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My engineering approach to a Hornet pit build project


Alex_rcpilot

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Concerning seating position and focal point, this might be helpful:

https://photobucket.com/gallery/user/AviaScorp/media/bWVkaWFJZDo4OTQ0OTE3NQ==

(found on Hornetpits.org)

 

Yeah man. BTW, images with Hornet pit dimensions are a bit hard to come by, and that one you shared is one of the rare drawings I also found. I did cross-reference my design with it, and it helped pin down some of the most critical dimensions. Here's what I should end up with if nothing goes wrong:

attachment.php?attachmentid=217528&stc=1&d=1569015232

 

Looking forward to getting the electric actuator fitted in the back too.

 

 

Wow alex... that looks amazing

 

Hi and thanks Gotwake, I hope more stuff will come back soon.

 

 

Amazing hope to see your components available for purchase soon.

Hi Fusedspine, TBH I'm not sure about that. Kinda want to see everything fit together so I have a pit to experiment with, must be a guinea pig thing:D Then if it does become popular at least I'd know everything is reliable.

 

 

Oh sweet lord, that looks amazing.

I spot a cheeky F16 ICP sitting in the background as well ;)

 

lol, yeah that cheeky little sucker was about to get some wires replaced before the F-18 parts came back. I ran out of black wire when I was assembling it. Now I've just completed this task.

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=217527&stc=1&d=1569015224

Hated these makeshift blue wires, screwed up my color coding system :)

 

Thats looks great Alex, are they 3D printed?

Hey thanks Blue, you've also done lots of amazing work there. To answer your question, and also respond to sk000tch and mrwell's comments here:

Ya I’ve been curious since your comment about 3D printing what alternative process you would use. What did you end up doing?

 

Laser cut acrylic it seems to be ;)

 

Yes and no, I did use 3D printing before resin casting those buttons. But most of the parts are CNC milled out of solid blocks of acrylic. They were then painted before laser engraving. The main reason is that there's no way I was able to produce the kind of flat surface and the smooth finish I wanted with 3D printing. The following images should illustrate what results I was expect of these parts.

 

DDI Buttons with the circular recess:

attachment.php?attachmentid=217525&stc=1&d=1569015224

 

Video recording panel:

attachment.php?attachmentid=217526&stc=1&d=1569015224

 

I'll shift my focus to firmware debug in the next few days. Hopefully will have more to share soon.

FA-18-UFC.gif.c9fa9d13d80f4d23e7bb0804133820b7.gif

882357429_VIDEOREC.jpg.4e1c45547f69ac7f10d100448cca8cfa.jpg

Wire.thumb.jpg.4247e779e868570f4bd9d497982c5d27.jpg

495319722_SideView.jpg.4829cd0bf561f44a0b42c4029d6556e6.jpg

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This is near perfection, your milling method is the perfect solution, you get the 3rd dimension you dont get from panel laser cutting. Very impressive work!

 

Thank you Blue, I guess it's the best option for me, based on the kind of resources I have.

 

Well I will keep my fingers crossed for the UFC, DDI and MPCD. Not much around for F-18 builders.

 

Hi Fused, UFC is coming along pretty well.

attachment.php?attachmentid=218015&stc=1&d=1569725646

 

 

The TFT display has an 800x480 resolution, but its HDMI driver board offers alternative settigns like 1920x1080 / 1600x900. I'm using 1280x720 since it's exactly a quarter the size of my main monitors, and I could squeeze in another one without triggering any compulsive disorder. Besides, 1280x720 is the lowest resolution there is without making up a custom profile in the advanced graphic settings, I guess it means less impact on FPS.

 

It's a nice weekend for coding, I'll get to the MFD bezels some other time. I've split the main instrument panel into 4 sections each running on a separate USB card. The cards are all physically identical so it minimizes my coding efforts. They are programmed so I can configure them individually to show up as different devices as in the following screenshot:

attachment.php?attachmentid=218016&stc=1&d=1569725646

 

I didn't use Arduino because of its physical limitations. Space budget is tight and all the electronics have to be customized, the AVR chips are probably too weak for the kind of workload I'm throwing at them. Plus, I need more than 32 buttons per device, and I need all the pots and switches as DirectInput axes and buttons which are much more responsive on Windows.

