Uuuuaaaah..! I have started building now..!

KA-50 Cyclick stick update pictures 22. january 2008

Finally founs time to sand it and make the plate that will hold the switches and coolie hat.

cool joystick!

I'm impressed!! very nice work, man we never can keep up with you:)

But a pleasure to follow this thread.

Cheers!!

Wasserfall

Good job, trigger.

Good job, trigger.

Hey Rocketeer.. I found the documents on building instruments we talked about the other day..!

[ATTACH]14681[/ATTACH]

It should answer all the questions you had I hope.?

I am reaching the final stages of building the Left Rear Wall with Collective and Rotorhead Speed Governor controls.. I'll post pictures and drawings as soon as I get home from work today..!

Been a while since the last update now, but I have been really busy having fun Snow-Kiting.. Just came down from the the mountains today at 04:00 in the morning after being stuck up there in a storm almost all weekend. . . :music_whistling:

Here are some pics of the adventure:

Cold as h... after the first day of kiting in pretty strong winds and snow..

See the satisafied look on my face..? I don't either.. LoL

Carrying the kite out to launch.. Some really nasty winds picked up just after this. And A friend of mine managed to crash he's kite into the Panorama window of the hotel.. Scaring up all the guests and almost breaking a 2x3 meter window..:thumbup:

Sunday we were more or less forced to stay indoors.. (or they at least asked us if we would be so kind to.. And we disregarded it politely)

After the weather got really bad, and we got the word that the road on both sides were closed because of avalaches and bad weather. We had a game of waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting.. And late at night the snow clearing crew managed to clear the roads from snow and came to pick us up and escort us down to the coast again.. This pic is from we had been showeling for hours to get our cars cleared of snow, and were lined up behind a snowplow truck awaiting our return home again..

It was all good fun..! And I'm going back next weekend..!

Now It's time to clear my desk and get home for some pitbuilding again.. L8R..!:pilotfly:

Update 04. february 2008 - Left Rear Wall with Collective Mechanism

Some Pics of the building of the left rear wall anf the Collective mechanism with Rotor RPM Governor controls.

Pitbuilding update 05 february 2008 - Collective assembly

Here's a little explanation to what this will do..!

This is more or less what it will look like when finished (or so I hope)

And this is right now:

The holes are for 120mm cooling fans and some lights.

As you see only the Collective handle and grip are attached as of right now. The Collective box is finished and sitting right next to me awaiting the Coolie-hats arrival from Thrustmaster.. Should be here any day now.! And the Collective Brake mechanism is under constrution, it to will be added at a later point.

The collective pivot point is really quite straight forwards. It moves both the collective and the Governor as one. And pivots arround a 8mm threaded rod on some cheap skateboard bearings thats inserted onto the side walls.

View of the collective mech from above:

And the real thing:

I am working on the detailed drawings for the governor box with it's rolling protection screen and some other stuff.. It's a lot of guessing so far since I we're short on detailed pics. But it's a work in progress..

TODAY'S POP QUIZ:

This is the collective sticks max angle. It designed to let my arm rest in a comfortable position at the collective mid-range. And the height is Set according to the height of the K-27 Ejec tion seat I built earlier.. (see page 2 or 3 or 4 or something of this thread I think)

Now for the quiz..! What is the "correct" working angle for the collective?

I'll try making an e-drawing of the assembly and post it as a zip file here, It might be to big though? So if you want it just send me an PM..!!

(Edit: It came out as a 4,6MB File.. So if you want it you'll have to PM me..! Or I could do as I originally planned and get my finger out of my arse and finish the drawings with dimentions..! But I dread starting on that 'cause it's such a bore..! LMAO.. I guess I'm just naturally lazy)

More later..!:joystick:

cool joystick!

I'm impressed!! very nice work, man we never can keep up with you:)

 

But a pleasure to follow this thread.

 

Cheers!!

 

Wasserfall

Good job, trigger.

YOU GUYS..! (..blush..) (..no really..! BLUSH!..) :blush:

Hey Rocketeer.. I found the documents on building instruments we talked about the other day..!

[ATTACH]14681[/ATTACH]

Thanks trigger for the info. I just got news from my FDT that they'd be providing an upgrade to the output card to operate servos! If that works, then I don't have to buy the OC cards just for the sake of using servos. Hopefully it'd work to drive the gauges. Else, I'd come knocking for help on OC cards. :smilewink:

Boy I cant wait to see this thing whin you get it all together.

