Flights CDU panel

[jj3]

I've been starting down the journey of making up a pit myself, and have found numerous questions on the pcflights.com panels and what they actually look like. Also attached is a screenshot from DCS of the actual in-game panel, the missing item that I could see is the large dot above the MK key.

 

Here are a few photos showing the panels. It's a two piece acrylic setup. The brown showing on the lower part is the paper backing, the piece is actually clear except the black painted bits you can see on the front side.

 

Front:

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Rear:

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Buttons:

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Reference:

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[Deadman]

pcflights.com panels are incomplete guesses at what the panels should be

[sharkfin61]

I wish you to have more luck with your project than I had up to now.

I have to admit, I'm a real freshman to pit building, soldering, programming a.s.o. ..., so maybe I rushed the project to much.

From my point of view the panel has some glitches, indeed.

 

What I miss the most at the moment, is a baseplate to screw the built CDU to the Dzus rails.

f you use the clear plate, the line-select keys are difficult to put into the needed breadboard (to close to the edge).

I found it very difficult, to get sufficient space between the LCD display and it's parts and the breadboard (I used the pushbuttons w/ the integrated led's) and still be able to press the buttons.

 

As a solution to that, I put little patches of self-adhesive cellular rubber on the backside of the keyes.

 

After all, I put the project on hold for now, making a complete new breadboard with new push buttons (about 60 $ down the drain), considering to light the CDU with SMD led stripes (saw that yesterday in a

from Craig S. about his radio cluster at about the 50:05 timestamp).

[jj3]

pcflights.com panels are incomplete guesses at what the panels should be

 

@Deadman, without buying real panels, is there a vendor you would suggest for higher quality?

[sharkfin61]

Did you progress with your CDU?

[jj3]

Almost have the pcb layout done, keep finding little tweaks to do... And then the parts I chose ran out of stock at the PCB maker place, so I had to select different parts and place them by hand. It also ended up a 4 layer board to make everything connect how I wanted it. Using a matrix setup for the keys, used some 1nf caps to do a poor mans de-bounce, and the diodes are to prevent ghosting.

 

I put in a 20 pin ribbon cable to connect to the persons choice of interface, in my case I'm planning to use an Arduino mega with DCS-BIOS. There's a 2 wire connector for LED dimming connection.

 

Top side

Bottom side

 

 

I also made up a simple Nano and rs485 board, and brought out all the unused pins to screw terminals. Keeps things modular and easy to troubleshoot and swap a module. It's not as compact as others have done..

[sharkfin61]

Looks nice and clean, leaves me a little jealous :). Glad the pictures from my cdu project album went down the drain with the forum update.

 

[jj3]

After a bit over 2 hours soldering, it's all wired up. I decided to make another board to hold the mega, rs485, and break out for the screen and unused inputs.

 

I was told A10's have the CDU raised up, so it's not sitting directly on the rails. Haven't seen a photo myself of this setup, but it's an idea to get all the right/left edge buttons to fit easily.

 

 

Not overly thrilled with the refresh rate on the screen, I used code and examples from:

 

[sharkfin61]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb jj3:

...

 

I was told A10's have the CDU raised up, so it's not sitting directly on the rails. Haven't seen a photo myself of this setup, but it's an idea to get all the right/left edge buttons to fit easily.

...

 

 

 

Maybe that helps a bit.

[jj3]

Thank you @sharkfin61, that's the perfect angle!

[agrasyuk]

Awesome looking PCB.

Placement of buttons indeed prevents the device fitting between standard rails. to overcome I'm developing my CDU PCB with  SMT buttons. or you could make a ~2mm  backplate shaped spacer to clear the solder points from the rails , something like the pictured spacer for MFCD bezel i'm working on :

Spoiler

 

 

[Nikolas_A]

Every panel sits directly on the rails, it's just thicker than the other panels

  

On 12/2/2020 at 12:20 AM, jj3 said:

I was told A10's have the CDU raised up, so it's not sitting directly on the rails. Haven't seen a photo myself of this setup, but it's an idea to get all the right/left edge buttons to fit easily.

 

 

The thing is, in real panels the PCBs are not rectangular. They follow the shape of the panel, e.g. there would be a relief around the DZUS studs.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Nikolas_A

[jj3]

 

@Nikolas_A In the case of the CDU, it's not that simple. The highlighted buttons are where the rail is underneath for the DZUS. I'm guessing that's why it's raised up in the photo above - to allow clearance for the side buttons in th e panel.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by jj3

[Nikolas_A]

As I said, it's not raised, it's just thicker! The PCB is within the panel, the switches are not through hole (actually dome switches) and then the whole thing is mounted on a metal plate with the DZUS studs. Everything is within the panel. So it doesn't matter that the buttons are over the rails. I don't have a CDU but I have a real keyboard, I can take pics of the backside if you want.

[Nikolas_A]

Here you go...

[Deadman]

On 10/31/2020 at 8:39 PM, jj3 said:

 

@Deadman, without buying real panels, is there a vendor you would suggest for higher quality?

Sorry I missed your post I don't know of any one making accurate panel face plates.

On 12/4/2020 at 1:31 PM, Nikolas_A said:

As I said, it's not raised, it's just thicker! The PCB is within the panel, the switches are not through hole (actually dome switches) and then the whole thing is mounted on a metal plate with the DZUS studs. Everything is within the panel. So it doesn't matter that the buttons are over the rails. I don't have a CDU but I have a real keyboard, I can take pics of the backside if you want.

This is correct.

[jj3]

Sweet, thank you gents! Learned a lot today, so it's a good day.

[sharkfin61]

@jj3 , any updates on your CDU?

[obious]

Nice PCBs, I’ve been looking to get started with designing then myself. Any tips on which application to use to design the schematic and where you have them fab’d?

 

thanks

[Vinc_Vega]

I used Fritzing for my CDU PCB with self drawed footprints for the illuminated switches. Unlike Eagle (now Autodesk), Fritzing allows the necessary size for that big board.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Vinc_Vega

[jj3]

Apologies for the long delay, here’s the connections board that will connect to the keyboard pcb via standoffs.

 

Has the arduino mega, rs485 board, power input, and moves the unused pins to the edge so they are easy to get to.

 

This is designed to have a display module attached via a cable routed to the correct spot on the CDU board. I'll probably use long pin headers through the board for that purpose.

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by jj3

[jj3]

@obious

I used https://jlcpcb.com/ for this, they have a giant parts warehouse for pick & place if needed. Boards were made within a week on their end and tested for connectivity, shipping was painful though. They have a simple PCB design software that connects to the fab plant, takes a bit to learn though.

 

They are connected to https://lcsc.com for other electronic parts. Picking the parts order was fast, shipping time was slow. They also don't combine shipping between companies.

Edited March 12, 2021 by jj3

[Vinc_Vega]

Do you want to connect the display via RS485 bus too? That might not to be a good idea as it is to slow to refresh the CDU. USB works perfectly. RS485  may work for the button matrix only.

[jj3]

22 hours ago, Vinc_Vega said:

Do you want to connect the display via RS485 bus too? That might not to be a good idea as it is to slow to refresh the CDU. USB works perfectly. RS485  may work for the button matrix only.

Negative, I should clarify.
 

I will use the display module  and mount that to he CDU backside, then connect that display module pins via wires/cable to the mega.

[Vinc_Vega]

Sure you connect the display to a microcontroller. But how do you intend to connect that to DCS?