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First Tiny Bit Of Hardware Built (Read 720 times)
Oct 13th, 2007 at 8:22pm

BTilson   Offline
Colonel
Into the abyss...
NC, USA

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It's not much at all, but it's something, and I made it, so I'm pretty proud. It currently doesn't actually do anything, since I haven't been able to purchase any IO hardware yet, but I shall soon. Probably going to start with a Hagstrom KE72. This thing here is basically just a panel to test switch functions with. An experimentation panel, I suppose. I will be making another in the near future that is a bank of momentary pushbuttons.

Not much to it really. An 8x10 piece of plexiglass, 35 1/4" holes drilled with my drill press, 35 toggles switches and some black spray paint. Smiley

Here are a few images.

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As I said, not much, but it's my first piece of ANYTHING related to simpit hardware, so I'm happy. Smiley Not sure exactly about the odd alignment on the back views. I guess just slight inconsistency in the construction of the switches. They all flip pretty much identically on the front. *shrug* Tongue
 

The first step on the long journey of building a flight simulator has been taken... There is no turning back now!
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Reply #1 - Oct 14th, 2007 at 12:09am

JBaymore   Offline
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Under the curse of the
hombuilt cockpit!

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BTilson,

CONGRATULATIONS............ you have now stepped off the edge of the abbys.... and there is NO turning back. Wink

That is REALLY nice clean looking work.  I can see some great craftsmanship coming up out of your work.  And a great idea as a test unit.  Wish I'd thought of that.

I know EXACTLY how you feel........ I remember well that first step I did on mine.  There are a number of "key points" that you hit that are very exciting moments.  The first hardware assembly is one of them.

The next one looming on the horizon for you is when you flip that first switch on a hardware panel and in the sim you see the landing lights go on or something like that.  Absolute MAGIC!

Keep the pictures coming.

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 #2 - Oct 14th, 2007 at 5:11am

BTilson   Offline
Colonel
Into the abyss...
NC, USA

Gender: male
Posts: 86
*****
 
Yeah I am really looking forward to the day when I make something happen in the sim with a switch or button. I just hope to be able to order some IO hardware soon. Things can get a bit tight around my home sometimes. I've got a 3 year old son and another child on the way. Wife is currently just shy of 4 months pregnant. So, needless to say, not much "extra" money (or time, haha) gets to be spent on frivilous silly things like my dream of building a flight simulator. Tongue She's pretty accomodating though, and generally tolerates my excessive nerdiness pretty well.

Thanks for the compliments, by the way. I'm about 4 years behind you right now I think, but I've officially been bitten by the bug, so expect to see more from me in the future! Next thing up will likely be the same test panel concept but with momentary pushbuttons.

Cheers!

-Brooks
 

The first step on the long journey of building a flight simulator has been taken... There is no turning back now!
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Reply #3 - Oct 14th, 2007 at 1:19pm

machineman9   Offline
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Nantwich, England

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will be good when it does something  Wink

all you need now are those embossed sticky labels you can get, and somewhere to attach all those switches... then you will have much more 'real' control over settings in your aircraft.


good luck! hope it turns into something special- unlike my projects
 

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