Petes /brissy A10

[Duckling]

Thanks MacFevre. I'll look it up

 

Edit: found it http://www.en.wiki.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1636910&postcount=78 /thanks

Edited January 7, 2014 by Duckling

[X93355]

Hi Pete,

 

You have a number of great toggle switches and buttons here. Can you tell me where you got them from/ part numbers? I especially like the larger toggles i.e. master arm.

Thanks

Craig

 

Getting close mounting the panels in the pit. Mainly focusing on the ones that are useful in the game. Another good days production with Levinsky. The odd shaped box in the top right is the AOA indicators.

[bnepethomas]

Hi Craig

 

Here you go, you should be able to get them either from Allied Electronics or Digikey.

676-3240 7101TZQE

676-3265 7203TZQE

870-0579 S1AL-RO

870-0580 S3AL-RO

 

cheers

 

Peter

[bnepethomas]

Thanks MacFevre. I'll look it up

 

Edit: found it http://www.en.wiki.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1636910&postcount=78 /thanks

 

Thanks for sharing - good find.

[Hansolo]

Thanks for sharing - good find.

 

I purchased these from Mouser. Got a relative small size:

http://dk.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=SRBV131803virtualkey99990000virtualkey688-SRBV131803

 

 

p.s. do you have a part no for the push-pull switches in the fuel panel? Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers

Hans

[bnepethomas]

I purchased these from Mouser. Got a relative small size:

http://dk.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=SRBV131803virtualkey99990000virtualkey688-SRBV131803

 

 

p.s. do you have a part no for the push-pull switches in the fuel panel? Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers

Hans

Hi Hans

 

Thanks for the pointer on the switches. Re the push pull 'switches' in the fuel panel, they are aircraft circuit breakers, still tossing up on which way to go with those. Not sure how often they'd be used.

 

cheers

 

Peter

[Hansolo]

Hi Peter,

 

You are welcome. And thanks for the info on the push-pull. I'd never thought of using aircraft circuit breakers for that but now that you mentioned is strikes me as thinking of the box :thumbup: Yeah I am pretty sure I have never used them so far, so they are not high prioroty on my side either.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your pit building.

 

Cheers

Hans

[Spook]

Getting close mounting the panels in the pit. Mainly focusing on the ones that are useful in the game. Another good days production with Levinsky. The odd shaped box in the top right is the AOA indicators.

 

Amazing....

[bnepethomas]

Thanks Guys - getting to the pointy part of the project, putting it all together. Need to level things out a tad, but its nice to see things coming together. CDU is from Open Cockpits (who now have a black version), code from Levinsky, works a treat. Using 20*20*1.5 T-Section, with 20*12*1.4 L-Section for the mounting frame.

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2014 by bnepethomas

[Mike Powell]

 

 

p.s. do you have a part no for the push-pull switches in the fuel panel? Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers

Hans

 

Another option for the fuel panel pull switches is a replacement automotive pull switch like this: http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/8321460/00968/

[Hansolo]

Another option for the fuel panel pull switches is a replacement automotive pull switch like this: http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/8321460/00968/

 

Thanks Mike. Yeah had been considering similar as it seem impossible to dig up some some MS25089 in the push-pull versions. And of cause one DM's knobs have been mounted then the difference can't be seen :thumbup:

 

Cheers

Hans

[bnepethomas]

Hopefully through the worst of the mechanical assembly of the pit. Rails, panels, CDU, and throttle now screwed in place, need to find the right height and spot for the stick. The UFC is a bit of a placeholder, could do with some extra width.

 

How its time to put the pieces all together and see what goes boom....

 

 

[Intrepid1]

Looks very, Very Nice so far, thanks for sharing

Randy

[bnepethomas]

Getting closer, mounted the OC output cards, three are needed, two for indicators that can be dimmed, and one for magnetic switches and other stuff driven through relays (not dimmed):

 

 

Backlighting progressing, the backlit panels really stand out compared to the non-backlit:

 

And the first of the OLED interfaces:

 

Edited February 5, 2014 by bnepethomas

[Jarnob]

Very very nice pit! Like how all panels are lit, nice & clean; all measures are perfect - as well as all your buttons....... makes me wanna rethink/rebuild my own pit (=good) :)

[Cali]

First of all it doesn't look good, the measurements are off, second the back lighting looks like crap and last the panels are too clean, they need to be more dull and have scratches on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J/K man...that looks amazing, nice work on it. I'm gonna have to check out your 16 pit, that's what I think I'm going to make. I'm still praying that there is an F-16 in the very near future.

[donbinator]

First of all it doesn't look good, the measurements are off, second the back lighting looks like crap and last the panels are too clean, they need to be more dull and have scratches on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J/K man...that looks amazing, nice work on it. I'm gonna have to check out your 16 pit, that's what I think I'm going to make. I'm still praying that there is an F-16 in the very near future.

 

LOL!!! You totally had me going there Cali. I was all like "WTF? A DCS forum troll??!" As usual I didn't read to the bottom of the "email" which gets me in trouble at work all the time :).:doh:

[Cali]

Thought I'd get someone. Seeing things like that makes me want to work on my pit. Although it won't look that good, it's fun to tinker around with that stuff.

