y2kiah's A-10C cockpit build

Awesome, congrats, ... it will be supperb!

A bit too restrictive for my taste since its devoted to one sim only.

But above all its not at my wallet reach, or i ll probably do one for each sim i love to play.

Amazing stuff Ykiah! Would you be willing to share your plans when you're finished getting everything drawn out? I'd love to take a crack at building something like this and you've even gone the extra mile making it modular!

y2kiah, it depends on how much room you have behind the seat pan...with PVC you can change anything to fit your situation, below is a rough design, I went with 3in. for more air capacity, PVC SCH 40, the bottom is a split tank and the 3in. tube will have more room to fit in a drogue chute, but you could probably get away with 2in. I also wanted to keep it midline so it could be centered in the seat with a rear access panel for filling. The lengths are what ever works for your situation. The 3/4 sprinkler valves are quick release and are cheap, around $10-15 bucks they are supposed to be run on 24 volts AC but I saw an air gun build where a guy took three 9volts batteries in series on a 24volt valve and it's worked fine for the last 4 years. What's that? Like 27 volts @ 1.5 amps DC? He claims he proved an electrical engineer wrong...anyway, I figured you could have 2 micro switches both momentary one for the eject and one to arm, and also act as a real safety . I guess you already know how to tie that into the sim as I have no clue. PVC is rated to 450 psi so no worries, I think around 40-60 psi would probably be enough. The valve stem has to be drilled and fitted to an end cap, I used a one piece rubber one, they do have better metal ones that are attached on the inside with a nut, and are also pretty cheap. If you end up using this you'll have to post some pics. Almost forgot the well pressure gauge, it was around $12-15 bucks two years ago when last I checked. All PVC joints are cemented together, (I always use the PVC cleaner prior to applying cement) and the threaded fittings need teflon tape, or paste on them to seal. Also, you'll want to screw in the 3/4 threaded pieces into the sprinkler valve first followed by the reducers and thread the gauge into the 1/4 threaded to 3/4 slip, the reason being you'll be able to line them up correctly when cemented and they won't bottom out in the wrong place. Lastly, I'm pretty sure this will achieve a venturi effect when it chokes down to 3/4 so the air velocity should increase that much more.

Just a reminder, this is a rough drawing. :D

y2kiah, I edited my last post to include a few more details. The last thing that needs to be worked out is how to hide the pipe. It would have to enter into the parachute container bag on top from the bottom, but I'm not sure how that bag opens, the only thing I can think of, is you may have to make a wire frame basket or thin light weight sheet metal box (with 2 hinged outward opening doors parallel to the opening) skinned with the canvas chute pack over it, or the same with some hidden opening flap or flaps in the bag that could easily blow open if the real one's fasteners don't release. Or maybe replace the original fastner/fasteners with really small pieces of velcro, just enough to barley hold it closed. Now I just wish I had an Aces II ejection seat to put this into, so I could build the thing and try it out.

y2kiah, do you mind if I "steal" your rudder idea? it looks very simplistic and yet awesome!

btw, i noticed your panels are inclined about 20 degrees, both outer panels (environment, lighting, etc) and front panels (CMS panel, warning panel).

did you see somewhere that it's 20 degreess, or you're guessing? I tried to find the information, but couldnt. still looking, but from that scheme someone posted here, I understood that outer panels are 8 degrees inclined, and front panels are like 27 degrees. of course I have no idea about that, I probably misunderstood, so I'm asking if you're sure about that.

thanks

I gotta' ask y2kiah, any update?

Hi guys, I actually do have quite a bit of progress to show, but no pictures at the moment. I've had all of my panels laser cut, except for the NMSP, MFD's and a couple other small panels that I have not designed in CAD yet. I still need to paint and engrave them. They look fantastic, the laser does an amazing job compared to a CNC router. I made 7 UFC's, 6 of these will be for sale. I made 3 CDU's, 2 will be for sale. If I still owe you panels, I will have them laser engraved because my new CNC is still not off the ground. I've started building my rudder pedals, so I'll also take some pictures of that progress as well.

Vitrolight (on ebay) does not have a 4" 4:3 lcd available. Has anyone found a source for an lcd panel of that size that includes a VGA connection? This is needed for the CDU. Otherwise, a 3.5" would fit but the LSK's wouldn't align with the correct line of text on the display.

There are some updates in CAD land too.

Starting at the UFC, the case will be fabricated from 1/16 aluminum sheet. It will contain the circuit board with keypad buttons and back lighting, plus a microcontroller board. It will interface with the PC via ethernet. I chose this method because I want the master caution light to work, and I also want to be able to link the back lighting dimmer to the in-sim cockpit light knob. USB may seem like the easier choice, but as soon as you throw outputs into the mix, the obvious choice becomes ethernet. The knob on the side will also control dimming manually, and switch between sim-interface and manual dimming modes.

Moving down, I've split the instrument standoffs into .25 layers so I can cut it out from one sheet of HDPE plastic and then bond the layers together. The ADI and HSI both fit a small LCD available from Vitrolight (I believe they are the Innolux 5.0" and 5.6" 640x480 models that they sell). The standoffs will also fit real instruments, but I don't plan to use any real ones. The knobs on these instruments are going to be tricky, most likely won't be able to fit a full encoder near the surface so I'll have to mount it farther back and put a narrow extended shaft through to the knob. Running the needles should be pretty straightforward though, either a servo or small stepper motor interfaced with an AVR microcontroller. The tricky one will be the airspeed with two needles, but I know what I have to do to make that work.

Wow sounds impressive. UFC and CDU for sale sounds nice, too :)

Any chance that you are still planning to release the CAD files?

Yes I do still want to release plans at some point, but I have been busy working on other things...:music_whistling:

You may have noticed that I have an extra environment panel, AAP, and CMSP, and a stack of UFC's. If you want one, PM me.

edit: oh, and an AHCP

That's nice work! :thumbup::thumbup:

Were you able to engrave those on your CNC?

Looking real good !

Thanks guys.

Were you able to engrave those on your CNC?

No I paid for time on a laser to cut and engrave everything, and as you can see the job isn't quite finished. My new CNC still isn't up and running, but I did some work on it recently because I really want to start cutting out the wood structure.

That's top shelf right there. You could sell that thing to the Air Force man.

AWESOME work! Can't wait to see this finished....and get ahold of the model so i can make an all steel construction. CAD good!

But seriously, great work! :thumbup:

WOW. Those are looking great!

looking good, great work :-)

Yes I do still want to release plans at some point, but I have been busy working on other things...:music_whistling:

Have you ever! This is fantastic work man.

Cheers,

Colin

UFC

Here is my UFC work in progress. The case and front panel are coming together, I still have to do some filling, sanding and painting and make the electronics.

Wow, love the case! You cutting those on your CNC? I gave up on working with aluminum as it was messy and I kept breaking bits! :D

What's causing the reflection around your master caution button?

Very nice work!!

Thanks! I cut the case by hand this time around but I will try one on the CNC as well some day. The reflection is kind of weird, I noticed it too. I just haven't painted the sides of the master caution button yet so we're seeing some kind of weird refraction through the clear acrylic.

Wow, love the case! You cutting those on your CNC? I gave up on working with aluminum as it was messy and I kept breaking bits! :D

 

What's causing the reflection around your master caution button?

 

Very nice work!!

Beautiful work, as expected.

That thing is a work of art, the skill of people on here never ceases to amaze me!

That's great work Y2kiah!