven’t decided exactly how I will build them up. I like your approach to the LEDs. It’s simple and effective. Do you glue them down to their mounting plate?