Boot910 Posted December 15, 2010 Posted December 15, 2010 I'm planning on making this same panel, but for me it would be out of wood, since I don't have any way to machine panels (just me, my dremel tool, and a block of wood). I had used frontpanelexpress to build the front panel, and it looks pretty good (for me at least). I would probably make the buttons out of wood also, but I have no idea how to make a pcboard. I was thinking I could just wire tactile switches to an OC mastercard to a USB card... or is that the wrong route? If I can "machine" the front panel out of wood (doesn't need to be backlit for now), are you ordering the buttons from somewhere that are the right size? I have them measured at 9mm square (using the buttons from my TM MFDs as reference). I could sure use a parts and price list as there are some things I may want to just buy and save time on. Hi Hog_Driver. The buttons I've chosen to use are Omron B3F-4050 12mm tactile switches. The caps are 9mm square (B32-1200) and 9.7mm diameter (B32-1600). I've found these parts here in the states from DigiKey and Onlinecomponents.com The average price is about $0.40 US with discounts from each company based on quantity ordered. I'm sure you can find a distributor over in Europe pretty easy. If you're going to make your own buttons then you can probably go with any tactile switches. I've seen them in 6mm and 12mm square sizes. I ones I picked out were because they had caps I liked and have long advertised lifetimes. I've seen tact switches for a lot cheaper than these (around 8 cents a switch). However you decide to mount the switches I think some soldering will be involved. I would guess your idea of connecting them should work although I don't know much about the OC mastercard at all. Seems like wiring them up should be pretty straightforward. I'm going with designing my own pcboard just to make the assembly as clean as possible inside. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
PoleCat Posted December 16, 2010 Posted December 16, 2010 Shu did you ever think of a CH Products Multi Function Panel? I set mine up as a UFC and it works rather well. I just used a fraps screenshot of the UFC and made 2 prints, one as a background, and the second I cut out the buttons and used a Scotch Glue Stick to stick them to the individual buttons. To maintain a workable scale I had to split the UFC in half and put the right half of the UFC on the bottom of the left half. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Warrior do you mind sharing the scaled prints in PDF? Very neat idea...looking for my MFP now....:D Out http://www.104thphoenix.com/
WarriorX Posted December 16, 2010 Posted December 16, 2010 (edited) Sure PoleCat, Attached as Bitmaps and PDF's Scale percentages are in Printing Instructions. Open bitmaps in Paint in Win 7, then change scale there and print. Let me know if I can be of any help getting you up and running.UFC Cropped Left Half for Upload.pdfUFC Cropped Right Half for Upload.pdfPrinting Instructions.txtUFC Cropped for Upload.pdfUFC Cropped Full.bmpUFC Cropped Right Half.bmpUFC Cropped Left Half.bmp Edited December 16, 2010 by WarriorX [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] "Is that you John Wayne?.......Is this me?" Full Metal Jacket //My Mission Data Card//My Cold Start Checklist //Clearing a Hung Store Tutorial //CDU Offset//Asterisk Error Correction Procedure//JTAC UTM Coordinate Entry Tutorial//JTAC 9 Line Lat Long Coordinate Entry Tutorial
PoleCat Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Thnx Warrior I got them. Very kind of you. I will PM you if I have any questions. Thanks again. Out http://www.104thphoenix.com/
Boot910 Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 Update: The Light Gray round caps for the tact switches (B3F-4050) aren't in stock anywhere. So... I ordered some black ones which I'll paint gray. It'll be a good test because I have to paint the rocker switch actuators gray too since I can only find them in black. The push button for the Master Caution I want (Amber LED) is backordered so I ordered a green one and I'll see how that works. I completed the design of the pcboard to mount the buttons on last night. I just have to do a final sanity check to make sure everything fits right. Once that's done I'll be ready to pull the trigger on ordering the pcboard and the enclosure parts. I'm gonna use ExpressPCB to made the pcboard. If I do a simple prototype board with no silkscreen/solder mask it'll run about 60 bucks. I can also go the ProtoPro version route and get 4 boards with the fancy silkscreening and solder mask layers for about $120 (tax+shipping). Right now it looks like the FrontPanelExpress stuff with all 6 panels (front/back/top/bottom/sides) and the accessories will run just over $200. It adds up quick! I figure I can have the prototype up and running in about 2 weeks. I