UFCP - Part Deux

I had started to build my Up Front Control Panel (UFCP) almost a month and a half ago. But, then I got digressed with building other 'easier' parts of the pit.

UFCP, along with the HUD control panel and the UFCP Control Panel, is the single most complicated piece of equipment on the Front Instrument Panel.

Exactly a week back, I re-started to build the UFCP. Finished it today.

I'm fairly happy with the way it has turned out. 

It was such a fun experience, building this piece of hardware, that I forgot to take many pictures of the build. 

Did a small test flight earlier today. It's amazing, how much of a difference this one single part has made, to my overall virtual flying experience. Tested out the Autopilot, IFF, Tacan and ILS functionality over different airport in close vicinity, and also over the boat. The experience was pure exhilaration. 

The 8" monitor & the 4-Wire Touch Panel Kit.
Piece of 5mm sheet of plywood and 5mm Square Soft Wood for the fabrication

Starting with the structure

Front Facade is beginning to shape up.

VGA Driver board for the 8" Pal/NTSC Monitor.
Had to cut the extension of the PCB where the VGA connector is mounted,
to facilitate the relocation of the connector.

This is one of the iterations of the 'internals'. Had to break and rebuild the internals quite a few times.
Each time, one or the other component would butt/interfere or the 'feel' would just not be right.

By the time I was eventually done with it, the internals didn't look anyway like this at all. But, I totally forgot to take any pictures. This is one of the last pictures I had remembered to take.

UFCP completed, all wired up, and mounted on the Front Instrument Panel.
I had some issues in correctly configuring the 'Touch Panel Driver',
but, when it eventually fired up, it was "awesome".

A close up view of the UFCP.
I'm yet to wire up the UFCP Control Panel for backlighting (though the lights are already mounted), but overall, this is now a fully functional UFCP.

Ha!!
My daughter says, it's finally beginning to look like a 'pit'.

You bet!

I'm planning to spend the coming weeks in finishing up the Front Instrument Panel. There is loads of work to make the Master Arm Panel, Sel-Jett/Flaps/Gear Panel, Spin Recovery Panel, Control Panel for EFD, Facia for Standby Instrument Panel cluster and mother of all, the Left/Right Annunciator Panels.

Continue to look forward to the coming weeks!!!

Teensy ++2.0

I had purchased a total of four Leo Bodnar's BU-0836X Input Boards and one Phidget LED 64 Advanced Output Board.

Last two weeks of wiring up my pit, and I could see that I am going to run out of available Input/Output ports on all my boards put together. 

Considering each BU0836X provides me with 32 Digital Inputs + 8 Analog Inputs and the Phidget board provided me with 64 Digital Outputs, that is a LOT of I/O ports. But, I have managed to most of them. 

It's a bad design, if I consume all available ports. It's good maintenance practice, to leave a few ports (5-10%) free on each board, for future expansion of the pit, to cater for ports going bad, to cater for later design changes in the pit, and to cater for any unforeseen eventuality with the pit. 

Unfortunately, Leo Bodnar's site has run out of BU0836X and replenishment is likely to take time. Lead time to order the Phidget board from USA is a couple of months for me, and I'm not prepared to wait that long to finish the pit.

Also, both the aforementioned alternatives were (relatively speaking) expensive options. I had been looking for slightly inexpensive options also. 

Discussion on the hornetpit forums, led me to investigate and evaluate the Teensy ++2.00 boards. These boards primarily work in Arduino environment but, using a 'Generic HID' tool, these boards can be configured for Input AND also Output. At about 2,500 Indian Rupees, they are very affordable also. Each board provides 46 Digital I/O pins, 8 Analog pins and 6 PWM pins. Isn't that awesome!!!

A little googling and I found that two online Indian stores were able to supply these boards (Rhydolabz and Fab to Fab). Both of them and one each of these boards in stock. I ordered at both the sites. Both the boards arrived today.

