londo-cat Posted August 9, 2009 Author Posted August 9, 2009 (edited) Now - once the buttons were painted white. I needed to find a suitable plastic container that would mimic the ones in the KA-50. I used two different kinds of plastic bottles to create this affect. I posted two pictures. The first one shows two red button guards side by side (for comparison and size) The one on the left, is painted red, and is made from a 2oz plastic bottle, I cut the bottom off it and then spray painted it red. The one to the right of it is a OneTouch Ultra test strip container. It's a bit thicker and smaller than the 2oz bottle, but I think it looks better than the 2oz bottle. You be the judge. I'll go ahead and create 4 of each and see how they look, but for now here are the results. The next picture shows it on the KA-50 pit. I moved the more accurate button guard to the right and moved the smaller button guard made from the OneTouch container to the left. While I think the button guard made from the 2oz bottle might be more accurate in size relation to the push button, I think it's too large for the panel. However - the smaller OneTouch container looks sturdier and does fit the size specifications for the panel, but it makes the button look bigger. Both will accompish the goal - but I am leaning more towards the OneTouch containers rather than the 2oz bottles. What do you think? Edited August 9, 2009 by londo-cat Added more comments 1
CyBerkut Posted August 9, 2009 Posted August 9, 2009 The OneTouch looks better. Sturdier, and clean. :thumbup: [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] There's no place like 127.0.0.1
CAT_101st Posted August 9, 2009 Posted August 9, 2009 the one touch is the way to go Home built PC Win 10 Pro 64bit, MB ASUS Z170 WS, 6700K, EVGA 1080Ti Hybrid, 32GB DDR4 3200, Thermaltake 120x360 RAD, Custom built A-10C sim pit, TM WARTHOG HOTAS, Cougar MFD's, 3D printed UFC and Saitek rudders. HTC VIVE VR. https://digitalcombatmercenaries.enjin.com/
londo-cat Posted August 10, 2009 Author Posted August 10, 2009 Added the seat backrest. Yes - I am *entirely* aware it's not accurate and too scale. What I was more concerned with was it being to *scale* with *ME*! Hence the black marks where my shoulders and head would be (with seat cushions and pads added!). I did a seat test, and then used a black marker to position my shoulders and then used this determine the optimal size for the head and shoulder belt locations. May not be perfect, but hey - its never going to really fly either! :megalol: This will now allow me to fabricate the rear wall panels and then attach them to the sides of the pit. This is the next phase, including the rear power management and collective stick controlls that will extend from the left rear panel. Stay tuned!
londo-cat Posted August 11, 2009 Author Posted August 11, 2009 Awesome, first KA pit on wheels!! Well, yeah - but not exactly. More like a re-purposed F-16 cockpit, which was made via the 'Wombat' style. It's meant to be moved around, hence the wheels. I don't think the Wombat Style was meant to really be used for the KA-50 so it's taken some really interesting woodworking skills to get it close to being used for the KA-50 pit. Thankfully I only had to extend the side-boards out, and as you can see, it works fine (for now). I still have to create the back panels and then tie it all together with some kind of external shell of sorts. So pretty much winging it along, although I have gotten a lot of my inspiration (not to mention critical dimensions) from TriggerHappy69's work. IF NOT for him, I don't think I would have *EVER* gotten this far. :music_whistling:
Flim Posted August 11, 2009 Posted August 11, 2009 Well, good job! I will make something similar, but I want to keep the size down. Keep it up, and ya - Trigger is the man!
londo-cat Posted August 12, 2009 Author Posted August 12, 2009 Well, as you can see here, the base of the pit was made specifically to roll around, so I could pull it out of the garage and roll it back in when I was done. The frame of the pit allows me to also channel the wiring from the front to the back (see the ABS pipe that extends from front to back). I wanted to be able to create a way to allow me to actually route my wires *UNDERNEATH* the pit, so instead of most people wiring along the sides of the pit, I could *HIDE* my wires more easily. I then added some wheels on the back, so when I had to do wire management, I could flip the pit onto it's back and then wire stuff up and remove the panels on the bottom (I made sure I could remove the panels just for that very purpose). The whole pit was supposed to be more "wire management" friendly. My first pit experience taught me that the ability to take all those wires from the toggle switches, buttons, etc, would have been REAL nice if I had a place to put them where they wouldn't be hanging around all over. So thats why the bottom is hollowed out, to allow me the ability to take that stuff and redirect it to where I want it to go. THEN - I thought "Hey, the back of this pit would be a GREAT place to put all those controller boards that connect to the switches" and so I built open as well. In a few weeks, you will probably see the back-end board in place for me to mount the control boards on.
londo-cat Posted August 14, 2009 Author Posted August 14, 2009 This is the new fire extinguisher buttons. How do you think they turned out? :thumbup:
wasp1 Posted August 15, 2009 Posted August 15, 2009 sorry i havnt stoped by sooner , realy nice work , and portable !!!! [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
londo-cat Posted August 16, 2009 Author Posted August 16, 2009 Well, wasn't satisfied with the left and right back panels, so I pulled the right one and then modified it so it looked more like the virtual one.
