The Toggle Switch Box

Update:

2 Versions of this box are now available for the F18..

The Replica Right Panel

https://www.tekcreations.space/product/f18-hornet-replica-right-control-panel/

And a compact Multi Control Panel

https://www.tekcreations.space/product/f18-hornet-control-panel/

Something I have had on the back burner for quite a while now is a Generic Toggle Switch

Box that is as modular as possible.

As part of my effort making panels I took the opportunity to get this off the ground as it shares a few features. A friend and I have talked about this for a while, as Imaginative as we it is called "The Toggle Switch Box"

Something I wanted to be able to offer is a Generic Toggle Switch Box for those who don’t want full specific panels, but still be modular in a way.

I did a bit of thinking and thought I would do the initial concepts below.

• Able to swap and change positions of switches where practical
  
• Able to have a customisable top plate that can be swapped out showing various control names
  
• Able to be Back lit.
  

What I have come up with utilising the design of what I am going to be using my own F18 panels. A box that is confirming to DZUS standards. It will accept a panel 146.05 wide, and be the Standard DZUS 9.525 hole spacing.

A quick mockup is below, the Box is MDF that when close to finalising I am deciding if I will vinyl wrap (carbon fibre perhaps) or enamel paint for a nice finish. The “rails” are 3mm acrylic that I will tap for an M4 bolt to secure the plates on.

The plates I am thinking to be as convertible as possible will only be 3 DZUS holes high (28.575mm) and will hold 4 toggles / rotaries etc.

This will be made up of a 3mm bottom plate to secure the toggles etc to, then a 3mm middle plate to space capture nut, then a 1.6mm Engraved ABS top to give a nice white surface.

One of the biggest problems, being generic is I had to come up with what I would engrave the top plates with by default, below are some of what I came up with that are relatively standard across most aircraft.

The plates with multiple will line up like below

Obviously being modular means there is a thin gap between each plate which I’m not sure I can eliminate, but if clients required and knew there exact layout I could do larger or a single plate to avoid that look.

The Benefit of this box being DZUS spaced is that my standard fighter plates can also be dropped in as well, and this is what I will be using to build my own personal simpit as I don’t have the space for a full cockpit build.

Some thoughts are to work out, how high do I do as a standard (currently 15 dzus holes high ~ 150mm) I think that’s a good starting point, but obviously can customise as much as required.

This box was a rough Mockup, I have a new one cut and waiting for the glue to Dry, once that’s done I’ll work out how I mount the LED strips for backlighting, and also work out how I will handle the cable wiring etc.

Very nice work on your panels. They look so nice that the box should look like an airplane panel (just IMO). Changing the panels is going to become a pain and it is easier and more fun to make another switch box as you go.

A simple way to do a breakout is to use ribbon cable and crimp on connectors that splice into the cable. You could run a buss cable with your switch bits and return leads and then splice in as needed (if you run a matrix for switch wiring). You could easily daisy-chain more boxes then.

Good luck, :)

Nice, I’m doing my own switch box too, where did you get those panels?

Dream Commodore 64C, 1530 datasette, 1541 floppy disk drive, DCS cartridge, competition pro joystick, 14” Tv with VCR.

Nice, I’m doing my own switch box too, where did you get those panels?

Thanks, I make them myself.

Thanks, I make them myself.

They look great, how did you make them?

You can have a read of how I make my panels here

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=245746

I am starting to offer plates for sale as I make them, if anybody is after something custom like what I've done for this box I'm happy to look at that to.

I think I have decided that a single row is too much for a finished product and perhaps over-complicating it a little for a configurable toggle box. As JG14_Smil it would get a bit much configuring all those.

What I'm working on now is doing it split into just a single larger plates for the bottom to mount the toggles and rotaries etc, and then doing a single top plate that a client can ask to be customised, as I'm figuring once they know what they want they wouldn't swap individual controls much. Just whole plates for different jets.

The main reason for this is once backlit with the split plates,Below is rough and it wouldn't be THAT bad once fitted properly, but definitely looks average with the light leakage.

Will post up pics of the single variation soon.

What laser / upgrades are you using buddy?

What laser / upgrades are you using buddy?

I use a 50W Co2 laser

Thanks for the info , looking into getting one to do my own panels for personal use only, any brand u recommend? I read the k40 is ok as long as u upgrade the tube to 60w and control boards with some from lightobject.

Thanks for the info , looking into getting one to do my own panels for personal use only, any brand u recommend? I read the k40 is ok as long as u upgrade the tube to 60w and control boards with some from lightobject.