I'm really surprised how "small" they are. I mean, compared to Leo's boards or the Phidgets, these things are tiny. The form factor is smaller than a credit card. Soldering the pins is going to be a job in itself.

Now, off to learn how to program these boards with Generic HID. 

Will post how it pans out.

Left Lower Console - Part I

Getting all the panels placed correctly.

All the panels don't have switches. Yet! 

Ran out of the SPST/SPDT switches before I could complete all of them. Need to buy a few more, before I'm done with it.

Now to start wiring up all the panels, and then to configure them for 'night lighting'.

Right Lower Console - Part II

Through out the last week, I had been planning for the weekend. I was really really looking forward to finishing "all" my panels.

In the middle of the week itself, I had realized that in the limited time that will be available to me, I won't be able to accomplish the task with manual tools. So, I decided to invest in a power saw. 

A little testing with the powered tool, and I realized that metal or wood cutting blades were not going to be very useful in cutting the plexiglass. Took advice of a friend, and purchased myself a "six-pack" of grinding blades. These blades are awesome. They cut through plexiglass like hot knife through a cake of butter.

Also realized, at some expense and wasted material, that while power tools are faster to work with, they also damage material equally fast. One has to really plan his cuts, to be able to accomplish reasonable level of finish. 

After the initial learning curve was over, by mid-Sunday, my daughter was equally comfortable using it, as I.

Cutting the big pieces was a lot easier, then shaping the small pieces. Most of the wastage happened in shaping the smaller pieces.

Finishing up the Right Lower Console. The black thick gauge paper is their to 'shape up the panel' in conformity with the actual airplane texture.
Two metallic pieces seen in the centre of the console are 'cut-out reinforcement'. Some switches (typically potmeters) were too thin, with smaller axles, that necessitated this arrangement.
The individual panel clusters are also beginning to shape up nicely.

Not all 'cuts' can be made with a power saw. A lot of work had to be done with a manual hacksaw. Rigged up a temporary 'jig' to hold small pieces in place, while I made the cuts. Each of the three restraining pieces are rearranged for different pieces. While, I was doing this, I thought, I must take a picture of this 'local arrangement'. Who knows, someone else might find it useful. :)

I'm fairly happy with the end result 

More than two and a half days of back breaking work. And all I could finish was all the panels for Right Lower Console and a few panels for other instrument consoles. 

I'm thinking this is just about 40% of work accomplished. At this pace of work, it will take me atleast two more weekends to just finish the panels. Phew!!!

Did I mention, I did test out this panels for night lighting also. I forgot, or maybe I was too tired, but the results are quite amaz

Right Lower Console - Part I

Been experimenting with building the "Left Lower Console" for the last few days. 

The reason I use the word 'experimenting' is because, till I started to 'cut' my panels, I was quite certain about the way I was going to build my panels. But, a related discussion with Wayne and Metro on "hornetpit" forums, have made me to review my plan. The complete discussion is at this thread (you will need to be logged in to view).

Anyways, what I have already achieved, is as per my original plan.

As per my original plan, the 5mm perspex sheet is intended to
overlay on the 5mm plywood base.
Theoretically, this planned looked nice, but, despite the overlay being a
close fit, the switches appear to embed about 1-2mm below surface
of the perspex overlay. I'm not very pleased with that.

The 'largish' hole is to accommodate a single pole four way rotary switch 

It was at this point, that the discussion referred in aforementioned thread started, and I temporarily stopped further work with my panels. 

Initially, I experimented with a 'laser printed' overlay printed on a transparency, placed on top of the 5mm perspex sheet and testing out backlight. Too much of light passed through the overlay.

I then printed an experimental panel on a normal A4 sized paper as so.

All my pictures are taken on my mobile, since that is most handy while I'm working. This picture was taken in relatively poor light, so apologies for the poor quality. I have cropped the picture to remove unwanted detail.