Triggerhappy69 Posted August 19, 2009 Posted August 19, 2009 Well, wasn't satisfied with the left and right back panels, so I pulled the right one and then modified it so it looked more like the virtual one. GOOD JOB..! "But (504)Brewber said they were'nt friendly.. So I took'em out.!" [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
londo-cat Posted August 23, 2009 Author Posted August 23, 2009 Well - most of this is ad-hoc, just going with whatever I can throw together and how it looks. I've actually done quite a bit of work since my last post, but the eagle.ru forums only allow for so space in pictures to be uploaded, so going to open an account on photobucket and then I can post all the links to those pictures here without restriction to sizes of the images.
londo-cat Posted September 27, 2009 Author Posted September 27, 2009 Well - an update today (finally). I worked on building the fuel cut-off levers and container. After looking at a lot of pictures from the simulation, I started with *this*, but I imagine it will change a bit before the final configuration is complete. I can actually get away with 3 on-on bat toggle switches with this part, and have been experimenting with the levers using bar metal and taking the end of lever and welding a bell shaped housing to one end of the lever, which covers the bat toggle switch. By moving the lever up and down, you flip the bat toggle switch on and off, and it gives an audible *click* sound when you do that. Same with the Rotor Lock lever. Right now, this is just a place-holder in my cockpit, but I hope to replace it with the fully functional one in the near future! :thumbup:
shark65 Posted September 27, 2009 Posted September 27, 2009 good work! :thumbup: My Black Shark Pit http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=67229 :pilotfly:
londo-cat Posted September 28, 2009 Author Posted September 28, 2009 So finished making the fuel shut-off valves yesterday and kept looking at the way it looked versus the in-game version. I wasn't happy about the way it looked. So I decided to chop it down and make the curvature more aggressive. So gave it a more aggressive angle. While I was cutting it apart, I kept thinking how I was going to wrape a piece of wood over the front of it, then I started thinking about if I could get a piece of ABS plastic to cover the front. So cut off a flat piece of ABS and then screwed it to the bottom then heated it up with some propane to make it bend easier. After about a 1/2 hour I was able to heat it up enough to easily conform to the shape of the wood! Once it had cooled down, I then put it into the pit to see how it looked. But it looked a little too wide. I took it out, and since it was 100cm wide, I took and cut it down the middle and took out 15cm to make it a total of 85cm wide then glued it back together again. Now I think it looks *more* like the in-game counterpart! I can probably move the guide slots for the left/right fuel shut-off levers closer together, but for now, I am just looking to get the size/shape of the closer to the picture. Here is a screenshot from DCS Blackshark - I added an additional 30cm to the bottom of the fuel shut-off and rotor lock/unlock, so mine is a tad bit longer, so not totally being a purist but I think I nailed the size/shape of it though. Well - that's it for now. I will be working on the APU gyro on the left side tomorrow. That's a real small box, but I think it will be an easy piece to make. :smilewink: 1
-Bazong- Posted September 28, 2009 Posted September 28, 2009 Looks very nice!! :thumbup: I like the wheels, I also have wheels but on an aluminum frame..
londo-cat Posted September 28, 2009 Author Posted September 28, 2009 Yeah, the wheels allow me to roll it in and out of the garage when I work on it. Then I have some wheels on the back-end, which I can then turn the whole thing on it's rear to work on the wire management underneath. So far, it's worked as planned and while I have yet to do any of the wire management at least it was planned that way. I hope to begin doing the electronics sometime in 2010.
talisman Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) This looks really brilliant - Always do the electronics as you go - its far less daunting then - seriously. Edited September 30, 2009 by talisman [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - Its a Stinger - Damn....... My Pit - http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=42253
hannibal Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 u will have fun when you crash or get shot down, i mean u have to reset all switches.. i suggest momentary contact buttons... find me on steam! username: Hannibal_A101A http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197969447179
-Bazong- Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 u will have fun when you crash or get shot down, i mean u have to reset all switches.. i suggest momentary contact buttons... One will be very much more motivated to not crash or get shot down, makes for a more immersive experience :D
JG14_Smil Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 One will be very much more motivated to not crash or get shot down, makes for a more immersive experience :D really. that what it is all about.
londo-cat Posted October 1, 2009 Author Posted October 1, 2009 I've thought about that, and while you might be correct, it's more a money issue with me. I have money to build the pit, but then the rest of it like boards and switches always take up my money. I have all the boards, and I am using the EPIC USB boards, so I'll have lots of wiring to do - but I built this cockpit from the perspective of wiring and maintenance! After building a F-16 cockpit, this one was a MUCH more involved one, and the mistakes I made (like wiring as I went along) taught me that if I had setup for wiring and made sure it would all go to a centralized place, it would work better. When building the F-16, I ended up routing and re-routing the wires several times!!! So - while I was going to build a *new* F-16 pit, I abandoned it when DCS came out, and then repurposed the F-16 shell to take advantage of the underpinnings of the F-16 shell which was built on a concept called the 'Wombat' pit. One thing I added to that whole concept was the wire management, and the centralized rear and under-carriage sections which allowed for all the wire management to be routed UNDER the pit and put into the back or the bottom of the pit. AS you can see, the ENTIRE bottom of the pit is actually hollow - and has removable panels along with a ABS 3" pipe that goes the length of the pit from front to back. In each of the compartments in the KA-50, there is a 3" hole drilled in under the floor into each section which allows for a ton of cables to be routed underneath. I *REALLY* wanted centralized cable management with this new pit, and that was the focus here, build the pit, put in the boards after it was all together. Hopefully it will work out as planned. :joystick: This looks really brilliant - Always do the electronics as you go - its far less daunting then - seriously.
londo-cat Posted October 2, 2009 Author Posted October 2, 2009 Spent some time working on the pit today, added the APU gauge and condition lights box on the left side of the pit. So far, it looks like things are starting to shape up! :thumbup:
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