My A-10C preparation

[rocketeer]

Three updates.

 

1. Emergency brake and seat toggle

 

the toggle is a (on)-off-(on) flat toggle.

 

 

the emergency brake is connected to a slide switch as you can see from the back. I am not very satisfied with this set up. The handle doesn't try enough distance. I may change this to two contact switches later with a metal rod to look more authentic and have a longer travel distance. But at least there is something for now.

[rocketeer]

2. Knobs for the Inter panel. Need the pull switch and turn functions.

 

I connected the pots to a piece of wood each with a hole drilled to place a head of slide switches.

I switched from the usual 24mm pots to 16mm pots as things get very crowded here.

 

 

How it looks like with the pots shaft sticking out.

 

Knob added.

 

With the knob pulled up.

 

Turning the knob.

 

Knob pushed back down.

[rocketeer]

3. CDU

 

Omron tactile switches recommended by Boots (thanks!) placed on perf board.

 

 

I couldn't be bothered to cut so many square holes so I 'cheated' and just made a big one for all with the back plate. There'd be support at the sides of the panel but not for the space in between the switches, which i suppose will not be necessary anyway.

 

With the faceplate added (just kodak paper, not acrylic, cheapo me : ) )

Instead of wasting precious printer ink to print all black on paper I sprayed black paint on paper.

 

End result with square and round caps and rockers added (again thanks Boot!)

 

I'm very satisfied with the caps. They hold on securely to the tactile switches, compared to my earlier design of self cut acrylic cubes on taller omron tactiles which proved too wobbly. These switches are sturdy and don't rock sideways that much. The rockers are kinda stiff to press but the size is the closest acceptable dimension compared to many others I researched.

 

Again my preference of function over fashion. No fancy laser cut acrylics and engraving to keep cost down, just paper on wood for simple presentation.

[Alex_rcpilot]

That looks really great rocketeer. Caps look beautiful.

[Feed]

Agreed - that looks great. I like your solution for the push-pull-turn switches as well. Your build is really coming along!

[Avilator]

Do you plan to label the CDU switches?

 

(Great job, BTW)

[rocketeer]

yes

 

thanks

[hog_driver111th]

Rocketeer, that CDU looks great! I've order around 100 tactiles, with the square and round caps for both the CDU and UFC. Are you going to wire each to an OC mastercard? I've also order an OC mastercard and USB card, plus the software.

[rocketeer]

thanks. yes I plan to use OC cards.

 

UFC work in progress.

 

 

 

Yet to do the enlarged Enter key and the Master Caution button with light, and a better printout.

[Boot910]

Hi Rocketeer.

 

What paint are you using to paint the Omron keycaps? Looks like you're using a spray. Can or airbrush? I painted mine with a brush for the prototype. They look good but not as smooth as they could be.

FYI to anyone who's interested. Omron offers about 6 colors for the keycaps. The only 3 "useful" colors would be black, light gray, and white. I have a sample of the light gray square caps and can tell anyone who wants to know that if you're trying to match a button in the A-10 you're gonna have to paint them yourself. The light gray is too light and nowhere near the right color.

[rocketeer]

Like you said, the light gray cap is too light. I got the square caps in light gray, the round caps in black as that's the only color available. Then I sprayed both types with OSH's spray paint primer gray. The primer is darker than the gray paint itself so I left it as it is. I didn't bother trying to match the correct A-10 color, as long as it is not light gray and not black I'm cool with it.

[Boot910]

Heheh.. nice.

 

I used Testor's Model Master Aircraft Gray to paint mine.

 

I'm almost done with the UFC. Just waiting on the pcboard, then I have some soldering to do (and testing).

Oh, and I still have to fabricate the Enter key. I have a resin casting kit. Just need to make the mold. I'm making the key 9mm x 15mm.

 

I'll have to ask around the forums here for help getting the Master Caution LED to work right as I'm not much of a programmer.

[Avilator]

@Boot910:

I haven't read every one of your posts, so this may have been answered, but here goes: How are you planning to make the Master Caution a pushbutton?

[Boot910]

@Boot910:

I haven't read every one of your posts, so this may have been answered, but here goes: How are you planning to make the Master Caution a pushbutton?

 

Not 100% sure how you meant this so I'll answer multiple ways.

 

 

1. Physically, I have a momentary LED push button on my UFC. It's a UB15NBKG015F-JF-ND I ordered from Digikey. I wanted an amber one but this one is green (amber was out of stock).
   
2. There's a key command for the master warning button in the keyboard input script (default.lua), so getting the sim to see that it's pushed is relatively trivial.
   
3. Getting the LED to work in the sim is a bit more involved (for me anyways!) From the poking around I've done in the Lua files my plan of attack is to get the status of the Master Warning light and use that to drive the state of the LED on the push button.
   

I'm using a U-HID card. It seems similar to the OC cards I read about. It's nice and compact and fits inside my UFC box. It has 50 configurable inputs that I can use to read all the buttons and rockers and can drive the LED.

[Avilator]

I see. Are you going to label it or take a slight departure from realism and leave it as is?

[Skoshi Tiger]

I know the dimension of the panels for the left and right consoles. they are mostly are the same width. How are you guys determining the dimension for the front console panels for the C version? Would the front central panels (Nav mode select, TISL) be the same width as those on the left and right consoles? What about others like the UFC, gear/flap, weapons panel, fuel quantity panel etc?

 

Hi Rocketeer,

 

Did you ever find the dimensions for the UFC?

