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My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:25 pm
by gokhotit
I don't have the money for a big full cockpit, so i am starting to build a generic console.

I am starting with the go fligth console as a base, putting sheet metal over the top, and then putting in my switches, annunciator panel, throttle, mixture, etc.  into that.

However, I have run into a slight snag.  I "acquired" an annunciator out of an OV-1 Mohawk.  It is 4 across and 6 down.  I am looking for ideas as to how to relabel it.  It needs to be able to be used on all aircraft ranging from the p-26 to a 747.  How should I label it?

If you are interested i will get pictures and post them of my little project.

And forthose wondering I am using phidgets as the interface cards.

Thanx in advance,

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:47 pm
by beaky
By "how should I relable it?" do you mean what designations, or what kind of label?
How is it labelled now?Is it engraved? Stick-on engraved labels?

If you mean what annunciator functions are most likely to serve most aircraft, I'd say if you stick with the existing labels you should be more or less set, as a military panel will have the usual stuff plus a few other things... only thing missing will be some intercom stuff as you'd find in an airliner.

Can you show us a picture?

My panel will be pretty basic "GA"-type: no SPKR/PHONE toggle, and just "Com 1, Nav 1, Com 2, Nav 2, DME, MKR, ADF".

Unless I find a cheap panel from a real aircraft... ;D

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:06 pm
by gokhotit
the current labels are painted on.  they are off a recon aircraft so they have camera temp lights, IFF, chip detect, Drop tanks L and R, etc.  
 By "relabeling" I mean that i am going to strip off teh paint on all the light panels, and redo them,  what should they say??

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:44 am
by beaky
the current labels are painted on.  they are off a recon aircraft so they have camera temp lights, IFF, chip detect, Drop tanks L and R, etc.  
 By "relabeling" I mean that i am going to strip off teh paint on all the light panels, and redo them,  what should they say??



I misunderstood; I thought you meant it was an audio annunciator panel... this is an annunciator panel with indicator/warning  lights...

I can't really say in that case what you should use them for; remember also that using those lights will require either making sure you're providing the correct voltage to the lamps (no idea what that would be on a Mohawk, but it's probably over 24V), or re-wiring it with new lamps to run off a known voltage... then there's the closure circuits needed so they light up when you use certain switches... complicated.

And if this panel will not just be for show, and you want them to act as real warning or indicator lights,you may need to run a separate program so that they react to situations in the sim... such as you might use to run virtual gauges.

I'm sure one of the fancy-airliner 'pit guys here can advise you further on that; that is where I get off the bus. ;D

If you just want it to sit there and look cool, I'd advise going to airliners.net and running a photo search under "cockpits". Look for one that you like, and check the list of labels shown there.

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:38 pm
by gokhotit
I am converting it over to LEDs so I can use my phidgets LED board with it.  I stripped all the "stuff" off the circuit panels and made direct connection to the contacts on the other side.  

It will look the same as it did when it was pulled off the aircraft, but internally it is completely different.
This raises another question..Will the LED64 board be able to run 2 LEDs off of one output?

All Im looking for is generic labels I can put on it, as I tried labeling it but ran out of ideas of to put on them that would keep it generic.

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:12 pm
by beaky
I am converting it over to LEDs so I can use my phidgets LED board with it.  I stripped all the "stuff" off the circuit panels and made direct connection to the contacts on the other side.  

It will look the same as it did when it was pulled off the aircraft, but internally it is completely different.
This raises another question..Will the LED64 board be able to run 2 LEDs off of one output?

All Im looking for is generic labels I can put on it, as I tried labeling it but ran out of ideas of to put on them that would keep it generic.


I don't know anything about Phidgets; can't answer your LED question.
I think you will ultimately have to flip a coin or whatever as far as the labels go... but I will suggest that you think of the last, say, five flights you made in the sim. What indicators or warning lights were most important on each of the aircraft?

I'm making a generic 'pit myself, and found that line of thought really helps: just asking "what do I use now?"

Re: My new pit..sort of

PostPosted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:46 am
by JBaymore
gokhotit,

If you go to the Phidgets website there is a lot of information in the forums.

http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/

The question of two LEDs has come up there and there are threads with lots of info on it.