Some time ago I removed the propeller pitch lever from my throttle quadrant and re-skinned it.
Here’s the end result:
The skin is .080″ ABS plastic that I heat-formed over the quadrant frame using a heat gun and a straight edge. A hair dryer could be used as well.
Well the last post was “Projectors! Projectors! Projectors!” This one was nearly called, “Projectors! Projectors, Proj..wait, what?”
When I was first planning for the projectors, I did some research on what kind of LCD panel would be both affordable and suitable. This led me to a web forum run by Lumen Lab – they at one time were a great resource for parts on building a DIY projector – they’re now just a forum with a store that sells robot parts. Go figure. Anyway, the research I did on the forum led me to something I wasn’t aware of. “FFC problems”.
It turns out that FFC stands for Flat, Flexible, Cable. It turns out that many LCD manufacturers have a small (and I mean _SMALL_), thin cable that joins the circuit board along the top to a circuit board along the side. This is fine when it’s being used for its intended purpose. The problem is that in order to use the LCD in a projector, you’ve got to move both of those circuit boards out of the way so they don’t block the incoming light or the outgoing image.
…but before that…
I replaced the Plasma V2 with a Plasma MM2 that I had. Turns out that the P2 was the core of all my controllability problems. Once I installed the MM2, it was a whole ‘nuther ballgame. No more crazy spikes or sluggish control inputs. It was pretty damn nice actually. 🙂
Here’s the board I put together in order to interface the MM2:
What kills me is that this device is no longer available.
Another change I made was to the return springs that were in the pitch axis mechanism. The original springs weren’t up to the task with the amount of weight in the grip & interface box. The stick would stay where ever I let go of it. The springs I use are compression springs that are 2″ long and made from .072″ diameter wire. I changed to a 2.50″ spring made of .080 wire. This made a big difference for a small change. The pitch axis now returns to center the way it should. However, the feel is still a bit weak so I may change that to an even stiffer spring.
Ok, now back to the title of this entry…
I ordered three projector kits on the 31st of December. After an agonizing wait they were finally shipped. Here’s some of the parts:
The kit consists of optics (220mm & 330mm fresnel lenses and a 330mm “triplet” output lens), power panel, 400W Metal-Halide lamp (that the 12 year old in me has christened The Photon Phallus. *snickers*), Mogul base for the lamp, temperature controller for the fan, a fan and a 400W ballast for the lamp. All of this neat stuff is available from DIY Projector Kits (http://www.diyprojectorkits.com).
Be warned, the plans (at least for the one I have, the S-15) are VERY, VERY, VERY vague. If you get one and have questions, either see my build thread on the site (“geneb’s triple threat”) or email me directly. My build thread will do what it can to rectify the captionless pictures that comprise some of the documentation. 😀
On the 23rd, I spent the day doing maintenance work on the ShopBot, including adding a 1/32″ gasket to all the vacuum zones. The gasket drastically improved the performance of the vacuum hold down system. I then got all the parts cut for the projector cases. I used 18mm (3/4″) Baltic Birch.
Here’s the first of two sheets that were cut:
The parts in the foreground with the long slot in the center is the projector top. The slot is the air intake for the lamp cooling fan. It draws air in-between the “cassette” that holds the 15.4″ LCD panel and the cassette that holds the collimating fresnel. You’ll see pictures of these things in the coming days.
Here’s the stack of parts that resulted from yesterday’s run:
The next steps are to mark & drill the case parts for the pocket screws I’m going to use for assembly and make the LCD and fresnel cassettes….
To hold you over till next time, here’s a video I shot of the beta version of the avionics system I’ll be using in the cockpit:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X69mIBtyu0
The past couple of weeks has brought some good progress to the simulator hardware. It’s still not flyable yet, but it’s a lot closer than it was in December!
The main wiring harness for the pitch & roll axes gimbal and the stick wiring was installed:
I used cable clamps to attach the harness to the underside of the cockpit. To separate the side from the center, you only need to unplug the harness from the gimbal assembly and remove one cable clamp.
It turned out nicely and while I should have combed out the wires (makes a better harness) it’s great for the prototype wiring.
The goal was to be able to “fly” the 109F/X by the end of the year. I didn’t make it unfortunately. However, things are looking good for a 1st week of 2010!
First up, here’s the completed edge-lit panel for the left sub-panel:
The only problem with the panel is due to a “mid-course” design change that I made. Instead of making the edge-lit panel and metal back plate mounting separate, I decided to combine the two. Since I had done all the panel lettering before I made this change, things on the bottom row kind of got a bit messed up. It’s only really noticeable where the mounting screw passes through the STARTER legend. If I was making this panel for someone else, I would remake it to correct the error.
The wiring on the pitch & roll axis gimbal is now completed. Now that the flight grip has been wired up, it was time to finish out the wiring harness on the gimbal assembly:
This adds the 16 wires that are needed by the flight grip and the nose wheel/AP disconnect lever. Instead of using tie-wraps to create the new harness, I used waxed lacing cord and then used tie-wraps to attach the harness to nylon cable keeper blocks that have been attached to the gimbal base. The last 6″ or so of the harness up to the DB25 connector is covered with a 1/2″ diameter black plastic split “loom” cover. Makes it look nicer and prevents the wire from being abraded.
