Custom Made MFCD

Hellou!

First of all I´m not sure if this thread should be in Input-Output or here so if the administrator feels it should be moved please do so!

Second, I would like to present myself, although this is my third post I haven´t presented myself properly! I´m Spanish but currently living in the UK and as most of you I shiver with pleasure everyday I find time to sit in front of the computer and start up the a10.:D

And third I would like to present you guys my humble project! For me one of the best things from the C version upgrade are the MFCD, I just love how they look, how big they are how you can fidle around with all the buttons. I soon started considering buying the Cougar MFD to make things easier but I found it was a shame that they were so small...so I decided to give it a try and make my own!

So far I´ve finished drafting them with aproximate dimensions, starting from the fact that the screen is 5´´. Also I am the lucky employee of a company with a few laser cutters :D so I have also been able to do some cutting/engraving tests... See below!

In order to make bezel as thin as possible I chose to use some tactile switches, I know the feeling isn´t probably realistic but it was the only way to make the thing work. I designed a 1mm perspex board in which I could glue the switches on.

To control everything I bought a LeoBodnar board which allowes 48 buttons (counting the 8 direction POV). I will only be using the OSBs so only need 40, maybe later will use the other 8 for something else.

The wiring was quite painful (I´ve never solded before) and had to redo a few thing a few times :D. I used 2 ground wires only to limit the amount of cables, but also make failure diagnosing easier (with only one you can never be sure if the problem is the ground!) After all the soldering I tested the wiring and surprise....it WORKS :smartass: (wiring in progress...see below!)

Thats kind of how it looks now except with all the wiring. I think I´m changing the way I will attach the buttons cover to the swithches and a few other things...I will put some schematics once I´m happy with the overall design.

Hope you find it interesting!

Pepe

Nice work there, I wonder how the switches feel when you press them. How did you turn those red switches into gray ones ? :)

Wow man impressive work wish I had access to those kind of tools! Can't wait to see more keep it up.

That's excellent work on those! Welcome to the forums too!! :D

Thanks guys!

The switches CLICK! when you press them. It gives a quite good feedback if you have correctly pressed it or not. I bought them in ebay, 50 of them for £8! It's almost the only expense I've had for now.

I have cut many different pieces at this point trying new stuff and adding more details so I have several times the same pieces, sometimes in different colors (I used scrapped pieces of perspex from the office).

Cheers!

I made my own because I wanted bigger screens, not nearly as stylish as yours might be, these were clunky push buttons, MDF a Groovy Game Gear and had a 15" monitor behind.

After they were done I wondered if it was worth the effort for an extra few inch (my wife would have said of course, bigger is better, get an extra 2" in there) or just buy the cougers.

I bought the cougars but have not used them yet so I cant comment on whether they are too small.

My only thought being, if they are big enough for a F-16 pilot then perhaps they are OK for me?

Looking though, keep us posted on the progress and any idea on interfaces?

I know the feeling Mr.Burns. Last weekend I had the Cougar box in my hands and was about to buy them (I can tell you my gilfriend would have been happy to pay them instead of having bits of perspex everywhere at home now!)...but I guess part of the fun is trying to make them!

I think I will use a 22'' monitor to display the MFCD and some other information, probably with Helios dont know yet!

A few more pics

This is how I've decided to do the button cover. 2 pieces of 2mm perspex glued together. They fit perfectly on the switch and stops the cover from having anoing lateral movement!

Cheers!

Yeah, definitely use HELIOS! :thumbup:

I made my own MFCD's a couple months back and then had a PCB board made for them. I'll be using SMD buttons on it and using it with a x-keys matrix board (less wiring that way). Other than that it's very similar to your design. I'll try and post some pics later.

+1 for the fun of building!! I would never have been learning this stuff without this game and community!

I have done my first ever painting test today! Im really happy with the result, the black hasnt come out as matte as expected but still looks really good, it gives the plastic a metal look wich is quite nice. For the details in white I´ve used a white paint pen which has worked brilliantly for the small lines next to the buttons but I havent been able to do the DAY NGT OFF lettering, its way too thick, any ideas on how to do the lettering?:helpsmilie:

A few pics included!

I need to buy grey spray paint for the buttons, Im really looking forward to see them on once they are painted!:pilotfly:

Cheers!

Looks great!! Try putting a couple clear coats on. That will protect it and can reduce the shine (if you want).