 

Cheers and thanks for your progress reports they're very interesting.

[Boot910]

I see. Are you going to label it or take a slight departure from realism and leave it as is?

 

I labeled it already. I used a Black on Clear tape with my P-Touch labeler and inverted the text so it printed Master Caution in clear with a black background. I cut the tape to size and applied it to the plastic lens inside the push button. There's a picture of it in the USB UFC thread in Input/Output.

 

I'm using a similar method to label the rockers and other buttons only using White on Clear tape with extra-strength adhesive. My initial tests (I did the rockers and a test button) look fine.

 

Here's the post. Check picture #2

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1068166&postcount=56

Edited January 8, 2011 by Boot910
added post link

[Avilator]

That looks awesome, dude!:thumbup:

[Mr_Burns]

Hi guys, searched but cant find, see those drawings with the dimensions for the panel, is there any drawing sets for every panel in the pit so I could work out dimensions or is the idea of pit building to find out yourself? (I dont want to cheat!).

 

I downloaded a set of cockpit reference images from from SCS but unsure when I print them out they will be to scale.

 

Thanks

[rocketeer]

Hi Rocketeer,

 

Did you ever find the dimensions for the UFC?

 

Cheers and thanks for your progress reports they're very interesting.

 

Thanks. No I did not find out the actual dimensions of the UFC, but I believe my dimensions are pretty close. using the 9mm square cap as a guide, I expanded a picture of the UFC till its square cap fits the 9mm length and then I placed everything accordingly as close to the actual as possible, but exact placements are determined by the pin holes on the perf board. I don't want to be crazily exact and take a long time to do each panel. At that rate it'd take 5 years to complete and I don't want that. Anyway, who knows? Who cares? Maybe I'm just lazy and impatient. You'd notice that so far all the panels I've done I've taken the 'good enough for me' approach, to a big part due to budget, and of course time. So I didn't use CNC cutting and engraving. I didn't even use acrylic for each panel, just drilled holes directly on the same $1.25 wood on the console! Now that's cheap. Surface is just a print out, after spraying with clear enamel, it actually darkens the black I found out, nice! and protects it as well.

 

it's a personal thing, how much time and money you want to spend building your pit, and how much you want to fuss over every detail. So far I'm happy with the close-enough dimensions and the way I've done my panels. They'd pale in comparison to those by Feed, Avilator, DM, Duckling etc. but I'm ok with it. Somebody will always make a better pit than me. I just want to finish it and learn to fly this thing! Being my first pit I'm pretty satisfied with it. At least it's not just a hotas and rudder and some printouts. I've got real switches. guess my motto is-function over fashion. I know this won't be my last pit. And I'd probably keep upgrading the same pit too. So who knows, maybe after some upgrades next time it'd look better.

Uh sorry for the rambling.

[rocketeer]

I labeled it already. I used a Black on Clear tape with my P-Touch labeler and inverted the text so it printed Master Caution in clear with a black background. I cut the tape to size and applied it to the plastic lens inside the push button. There's a picture of it in the USB UFC thread in Input/Output.

 

I'm using a similar method to label the rockers and other buttons only using White on Clear tape with extra-strength adhesive. My initial tests (I did the rockers and a test button) look fine.

 

Here's the post. Check picture #2

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1068166&postcount=56

 

Boot, the way you label the caps is a good idea. just that I don't have this P-touch labeler thing. It'd ensure the color of the top syncs with that painted sides, since the label is clear. I was thinking of how to print the labels with a color that will match the one I painted. using a clear lable is the answer. thanks!

 

and your UFC looks great! I'm just too cheapo to pay that kind of money for just one panel.

Edited January 10, 2011 by rocketeer

[rocketeer]

Hi guys, searched but cant find, see those drawings with the dimensions for the panel, is there any drawing sets for every panel in the pit so I could work out dimensions or is the idea of pit building to find out yourself? (I dont want to cheat!).

 

I downloaded a set of cockpit reference images from from SCS but unsure when I print them out they will be to scale.

 

Thanks

 

Ducking has an excellent site with the panels with correct dimensions, but for the side consoles so far. Have you checked it out yet?

[Mr_Burns]

I havnt but will search him out! Thanks

[Boot910]

Boot, the way you label the caps is a good idea. just that I don't have this P-touch labeler thing. It'd ensure the color of the top syncs with that painted sides, since the label is clear. I was thinking of how to print the labels with a color that will match the one I painted. using a clear lable is the answer. thanks!

 

and your UFC looks great! I'm just too cheapo to pay that kind of money for just one panel.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I agree it's a bit pricey but it's one of the most useful panels to have a "real" version of, and it looked like a fun project to do (which it is!).

I already had the P-Touch so the labeling thing was a no-brainer. If I hadn't already spent enough money on this thing I'd think about getting the DecalPro system. It lets you use your laser printer if you have one to create dry transfer decals. Since it can create white decals it'd also work for labeling the buttons.

It's actually a very cool system that I may get sometime later for a bunch of other stuff but you need a few extra accessories like a laminator and a heat gun which all together would cost about $250 or so. Don't need all that right now... although the heat gun would be handy to have to be able to use shrink-tube.

[Feed]

Somebody will always make a better pit than me.

 

For what it's worth, I disagree. The right pit for you is the one you build. I am consistently amazed by the rapid progress, great ideas and simple solutions you come up with. This thread is a constant source of inspiration. If I had your pit, I'd never get anything done, because I'd be having too much fun sitting there playing with switches all day. So much of this is about the journey; the destination is just a video game.