Hmm, well for personal use, you can get away with a K40, you are on the rigth track witha new control board, you really want something to be able to use Lightburn. IE lighobject, or a smoothie board. 40W will more then do what you are after.

For the cheap chinese laser aliexpress is probabably your best bet vs EBAY .

If you don't want to bother with upgrading the board you need to look for one that has the M2 Nano control board then you can use http://www.scorchworks.com/Blog/k40-whisperer-k40-cheap-chinese-laser-control-software/

Loving these panels.

PM inbound regarding a switch box.

After a bit more Playing around with the design, I discovered that firstly 3 DZUS holes high for each toggle row was just a little 2 tight, so first thing, is I increased that to 4 holes high (38.10mm)

Then upon a bit of reflection I felt that it definitely was a bit overkill having the plates interchangable for each row, so I ended up settling on make it 2 rows of switch per panel. This meant each panel was 8 Dzus high.

So time to get cutting new base and middle plates mount the switches and we end up with this

Shortly after engraving the 2 top plates we are now starting to look like below.

Definitely taking better shape and looking much nicer.

Note that white line between the plates will practically disappear once its screwed down.

I have had to order some black m4 bolts from EBAY, the local hardware has nothing but zinc and I’d rather not go the route of spray painting bolts !

Now to throw in some LED backlighting to see how this looks,and it definitely pops looking smexy.

Next up is getting these bolts in once they arrive , and getting the guts on the inside and some cable routing.

So the Screws have came in for the Generic Toggle Switch Box , it was harder to get black pan head screws locally then it should be.

Now we are securing the panels down we get a nice finished look to the box. This below is going to be the “Standard” Sizing, enough for 4 rows of toggle switches.

This unit is feature complete from the mechanical side of things, just doing a bit of tweaking on the software to act as a HID device joystick button. Also as an option I have DCSBIOS working as well, but obvioulsy harder with it not having “Generic Controls”.

Now I am working on a Larger Unit, this will be F18 Specific and utilse DCSBIOS. This is going to be larger, and as part of this I am spending a bit of time redesiging the guts to make the unit much more rigid.

What I have come up is utilising the DZUS Rail holders more for support by giving them an L shape, and also I am Capitalising on this design to add in a cross brace. This has 2 purposes, 2 reinforce the Sides to reduce flex and also allows a convenient place to mount the LED Strips. Below is the mockup.

These are actually quite a solid bit of kit now, so I’m thinking instead of just a Generic Toggle Switch Box I am going to offer just these boxes up for sale in kit form for those who are building a pit and want something to mount panels even if they aren’t mine, as these are all standard DZUS Spacing. I might also take a segway on this train of thought and look at angled side panels as well.

Also this can be more than just a Toggle box, Below I am experimenting with mounting of a Push button and LED, it will look quite smart in the final product.

I have gone through and worked on the lighting for this larger unit. I have gone for 5050SMD LED's to ensure enough light gets through, it will have a Potentiometer on it to turn on and off, so if it does turn out to bright, it can just be dialed back.

Using the support rails as the mount points,

One row is missing will be added later as my soldering iron died, piece of %$^$#

Let there be Light!

And finally with the mounting plates on.

Going to mount the electronics next and tidy up those LED cables, then we are close to mounting in the hardware.

How do you interface these boxes with DCS?

Thanks.

How do you interface these boxes with DCS?

 

Thanks.

Jim,

There are several ways, or well several different boards... 2 of the most popular ones in the DCS community are...

Arduino Boards (https://store.arduino.cc/usa/) - if you like programming and want to saving a little money...

Or,

Leo Bodnar (http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94) - if you want basically plug and play capability, but it will cost you a little bit more. I personally use these, I have multiple of them all running my pit.

How do you interface these boxes with DCS?

 

Thanks.

In My particular case now I am using Arduino with DCSBIOS with some custom code on top.

Although I also have the ability to present an arduino as a HID Joystick for use outside DCS use.

Once I remember more of the C I have forgotten over the years I'll look at making a completely custom board instead of an arduino so I just have what is required.

So after a little break I got back to working on the Larger F18 Hornet DCS Toggle box.

First up the box with base plate lit up with all the switches in place., just want to check the light is evenly distributed which to the eye it pretty much is perfect. (The camera is a little less forgiving)

Next We place the middle plate to hold the Toggle switch and Potentiometer Locking nuts along with the engraved top plate.

