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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 7, 2015 15:31:21 GMT
This is where I will document my initial panel building efforts and ultimately my cockpit project progress. I have wanted to build a fairly close and realistic facsimile of an airliner cockpit (multi-use 737, 757, 767) for many years but either didn't have the space, time or money (mostly all three at the same time) until recently. Well, I have two out of three now and the third ($) I still have to work on a little more:). Anyway, I am very anxious to receive the Autopilot+ kit from Mark and get started. Attached is my existing cockpit. I wrote a little about it under "Builder Support/Graphics Help Please". It has been a faithful companion for several years but is in dire need of an overhaul. Just thought I would throw this picture in. It's of the Cherokee 140 I owned for many years. Great airplane and a blast to fly. Logged many hours in it. Keith
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Post by MarkH on Jul 7, 2015 17:36:13 GMT
You owned a Cherokee? Kudos!
Looking forward to the building...
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Post by ScottB on Jul 8, 2015 16:24:15 GMT
"And His Wife Said "Build Your Cockpit" and He Did"
Well, at least you have the hard part done!
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 14:27:38 GMT
Well, here we go. I received the Autopilot+ kit from Mark on Monday 7/13/15 (by the way the shipping was incredible fast). But, due to torrential rains in the Louisville, KY area (4+ inches in a 48 hours time frame on top of 20 straight days of some type of rainfall) I had a flooded basement to deal with first. All is dry now so on with the project. As I said the kit arrived very quickly and all contents were packaged extremely well. Then it was on to the wire cutting, stripping and soldering. In addition to flight simming I am also an avid Radio Controlled model aviator and N scale train builder so I have quite a bit of soldering experience but nothing quite as involved as the Autopilot+ panel. Even so, Mark's book and video helped make sense of all the wires and keep everything organized.
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 14:39:59 GMT
So, now all the components are soldered It's time to apply the heat shrink tubing Couldn't wait to see what the components looked like in the panel. I even connected some of the rotaries and buttons to the BBI-32 board for a trial run and everything worked perfect (again thanks to the video and detailed documentation). I know FSUIPC fairly well but I know nothing about Lua or LINDA. I'll have to learn because eventually I want to control all my flight controls with FSUIPC or Lua through LINDA. Anyway, hopefully will get the graphics printed today.
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 14:51:42 GMT
By the way; just wanted to let John (issgazer) know that I purchased the coolant oil hose and alligator clips from Amazon. Unfortunately they didn't arrive until yesterday and I already had the soldering complete. I did mount the hoses and did some test soldering and it is a great setup. Thanks for that bit of information. Keith
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Post by MarkH on Jul 17, 2015 15:17:34 GMT
Couldn't wait to see what the components looked like in the panel. I even connected some of the rotaries and buttons to the BBI-32 board for a trial run and everything worked perfect Great stuff Keith. BUT make sure you check the orientation of your acrylics before you do anything else - that picture 3 looks upside down and back to front! (P.S. I want a workshop full of model aeroplanes )
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 15:38:14 GMT
Absolutely on the acrylics. As I said, I just wanted to get a few components on the board. Now have everything going the correct way. Thanks.
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 18:55:18 GMT
Well that didn't take near as long as I thought it would. Graphics printed fine. Still need to work on my printer settings as I did get a small white edge when I printed the graphic. I will have to learn much more about Photoshop or GIMP2. As you could see in the previous images, I chose to wire each component with a full length ground rather than daisy chain them together. In the future I will probably make modification to the Autopilot+ kit graphics, so as Mark suggested, I wired each component separately. I did try a different method for mounting the graphic. It worked very well for me. Just food for thought. I have a hot/cold laminator so after I printed two pages of graphics I cut about an inch off the top and bottom of one page. I then placed one directly on the other, as directed, and then put a small piece of tape on each overlapping edge to hold them together. Then I ran the two pages through the laminator. Now this does create a thicker graphic but with the plastic covering on the photo paper, it seemed to make cutting the holes with a #11 blade much easier. I also printed my graphic on Matte paper as apposed to gloss. The laminate is shiny so I guess I got the best of both. Anyway, I put the acrylic on the graphic, cut the holes, installed the components, wired the panel to the BBI-32 controller, ran the rotary configuration program, assigned my buttons and rotaries with LINDA and everything is a GO. Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to put the panel??? Pictures on the way.
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 19:02:48 GMT
It's going to go where the right most keyboard is hanging. Will give an update once I log a few flights. Keith
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Post by MarkH on Jul 17, 2015 19:08:22 GMT
Wow, you are a fast worker! Out of interest, what aircraft are you going to be flying with? We can talk about how to make mods to the software if it needs any customisation (but hopefully it won't).
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Post by kwbraley1 on Jul 17, 2015 20:08:27 GMT
Mainly I want to set up for a B737/757. That has always been my dilemma with flight simming. I like to fly low and slow and the heavies. I belong to DeltaVA.org Virtual Airlines and fly primarily the B737 but I do like the CRJ-700 as well as the Saab 340 and ATRs/Q-400. I think I need three cockpits; low and slow, turboprop, and airliner. Right now I am extremely happy with the setup and can't wait to try it out. I really need to dive into the Lua/LINDA and Advanced FSUIPC documentation and learn some programing. That will be the biggest help for future projects. And, I won't hesitate to ask questions when they come up. Keith
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