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Post by cptmatt on Jan 19, 2015 11:37:02 GMT
I'm slowly starting to piece together a cockpit build design focused towards single and possibly multi engine GA.
Initially I thought I'd use the pre cut panels available from here but the more I get into it the more I realise I'm going to need some bespoke panels to build the cockpit. For example I'd like a GPS screen mounted in the panel.
I'm part way through your ebook Mark and the hardest part of this whole process seems to be the cutting and drilling of the acrylic.
My question is does the cost of designing up the panels and sending them to be professionally laser cut outweigh the benefit? |
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Post by MarkH on Jan 19, 2015 18:22:15 GMT
My question is does the cost of designing up the panels and sending them to be professionally laser cut outweigh the benefit? Well that's a hard question. Personally, if I was building a dream cockpit I would think about having the panels cut professionally but based on what I paid for my one-off samples it would be very expensive. The practicalities are also important. You would need to deliver the artwork in a form they can use to program their machine, which in practice usually means vector graphics prepared in something like Adobe Illustrator, AutoCad or CorelDRAW. Of the two companies I worked with one wanted to charge me a drawing fee to take my drawings and make vector art from them. In practice, I discovered that auto-tracing raster art doesn't work very well. You also have to sign off the final artwork before manufacture so if there are any mistakes you miss, the price can effectively double! As for your project, it will be up to you. You could fairly easily hand-make a second panel (28 x 15cm) to sit flush with the GPS and mount a monitor on it, with a switch or two if you really wanted. You could even make this panel from MDF and cover it with stick-backed plastic, which I did for a few of my Twin Otter panels. Incidentally, I have recently bought this monitor, which can be surface-mounted without cutting a hole. It's 25mm deep, but that would not be incongruous with my GPS panel. (In fact having just tried it against my GPS panel I think it would look pretty cool!) I may even mock up such a panel and post some pictures of that to give people ideas. Dunno if any of that helps. Obviously I would prefer it if you bought my panels  |
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Post by cptmatt on Jan 19, 2015 19:08:00 GMT
Dunno if any of that helps. Obviously I would prefer it if you bought my panels
I'd prefer this too!
Trouble is I've seen your in built GPS screen.
I think the starting point here will be a completed design and decide from there.
Also - you monitor link above isn't working.
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Post by MarkH on Jan 19, 2015 19:50:05 GMT
Also - you monitor link above isn't working. Sh**! The forum doesn't like if you leave the 'http' part off - try it now. Will be interested to see your design. |
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Post by cptmatt on Jan 20, 2015 12:33:34 GMT
Are you getting acceptable results for £24!!?
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Post by MarkH on Jan 20, 2015 12:47:24 GMT
Are you getting acceptable results for £24!!? What, do you mean is it worth my while? It will be if more than nn people buy a panel. I have yet to determine whether nn is a realistic expectation... |
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Post by cptmatt on Jan 20, 2015 13:10:28 GMT
Sorry, no I mean is the screen giving you acceptable results for £24.
I expected to open the link and see £250 or similar.
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Post by MarkH on Jan 20, 2015 18:16:05 GMT
Sorry, no I mean is the screen giving you acceptable results for £24. Oh, I see  Well, yes it works and displays a nice picture so far. It doesn't come with a power supply so you have to add that - it has a standard 'barrel' connector (dunno what that's really called) so you can power it from an adapter you might already have. I use one that came with some Maplin LED lights. It can use any voltage from 9v to 35v. |
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Post by MarkH on Jan 24, 2015 17:37:52 GMT
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Post by cptmatt on Jan 24, 2015 23:08:01 GMT
Looks pretty good!
Which method did you use to get the GPS sent to the small screen.
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Post by MarkH on Jan 24, 2015 23:18:57 GMT
Looks pretty good! Which method did you use to get the GPS sent to the small screen. Actually the GPS is faked in those pics, I don't have that panel wired up at the moment But it's a VGA screen, so you just drag the GPS window to it and it works fine. That's the Reality XP GPS, by the way. |
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Well, yes it works and displays a nice picture so far. It doesn't come with a power supply so you have to add that - it has a standard 'barrel' connector (dunno what that's really called) so you can power it from an adapter you might already have. I use one that came with some Maplin LED lights. It can use any voltage from 9v to 35v. 
