JCook Posted September 15, 2012 Posted September 15, 2012 (edited) After many months of reading forum posts, asking questions and buying components its time to start a thread and post the progress on my A10C simpit. I am developing a full pit using y2kiah's excellent A10C CAD drawings. I've also bought several panels from y2kiah and will buy or design / fabricate the other panels. I've also bought Deadman's panel knobs. The first CNC component produced was the right console. The attached picture shows a first fitting right after I brought the pieces home from the CNC shop. Nov 2 - I'm posting my Warning and Electrical Panel CAD files for community use. These use PitBldrs design (see his thread for assembly instructions). CAD Files are posted below:A10C-ELECTRICAL v2.zipA10C-WARNING v3.zip Edited November 3, 2012 by JCook Additional detail
JCook Posted September 15, 2012 Author Posted September 15, 2012 (edited) Caution Panel My first panel was the Caution Light Panel using PitBldr's design. The attached picture shows the components for the first three sets. Most of the green indicator light cutouts still have the paper wrap on them. Edited September 15, 2012 by JCook Add picture
ED Team BIGNEWY Posted September 15, 2012 ED Team Posted September 15, 2012 looking good :) keep up the good work Forum rules - DCS Crashing? Try this first - Cleanup and Repair - Discord BIGNEWY#8703 - Youtube - Patch Status Windows 11, NVIDIA MSI RTX 3090, Intel® i9-10900K 3.70GHz, 5.30GHz Turbo, Corsair Hydro Series H150i Pro, 64GB DDR @3200, ASUS ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming, PIMAX Crystal
JCook Posted September 18, 2012 Author Posted September 18, 2012 Gluing the Caution Panel Here is a shot of the Caution Panel in its early assembly. Just starting to glue in the indicator lights - pretty time consuming to get them right. I made them slightly too small - so I will rework my CAD design and then cut the new size. I have just enough green acrylic leftover to redo the three sets of indicators.
JCook Posted September 26, 2012 Author Posted September 26, 2012 Caution Panel - Almost Complete The A10C's Caution panel is a pretty time consuming panel to build. I made a small adjustment to the indicator light size and laser cut some more acrylic. Here is the first panel - all that remains is to laser-etch the text.
TomDK Posted September 26, 2012 Posted September 26, 2012 Very nice !! Subscribed ;):thumbup: My old, sold, pit: http://bilder.einzelart.de/thumbnails.php?album=74&page=3
JCook Posted October 7, 2012 Author Posted October 7, 2012 More Caution Panel pictures I finally got around to laser etching the text onto the indicators. These three prototype Caution Panels will be up for sale after some minor touch up work.
JCook Posted October 7, 2012 Author Posted October 7, 2012 Electrical Panel Here are a few shots of my Electrical Panel build.
JCook Posted October 12, 2012 Author Posted October 12, 2012 Making the Electrical Panel Here is how I made my A10C electrical panel: 1) I designed three layers using a CAD program. There is a base layer that the toggle switches and LEDs attach to, a "light" or mid layer to allow for some vertical support and illumination from the LEDs and a top or "text" layer that labels the switches. 2) Spray paint black, one side of a 1/16" white acrylic sheet of plastic - this is for the top layer. A 3/16" clear acrylic is used for the mid layer and a 1/8" black piece is used for the base plate. 3) A Laser cutting / etching system was used to cut the three pieces of acrylic into their shapes as defined in the CAD file. For the text layer the laser etches thru the black paint into the white acrylic underneath providing for the backlighting effect. An optional finger guard is also cut. 4) Spray paint the base layer black. Mask the top and bottom of the clear mid layer and then spray paint the sides black. 5) Use acrylic weld (glue) to weld together the top and mid layer. Weld the finger guard onto top layer. 6) The panel is now ready for the electronics: toggle switches and backlighting. My design can be implemented with or without the finger guard, and there are two types of finger guards to chose from: squared and angled (see pic).
