Quick build, low cost UFC for A-10C

[Bergison]

Hi everybody!

 

Just wanted to share my just finished A-10C UFC. My targets were a low price tag and a relatively quick building time, as my spare time is not too vast at the moment.

 

As you can see in the pictures, I used 35 tactile push buttons (0,40 € each at conrad.at) and glued them on a self-made wiring board. Then I simply drilled some holes in an acrylic panel and inserted little button-caps into it, which I cut out of thin, foamed rubber. On top of it all I glued an image of the A-10C UFC which I printed on adhesive paper. I encased it all in a box made of plywood and wired it to a GP-Wiz40 unit from GroovyGameGear.com. It took about 10 hours to build and works perfectly! Enjoy!

 

The mask for drilling and positioning of the push buttons

 

The panel before soldering the wires and with the buttons already in place

 

Wiring of the buttons and front side complete

 

The finished encasing

 

The new UFC installed in my simpit (below the monitor)!

[agrasyuk]

Looks very good and functional, i used tacts for my ufc as well.

And a very neat Sim pit you have there.

[Hansolo]

Very neat solution to the UFC. Good job.

 

Cheers

 

Hans

[Gadroc]

Very nice looking setup.

[Deadman]

Great job looks like you have quite the set up theere.:thumbup:

[PoleCat]

Well done!

 

Out

[Swaty]

Great Job!:thumbup:

[Waxi]

Really good work.

 

Which kind of foamed rubber did you use? Do you have link or photo of it?

[Bergison]

Thanks for your kind replies!

 

@Waxi: I used a 1 mm thick sheet of ordinary foamed rubber like these. I didn't buy it though 'cause I still had some lying around.

[Waxi]

Thanks for the hint, Bergison. Using this kind of rubber is a great idea. I will try it :thumbup:

[ncimike3]

Great job. I think I'll try and build this for my sim pit. I'm not quite sure you meant by " inserted little button-caps into it". Could you be a little more specific? Thanks.

[Bergison]

Hi ncimike3, sorry for not replying yet! I was quite busy lately. I'm going to make some additional pictures and post them together with a more detailed explanation!

[Zeke]

Awesome, I'd like to see that too.

[ncimike3]

Hi ncimike3, sorry for not replying yet! I was quite busy lately. I'm going to make some additional pictures and post them together with a more detailed explanation!

 

Great. I think I have it figured out with the exception of the wiring board. That seems to be a little tricky. If I had to pick one thing for more specifics, it would be the wiring board. Thanks again.

[Bergison]

Step-by-step tutorial for my UFC

 

OK, here is a kind of step-by-step guide to how I built my UFC:

 

 

1) Cut out two boards out of plexiglass ( I used 4 mm ), one 200 x 50 mm for the front panel and one 194 x 44 mm for the switching board. The dimensions of the switching board are the ones for the front panel, reduced by the thickness of the material you use for the encasing ( 3 mm for my UFC)

 

2) Front panel: drill holes at the position of each button (stick the template onto the board to locate the exact positions) with a diameter of about 10 mm and a depth of 1,5 – 2 mm. These holes are where the cut out discs of foamed rubber should fit in. The depth of the holes should be just a little less than the thickness of your rubber, so that it protrudes the surface of the panel just enough to act as a tactile button. (Sounds completely confusing when reading it, but I’m sure you get the idea while doing it!) At the centre of each hole, drill through the panel at a diameter big enough to allow the top part of the push button to pass through ( 4 mm in my case ).

Now cut out round discs of foamed rubber and put them into the holes in the front panel. Glue the cut-out image of the UFC over it. Finished that part!

 

 

3) Wiring board: Again, stick one of the templates onto your board to locate the position of the push buttons. The 4 black lines to the left and right of the buttons mark the position of the electrical contacts of the buttons (they might of course be different, I you use other buttons). I drilled little holes there before gluing the buttons in place and then passed the input wires from the back, through these holes, to the contacts and soldered them in place. The GP-Wiz40 from GroovyGameGear.com which I used, utilizes a common ground connection, so I decided to save time (and wire) and used strips of aluminium foil which I glued under the buttons, so they could share this common ground connection. Make sure all ground contacts and also the aluminium strips are interconnected. Wire this and the input wires to your USB interface board.

4) Now comes the tricky part: to find the right distance between the wiring board (the buttons) and the front panel (the button caps). If they are too close, all buttons will be permanently pressed. Too far apart, and a push onto the front panel will not reach the buttons.

For this, I used washers between the boards at the 4 screws at the corners. You could also put a layer of thick paper with holes for the button tops between the boards. Anyhow, this was a little trial and error when I build my UFC. But in the end, it worked!

 

 

Have fun building your UFC! :thumbup: And let me know If I can be of any help!

[Bergison]

I almost forgot, here's the template I made:

 

http://www.wohindenn.net/UFC_template.pdf