Cessna 172 Replica Production

[No Longer Active]

I think your right smedlik:



My first ever sim was this way too:

[AK Mongo]

Saitek is correct, although it seems strange.

I am not sure why you are reinventing the wheel, unless you really just want the challenge. I got real ones from ebay for about $60.00 that were easily interfaced with slide pots. The real ones have appropriate friction locks, handles and verniers for fine tuning of mixture and prop.



Not belittling your design skills, as I really admire people who can do the CAD process well! I just found a different solution to the same problem.

[cjellwood]

Hmm, it seems the knob order is dependant on preference as it changes from plane to plane regardless of being the same model or not. I do not even know why I am modelling the blue prop knob because it is not a feature in my cockpit anyway?

Yes I reinvent the wheel 10 times a day but there is nothing better to do because I have MS and am stuck to a seat for at least 4 hours a day with nothing better to do. It is definately a challenge no doubt about that! The design process is easy but actually getting local engineers to work on these parts is another matter which is not so easy unless you are already in the engineering game or have your own workshop. I clearly understand why people go to China for work to be done now given my experiences the past year in the UK. There is absolutely no suport for any entrepreneurialism (<-- spell that!) or small business in this country so the challenge of producing quality parts on a budget is definately there.

But on a lighter note, Pro Engineer does not charge me by the hour and is giving me hours of pleasure Here is an assembly I produced this morning for the knobs and friction blocks to check everything is cool before submitting the files to the mill.



While goofing around with the matte/reflection I found that the knobs can look like they are resin moulded. That is a possibility for crazy looking knobs and the candy apple look is definately a good look! But before concerning about details like that I need to mate up these parts to a custom made PCB that holds the slider switches behind the cockpit. Not going to be easy



Chris

[AK Mongo]

You don't need a pcb if you want to skip it. you can just ,mount a slide pot to a bracket and wire it directly to your interface solution of choice.

Your design skills are outstanding though!

[cjellwood]

for the control sliders I have reinvented the wheel again and made a slider PCB but with added functions and connections to make it economical for space and tidyness. On one side is the slider positions then on the other side there is a multitude of inputs and outputs to connect various other switches and pots to an FSUIPC interface app directly. It is very clever and works with the RS485 interface so it can connect to slave devices and send their data to FSUIPC interface too without problems.

But my favourite part is the mosfet controlled hour meter terminal. Any FSUIPC offset can turn the 12v supply on and get the meter running. I like the simple things
Interfacing directly to FSUIPC with dedicated terminals makes things much more tidy and less fiddling around before flight getting things set up etc.
Unfortunately none of us can get away with the need to boot hundreds of drivers for all the various gizmos on the cockpit whichever method is performed. Maybe one day we will have a standard protocol for all gizmos so just one driver/app required to drive them all.

This will be assembled in a few weeks, 10 available in the first batch.





Chris

[Leo Bodnar]

...There is absolutely no suport for any entrepreneurialism (<-- spell that!) or small business in this country...

Wow! This is definitely an overreaction.

[cjellwood]

Wow! This is definitely an overreaction.

I have had some terrible upsetting experiences working with UK manufacturers past and present. (could just be me though lol)

btw, does anyone know what 'Finis santificat media' means?

Chris

[AK Mongo]

I have had some terrible upsetting experiences working with UK manufacturers past and present. (could just be me though lol)

btw, does anyone know what 'Finis santificat media' means?

Chris

"The end justifies the means"

It is indeed a different way of looking at the problem...

[cjellwood]

"The end justifies the means"

It is indeed a different way of looking at the problem...

Thanks! Someone emailed that quote to me when I was looking for some hard to find PCB components lol. There are plenty of 'means' around at the moment so it looks like I just need some 'ends'

Chris

[cjellwood]

A small animation to show how the PCB attaches to the cockpit via a bracket. Blue knob is in the middle now for the purists



Chris