I had gotten the SFS box painted the previous evening and now it was time to mount the nose wheel steering/ap disconnect lever to the top of the box:
Instead of using a screw & bolt arrangement to hold the NWS/AP lever in, I decided to drill the hole in the side ears just a tiny bit under .125″ and use a brass pin to hold the lever in. In order to properly set the pin, I turned my drill press into an impromptu arbor press by using a 3/32″ drill bit mounted backwards in the drill chuck. I also gave the pin a slight bevel around the ends to make entering the mounting holes easier. Here’s the result:
The pin pressed in just as I’d hoped and it won’t work itself out over time. The good part about using the method I did is that the pin can be easily removed in the same manner it was installed if I need to replace or repair the lever in the future.
Now that the lever is in, it was time for the switch:
To actuate the micro-switch, I’m using a short length of #4-40 threaded rod as an actuator and a small spring to give it more “pull” than would be provided by the internal spring in the micro-switch. I was able to thread the micro-switch actuating lever with a #4-40 tap. There’s only enough metal for one thread or so, but it works really well! I’m going to put a dab of Loc-Tite on it to help it out.
To retain the actuator rod, I used a brass acorn nut at the top:
There is a small metal cover that still needs to be made that will cover the front portion of the NWS/AP lever.
The internal wiring of the box took some time to complete and there was not a whole lot of room in there:
In order to make it more friendly to repair in the future, I decided to use terminal blocks to divide the SFS and grip wiring. Using really small Euro style terminal strips allowed me to pull this off. Even using the small terminal blocks it’s still VERY cramped in there! Like all new wiring I’m doing, this is bound up using waxed lacing tape. I cannot recommend this stuff enough! Had I tried to use small wire-ties in here, it would have been a mess. There just isn’t any room.
This is what the completed wiring layout looks like. The grip wiring is a bit messier because I didn’t want to shorten any of the wires coming out of the rebuilt Suncom F-15 grip.
Here is what the completed assembly looks like, sans cover:
All that’s left is to fab the front cover for the NWS/AP lever and it’ll be totally complete.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
Here’s some pictures showing the test fitting of the new SFS box.
There are only two issues with this setup – the range of motion for the stick is far too great. This can be cured with a little “motion restriction plate” which would be just a sheet of material with a square cut out of the center and placed at the stick base. The second issue is that the springs in the gimbal are not strong enough to keep the stick centered.
The SFS box & grip really aren’t that heavy, but the account for a huge amount of force at the end of the stick gimbal mount. Hopefully a new set of springs can cure this without too much bother.
In order to have space for wiring and power supplies, I decided to add a forward deck to the cockpit ahead of the instrument panel:
There are two of these support assemblies. Each one is made of two side ribs with “expanded” stringer notches, a single cross-piece and two doubler plates. It’s assembled with six #10-24 screws on each side and the screws go into #10 T-nuts. I’ll be making the drawings for these parts available to those that have purchased the project CD.
The deck itself is made of two pieces. Each one is notched to accommodate the center rib as you can see in the photo. The deck itself is just slightly higher than the instrument panel and a stiffening brace can be installed between the panel and the deck support if you feel the need.
The grip I’m using for this cockpit is a rebuilt Suncom SFS F-15 Eagle grip. In order to mount it to the 3/4″ EMT mounting post in the SFS box, I needed to attach a 3/4″ female EMT pipe fitting to the grip base.
I used a “steel epoxy” called JB Weld to ensure that the joint would be secure. The fitting is mounted in the outside half of the grip. By attaching it to half of the grip, I’ll be able to tear the grip down for maintenance if needed.
I was also able to get the edge-lit panel machined for the left sub-panel in the cockpit. Here’s a picture of it right off the ‘bot:
The stock material is .25″ P95 translucent white acrylic. I chose this because of it’s amazing light diffusing properties. The pocket in the panel is .20″ deep, leaving me about .05″ of material left.
The next steps will involve creating an alignment jig for the laser and then the switch holes will be cut, the panel will be painted and then it will be lettered.
Finally, here’s a short video of the progress so far:
Today I was able to get the main instrument panel cut out. It turned out really nice.
The whole point of the panel is to get it installed!
The panel has cutouts for a left & right sub-panel, a 15″ LCD PFD display, side bars for Garmin G1000 compatible controls and a button bar on the bottom.
The LCD has a smoked acrylic cover on it – the flash illuminates the LCD frame behind this cover. You can’t see it under normal lighting conditions.
Here you can see a bit of how the custom LCD panel carrier is mounted into the instrument panel. I’m really happy with how this turned out and with any luck I’ll be able to get the left sub-panel wired up and get its edge-lit panel created tomorrow.
Yesterday I was able to get the metal parts for the left sub-panel cut out.
Because I only have one .125″ cutter left, I needed to go very slowly and take very small “bites” out of the material. The panel is 6061-T6 aluminum, 0.062″ thick. At the feed rate I used and taking .01″ per pass, it took four hours and forty-six minutes to cut.
Here’s the result of all that time:
I installed the “starter” push-button into the panel to see how it would fit with the test engraving of the light plate that I did. The test light plate is made of card stock that I engraved on the Mini-24. Below is a close up of the engraving.
It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but the result is very nice.
The three rectangular cutouts at the top are for the landing gear indicators.
I decided when I finished my cockpit, I was going to call it an Me-109F/X. This way I could get away with filling the panel with modern goodies.
This includes a glass cockpit display. In order to do this, I needed to rebuild an existing 15″ LCD panel so it would mount properly in the space I had available in the instrument panel. Below is the result of that reconstruction
I move the panel components to a custom fabricated 1/8″ acrylic mounting bracket.
Here’s what it looks like showing a screen from a Garmin G1000 emulator that a friend of mine is working on:
I’m currently finalizing the layout of the instrument panel. When it’s complete I’ll make sure to get pictures posted.