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Pads's cockpit adventure's (cont'd)... (Read 1615 times)

Apr 21^st, 2006 at 4:45am

Padser Offline
Colonel
Tally-Ho, chaps...

Posts: 241

~S~

Following my initial experimentations with hacking my own trim controls (see previous post - Pots - linear or logarithmic, I have been playing with Leo Lobnar's joystick controller to provide a set of controls and switches that, while not intended to resemble a real cockpit, nevertheless provide something of a more realistic flavour...

Many thanks to all who gave advice in the initial thread, by the way, and to Leo, who patiently answered my questions and queries about diodes and grounding unused analog inputs.

I've yet to label the switches ( a combination of locked on-off-off and press-release on-off-on switches), but the images below should give you an idea of both how the controller looks (and how ugly my wiring is Wink

)

Any suggestions about labelling? I've yet to look into it, but some kind of transfer 'letraset' approach, I guess...

How have others handled this?

All the best,

Pads

http://www.234squad.org.uk

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Reply #1 - Apr 21^st, 2006 at 7:44pm

chuckcrc Offline
Colonel
Simpit builder
Australia

Gender:
Posts: 170

Hi Pads
I used letra set to label my switch panels but it was difficult to do and expensive. I did this because I'm not good in any of the paint/image /phote s'ware,

I think it would be worth it to invest the time to learn these image type programs because they will produce a very high quality stencil-- much better than letra set.

I have found a way around my lack of skill in these programs by getting my daughter to make the files for me. I haven't worked out how much this service will cost me yet ! Grin

The switches in your panel, are they working in true toggle mode . What I mean by this is , when you throw the switch to the ON position for say gear down and the system reponds, you leave the switch in the ON position until you want to select gear up and you through the switch to the OFF position and the system responds. Or do you have to rest the switch by going through another "ON- OFF" cycle.

If you do have to do this then the cct I'v attached will convert those switches to true toggle mode.
This is how I have all my switches set up in my pit to work with the Beta Innovation Plasma controller.
Basically the cct need to see a change of state ON-OFF-ON.
This cct will do that. The LED is a bonus extra just select the resister value to give you the right milli amps thru the led.

cheers
chuck

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Reply #2 - Apr 24^th, 2006 at 10:13am

Padser Offline
Colonel
Tally-Ho, chaps...

Posts: 241

Hi,

I went for the letraset option too - it looks fine, but it is tricky to get right and it is expensive. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect, but looking closely now, I see that some lines are not quite level. Doh!

BTW I am quite nifty in graphics programs, but am not sure what you mean by 'stencil' - could you elaborate?

BTW - I used on-off-on switches - most of them are press-release, but others lock in the on position. I ended up with both due to the accident of availability, but decided to go with the mix anyway as it allows me to use the locking variety for those switches that benefit from some kind of visual indicator of control state, e.g., gear and tailhook, etc. (for which I am also experimenting with the possibilities of an added LED indicator).

Thanks for the info!

All the best,

John

« Last Edit: Apr 24^th, 2006 at 1:26pm by Padser »

http://www.234squad.org.uk

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Reply #3 - May 9^th, 2006 at 10:01am

Padser Offline
Colonel
Tally-Ho, chaps...

Posts: 241

~S~

One last pic to show the LEDs in situ and working as gear and hook indicators.

Thanks to all for their support and advice during this mini (but for me quite major!) project.

Time for a break now before the bug takes me again... I fancy building a proper long shaft stick and throttle control, but that is going to have to wait for a while... Wink

Cheers,

Pads

http://www.234squad.org.uk

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