Gadroc's A-10 Build

I have a source for those type of switches. Be aware that a 8501K9 is an eaton switch not a Honeywell. They both implement the same mill spec, but honeywell's will be silver and Eatons will be a dull bronze/brown color. It might be my imagination but the Honeywells have a little bit nicer positive click when switching positions.

Updated CMSP

Ok I've redone the CMSP a little bit and did my first take at buttons, here are the build steps for it.

First here are all the raw parts from the laser cutter.

From the top left:

• LCD Holder (1/16th Black Acrylic) and circuit board stand offs
  
• Switch Plate (1/16th Black Acrylic)
  
• Reflector Plate (1/16th Black Acrylic)
  
• Lower Spacer (1/8th Black Acrylic)
  
• Upper Spacer (1/16th Black Acrylic)
  
• Facelplate (1/6th RowMark LaserMax Black/White)
  

Step 1 - Mount LCD in holder

Step 2 - Glue LCD Holder to Switchplate using lcd as a guide for alignment. Be sure to use acrylic glue and not super glue so you don't accidentally glue the LCD in place. Once you have tacked the corners remove the LCD and finish gluing along each edge.

Step 3 - Glue Spacers onto reflector plate. Make sure to glue 1/8th inch spacer down first.

Step 4 - Install LED holders in reflector plate and then mask off top of spacers and paint inside of reflector plate mirrored finish silver or chrome.

Step 5 - Attach LCD, switches, pot and buttons to switch plate. Panel is designed to house 6mmx6mm tactile buttons with a 5mm height.

Step 6 - Install button caps into faceplate and glue to top of reflector plate and spacers.

Step 7 - Paint edges of faceplate black.

End result looks like this (I have not painted the edges yet.)

I don't have pictures of all the steps. I have a EOS circuit board designed to run it which will be uploading for fab here in the next few days. I will be posting all the dxf files along with bill of materials and circuit board.

These are my second attempt at the buttons and I'm still not happy. I will be doing more next week.

Your projects are looking great! Very nice work indeed.

Are you still looking at going with an Arduino based solution?

Cheers,

Pogo

Yes. Each of my panels will have an arduino compatible board which runs them.

Any chance you'll make these "finished" for sale with the LCD and toggle switches? ;)

Nice work!! :thumbup:

I am currently engraving 300 Christmas ornaments for a customer, so my laser is tied up with real work and not doing any fun stuff.:(

Any chance you'll make these "finished" for sale with the LCD and toggle switches? ;)

I'm open to doing a small number. Send me a PM, are you interested in real switches or cheap switches?

Following the CMSP eagerly if you're happy to release a price. Authentic switches would be of no concern to me.

If anything, just some info on the electronics used would be a great help!

Just wanted to stop in and say GREAT WORK!!!! Amazing panels... can't wait to see a whole pit of this quality! :)

Got back from visiting family today and ran some numbers. It would run about $225 for a fully assembled CMSP panel including EOS compatible circuit board to drive it.

That number includes Honeywell NT series sealed, but non military spec switches. The 4 primary switches would be 1NT1-5 switches and the Jettison switch would be a 1NT1-1. These are non-locking switches as they are tremendously cheaper than the real locking switches that are used in the real thing. The rotary switch would be a Gray Hill (56D36-01-1-AJN) non mil-spec switch. I'm still looking for a decent pot to use for the brightness knob. Changing to locking toggles would increase cost by about $200.

In order to use the circuit board you would need either and EOS Interface board (see here) or drive it direct using an RS-232 to Serial cable (option A, option B). Helios will be modified to support this board either direct via serial or over a full EOS bus.

All further inquires on panels should move to PMs so we keep this forum on topic of building. My intention is not to start a panel making business.

Cut the prototype of my fuel control panel today. The cut settings on the faceplate where wrong so It's a little marred, but it mostly came out good. Also got most of my switches in the other day.

I still need to find a vendor for the push pull switches for the fill disables. They currently have push on / push off button in them, but they don't latch so there is no way to tell whether they are on or off.

Nice work Gadroc! :thumbup:

Yea! Got time on the CNC today and got the left hand console cut out. I need to head back tomorrow morning with one more piece of wood to cut the last front rib. I still need to sand down and clean up the tabs then get it all screwed together and painted. Here are some pictures of the dry fit I did at the shop.

nice cnc work there man!