don't really have a good idea how to get the LED in the Master Caution to work yet. I'm not a programmer type so I don't know how to go about getting that signal from the game into the U-HID card to turn the LED on or off yet. :smartass: [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Boot910 Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Look what I just found outside my door today. Front Panel Express packaged it up beautifully on a shrink-wrapped board which I opened up before I took this picture. Here's one view. I put in the rocker switches and the Master Caution button to test fit and see how it looked assembled. Here's another view. I think it came out great. I'm still working on the pcboard stuff but that shouldn't be much longer. It would be interesting to do tact switches instead of the rockers. I'd have to cast some rockers and figure out a good way to mount the pivot on the back side of the front panel. I got a custom referral code from Front Panel Express. Anyone who uses this code can get 20% off their first order (and I'll get 20% off my next order too!) The code is only valid thru 2/31/2011 (sic) Apparently they don't know how many days are in February, but they do great work. :) www.frontpanelexpress.com the code is 2L0O309R More pics to come... 1 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Thorvald Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Boot, if we want to order that same Front Panel you designed, can we just quote some order/code to them? No sense us all designing another panel when yours looks great! Cheers Tim System: Win10 Pro 64bit, Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 MB, Intel i& 8700K, Corsair H150i Pro Cooler, Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4 16GB, PNY NVidia 1070 GTX, Corsair MP500 & MP600 SSD, Soundblaster Audigy Rx, CM Mastercase H500P, Oculus Rift S, TM Warthogs.
Flim Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 (edited) How does it screw together? Looks really nice! I'm sure more folks would jump in on the PCB if you had a group buy, it would make it a lot cheaper! Since there is no backplate, how do the push buttons attach? Edited December 31, 2010 by Flim
Migo Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 can we just quote some order/code to them? If Boot910 is a nice guy he could post us the file he created with the frontplate designer ;)
Thorvald Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Well I think he has already expressed that he is not interested in making kits. However, we can establish a comprehensive shopping list and suppliers, then we can all order the parts as required and build our own. Cheers Tim System: Win10 Pro 64bit, Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 MB, Intel i& 8700K, Corsair H150i Pro Cooler, Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4 16GB, PNY NVidia 1070 GTX, Corsair MP500 & MP600 SSD, Soundblaster Audigy Rx, CM Mastercase H500P, Oculus Rift S, TM Warthogs.
Boot910 Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 How does it screw together? Looks really nice! I'm sure more folks would jump in on the PCB if you had a group buy, it would make it a lot cheaper! Since there is no backplate, how do the push buttons attach? I have a pcboard designed that the switches will fit into. I'm waiting on some parts before I order the board produced though so it'll be a few more days till I get to that. The whole assembly bolts together with 8 M5 machine screws. Basically there are 6 different panels for each side. There are 4 extruded corner pieces that the top, bottom and sides slide into. The front and back panels screw into the extrusions with the screws. It all fits together pretty easily. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Boot910 Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Well I think he has already expressed that he is not interested in making kits. However, we can establish a comprehensive shopping list and suppliers, then we can all order the parts as required and build our own. Cheers Tim Don't forget that I did say in an earlier post that I'd be more than happy to share all the info I used to put this thing together, and I'm sticking by that. Once I get it all put together I'll post all the files used and a complete list of materials used along with pictures detailing the assembly. :thumbup: 1 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Thorvald Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 God luv ya! Not that I have the cash to spend but it's too cool of a project not to jump in! Cheers Tim System: Win10 Pro 64bit, Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 MB, Intel i& 8700K, Corsair H150i Pro Cooler, Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4 16GB, PNY NVidia 1070 GTX, Corsair MP500 & MP600 SSD, Soundblaster Audigy Rx, CM Mastercase H500P, Oculus Rift S, TM Warthogs.
