My A-10C preparation

[rocketeer]

Well it won't make sense to buy from abroad for you when China is the cheapest place to get things.

[Alex_rcpilot]

Well it won't make sense to buy from abroad for you when China is the cheapest place to get things.

 

I wish all things involved in home pits were made in China. Unfortunately some stuff can only be found elsewhere. :music_whistling:

[Deadman]

There are other places to find knobs as cheep as $4.00 finished you just have to look most are in the $4 to$7 dollar range

[Alex_rcpilot]

Shawn, check this out. I found them when I was wondering around the stores this afternoon.

 

Momentary? Yes, 3-way momentary. Just looking a bit too long. :music_whistling:

 

 

Installation cutoff: 27 x 10.9mm

Rocker button size: 24 x 8.7mm

 

I need some help here. I took the CDU area out of Wags' screenshot, stretched each corner till it's back to a nice rectangle, resized it till I saw a 3.25 x 2.60 inch screen size. This should look 1:1 on a 22 inch 1680 x 1050 monitor. But I'm not quite sure if it's still deformed to some extent, could someone please confirm it? If it's still out of proportion, why are the screen dimensions correct? :cry:

 

[y2kiah]

Don't worry about how it looks on the monitor, just assume a 1:1 pixel... so the real thing is 5.75W x 7.125H making H/W = 1.239

so if your picture width is 100 texels the height should be 124 texels to be in proportion.

 

Then you can take the texel width of the CDU screen, divide by texel width of the panel, multiply by 5.75 to get the screen dimensions in inches.

 

Is 3.25" x 2.6" a known dimension? I ask because when I did a rough estimate based on that screen shot, I got around 3.15" x 2.4" for the viewable area (the area inside the innermost ring of the screen frame).

[rocketeer]

Great find again Alex. The top of the button itself looks like around 20x7mm which is perfect. the size of the body itself is ok. It'd be a bit tight below the panel but I think we can squeeze it in if we shave off the protruding sides and make it flush with the body. Then it won't eat into the tight space of the CDU below deck. I intend to just let the top protrude above the panel by 2mm.

 

I see Light Country. Now that is not the maker right?

[rocketeer]

the most ideal solution is to find an actuator size around 20x8mm that is not panel mount but PCB. This type has a tiny body.

[Avilator]

Here are the dimension on the CDU 900 7.125 H x5.75 W remember these are of the back plate that has the Dzus connectors Not the raised light plate that has the switches mounted in it. scale the panel out to that not any thing else and you should have better luck.

If these dimensions are known, how do we arrive at the size of the raised light panel?

[Alex_rcpilot]

Don't worry about how it looks on the monitor, just assume a 1:1 pixel... so the real thing is 5.75W x 7.125H making H/W = 1.239

so if your picture width is 100 texels the height should be 124 texels to be in proportion.

 

Then you can take the texel width of the CDU screen, divide by texel width of the panel, multiply by 5.75 to get the screen dimensions in inches.

 

Is 3.25" x 2.6" a known dimension? I ask because when I did a rough estimate based on that screen shot, I got around 3.15" x 2.4" for the viewable area (the area inside the innermost ring of the screen frame).

 

Well, actually I wouldn't worry about how it looks on a specific monitor. I did it this way only because it's really convenient for me to take direct measurement on the screen.

 

Please refer to reply #62 and #74 of this very same thread. The dimensions are posted there. Dispite the pixel pitch on my monitor, if the image is shown on it, and if the image is in a good shape, I should be able to get the correct dimensions all over it. It's not monitor dependent, but simply a geometric issue.

 

I checked the back plate outline with Deadman's data, and confirmed that my image is out of proportion - it's stretched a bit vertically. Curious, somehow I think this image isn't linear. And I really wish I had a better reference.

[Alex_rcpilot]

Oh....I think I understand how I might have caused another confusion to y2kiah. I used the phrase 'screen dimensions'.

 

Of course these dimensions were taken from my monitor screen. But more importantly, by saying 'screen', I was referring to the screen of the CDU. :)

[Alex_rcpilot]

Great find again Alex. The top of the button itself looks like around 20x7mm which is perfect. the size of the body itself is ok. It'd be a bit tight below the panel but I think we can squeeze it in if we shave off the protruding sides and make it flush with the body. Then it won't eat into the tight space of the CDU below deck. I intend to just let the top protrude above the panel by 2mm.

 

I see Light Country. Now that is not the maker right?

 

If you intend to stick the button out by 2mm, the button should measure 22.5 x 8.7mm. Yes you may remove the protruding edges around the casing opening. But with the hinge not far away from the edge, you might need to add some strengthening structure elsewhere to keep the side wall from bending or tearing.

 

I suppose Light Country is the brand name. This rocker is made in Taiwan according to the dealer.