Kuky Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 Another excellent start of the pit... I envy all of you with these laser cutters and engravers and CNC machines :( PC specs: Windows 11 Home | Asus TUF Gaming B850-Plus WiFi | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + LC 360 AIO | MSI RTX 5090 LC 360 AIO | 55" Samsung Odyssey Gen 2 | 64GB PC5-48000 DDR5 | 1TB M2 SSD for OS | 2TB M2 SSD for DCS | NZXT C1000 Gold ATX 3.1 1000W | TM Cougar Throttle, Floor Mounted MongoosT-50 Grip on TM Cougar board, MFG Crosswind, Track IR
deaconjb Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 Panels look great. Has anyone ever tried printing panel graphics right to white plexi-glass and then backlighting them? I'm wondering if you'd get the same result [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
pitbldr Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 Another excellent start of the pit... I envy all of you with these laser cutters and engravers and CNC machines :( I envy those with the time to still use their's for pit building!! :D
JCook Posted October 13, 2012 Author Posted October 13, 2012 Panels look great. Has anyone ever tried printing panel graphics right to white plexi-glass and then backlighting them? I'm wondering if you'd get the same result Deacon Not sure what you mean by printing the graphics to white plexi-glass. The graphcs are pretty much white text or symbols (lines, arrows, etc) all the rest is a black background.
JCook Posted October 13, 2012 Author Posted October 13, 2012 (edited) Backlighting example Here is an example of what the backlighting can look like. I'm just demonstrating this with a small green LED flashlight. There are other "how-to" examples in these forums for wiring up LEDs to the panels. I'll be using a Phidgets card to backlight my panels. Edited October 13, 2012 by JCook Pictures
deaconjb Posted October 13, 2012 Posted October 13, 2012 Here is an example of what the backlighting can look like. I'm just demonstrating this with a small green LED flashlight. There are other "how-to" examples in these forums for wiring up LEDs to the panels. I'll be using a Phidgets card to backlight my panels. Nice. I'm going to try the white plexi. I have a UV printer that will print directly to the white plexi. So whatever I don't want light to pass through will be black. Should work. I print backlit sign panels like this all the time just not sure if having toggle switches attached to the plexi is a good idea. The plexi ill use is 1/4" Here my website http://www.signsnowlc.com [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Deadman Posted October 13, 2012 Posted October 13, 2012 attaching switches to plexi is a horrible idea your back lighting has a good ides but this is what it should look like https://forum.dcs.world/topic/133818-deadmans-cockpit-base-plans/#comment-133824 CNCs and Laser engravers are great but they can't do squat with out a precise set of plans.
deaconjb Posted October 13, 2012 Posted October 13, 2012 attaching switches to plexi is a horrible idea your back lighting has a good ides but this is what it should look like Panel looks very nice. Thx for the info [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
JCook Posted October 14, 2012 Author Posted October 14, 2012 If anyone is interested - These panels have been posted in the For Sale section: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1578696#post1578696
deaconjb Posted October 14, 2012 Posted October 14, 2012 Well as it turns out, you can attach toggle switches to acrylic. As I said before, I print acrylic all the time but have never attached a TS to it. I'm going to print and test a sample this week and post my results with pics. Here's a company doing it: http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d529_switch_panels.html [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
JCook Posted October 14, 2012 Author Posted October 14, 2012 Deaconjb There are lots of ways to make these panels - I've learned a lot making the Caution and Electrical panels and I keep revising my technique as I go. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
deaconjb Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Test printed the acrylic today and it came out nice. My "black" color profile was off a bit and allows light to pass through. i have corrected it and will print another tomorrow. Once I get it done I'll post a pic. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
JCook Posted November 3, 2012 Author Posted November 3, 2012 (edited) I've posted my latest CAD files for the A10C Electrical panel and Warning panel. They are ready for anyone who would like to make their own. My CAD files are posted on the page 1 of my build thread: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=94136 The electrical panel design offers the option for a toggle guard and has prepositioned holes for backlighting with LEDS. Let me know if you have any questions about buuilding these panels. I also have one remaining Warning panel available for sale. Edited November 3, 2012 by JCook
JCook Posted November 3, 2012 Author Posted November 3, 2012 More pictures Here are some more shots of my panels - I updated my CAD files and changed my original design a bit. Posted the CAD files on page 1 of this thread for anyone wanting to try building their own. 1
agrasyuk Posted November 12, 2012 Posted November 12, 2012 JCook, thanks a lot for the files! Anton. My pit build thread . Simple and cheap UFC project
saskcan Posted December 6, 2012 Posted December 6, 2012 Hi, Thanks for the files and great start! Do you have any suggestion on LEDs for backlights? On digikey, there are some called high brightness/power and seem to be about an order of magnitude brighter than those found in the led-discrete category. I am considering LEDs to simulate NVIS Green B which has a peak wavelength of around 540nm. Also, I found a site which explains a little bit about lumens and candela and also has a conversion tool.
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