[simpits-tech] making our own PANELS

[Jim K.]

Hi All,

As we all know the odds of all of us locating real light panels for all the 
instruments in the pit is about 0%.

So I've tried to find some panel makers out there on the web and there are 
a few but I thought I'd check to see how difficult it would be to make our 
own panels.

Let me start this off and say if we can't make super high quality looking 
panels then its not worth the effort and would be easier to just buy the 
panels online from one of the panel makers.

So I've taken apart a real NVIS Illuminated light plate panel.   Its 
actually a rather simple design.   We could actually make them just like 
real panels but this might be an easier method.   Now I don't have a 
drawing for this so you'll just have to picture this all in your 
head.  :-)   I have pictures there all the time.  hehehehe.  Goooodddddddd 
beeerrrrrrrrr.

You get a 1/4" thick piece of translucent milky white plastic.  You mill it 
down to the correct size with the corner cutouts.   You also drill out the 
holes where the switches would pass through.

Now you paint the top surface with a translucent white paint.   After that 
you paint the whole thing a nice flat black.

Now here is the tricky part.   You need to etch the black paint on the top 
to put in your lettering.   The tough part is that etching needs to only 
remove the black paint.  So I imagine it needs to be done by laser 
etching.   The other option is to use a more white colored plastic material 
for the panel so you don't need to use that whilte paint.  But whatever 
plastic you use it needs to allow light to easily pass thru it.  Anyway I 
think that sign makers would probably be able to etch in the lettering.

Once the lettering is put in, then we need to work on the lighting.   LEDs 
are the best for this.   Now in the real NVIS panels white LEDs are used 
that have little green filter caps placed over them.  This makes the light 
green and does not interfere with a pilots night vision equipment.   From 
the back of the panels you drill in small holes, that do not go all the way 
thru the material.  These will be where the LEDs are placed.  You need 
enough of the LEDs to illuminate all the lettering and any switches that 
need lighting.  You can sand off the black paint in the switch holes where 
you want the light to shine thru and light up the underside of the switch/knob.

Now in the real panel the LEDs are located on a PC board that has a circuit 
traced on it.  On the bottom of that is a back plate that completes the 
real panel.  So in the real panel you have the top 1/4" panel.   That panel 
is hollowed out a little to allow room for the slightly smaller PC board 
and back plate to fit on the back and screw together.

We could do away with the PC board and just place the LEDs into those small 
holes we drilled and then hard wire them all together.

Then we make a rectangular back plate out of 1/16" aluminum just like on 
the real instrument.  We then make a small hole for the 2 LED wires to 
stick thru.   Now if we want to be fancy we could drill a few more holes 
into the back of the top plastic panel.  Then we can put in thos small nut 
gizmos (which I forget the name of right now...nutserts???).   We then make 
small holes in the bottom metal plate to correspond with those "nutserts" 
so we can actually srew the top plastic panel onto the bottom plate.

We attach all the switches and knobs to that bottom aluminum plate just 
like the real instruments.

Now i know I'm missing something here that would make this all impossible, 
so please tell me where I've gone astray.

But it seems to me there are three four problems or obstacles to overcome.
1. Can we find a local person to do the engraving?
2. Will that engraving be to expensive?
3. We need the dimensions of all the panels.
4. Some panels like the landing gear panel which has some color to it might 
be to tough for us to do.  But we can always buy 1 panel if we have to.


Now I'm going to post this exact same message on simpits and see what those 
guys say, but give me some input here guys.

If we did this as a team we might be able to reduce some costs.  The 
biggest cost is going to the lettering engraving.   On the real panel they 
are photo etched or laser etched since you can't even feel the lettering 
when you slide your finger over them.

What do you guys think??  Where is my thinking wrong????
Jim