 

A 20 x 8 actuator will certainly do the job. I think you may just cast it for yourself, or make it out of acrylic. Cut the curved surface with a mill, and then shape the rounded corners. Drill a hole in the middle and stick in a metal shaft as the hinge.

 

Then you may build a support out of a piece of thick brass, bend the plate like a sitting bracket with one hole on each arm, and you may come up with this assembly:

 

 

Solder or screw the bracket onto your PCB, with each end of the seesaw resting immediately on top of an ordinary push button (microswitch). You won't even need to apply springs.

Edited March 23, 2010 by Alex_rcpilot

[rocketeer]

Hey that's a brillant idea. Sometimes the simplest idea is the best idea. We've been killing ourselves trying to find a 3 way momentary rocker with the perfect actuator size. This solution is so simple and we can make our own desired actuator size.

 

the only problem is I don't have a mill or know how to use one. Maybe use a heat gun and bend it? I've that done to acrylic sheets. maybe this one is too thick to be bent. There must be an easy way to make this slightly bent piece of thick acrylic. Or start with some other material, bend it then fabriate it in acrylic resin.

[rocketeer]

Maybe I don't need to bend anything. Just get a big enough piece of acrylic and saw it diagonally for the V shape!

[Alex_rcpilot]

Maybe I don't need to bend anything. Just get a big enough piece of acrylic and saw it diagonally for the V shape!

 

You may also take a piece of metal, slightly bend it to fit the curve angle of the rocker actuator surface. Wrap a piece of rough sandpaper around it to make a V-shaped file like this:

 

Then you may cut a rectangular acrylic stick, and carefully file the top surface into a V curve. :)

[rocketeer]

I came across this idea by someone in viperpits.org, giving a color code to each type of switch, eg. pot, encoder, rotary, toggle, rocker etc. Of course he did it for the F-16 panels. So I did one for the A-10C.

 

This is to share with you guys, and also to see if I got every one of them right, which I doubt. For those who are more familiar with the A-10C than me, please point out my mistakes. Once all mistakes corrected, I'd publish one in PDF for everyone's reference. This should come in handy when determining what kind the switches to connect to the I/O cards.

 

Legend

[rocketeer]

 

 

[rocketeer]

 

 

 

Again these are based on my research and some guess work. Please shout if you spot some mistake. :smilewink:

[obotNapalm]

Only one I've really looked at so far, but AUX LTS panel, NVIS LTS switch looks to be 3 position rather than 2 :)

[y2kiah]

nice Rocketeer! very thorough. Maybe add some way to indicate the toggle type (standard, locking, momentary, etc.)?

[obotNapalm]

Bottom left of the left side panel, IFF ANT and RADAR BEACON should be 3 position by the looks of it.

 

On the ENVIRONMENT panel, WINDSHIELD switch - looks 3 pos.

 

Mid-way up the left side panel, one of the autopilot switches looks 3 pos. (bit blury).

 

On the bottom left of the right side panel, COMP panel, not sure about the switch below "DG", looks like it may be 2 pos. rather than 3.

 

Does anyone know if any of the toggles are momentary? For some reason I thought some of the emergency flight control switches may have been.

[rocketeer]

Hey obotnapalm thanks for pointing out these. You may be right on all accounts.

 

For the one in the Comp panel, I may have mistaken DG to be part of the toggle at the botton and as part of the one at the top.

[rocketeer]

nice Rocketeer! very thorough. Maybe add some way to indicate the toggle type (standard, locking, momentary, etc.)?

 

That'd be a good idea. But I am not sure which is which. Maybe those with big knobs and a collar at the bottom are the locking type. Most should be standard. Some may be momentary but I have no clue which. For those who knows, care to tell us?

[rocketeer]

You may also take a piece of metal, slightly bend it to fit the curve angle of the rocker actuator surface. Wrap a piece of rough sandpaper around it to make a V-shaped file like this:

 

Then you may cut a rectangular acrylic stick, and carefully file the top surface into a V curve. :)

 

Alex, your excellent gave me an idea. Instead of using sandpaper on a curved metal, I used a normal flat metal file and filed a V groove from the center of a flat piece of acrylic. It worked! Now I have a shallow V groove and the exact dimension of a so-called rocker, almost exactly as the one in the picture! Now I just have to work on the support bracket for it to rock sideways and then place two tactile switches on each end.

[Avilator]

On the fuel panel, the Fill Disable switches are of the push-pull type, as per this thread: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=51362&page=2

[Avilator]

Figured I would give this thread a bump in an effort to keep it alive....

I've been thinking about the solenoid-held switches in various locations. For example, on the SAS panel, the yaw SAS switches are held by a solenoid in the on position. If a fault is detected, they snap back to the off position.

Any ideas on how this can be simulated?