Having printed on a plain paper, I overlayed this panel print on top of the perspex and placed LED lighting underneath. It still did not provide the desired effect. Too much of green light was still passing through. I could actually see each of the individual LEDs placed underneath.

I then doubled the number of perspex sheets and tested again. 

The effect was now rather pleasing. I'm thinking, when I print out the panel overlay on a professional grade paper, with a professional printing studio, the 'blacks' are going to be darker, and will prevent the the light that is still bleeding through. Disregard the LEDs that are visible on the extra white part of the panel. They are outside the limits of the panel.

The aim is to light up the 'text' on the panel, and the effect on backlighting the text is rather nice.

Now, off to redesign the complete console layout again. 

UFCP - Part One

Started to fabricate my UFCP today. 

Initially, I hadn't anticipated that this is going to eat up so much of my time. After a couple of hours, I was still taking measurements and designing the shape, and counters, or the outer box. 

Eventually, I gave up the idea to work with wood/sheet metal directly. I will first experiment with a cardboard outer box, cut to correct dimensions. It's best to learn lessons from any mistakes on cardboard, before I proceed with a permanent fixture. 

I can already anticipate that, there will need to be 'slight' changes compared to the shape of the 'real one'. When viewed from side, the real UFCP has a taper from top to bottom. Also, the touch screen is inclined slightly downwards. For my pit, due to the type of touch screen I'm fabricating, I'm thinking, I will have to tilt it slightly upwards, if not keep it perfectly vertical. Let's see how it goes.

All the items I need to fabricate the UFCP. 

First Test

The last two days were busy in finishing up the major part of woodwork, including applying the second coat of paint to the superstructure of the pit.

I'm very happy that the major, labor intensive work of the pit is now behind me.

Started the day early today, to assemble the super structure and mate the flight-sim computer with the pit. There were a few areas of concern, but nothing that I couldn't take care of with a little work. 

Assembled Pit
The seat if more or less done now, with new upholstery.
Two mock ejector tubes on the side.
Two more mock drogue tubes are pending fitment.

Despite all the tests, and final measurements, the seated leg length is a tad short. Will need to figure out how to work around that. I've full movement of rudder pedals available to me. However, I'm only able to apply about 75% brakes. 

Firing Up the Computer for the First Time
Had to play a bit with screen resolutions and screen positioning in the nVidia tuning applet. Had to retune my nVidia Surround resolution also.

Not very happy with the positioning of the sub-woofer.
Will need to find another place for it.

The Triple-Monitor setup is about 4" too high. Need to bring it down a bit.

The 19" monitor on the side, looked okay till now. Till I didn't have a pit. Now, it's an eyesore. Will have to design a contraption, so that I'm able to position it above the Triple Monitor setup. But, that can wait for the time being.
There is other stuff to take care of first.

Firing up the Flight Simulator
Firing up the Flight Simulator.

Even with four displays undocked, and a pretty heavy scenery, the FPS (atleast on ground) is pretty steady between 25 - 35. The FPS is locked at 35 on my rig.

The 'Panel Positioner' needed a little tweaking also.
It worked like a charm in further tests.

The First Ride!!
Ha ha. She deserves the first ride, even if she has no clue how to start it up :)

Some of the pit dimensions didn't turn out how I had planned. But, it's looking good the way it is setup right now. All the labour intensive work is now done, hopefully. 

Now comes the 'interfacing' part. 

Over the coming weeks, I will be working on adding switches to the Left/Right consoles, Left/Right Side Panels (including Gear/Hook levers), fabricating a UFCP (don't like that big blank space between the L/R DDI's). In a departure from the real deal, I'm planning a touch screen for the MPCD also. Let's see how that pans out. Then, there is HUD brackets along with AoA indicator. The output annunciators will come last. 

And, there is getting all the cables routed nicely, add an instrument panel shield. Phew!!! And, I thought this was going to be a piece of cake.