 

Windows property sheet only shows a maximum of 32 buttons, for access to the rest of them I just use Helios, simply find the controller from the list of interfaces.

attachment.php?attachmentid=218018&stc=1&d=1569725712

 

 

 

I like to organise them in rows of 16 buttons when I debug, it's much quicker to navigate.

attachment.php?attachmentid=218017&stc=1&d=1569725646

 

 

 

The ones that are lit up in the screenshot are some ON-OFF-ON type toggle switches or buttons. I've programmed them to also send out a button press when they reture to OFF position. Those are the OFF positions being triggered.

 

Catch you guys later :)

1398220535_UFCDemo.jpg.270d04c0e01d328e30bc91b069af263c.jpg

255420444_DeviceList.thumb.png.2e90ce7a6c48f577f4305edbbbe600e7.png

1177252194_HeliosPropertySheet.png.d2a41e663145c37e1b9ce4093fd646c0.png

393797919_HeliosInterface.thumb.png.bc9da9ae2f9b21809cf5e7535adece12.png

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I look at all this amazing stuff and suddenly I feel like a caveman in intelligence........just wow, depressingly wow, and awesome for you.

 

Going to crawl back in my retard box now......

 

You and me both, buddy. It's all so tantalising but a bit over my head. Still... gotta start somewhere, right? =)

Де вороги, знайдуться козаки їх перемогти.

5800x3d * 3090 * 64gb * Reverb G2

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Looks fantastic

 

Will post more updates soon :thumbup:

 

 

Great project! Nice to see how you advance.

 

Btw.: Here is a Joystick Test Program which shows more than 32 buttons:

http://www.planetpointy.co.uk/joystick-test-application/

 

Thanks man, it came in pretty handy. I thought about replacing the system legacy property sheet, but it came so low on my priority list that it eventually dropped out, lol

 

I look at all this amazing stuff and suddenly I feel like a caveman in intelligence........just wow, depressingly wow, and awesome for you.

 

Going to crawl back in my retard box now......

 

Hold my beer, when I'm done building my man cave, IMA join the same caveman club.

 

 

What materials did you use to make the panels? Clear acrylic then paint or white acrylic? Your backlighting looks perfect, very nice and even!

 

Yup, it's ordinary clear acrylic painted over. However, it was a painstaking job to strategically position the LEDs.

 

 

:worthy: WOW!! Speechless

 

Marc..

 

You'll get used to it :smilewink:

 

 

You and me both, buddy. It's all so tantalising but a bit over my head. Still... gotta start somewhere, right? =)

 

Might feel kinda intimidating at first, but it ain't rocket science and options are abundant. I've merely picked one possible solution. Looking forward to seeing more from you guys.


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very tidy work sir

 

Thank you, hope you liked it.

 

Looks Damn good!

I'll be working on my UFC soon, wondering what are you using for the LCD screens? I've been sourcing a few 16 segment LED's to use, but looking at dot matrix options as well.

 

Hi, it's a regular 8" TFT with an HDMI interface. 800x480 resolution. I've taken measurements of the viewport output on this display before throwing those window openings on my face plate design.

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This is near perfection, your milling method is the perfect solution, you get the 3rd dimension you dont get from panel laser cutting. Very impressive work!

 

Like a shapeko or whatever, basically mini router on a 3D printer like gantry? Of full water cooled CNC milling with the extra twist axises?

 

I would think the heat from a router bit would melt acrylic?

just a dude who probably doesn't know what he's talking about

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Coding got interrupted by the arrival of the indexer core block. It's just the core structure for now, sheet metal cover and lever comes later. I took some time to solder the PCB.

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=219210&stc=1&d=1570976449

 

Light looks acceptable, gotta edit the drawings a little bit for those symbols in the front next time.

Indexer.thumb.jpg.6541e554bb1a4d313c0258457a9e5c74.jpg

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