How did you do the little separator pieces between the buttons?

+ 1 for the build!!!

- 1 for the envy :D j/k

Ptbldr thanks for the advice, I was planning on doing the clear coat but only once happy with the overall design...I´m very disorganized in my head as well as in my project so I have bits and pieces from different prototype lying everywhere...never happy with the result and trying again something different...at this stage I wonder if I'll ever finish anything :)

The separator pieces are 2mm clear perspex cut with the laser cutter and glued with Superglue, very simple!

See pic!

Could you give any advice on how to do the lettering? How is the feel of the buttons you´ll be using on yout MFD? Any pics? :P

Thanks Succellus!

Cheers!

+1 for the fun of building!! I would never have been learning this stuff without this game and community!

Absolutely, like I said in my pit thread, I would never have tried this stuff if it weren't for the inspiration, motivation, ingenuity and help of others. Meeting up with my squad buddy Cat a few months back really added to my drive too, sitting in someones creation and flipping switches goes a long way!:pilotfly:

EDIT: I'm looking for the same info in regards to lettering on panels. I'm not quite at that point yet but I definitely don't want to use my label maker like in my generic pit. Gets the job done but leaves a lot to be desired!

The separator pieces are 2mm clear perspex cut with the laser cutter and glued with Superglue, very simple!

 

Could you give any advice on how to do the lettering? How is the feel of the buttons you´ll be using on yout MFD? Any pics? :P

Nice work on the separators! The thought crossed my mind to try that, but I figured trying to manually glue those on straight would be a frustrating exercise. I think you have more patience than I do and steady hands! :D

I did mine by first painting the acrylic white, using several coats, then one coat of black (as even as possible). Then I just engraved off the black paint. Took some trial and error and still lose a few panels that way, but when you pull it off, it looks great!

The other option is to use white acrylic. Then it does not matter how thick the black paint layer is, so you can engrave at normal power/speed and still get consistent results.

Here's pics of my first attempt at this. Did these several months back and need to redo them at some point. You can see that I just engraved away areas in between the buttons for my separators. :music_whistling:

They're made up of three layers of .125" acrylic. Top two layers are glue together and the bottom layer is separate. I had a good reason for doing that at the time, but now can't recall why. :lol:

The fourth layer is the PCB. I have yet to try soldering on the push button switches. Work on the MFCD's took a back seat to getting the left and right consoles done. Once I start working on the front dash, I'll revisit these.

Oh, forgot to answer you about the feel of the buttons. Since I have not assembled it yet, I can't really say. I plan on using SMD tactile push button switches. Not much travel on them, but the tactile response when you push them will work well I think.

I second the advice to use white acrylic! Luckily I was able to scavenge a bunch of small sheets a few years back. I hoard useful things BTW!

Wow that looks amazing! I should have done some PCB to make the whole thing cleaner but the budget would have rocketed...may I ask how much you paid? Where did you do it?

Also, on the lettering engraving...how do you make sure you place the piece in the right place after painting? How do you place the piece in the laser cutter bed EXACTLY where it should be?

For the separators I engraved the location on the bezel so when you glue them they "kind" of fall into place, I would say most of them are quite nicely located but there is one or two that are a bit...hmm lets say not perfect...:D

I had several made at http://www.pcbnet.com/. They have a new customer special which helped keep the cost down. :) I think I paid around $20 per board at the time (several months ago).

Also, on the lettering engraving...how do you make sure you place the piece in the right place after painting? How do you place the piece in the laser cutter bed EXACTLY where it should be?

That's very easy. Keep the piece of acrylic that you cut it out from and use that as a guide. I design my panels in Corel Draw and have at least two layers per panel. On one layer is the panel shapes and on the other is the text. I cut panel parts, assemble and paint them, then put the "guide" back in the laser and put the panel in the cut out. This works great. At long as you don't change the shape of the guide and can consistently put it back in the original position, you should've have any problems.

For the separators I engraved the location on the bezel so when you glue them they "kind" of fall into place, I would say most of them are quite nicely located but there is one or two that are a bit...hmm lets say not perfect...

Good idea! I may have to give this a try. thanks! :D

I should also mention that I keep the cutting bed in my laser the whole time and don't use the engraving table. I found that the position did not match up if I switched those out, so I just leave the cutting bed in all the time.

Also for the PCB check out Batch PCB. Reasonable prices for single boards if you're willing to wait.