Lets see your gauge designs!

Starting work on all the gauges in the F/A-18C Cockpit. Looking for some proven designs for both continuous and non-continuous gauges.

If I don't have to reinvent the wheel finding the perfect steppers, servos and air-cores, I'd appreciate it. Mind you, all my work will be released on a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Couple questions off the top of my head:

How do you RTZ (Return To Zero) Stepper powered instruments? Just backdrive them the maximum number of revolutions? Put a limit switch at zero and have the needle activate it?

What steppers, servos, and air-cores are you using? In what applications?

Here is a list of the gauges I will be doing:

3 Inch Gauges

• Standby Attitude (This one is gonna suck. Maybe OLED/LCD for it and the RWR?)
  

2 Inch Gauges

• Standby Airspeed
  
• Standby Altimeter
  
• Standby VVI
  
• Radar Altimeter
  
• Clock
  
• Cabin Pressure
  

1.875 Gauges

• HYD Pressure
  
• Battery
  
• Brake Pressure
  

Here is the 2 inch instruments so far: (Small OLEDs for the dials in the altimeter. Flag in Radar Altimeter is fully functional/servo driven - also has a altitude indexer ring linked to the knob, with a continuous single-turn pot to track location. Push to test will also be functional.)

I've decided to not make my own clock - instead I'll simply purchase a real ABU-11/A or similar off ebay for between $100 and $150. Going to be cheaper than recreating it.

You can all so get an AAU-3A cabin pressure indicator off of eBay

even cheaper cut off the back and add what you want.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-EA-USED-AEROSONIC-CABIN-PRESSURE-ALTIMETER-P-N-CP1-AAU-3-A12-/182524766015?hash=item2a7f52e73f:g:whQAAOSwhQhY66Sj&vxp=mtr

Thanks Deadman! The one I'll build will be about half the price of that one, and far less headache. (It's one cheap stepper and switch, and 85% parts commonality with the VVI and Airspeed gauge.) Guts are mostly 3D printed, and the gauge itself is based on the AAU-3A spec. The only spec I haven't been able to find yet is for the attitude indicator, and the drawing for the RWR display isn't available from my source. I haven't found all the specs yet for the 1.5" gauges either.