Simviation Forum - Cockpit Construction Continued (Part10)

Sep 18^th, 2004 at 11:53am

JBaymore Offline
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Left Bay of Center Pedestal Layout Finished

Had a little time to devote to the pit once again. The closer it gets... the slower it goes Wink

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In photo #1 below, you can see where one of the five total computers that will run the pit will be located. That space was designed at the outset to hold two vertical mini-tower CPU's. It will have a pair of ventilation fans in the enclosed "box" (with power switches on the overhead) that will circulate air through it to keep it from getting too hot. The machine that you see there will run only the PFD instrument display on the main panel. So it will not be "working hard". The one to be next to it will run only the ND instrument display...so it too will not be chewing up a video card.

Photo #1

In the second photo below, you can see one of the highly time consuming "minor" tasks invloved in this project. Each and every wire in the pit really needs to be labeled with wire tags.... so that later when something needs fixing or tracing.... you can figure out what all the "spaggetti strands" actually are. Those self adhesive ones shown in the picture below are great for larger cables like the usb stuff that connects the Goflight uints...they come from Radio Shack.

Photo #2 Wire Labels

In the third photo below, you can see the center pedestal console with the layout of the left instrument bay pretty well done. The only instrument panel missing in that bay is one more Goflight 166A radio panel. (The one in there is a blank with a printed photo.) There will be four Goflight radios and one rotary/pushbutton panel in the "radio stack".

The top GF-166A will take the function of Comm 1+2, the second will be Nav 1+2. the third will be ADF 1+2, and the fourth will be DME 1+2. A pushbutton on each unit toggles it between the "1" unit and the "2" unit. Another pushbuttion shifts the standby and active frequency.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't see spending the bucks on TWO units of each for "realism". In this "plane"... if a nav unit fails.... I just reboot....not crash Wink

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The function of the transponder is taken by a Goflight GF-45 unit located on the glareshield.

Below the GF-166's is a RP-48. This unit will control 48 distinct functions....with 8 led state indicated pushbuttons and four rotary encoders. Most of the functions are assigned to radio and navigation type issues such as turning idents on and off, adjusting the OBSs, adjusting the decision height, and so on. One switch will also control the function of the GF-45 on the glareshield.... making it possibly more than "just a transponder".

Photo #3 Left Pedestal Bay

See the other recent threads in this series for the exact controls that each of the homebuilt panels will control.

More as it develops.

best,

...................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #1 - Sep 18^th, 2004 at 9:49pm

JBaymore Offline
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Starting To "Power Up" Stuff

I was able to spend about two hours this evening working on the simpit again. It is now getting to some of the exciting stuff.... wiring things together. The first connections I have made are the existing Goflight modules.

The Goflight stuff is very easy to connect. It is all usb connections and although I have had to set up two 7 port self-powered usb hubs.... they were a snap to set up and then add the Goflight stuff onto. The Goflight modules come with a configuration utility that allows you to assign functions to customize how each module works. It then updates your configuration files in the sim to update it.

For radio stacks... I strongly recommend this great stuff.

The next step was to get the led indicators on the custom panels working as the switches are flipped. So this is the task I mainly did this evening.

The leds are driven by a 12V regulated DC power supply I had left over from my (now somewhat inactive) ham radio hobby. To accomplish this, the various switches are mainly double pole, double throw ones. One set of poles will control the 12V dc to the led indicators. The other set of poles will connect to the Hagstrom card to interface with the sim.

In the photo below, you can see the 12V dc supply wiring soldered onto the one set of poles on one panel. Supply +12V voltage goes to the center pin of the switch. When the switch is in one position... the 12V power goes to one led/dropping resistor assembly....... and when in the other position it goes to the other led. Ground is common.

Photo #4 12V DC Wiring of AP/FD Panel

Photo #5 The same panel "lit up".

The above FD/AP panel mounts on the glareshield to the left of the Goflight MCP. So the glareshield assembly will need a supply of 12V DC for this and other panels. So a set of screw type terminal strips for positive and negative 12V were added to the glareshield "box". Each terminal strip has bridges to all the contacts so they all are common to each other. This will allow the easy connection of up to 7 distinct "feeds" to panels in this area....more that I plan to need now. The main lead you see going to the right goes back to the main 12V DC power supply.

The 12V DC circuit powering this stuff will eventually be controlled by real switches located on the overhead... that will control parts of the "avionics".

Photo # 6 12V Supply for the Glare Shield

So now here are a couple of shots with stuff "powered up" to get the feel of what things will look like in flight. The first is the center pedestal..... with one Goflight radio still missing. ALso the flight controls at the back of the image are all switched "on" to show the lights. In actuality you would have to have the reversers, yaw damper, wing leveler, auto-throttle, spoilers, and TOGA moda all armed for all those lights to be on. Not likely Wink

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Phioto #7 Center Pedestal Left Bay Powered Up

In the next picture, the glareshield is here powered up.

Photo #8 Glareshield Powered Up

Once again.... more later.

best,

..................john

PS: The day before yesterday I installed another additional case cooling fan in my main FS computer....... you can't keep it too cool Wink

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« Last Edit: Sep 20^th, 2004 at 8:37am by JBaymore »

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Reply #2 - Sep 25^th, 2004 at 9:22pm

Galactic_eyes Offline
Colonel
I turn my hopes up to
the sky. BOC
Gray, Georgia USA

Posts: 221

Thats an awesome setup JBaymore. I can't wait to see more.

&&Flight of the Cessna at 3200 ft.&&

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Reply #3 - Oct 2^nd, 2004 at 5:55am

gregbrown Offline
Colonel
all takeoffs and landings
shall number the same
perth western australia

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what an awesome effort, one day i would love to build something similar well done . meantime the ch pedals, yoke, throttle and position sidestick/joystick
are good but not as good as that will be.keep going. regards greg brown .ps if you can help me i have a question please visit page 1 fs2004 topic fs9

keep thy airspeed up lest the ground shalt surely come from from below and smithe thee!

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Reply #4 - Oct 2^nd, 2004 at 8:35pm

JBaymore Offline
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Thanks GalacticEyes and GregBrown. Grin

8)

This is a very interesting project. At times it feels so complex that I might as well be building a REAL aircraft. Wink

Got the last of the Goflight GF-166A versitile radio panels a couple of days ago. Will install it tonight, and the radio stack and the left bay of the center pedestal is now fully laid out. Still a bit of wiring for the switches from the home-made panels though.

best,

...................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #5 - Oct 2^nd, 2004 at 10:10pm

JRoc Offline
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Town Drunk
CYVR/CYQR/CYMJ/CYXE (nomad!)

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Wow! This has come a LOOOONG way since the beginning!

I really, really like the various avionics, especially the autopilot and navigation components!!!

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Reply #6 - Oct 23^rd, 2004 at 11:48am

JBaymore Offline
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Jroc,

Thanks. Yes, it is starting to look like a cockpit now.

Since the shot above I have installed the last Goflight 166a radio panel in the center pedestal.

best,

................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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