Simviation Forum - Cockpit Construction Continued (Part 16)

Apr 17^th, 2005 at 9:55pm

JBaymore Offline
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More Work on Interior of Shell

In photos #1 + #2 below, you can see that I gave the inside of the cockpit shell a coat of paint to get things started in there. The basic color is "cockpit gray"...... so I guess I tend to favor the "Airbus look" Wink

. The area above the "interior of the plane" is all painted flat black to minimize light reflections from backlighting and from the projector that will be up there.

It will eventually take a number of coats of paint to do the job.

Photo #1

Photo #2

I then started working on the panels that will populate the overhead area. A lot of the thinking about the layout of this was done over the "slow construction" period during the winter. Now it is time to execute the ideas.

In photo #3 below you can see the first of three main fuse panels that will sit at the "top" of the overhead. This will place them nearest the cockpit door. There will be a lot of DC supplies (3V, 5V, 9V, and 12V) and control circuits in the pit as well as the main 110V AC wiring... and a lot of the fuses on these panels will be VERY real........ protecting the various circuits. Others will be dummy "eye candy".

Photo #3

In photo #4 below, you can see one of the map lighting units. It got a coat of paint to match the trim in the cockpit, and then is mounted to a panel to mount on the overhead rails.

Photo #4

In photo #5 below you can see the map light mounted on the panel mounting bracket. You can also see a light unit that will be mounted at the very top of the overhead to supply illumination for it when needed. That unit spans the full width of the overhead rails, with one light centered on each rail. The lights are 12V DC car licence plate lights painted to match the cockpit.

Photo #5

In photo #6 below you can see a bracket that is made to mount both one of the map light units as well as a control panel on the "back" face.

Photo #6

In photo #7 + #8 below, the map light unit is in place on the bracket.

Photo #7

Photo #8

In photo #9 below, you can see the sweet little annunciator light assemblies from Flight Deck Solutions. They are GREAT! If you look closely you can see one of the engraved light plate legends. Each annunciator housing is designed to hold two LED's, and have a light plate on the front.

You can also see a pair of AML illuminated switches that will form the Master Caution and Master Warning indicators on the left glareshield.

Photo #9

In photo #10 below, I am cutting out the rectangular holes in the MDF panel material of the glareshield in order to mount the FDS annunciator lights and the AML switches. After cutting it out, it will get another coat of black paint to clean up the mess I made cutting it.

Photo #10

In photo #11 below, you can see the annunciator housings in place and the AML switches sitting where they will eventually be mounted.

Photo #11

And in photo #12 below, you can see the panel back in place on the left side of the glareshield area. The two AML switches get illuminated caps over them that say "WARNING" and "CAUTION" They will illuminate when those situations occur... and pushing the switch will turn it off.... until another occurance turns it back on. The annunciators on the right will indicate "Decision Height", "Localizer", and "Glideslope", and the ones on the left side will show "Ground Proximity", "Pull Up", "Stall", and "Overspeed".

Photo #12

So...... once again.... more as it happens. I should have some time to devote to this project in the next couple of weeks..... taking a bit of a "break" right now from a hectic work schedule since about a year ago. Before I jump back into full swing at making pots.

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 - Apr 17^th, 2005 at 11:53pm

SilverFox441 Offline
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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Very sweet.

I responded to your servo question over at Phidgets...basically offering any servo advice needed.

Your pit must be looking fairly complete now...you're definitely into the final stages. Almost time to put up a website chronicling the whole journey.

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #2 - May 3^rd, 2005 at 8:43pm

JBaymore Offline
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Quote:

Your pit must be looking fairly complete now...you're definitely into the final stages. Almost time to put up a website chronicling the whole journey.

Steve,

Thanks. But the pit is FAR from done. Some of the most time consuming work is still to come.... the wiring and debugging.

I already have a site started.... but the docs here are more extensive at the moment.

My computer virus mess and the identity theft stuff that was part of it consumed a bunch of time that I HAD wanted to spend on the pit. Oh well. Got some stuff done on it. More photos coming soon.

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 #3 - May 4^th, 2005 at 2:15am

SilverFox441 Offline
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Now What?
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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LOL!!

Sorry John, differing background and experience coming into play here. I knew that wiring and debugging were still to be done...but for me that barely registers as a task, let alone work.

All that time spent as a Instrument/Electrical Technician on jets coming into play...I consider that the easy part of my cockpit project, incidental to the actual work.

On my 'pit the physical construction is the daunting part...I've only been able to handle the planning without pulling hair by considering it as a group of very large model boats! Planning is almost done now though...time to start cutting MDF is coming. Your project, with it's full enclosure, would have tripped me up...no telling when I would ever get to start building. Shocked

If you need help with the website just tell me, I'm pretty good for an amateur.

You might also ask Pete if you need hosting...it's very Flight Sim related and it might make a good addition to the "family". Wink

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #4 - May 8^th, 2005 at 12:37am

chomp_rock Offline
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After you do all of this construction you should remember to use a couple PC cooling fans and make some imitation AC ducts... They are a memorable feature of a real aircraft and will keep you cool in that otherwise still cockpit.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+&&GeForce FX5200 256Mb&&1GB DDR400 DC&&Seagate 500Gb SATA-300 HDD&&Windows XP Professional X64 Edition&&&&That's right, I'm now using an AMD! I decided to give them another try and they kicked the pants off of my P4 3.4!

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Reply #5 - May 8^th, 2005 at 12:05pm

JBaymore Offline
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Chomp,

Yup... been planning on dealing with the real environmental controls all along. It is an interesting point that building a simpit that is enclosed results in you having to consider many of the exact same factors that real cockpit designers deal with. "Creature comfort" is certainly one of them. All that electronic crap in there is going to generate a lot of heat.

The monitors and computers will have DC computer type fans exhausting heat which are controlled by the "Avionics Cooling" switches on the overhead. They will vbent up toward the ceiling of the room....... but the pit sits in the room.

One of the few "real aircraft" parts that will be in my simpit is a couple of real ceiling mounted air conditioning nozzle units. I acquired them (3 of) on EBay for a steal. The housing mounts were Boeing Brown.... but a little tape masking and a can of spray paint... and they now match my gery cockpit.

I plan on using a DC squirrel cage blower with a variable speed control for the main "air conditioning" and heating air control in the pit. Power for this unit will be routed thru the switches that control the Pack Air on the overhead...... so it won't work if the right combo of Pack switches are not in the right positions.

When I hit the Powerball lottery for 48 gazillion bucks, I might consider REAL airconditioning in there for the summer. Right now it will just be moving air. However, heating it will have, using the element out of an old bathroom ceiling fan/heater unit I have laying around.

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 #6 - May 16^th, 2005 at 6:49pm

JBaymore Offline
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And so on to Part 17 in the continuing saga.........

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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