Nick1150 Home Cockpit 737NG project in Athens

[Nick1150]

Hi,

A new update... Pedestal is already working… It took some time to make this happen due to several reasons, most of them NOT my responsibility, but nevertheless I can fly now with less clicks than ever!!! Now next is, a Leo Bodnar card to create a lights panel on the pedestal, a TQ, two 737 seats, and a CDU.

As a general comment:
If you are looking for a pedestal bay, just pay for an aluminum one, or do it yourself. Any other way will hurt. No more comments. Trust me on this.

The PnP OpenCockpits radio modules are in an acceptable quality level, according to my personal opinion, and are really PnP. Just run the setup file downloaded from OC. Restart and then plug in all modules to the USB ports. That’s it…. It is very easy. No programming, no settings, nothing. It was so easy for me too, but it seems that (see the pictures that follow) I plugged an USB light too for back lighting purposes, which seems that caused my USB PC port to crash and loose any communication. After few days of struggling around I found out that this was it. So be careful not to connect any other devices to the hub, and always connect the hub directly to the PC. If you follow this, you are flying in 3 minutes!!! About the ATC, which many stated about the lack of dual concentric rotary switch, my personal opinion is that, I can live without it. It took me few seconds to realize how to change the ATC code, and since then I have no problems. As a final comment, I would say that OC PnP modules are worth the money, and I would buy again one of these.

All other panels, I call them dummy, are ok. Nothing extraordinary, not bad either. I have already installed all buttons, knobs, and switches to them and I like the way they appear on the pedestal. I would buy again OC panels too. Worth the money.

The blanks you see on the bottom are a OC fault. I have already cut fiber glass panels and sorted that problem, but I do not have updated photos to show them. Will update soon.

Pictures…



















You can see the USB light which caused my port to crash here:


A dummy CDU is placed left, till I decide about my working CDU


Hope you like it,

Nick

[bussgarfield]

Hi Nick,

Very impressed.

I also have O/C panels and some like yours are dummies. Just to add a bit more realism to the dummies, I have printed out some digital 7 segment displays. I did this by purely photographing existing displays from the working units and adjusted and resized in photoshop. After printing I went around the edge with a black permenant marker to allow for any discrepencies and then cut them slightly over size so the paper is gripped by the upper and lower panels in a sandwich.
I haven't got round to backlighting yet but I hope, when when back lit, the lights will create even more realism through the dummy displays.

I went down the route of making my own pedestal from MDF. Still needs finishing and painting but I am reasonably happy with it.

IMG_5555.jpg

Gary

[Nick1150]

A few night shots...

[fsaviator]

Μπράβο μεγάλε!

Very nice. I'm already planning on Greece again next July when I return from my upcoming trip. I'll be looking forward to some more flying!

Unfortunately, I've had to push my build to the back-burner while I focus on getting ready to go. Oh well... next year, I guess.

Warren

[Nick1150]

Γεια σου Warren !!!

I'll be more than glad to fly together again man

[Nick1150]

Nothing important, but had a few tasks to take care... The sight of a keyboard and mouse on my cockpit was something that I didn't like at all. I was searching for a solution with a tiny keyboard and a mouse, and finally I decided the way to go. I also wanted to fix the problem of ATC communication, since I didn't like the voice coming from the main speakers... This kept waking up the kids ( !!! ) and also sometimes when the ATC was not clear enough, I was struggling to hear what he was saying. Also when flying with friends, it is not practical only for the C/O to hear the ATC, but also to be able for the F/O to do the same... So here it goes:

Keyboard and mouse...

I purchased this for a keyboard Speedlink SL-4439 for 25 euro. It is wireless and I am happy with it, given the cost and it does match with my CH yoke, at least until I decide what to do with 737 yokes. It switches off after few minutes of not usage to save battery life. By pressing any button it gets activated again. No drivers needed for windows, just PnP.








I also purchased the XL Ergonomic Touchpad from UK. Costed around 50 euro. It's expensive, but it's worth the money in my opinion. True PnP, and because of its style you have to watch very close to understand that this is a pad instead of a Boeing pedestal accessory !!!













Dual Headset installation...

I already had a Saitek Pro flight headset, so I purchased another one for the F/O... Also purchased a Creative Soundblaster X-FI GO, together with two 3.5mm audio adapters and cables from my local shop. All true PnP, no drivers needed. After installation I changed the input and output from the drop down menus of the voice tabs of squackbox and the result was for the C/O and the F/O to both hear and speak from both headsets. I have to say that the Saitek Pro Flight are very very very beatiful and have excelent audio quality.... Too expensive though...

















Hope you like it

Thanks

[nax228]

This thread has passed by me... sorry about that.
Nice work you have done in a very very short time. I want to ask if you can take some closeup pics of how the backlighting is done. I only just started to backlight my mip, but not sure how to do it best.
I won an auction on Ebay last friday for LED strips. The winning bid for 5meter LED strip (WarmWhite) was 99 cent The 1$ dimmers is already installed.
Would also like to see a closeup for the flood and autopilot lights. Is there a kind of shield in front of the autopilot lights?
As you maybe did see in my buildpost, I started to work to get a set of yokes into the sim, and is so glad I built the base in modules. That way I can now build a new module with yokes in it and just change it with the existing module. The measurements for the module I now change was not quite right anyway... We learn as we go.
Hope we can hook up and have a chat in Lelystad.

[Nick1150]

Hi Nax,

I will take some photos tonight, and post them tommorow morning for you.

Hope this helps

[mpl330]

Great looking build - makes me want to get back on with mine!
Cheers
Mike

[Sean Nixon]

Your sim's looking great Nick. You've done loads in such a quick time period. A question if I may...?

When two of you are wearing headsets, can you hear each other through them when speaking to one another, like an open intercom?

And when one speaks on squawkbox, can the other hear the conversation?

Sean