Can you send me the mesurments for the out line of the dash pleas?:sad_2:

Thanks trigger for the info. I just got news from my FDT that they'd be providing an upgrade to the output card to operate servos! If that works, then I don't have to buy the OC cards just for the sake of using servos. Hopefully it'd work to drive the gauges. Else, I'd come knocking for help on OC cards. :smilewink:

That was good news mate..! :thumbup:

I'll keep updating the drawings for the general layout drawings for the gauges in our folder on MSN. So keep looking every now and then..

I have just started soldering the board that holds all the resistors for the LED's on the forward left panel (where the APU panel sits).. And I have decided that I HATE LED's..! I am using an old computer power-supply to power all the different lights. They are easy to find for free, and give a steady 5V and 12V output. Allthough I think I'll probably need 4 or 5 of them to power all the lights and IOCards in the pit...

I just finished giving the APU Panel a coat of paint now.. So tomorrow I'll start making the R-800 UHF Radio panel.. It shouldn't be as complicated as the APU panel. But it will require a bit more programming after since it will mainly consist of the toggle switches, Pushbutton switch and LED. AND four rotary encoders that control six 7-segment displays to project the frequencies.. I did initially plan on making an all mechanical panel, but then it dawned on me that this would require for me to manually reset the frequencies before restarting the simulator?

By controlling the 7-segment displays with SIOC I hope to bypass this.. Because I just know I'll forget everytime and hate myself for it..!:cry:

I'll post pics and updates as it moves along..

Tonight I assembled all the parts of the pit in my "game room", and discovered that my Collective stick is approx 10cm to long.. BUMMER..! It's to late now, but I'll whip out the 'ol grinder tomorrow and cut it to lenght. I was watching a movie on youtube from the Ka-50 cockpit and noticed that it's really quite small. So now I have to make some slight modifications to the side panels (mainly the right side, that i thank god haven't finished playing with yet :music_whistling:).

Well it's a labour of love this pitbuilding.. But I guess it kepps me from roaming the streets at night looking for old ladies to rob..?:cry:

Last minute comment: I have made another attempt on building the 4-way switch. And failed miserably AGAIN..! This little thing has really put up a struggle to not function. But I have one more idea I need to test before I just give up and use something I can buy..

My next attempt will use a combination of magnets for the outer positions and a spring from a ball point pen to center it.. Whish me luck guys.. I know I need it..!

Trigger out! (of my mind)

Boy I cant wait to see this thing whin you get it all together.

Can you send me the mesurments for the out line of the dash pleas?:sad_2:

Hey Cat..! Do you mean the forward panel? This one?

I'll make a drawing with all the measures on and post it here.. Is that ok ?

Hey Cat..! Do you mean the forward panel? This one?

[ATTACH]14716[/ATTACH]

 

I'll make a drawing with all the measures on and post it here.. Is that ok ?

OK!

Yes that would be great. I don't like the one I came up with.:(

I have just started soldering the board that holds all the resistors for the LED's on the forward left panel (where the APU panel sits).. And I have decided that I HATE LED's..! I am using an old computer power-supply to power all the different lights. They are easy to find for free, and give a steady 5V and 12V output. Allthough I think I'll probably need 4 or 5 of them to power all the lights and IOCards in the pit...

Hey trigger, are you not a dedicated display card, or the output section of your master OC card for LEDs? You mean, just power supply and LEDs directly, with resistors, on a perf board? I've been struggling with my output card. If a more direct way works better, than I'd go that way. Please eloborate.

Connecting LED's

Hey trigger, are you not a dedicated display card, or the output section of your master OC card for LEDs? You mean, just power supply and LEDs directly, with resistors, on a perf board? I've been struggling with my output card. If a more direct way works better, than I'd go that way. Please eloborate.

Well... I use the output from my Opencockpits master board to controll the LED's on and of.

There are two ways of executing this that I have considered. The first is to Have the Master board give a 5V output (it runs on 5V) to each and every LED. This would mean that the outputs on the main board would soon be filled up. And that would be a total waste of outputs... 'Cause you'll need quite a lot of them in the Pit.!

Let's look at the instrument Panel backlights first:

As I previoulsy have said, I have 14 LED's that backlight the APU Panel alone. And if we start counting how many I'll need for the whole pit, it sums up to be a quite high number.

