The modular FPS/flight/racing sim pit.

[metalnwood]

I played around with a new dashboard for the racing. I put on a number of buttons and rotary switches and then created a couple of different faceplates.

 

I can create different faceplates for different racing sims if the functions differ too much. My plan is to put bolt heads on the faceplates and then behind the dash put on rare earth magnets in the right spots to attract the bolt heads. That way the faceplate will snap on in the right position and look like it is bolted. It should only take a few seconds to take it off and snap on another faceplate with different lettering for the functions.

 

My only issue right now is getting the aces seat properly done so it's not uncomfortable.

 

If you are reading Deadman, I will continue in the morning :)

 

 

[mhe]

Very nice craftsmanship right there! I especially like the "sorry/np" switch! :D

[metalnwood]

Thanks! Hopefully I use the 'np' more than the 'sorry' :)

 

I cut out a scale model from stangs plans just to have a look at it and see what I might want to tweak. I copied it in to solidworks but I like to see stuff for real as well. A bit small to sit one but lets see if I am smart enough to assemble it :)

 

[Deadman]

the seat pan curve is all messed up has been for years

[metalnwood]

Actually, either I am dumb or on first glance I dont have all the parts and were not in the plans I have.

 

Thinking about it, if this is the f16 seat then the plans are all wrong, they dont have the section for the stick to mount in the centre and thats why I cant find the pieces to do it!

 

OK, back to looking for some plans! I could make something up but I am so busy I am going to hope I find something.

[Deadman]

Yes that is a F-16 seat it has knee knockers instead of the pull to eject handles

[metalnwood]

I think I should pull my other thread in there and keep all my related stuff in one place so it might as well be here..

 

So, while I wait for my CDU screens to arrive I am having a go at the caution light panel.

 

I have seen a couple around that look very good but because I don't like painting a lot I am going to try and do it a little bit differently.

 

Instead of painting some acrylic and then engraving the writing through the paint I am using another type of laserable material which is clear acrylic with a durable matt finish on it. It wont rub off like my bad paint job would :) It also saves me that time painting which is really why I dont like painting.

 

Because it is clear I need to use either a green led or some green diffusing material behind it.

 

I am thinking of placing the individual warning rectangles directly on to the main frame which is mounted to the back plate. So, only two main pieces. To make everything line up easily I am using the laser to cut out a ledge for it to sit in. They go in with a puch fit but a little bit of glue will keep them in there.

 

Here are some pictures of the idea. This is pretty rough at the moment, I dont try and get it looking 100% when I could easily go through a few iterations before getting it right.

 

As it is, first time is pretty good. Only thing I would do different from a finished one is cut from thicker material for the main piece to give the led room to sit and cut the actual pieces on the correct table. In some photos you can see the flashback from the laser which is caused by the surface I cut on. Once I do the final piece it should look mint, where it counts.

 

The laser isnt the right tool to do the ledge as you can see in the photo of it. It's dimensionally good though so it works and cant be seen with the engraved rectangles pressed it.

 

So, it takes a bit longer on the laser to do it this way but removes some manual work from the equation.

 

 

[metalnwood]

I played around with it a bit more today, taking the idea from pitbuilders thread to use the led panel holders.

 

I cut out the base, center and the individual covers. You can still see where I use the laser like a router to put on the bevel for the covers to sit, its still gray. I cant seem to get rid of that from the laser process so I might try and heat it up and see if it disappears. I wont put too much effort there as you cant see it with the tops on.

 

I wanted to see what it all looked like so I quickly assembled it straight off the laser. Everything is dirty and needs to be cleaned so the phots don't look the best but you know, new stuff, I wanted to see what it would look like :)

 

Like Pitbilder and Gadroc have said, the camera really shows up the engraving as white. Its not really that bad and you would never confuse an unlit light for a lit one.

 

I have some ideas for diffusers an will post when I get some material.

 

You can see in one photo that on extreme angles you can see a mirror of the engraving. The engraving is actually on the back so it can't get rubbed off. The acrylic is completely clear and because of that it looks like it is one the surface. It all looks completely black on the front.

 

I dont think it will be a problem but if it is I will have to back out the sides of the covers to stop it.

 

Now, to clean them all up before assembly.!

[metalnwood]

ARRRGGHH, damn iphones and mac! The pictures always look perfect on the mac until you upload them to forums and its a gamble which way they will appear!!

[BIGNEWY]

Looks great! :)

[Panthro]

ʎəɥʇ op ʞool ʇɐəɹƃ ;-)

 

what are you using for the diffusion layer?

[metalnwood]

Panthro, I have not decided on the diffuser just yet. When I am bale to get out I will get some material and try a couple of things.

 

The screens for the CDU arrived today. I plugged them in to a dev machine and exported the CDU. It looks good, no complaints there and the TGP looks nice on it too. If I didnt have a touchscreen up front a couple of 5 screens would work really well for mfds.

 

I think I mentioned in another post that the vertical size of these are about 5mm short of the real thing. So close it doesnt matter.

 

The pic doesnt have the cdu export but the cdu screen from the MFD. I imagine the CDU screen would give slightly larger text.

 

Looking at the photo, it looks blurry on the cdu screen. Thats not the case, the cdu screen was on very bright by default and has overexposed a bit.

 

 

ARGGGHHH, its upside down again!!! F*ck this mac stuff, this is the only thing that constantly pissses me off with macs.

 

[MadTommy]

Great work...very impressive. Thanks for sharing.

[metalnwood]

Thanks Tommy!

 

Today I put the cdu panel in my cad program and cut it out from MDF to see the screen behind it and see what my buttons would look like.

