MIP Thickness

[andarlite]

For those of you with no backlighting capability, how does it work for you? I guess until you have backlighting on your panels, it's not really missed. I know that unless something else comes about, my panels Im making for now will not be back lit until I learn a way to do it nicely, or of course buy a set when they ever come available.

I don't have backlighting capability on my mip or pedestal, mainly because I built those earlier (before discovering this site) and didn't know any better. However, I am going to be starting my overhead soon and I have been studying how Gwyn did his. I'm not sure if I have the skill or the time to cut out all those rectangular holes for the backlighting of the words and annunciators thought.... I mean sometimes I spend a few hours just cutting out one rectangular hole on a panel.... it could take me weeks to do all those on the overhead.

So I was thinking, what if I used clear plexiglass instead for the main and change my bitmaps of the panel to be clear on the areas where the light should shine throught (it's much easier to do this "cutting out" on the computer than on a physical panel). Then you would stick all this onto the plexiglass and then just drill holes for the switches. From this point on, I would continue as Gwyn did and printed the actual panel bitmaps (with all the wording) to stick onto smaller individual panels (2mm plexiglass) and then screw onto the main panel. So basically the light would pass throught the clear areas on the main and light up the words on the individual panels and be block by the painted areas of the printed bitmaps.

Hope that make sense. What do you guys think? Would this work?

Regards,
Henry

[Westozy]

So I was thinking, what if I used clear plexiglass instead for the main and change my bitmaps of the panel to be clear on the areas where the light should shine throught (it's much easier to do this "cutting out" on the computer than on a physical panel). Then you would stick all this onto the plexiglass and then just drill holes for the switches. From this point on, I would continue as Gwyn did and printed the actual panel bitmaps (with all the wording) to stick onto smaller individual panels (2mm plexiglass) and then screw onto the main panel. So basically the light would pass throught the clear areas on the main and light up the words on the individual panels and be block by the painted areas of the printed bitmaps.

Hope that make sense. What do you guys think? Would this work?

Regards,
Henry

That's precisely what I thought of half way through my OH build when it was too late to change tack! Cut the rectangles in paper rather than the plastic. I have all the bitmaps required for the 737NG and will be putting them on the site when I get my act together, there's a few people waiting for them. Soon, it WILL happen, it's just finding the time. Aerosim Solutions has been swamped with orders and I have enough work for at least 6 months. (I wasn't supposed to be starting until January!).

I think you would probably need 3 layers of stickers, 2 with cut outs to effectively block unwanted light bleeding through the paper. My O/H took about 90 hours over 5 weeks to build but only cost AUD$350 including hardware. Good luck if you try this new idea, I will watch with interest!

Gwyn