Looks real nice!!

Gadroc,

Any chance of letting us know where you got those toggle switches with the red/orange middle?

Nice, looking good, man i need to get the panels cut!

Gadroc,

Any chance of letting us know where you got those toggle switches with the red/orange middle?

hi hog_driver111th.

check my for sell post

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=82008

Avi

Gadroc, Great work with the CNC!!!

The orange seals are honeywell mil-spec switches, in particular the are TL series switches. Thanks to deadman I got them at online components which is the cheapest I've found them. In fact they are the same price as the "cheap" non-milspec switches I was going to use.

I really need to spend some time documenting a few things for everyone. I've got several switch lists spread across my desk, as well as a few more panels. I will be posting all of my source files and parts lists for each panel.

For those cutting out y2kiah's plan here's what I did. First I imported y2kiah's dxf files into CorelDraw. I then grouped all shapes together for a given part (drill holes, inner cuts, etc) and rearranged all the parts to fit onto 3'x4' and 2'x4' panels. I was able to fit the full left side on two 4x8 sheets cut down into 4 3'x4' and 2 2'x4'. I then went in and adjusted notch joints for the thickness of my plywood (.703 instead of .75). I then separated drill holes, inside cuts, pocket cuts and outside cuts into separate layers. Then I exported each sheet to DXF. I then imported those DXF files into PartWorks (VCarve Pro branded for and shipped with ShopBots).

I set up each sheet as two jobs. First I ran the drill holes using a 1/8" drill bit using peck drilling plunging .38" at a time. The second job was using a straight dual flute 1/4" bit. I ran it at 19,000 RPM and 2.5 ips feed rate with a pass depth of .25". I cut pockets, inside and the outside cuts in that order.

I did start cleaning up parts today and assembling the console. First since I used a 1/4" bit I had to use a chisel to square up the notches. If I had used a 1/8" bit this would probably have not been necessary.

I also took a pass over all the parts with sandpaper to clear up all the fuzzed edges. I also had to sand down the tabs from the CNC cuts. Next drilled out countersinks for all the screw holes to assemble.

I then attached all of the brackets to their respective ribs.

Lastly I used a square and assembled the rear section. To do this I first dry fit everything and then used the square to square up the front panel and screwed it to the support struts. Next still using the square I fastened the rear panel. I then just screwed in all the ribs.

Here is the assembled rear section with the top sill and throttle mount just sitting on it.

looks good. I was planning to either glue or use brackets to secure the throttle platform.

Only thing I see is I think you put the rear brackets on upside down. If you put'm on the other way it will put the platform level with the panel surface. Not a big deal really though.

My father's brother have shop for sell any switch

My father's brother have shop for sell any switch and button and electric component , anybody whether need switch and button?

I think switch and button is very cheap, why always consider the price of switch?

I buy arduino x 3 and other electric component , total cost is about USD 70

Got the first CMSP panel assembled using the new EOS LCD Board. I have begun working on the firmware. First step is to get the EOS Library supporting the board which is under way. Once this is complete I will add a GUI in Helios to configure and bind it.

Currently the library supports both driving the board directly via USB to serial cable as well as through an EOS Bus interface. The initial test firmware allows for control of the panel backlights. Over the next few days I will be adding support for polling buttons and brightness knob as well as setting text on the display. The protocol is already in place so it should be pretty quick going.

Here you can see the panel backlight on and off. The backlight has 255 steps of dimming.

The backlight is less even in real life. Picture makes it look better. Here is the messy back end. I need to cut the controller mount plate and do some cable management, but those will wait till the firmware is settled. The buttons in that unit are not good and I have begun cutting a new batch.

First step for the buttons is to cut out a flange out of 1/16th clear acrylic and a cap out of 3/16th clear acrylic.

Next I glue the cap onto flange with the cap centered in the flange. The flange sticks out about 1/16th of an inch on all sides. This prevents the button from popping out the front.

Next I create a sheet of painters tape sticky side up. This masks the back of the button for light transfer and is easy to pick up and move.

I will then paint three coats of white, followed by a coat of black to prevent light transfer and then three coats of gray.

Once those dry overnight tonight I'll etch in the symbols leaving just the white paint. I'll then hit them with a dull clear coat.

Looking very nice!