[simpits-tech] making our own PANELS

[Marv De Beque]

Jim,

You are pretty close to being on-track with your idea.  The correct way to
letter the panels is via laser engraving.

Your actual cost is going to depend on the amount of effort and time the
engraver will spend to get the engraving correctly setup.  Setup costs will
be a one time learning curve and a batch run setup, too.

There is also one other hurdle that you didn't mention.  That is the
painting.  The paint must be a precise thickness for a variety of reasons,
including part of the engraving process.

Also, proximity placement of the LEDs with respect to the glyphs (letters)
and symbols is also critical.  Expect two or more iterations for each panel
you develop to "get it right"

I suspect that the real panels might be molded as opposed to machined, but
then again, I have seen some machining steps used for such items because the
molds are too expensive.  However, molding would be a more consistent and
speedier way to make panels.

I think that the plastic used for the panels is actually transparent.
Translucent material is a poor light pipe in my experience.

I like the PC board idea with the LEDs soldered directly to the board.  This
way you can save money with a surface mount LED.  You can get boards as thin
as 0.010".  Probably 0.032" would be sufficient.

In the end, I would think that the total cost will be much higher than you
think.  I don't think any one step is really a killer in price, but there
are so many steps that the sum will not be cheap.

As far as dimensions for all of the panels, I used the Lockheed-Martin F-16C
Block 52 drawing that is posted somewhere around the net.  It is not scaled
quite right, but knowing the Dzus rail pitch of 0.375" and the rail widths,
you can easily make any corrections to the drawing.  That is what I did.  It
takes a lot of time, but it isn't rocket science to do it.

Marv




On 1/1/04 2:07 PM, "Jim K." <JimK at sisna.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
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