Flick the lights on and we can see that in bright daylight the green backlighting shows through

quite well. There is a little patch on the bottom corner that isn’t lit, but in the darker environment it shows up fine. I will still look at LED placement to fix this if I can.

Now we look at the problem, it is a bit of a spaghetti with the wiring

The reason for this is I was trying to adapt a Control board from my F16 ICP Project. This really won’t do as the placement is not ideal.

The solution is of course a custom PCB for the Toggle Box. Now I don’t want to get stuck in the same boat here so my logic is to make a generic shift register breakout board that I can use in pretty much any project.

I figure 2 shift registers per board gives me 16 inputs which is more than enough, and we have the capability to daisy chain these together. Another Feature to add in is a few extra jumpers to draw off VCC and GND, that can be used for potentiometer inputs, rotary encoders etc, reducing the cables to just being the Inputs to the arduino.

After a bit of designing and Manufacture we get the below beauty in the mail today.

hese look and work pretty great so I will look at selling this populated for those interested in Shift Register Breakout boards for their Flight Simulator Projects. This will allow you to hookup a great deal of Digital inputs with just 3 Arduino pins plus VCC & VDD.

While I was at it, I was looking at the Rotary Switches, this box had 3 rotary switches, totalling up to 15 inputs required. I thought I would get a little smarter and decided to use a Digital to Analog converter using a resistor ladder, this way each switch only requires a single Analog input. I thought I would make a PCB as well for that to mount to the Rotary switch to make things cleaner.

I will post up that progress next along with some of the Shiftin Breakout boards populated.

Hello,

Is this breakout board for dcs bios or useable as a joystick button Hid device. Thanks

Hello,

 

Is this breakout board for dcs bios or useable as a joystick button Hid device. Thanks

This is just a breakout for the shift In registers (74HC165) that makes the wiring easier to an arduino.

Once you have them connected to an arduino you can do what you want with them. I am going to be using for DCSBIOS and HID as well.

A good library on using shift registers is https://github.com/InfectedBytes/ArduinoShiftIn it simplifies the coding quite a bit.

So after a bit of playing around I got my PCB's for the 8 way rotary switches in, no way did I want to deal with 8 Inputs just for a rotary switch.

The PCB is setup with 7 Resistors bridging the pins of the switch with VCC GND input, and a single Analog out. from the centre pin.

I have a new solder rework station now, so instead of the frypan I used previously for SMD soldering, I am using the heatgun which is much more useful :)

Once soldering on we are left with the below.

One thing I will incorporate on a future PCB build will be some onboard LED's to avoid any shadows caused by the PCB.

It took a little noodling to get my Arduino code right for the Resistor Ladder, but now I have it sorted these work a treat using just a single analog port.

Now they are in, I have got the Box fully assembled and tested and working a treat with DCSBIOS.

There is a little lag with the webcam recording so the delay is quite minimal from when the switches are flicked.

So the First incarnation of the F18 Hornet USB Controller was designed as a “multi box” combining elements from both the left and right panel.

Now the next step is making a Right Replica panel. This will mean the 3 Elect Panel Switches, Environmental Panel, Interior Lights panel and the Sensor Panel.

The layout of these will be replicas of the real right panel, so the positioning will be perfect for those relying on Muscle memory, IE VR Cockpit Pilots.

After some work this expanded the size of the Panel Box out to 310mm high, and still keeping the standard 152mm wide.

Went through an did a dry fit of the toggles and Potentiometers (currently awaiting more rotary switches)

Then I throw the Top engraved panel on, this still has masking tape on at this stage to help keep it protected from my grubby fingers, but you can still see quite clearly the layout.

Seems a bit more work to do as a few leds aren’t shining in the right spot. I will also be raising the plate 3 mm, this will help diffuse the backlight more and reduce the hotspots.

Once I get the rotaries in I will be able to get back to it and finish this bad boy off.

In the mean time I’m starting mock up an idea for a F18 UFC panel to complement this next.

You're making great progress, it looks fantastic and well designed!

I have gone through and finalised the design and the DCS F18 Hronet Right Cockpit Panel is finalised.

A video of the unit in action is available to see below.

As we had the INTR LT panel the INST PNL potentiometer is what is used to dim the backlighting.

There are a few hotspots and dim spots but this is just something that can’t be helped with LED backlighting but overall it does look rather nice

Some pictures of the Final product and it is available for order Here. I have also got a smaller more compact Multi Version still available as well here

Now I'm happy with that its time to start looking at the UFC more seriously, I will start a new blog for that one :)