 

I did it because I have a good supply of 12mm key caps but the cdu looks to use 10mm ones. This does make it look a little more crowded and the keys are fairly close together so I think I will go with the 10mm caps to keep the look more authentic.

 

I have aso been playing around with how to get the writing on the keys. Obviously they cant be bought with the lettering and wording so I am having to do it myself.

 

The one in the video was done by putting masking tape on a key and engraving the letter with the laser. This leaves a pocket which I fill with paint. I will experiment with some other things to fill it in. It worked out OK but I pulled the tape off a little too early so the lines are not as defined as I would like in some places but not terrible.

 

Once again, the camera is a bit out of focus but the screen is looking good. I have tried to position it at around the correct place for when I get my pit made.

 

 

Quick vid here.

 

[avlolga]

looks great !!!

[metalnwood]

School holidays so I have kids with me, a bit less time but I have been trying to get the buttons how I want them. I think I will give up as I am not sure that I will get them done to the quality I want them.

 

That means I will have to do them from scratch myself and mill out each button then paint and engrave. I didn't want to paint them, I am worried about the paint coming off after being used for some time.

 

I cut out the front of the CDU so I could have something to mount the buttons in and start testing. I really like that LCD, it fits in well.

 

Also, the caution light panel in the picture is not the one from above. I thought putting 48 individual panels in place and gluing would be tedious so I did it again but instead of cutting them I engraved the slots until the material was almost cut. The final result is a panel that looks like it is 48 individual small panels but it is only one so it doesn't take very long to alighn and glue.

 

I shouldnt take photos in bad light on a phone. I have a knack of showing something in the worst light. It looks good though so photos dont matter :)

 

 

[linden]

Nice work!!

 

Is the lcd a 5"?

[metalnwood]

Thanks linden, it's a 4", very close to the actual one in the a10. The same width and a few mm off in the vertical height. A 5" wouldnt fit in the a10 cdu without button rearrangements.

[linden]

ok, I've searched everywhere for a 4 "VGA or USB. Where did you find it?

[metalnwood]

I got two for testing here. No problems with them except at 4" they dont come with a vga adaptor. It's composite so I needed to spend another $15 on a vga to composite adaptor.

 

http://www.good-display.com/products_detail/&productId=d2feb6a1-5a62-4888-9b7b-37676145726c&comp_stats=comp-FrontProducts_list01-004.html

[linden]

I see, dident think that it workt whit an adaptor.

 

Thanks for the info!!:thumbup:

[metalnwood]

So far I have not had any success with getting buttons done to the quality I would like.

 

I probably mentioned before that I am worried about painting buttons as I am not sure how long it will take for the paint to wear off. If someone buys one of these from me I don't want to have problems of that nature in the future.

 

Also when painting the laser does not engrave as well as I would like. I could rotary engrave with the CNC router but the laser is a better tool for engraving.

 

My success with engraving on off the shelf keys has not worked, it's too messy engraving and filling with white paint. Same issue anyway, how long before it wears off?

 

So, two options left to me..

 

I have decided that I either make the buttons from scratch or by using off the shelf buttons and glueing a front on to it. I have tried making them from scratch with acrylic. The results are good even though I did it quickly just to get an idea. I would be very happy with these keys.

 

What I am doing it glueing the laserable material on top of the acrylic. Then I mill out the buttons in an array and transfer to the laser to engrave and finally cut them out individually. They are made with a slight lip at the bottom to keep them from falling out of the panel. These buttons would have the tactile switches mounted directly behind them so they dont fall backwards either. They would stick out maybe 2mm. I dont know how far above the panel the reals ones are on the cdu.

 

Then I need to mask the top of the button and paint the sides to match the colour. I am not worried about the paint coming off here as nothing is touching it.

 

As you can see, my test buttons are black as I wont have the grey material for another week and a half.

 

The other option is to glue each top to off the shelf buttons and paint. Not sure about this as I need to individually do them all. Machines wont help here. The E key is done like this.

 

The nice thing is that you can press on this material all day with cheezel fingers and nothing will rub off.

 

The buttons milled from acrylic are cleaner at the joins as you cant tell, the are milled after they are glued so there is no join line like there is with the off the shelf buttons.

 

[metalnwood]

Just had a play with a rocker switch as well, came out ok but the V at the bottom is not sharp . Even though the top layer is pressed in to a sharp corner of the bottom piece it still maintains a bit of a curve at the surface. Probably as good as I will get though.

 

Now to wait for the grey material so I can cut them all out!

 

Bah, it doesnt look right in the photo, I think where I captured an above light throws it out. Now it looks like its all a curve which it is not.

 

[metalnwood]

Right, today the buttons material finally arrived and I cut some buttons! Now I can really see what it's going to look like.

 

These are the first buttons I have cut, they are sitting in place, a couple of the numbers are not straight I see but they will be and cannot spin around when the switches are installed. I was planning on painting the sides of the buttons as what you can see is white on the sides instead of gray but now I see it I am not sure it is required. You dont really notice and it's a lot of work.

 

I really need to get a better camera! Although I admit in my haste to see what it looked like I didnt properly wash the parts after the laser was finished so maybe the bad camera helps there a bit :)

 

I still cant take a photo/video without the text blooming and looking bad on the cdu screen but it looks perfect when you are looking at it!

 

Here is a quick youtube

 

and here is a pic

[PeterP]

Yeah..pfff... the "4" looks just awful! :noexpression: Fix it!!!

 

 

:D:DKidding!:D:D This Looks just wonderful - I bet this CDU is in better condition then many real ones! :)

 

Great job!