[bnepethomas]

LOL!!! You totally had me going there Cali. I was all like "WTF? A DCS forum troll??!" As usual I didn't read to the bottom of the "email" which gets me in trouble at work all the time :).:doh:

 

:) I'm sure before I'm finished there will be more scratches on the panels, and the ones with the good measurements are courtesy of Levinsky who has patiently stenciled them out by overlying them on real drawings. My measurements are the dodgy ones ;)

 

But now its getting close I want re redo the NMSP that isn't backlit as it stands out in the dark. That'll happen once I get this thing flying!

 

And seconded on the F16, if there was a Kickstarter I'd be in the queue!

[bnepethomas]

Hi guys - here's how I'm putting my panels together, based on learnings over the years:

Find the panels, note the bottom two are solid black, top one is white, with two coats of flat black enamel. Part of the reason for three layers is strength, as well as back-lighting dispersion, the middle layer puts a bit of distance between the top of the flat led and the front panel.

 

In the F16 (http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php?topic=2614.0) I'd used Mikes panels (which are A-Grade) plus EL-Sheets for back-lighting. Mikes panels had a metal base plate, so the first time I saw acrylic as a base I was a little concerned about strength, but have yet to run into any issues.

 

You'll note a couple of things about the base-plate, the holes for the leds are already lasered out and there is a scrawl indicating up and which end the positive lead of the led should be. This is done to stop a numpty like me mounting everything on the wrong side.... easily done when you've got a bunch of panels on the bench .... And yes for this pit I'm using leds over el-sheets as there are no noisy inverters, and leds are easily replaced. Using acrylic for the base also reduces possible issues with back-lighting electrical shorts

 

 

One problem I had to solve early one was how to write text on the black acrylic, found these at the local trade tool store, a paint pen, works a trick

 

 

Next was how to glue leds to base plate, as super-glue doesn't do a good job if the surfaces aren't perfectly mated, found this glue at the local model store (and yes it does a great job of gluing fingers to plastic if you are not careful):

 

 

Next glues the leds in place, note the base plate is sitting on a piece of wood so the face of the leds is flush with the front of the base plate. Also, all of the leds are orientated in the same direction, makes wiring up a bunch easier.

 

 

Leds now glued in place, the countersunk holes as for the protoboard attached to each panel

 

 

Next wire up the leds, as I'm using a 12V PWM dimmer, add a 220 ohm resistors with each series of three leds. I try and add the leds in groups of three, if you have two leds left over (like this panel), use a 500 ohm resistors. Add a connector to connect to the protoboard.

 

 

Using nylon stand-offs mount the protoboard.

 

 

As the panel has an OLED display, mount the display. It sits in the middle board, again countersunk holes are used to hold the OLED display in place. I'm using a serial bus (I2C) between the Arudinos and the OLED displays.

 

 

Check things align front and back, you may wonder what the big gap is on the right hand side, this is for lighting the panel name. As the panel name sits over the mounting rail itself, its more challenging to back-light. Instead of cutting holes in the rail, the leds are offset from from the lettering, not perfect, but it works.

 

 

Getting closer:

 

 

Recheck backlighting and OLED display works, yes those leds are darn bright:

 

 

Attach front panel and knobs (almost looks like a brought one)

 

 

To reduce the likelihood of a major tragedy, I colour code the connectors, the best paints I've found are Tamya Acrylic, again from the local hobby store. The colors make working with the panel so make safer, especially when you've got you head and hands underneath the pit working on cabling:

 

 

One panel almost ready for action (need to add diodes for push button), for the colors I use:

1. Uncolored for push buttons and switches

2. Yellow for Leds

3. Orange for any output that can't be dimmed (eg Magnetic switches)

4. Dark Green for backlighting

5. Light Blue for Rotary encoders

6. Light Green for OLED displays.

 

 

Hope this saves someone a bit of time when trying to work out how to assemble a panel

 

cheers

 

Peter

[Hansolo]

Very nice breakdwon of the process Peter. Looking great. :thumbup:

 

Also looks like a very narrow build in size of the encoders. Can you share the type. Thanks

 

Cheers

Hans

[Deadman]

Nice work thanks for posting

[bnepethomas]

Very nice breakdwon of the process Peter. Looking great. :thumbup:

 

Also looks like a very narrow build in size of the encoders. Can you share the type. Thanks

 

Cheers

Hans

Thanks guys

 

Here's the link to the encoders.

12mm Rotary Encoder Switch With Keyswitch,10pcs http://r.ebay.com/rPLcRj

 

I use a mix of knobs, the ones supplied with these encoders and some from Open Cockpits.

 

cheers

 

Peter

[Hansolo]

Thanks Peter. Looks somewhat like the ones I have inbound.

 

Cheers

Hans

[bnepethomas]

Getting closer to having this thing flying, time to move from unit to system testing. Final cable tidy up and painting comes after I've proven that there is no blue smoke awaiting to escape from the circuitry. Super happy with the Brydling card, whilst diodes are needed, the matrix approach certainly reduces the amount of cable needed in the pit.

 

Yes mum - I will tidy up the wiring...

 

 

Port Side - Something I'm glad I did in this pit was have a subframe underneath the panels, means I can get the electronics and breakout boards close to the panels in a serviceable manner. The little board on the right hand side is a Leo Bodnar card that takes the rotary's and converts them to joystick pushes.

 

 

Starboard side - two dimmers, one for the panel backlighting, the other for flood lighting. The Ardunio on the left is for driving the OLEDs via the I2C bus.