Migo Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Don't forget that I did say in an earlier post that I'd be more than happy to share all the info I used to put this thing together, and I'm sticking by that. Once I get it all put together I'll post all the files used and a complete list of materials used along with pictures detailing the assembly. :thumbup: Thanks sounds great :)
Flim Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 Ya , I would like to grab a pcb from ya if you put in a order.
Boot910 Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 Anyone know how to make a rubber membrane button panel? Currently my UFC project uses a mix of 12mm tact switches and some rocker switches. I have a small pc board designed to mount the tact switches. If I could fabricate a 1-piece rubber part that had all the buttons and rockers on it (minus the Master Caution) then I think it'd be trivial to redo the pc board to add 6mm tact switches in lieu of the current rocker switches. I would also modify the front panel design. I could eliminate the screw holes for the rocker switches and add some additional mounting holes to make the pc board more secure inside. Right now there's the one screw hole in the middle of the front panel that mounts to it with a spacer and I'm adding rubber strips for the top and bottom panels that pc board will rest against to keep it from flexing. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
71st_Mastiff Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) Anyone know how to make a rubber membrane button panel? Currently my UFC project uses a mix of 12mm tact switches and some rocker switches. I have a small pc board designed to mount the tact switches. If I could fabricate a 1-piece rubber part that had all the buttons and rockers on it (minus the Master Caution) then I think it'd be trivial to redo the pc board to add 6mm tact switches in lieu of the current rocker switches. I would also modify the front panel design. I could eliminate the screw holes for the rocker switches and add some additional mounting holes to make the pc board more secure inside. Right now there's the one screw hole in the middle of the front panel that mounts to it with a spacer and I'm adding rubber strips for the top and bottom panels that pc board will rest against to keep it from flexing. http://www.membraneusa.com/ they do customizations. Edited January 3, 2011 by Mastiff "any failure you meet, is never a defeat; merely a set up for a greater come back", W Forbes. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts", "He who never changes his mind, never changes anything," Winston Churchill. MSI z690 MPG DDR4 || i9-14900k|| ddr4-64gb PC3200 |zotac RTX 5080|Game max 1300w|Win11| |turtle beach elite pro 5.1|| ViRpiL,T50cm2||MFG Crosswinds|| VT50CM-plus rotor Throttle || Z10 RGB EVGA Keyboard/ G502LogiMouse || PiMax Crystal VR || 32 Asus||
Flim Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I have a laser engraver to help, but the rubber button idea would be the best option if the price is okay.
Boot910 Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I don't get the impression that membraneusa would be very cost effective unfortunately. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Buehgler Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 is that CH thing the same as the ergodex DX1? they look identical. According to the Ergodex web site they are not the same. Although I suspect they are the same physical devices, just with different (unchangeable) firmware and drivers. i was recently looking at the latter to make a UFC but the latter product isnt supported in windows7 (seem to be a few ppl whining about that on forums). It seems that the only support for the Ergodex device is via Virtual XP under Windows 7. Not a very viable solution IMO. [/url][sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
herig2 Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I have one and it " was " great, but it only works with XP. There was't any support for Vista. I did a search and did find a site for it. It was by a programer that wanted to use for gameing, with the Vista OS. He did a program that work, but only for key strokes, no macros. or key combos. I used it with FC1 and 2, but retired it after A-10C came out. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
redbaron_ict Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 any update...??? :music_whistling::D -bump- [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] | XPS 730 | Q9450 (12M Cache, 3.6 GHz, 1800 MHz FSB) | | 790i SLI | GTX 570 SC | 8GB (4x2) DDR3 1800MHz | | SoundBlaster XFi | 2x Samsung 1GB HD | 24" Dell ULtrasharp | | TrackIR 5 | Logitech G940 HOTAS |
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