Now.. I assume that switching the backlighting on and of in the pit will be done by one command for all of them. So I only need ONE output from the MasterCard to do it. However I can't run all those LED's on one 5V output from the Mastercard without having to worry about overstraing it.. So I have come up with this simple sollution.

As you see I connect the Mastercard to the 5V power supply (beacause it runs on 5V). And as I flip the switch for the baclighting it will give a constant 5V output from one of the output cannels on the card. This 5V current will trigger a simple relay that again opens for the larger 12V power supply's current to run through it and out to the ressistors..

The resistors are quite nessesarry since Different LED's run on different voltages. If the voltage is to high it just burnes up! And if it's to low it doesn't emitt any light at all..! So by adding resistors you can fine tune the current to the be correct for the LED's to shine brightly without breaking. And by using a simple LED Calculator at http://ledcalc.com/ you can calculate the correct resistance for the current you need with the number of LED's you want to light up.. It's really quite simple one's you try it out..!

For my APU Panel I punched in the LED Calculator the output voltage of 12V. And then a voltage drop of 4,5V for each LED (you can find the voltage drop for the color LED you're using by pressing the question mark on the page. Or by checking the manufacturers specs).

My white LED's run best on a 30 milliAmp current. And I want to run 14 of them in series..

And 'voila..! Out comes the resistance needed and a simple chart showing how to connect them..

Thanks for the info. I'd try it out once I get back my output card from repair.

More pics on how you line up the LEDs for the panels please! I'm curious how many and how you space them out. Front and back of the panels pics would be much appreciated!

Hey Cat..! Do you mean the forward panel? This one?

[ATTACH]14716[/ATTACH]

 

I'll make a drawing with all the measures on and post it here.. Is that ok ?

I don't mean to pry (but I do) too much but I am wondering if you forgot to get thoes mesurments for me. :D

Front Pedestal Drawings done

I don't mean to pry (but I do) too much but I am wondering if you forgot to get thoes mesurments for me. :D

Oh.. C'Mon..! You ment to pry.. And you had good reason to as well.! :music_whistling:

I promised you these drawings weeks abgoe, but I haven't been able to finish them before now.

The main reason for the delay were these two pictures. My first front panel was WAY to high...!

[ATTACH]14996[/ATTACH]

And I also saw form this picture how small the cockpit really is.. Not a lot of forwards room here..

[ATTACH]14997[/ATTACH]

But here are the drawings mate.. Sorry for the delay.:cry:

Front Center Panel KA-50.PDF

Front Left Panel Outlines KA-50.PDF

Front Pedestal Side.PDF

Front Pedestal Drawings done.. 02

This is what it will look like if you build it according to drawings. I have finished mine now, and are in the prosess of swearing and cursing my way through cutting the instrument gauge holes.. :cry:!

And here's the Zipped E-drawings file..:

[ATTACH]15000[/ATTACH]

It's aout time:smilewink: LOL JK. Thanks that is great :thumbup:

Aother ? where/ what push buttons are you using for the nav/targiting pannel? If posabel whear to get them and the part #.

It's aout time:smilewink: LOL JK. Thanks that is great :thumbup:

 

Aother ? where/ what push buttons are you using for the nav/targiting pannel? If posabel whear to get them and the part #.

I just finished building it tonight..

Heres the general layout. Drawings coming later (and Pics) Now It's dinnertime..! Yahooo!

I was more wondering about the pannel on the right side. thoes are the buttons I realy want to know about. As there are many of that style button.

making announciator switches

I was more wondering about the pannel on the right side. thoes are the buttons I realy want to know about. As there are many of that style button.

Sorry mate.. My Bad.. LoL..

There are a lot of different good ideas out there on making announciator switches.. All depends on what kind of tools you have accsess to I guess..!

I found a guy who has a brilliant idea that's cheap to..!

He makes the switches out of table leg plugs

He just turnes them up-side down and fit a pushbutton switch behind..

And at the open end he sticks a square piece of plexiglass and a printed sheet of choise..!

And BOY does it look good..!

He has A BUNCH of other good tutorials for just about anything to..! Check out he's website.. I wish I knew he's name, but I couldn't find it on he's site? But Whoever he is.. He has my respect for KISS solutions..!

Being kinda lazy, I have opted for this way (look about halfways down the page):

http://home.hccnet.nl/jwopdenakker/IOcards.html

That is a great idea. I have ben trying to think of somthing that I culd use as a squar button. That will spread out the buttons a little thoe. So the search begins for table leg plugs :notify:. will have to look for other ideas as well.

Thanks