DC-10 Pedestal progress update!!!

Since receiving my pedestal almost 2 months ago we have made substantial progress. First we removed all the paneling to get a look at the inside. Cleaning the years of dust a way was hard work. Then removing the wires we didn't need. Taking apart the bundles to find out where each wire lead and what parts worked and didn't. Including which light bulbs needed replacing. Our first step was to remove each section. The throttles are broken up into parking break, flap, spoiler, throttles, and trim. We were then confronted with the issue of the tri-wing screw. They wouldn't budge after everything we tried. We decided on drilling them out only to find they were made of machine made titanium. Going out and getting a cobalt drill bit we began drilling. A two man job, one applying oil, and the other drilling. It was a painstaking process. One screw per hour if we were lucky. Each assembly was held on by 4 screws. Probably putting a sold 15 hours of work over two weekends we were able to remove all the screws and assemblies and then purchase replacement screws. After we stripped the frame of all unnecessary parts we began building the base from wood. Metal proved to be to difficult and costly. Cutting and assembling the wood we painted it the dark gray and to me it seemed to have come out great. From side of getting things working i tackled the backlight which i am sad to say i was defeated. There was the original back lighting still in place so i went out to find the specs on it only to find it was powered by a $1000 5v 25 amp power supply. I was dismayed so i went to find a better option for a power supply. Only to realize that the chances of the power supply charging the entire metal throttle quadrant was very high because of the way it was built and the electrical contacts. So i decided on going against the chance of being shocked by a potentially fatal amount of amps and replace the lights with micro LEDs powered by low amps and volts. to my dismay i could not make them flat enough to fit at the moment and am leaving back lighting for a later date. I was able to wire in all the buttons ex: A/T disconnect and TOGA using the original wires and a Leo Bodnar board. Also creating my own micro button for the reverse thrusters. Continuing on we developed a system of cables that would actuate a momentary switch when the fuel control levers are moved this was a success. Even better i developed a form of throttle friction using rubber cords anchored in the quadrant. And for throttle #3 we used a rubber seal to create the friction as the cable approach would not work. As of today i received a String potentiometer for my throttle axis which proved to be a huge success and i will mount it and order more. We plan to use these string pots for flaps, spoilers, dial-a-flap, and trim. Further more the entire throttle is going to be motorized with auto throttle and auto spoilers using my Arduino Due and Mega in tandem with stepper motors and cables. Also we plan to motorize the trim indicator. Further more the engine fire lights and parking break light work so we plan to use a 24 volt power supply with relays that will be wired into my Arduino to power the lights. So far this is what we have and i am looking forward to posting more progress photos and information. If anyone has suggestions or questions let me know!!!

Wow! I'm really impressed at how much you've learned so quickly!

Just curious, are you planning on using the PMDG MD-11 for your software?

Thanks! Yes i am planning to use the PMDG MD-11!

It looks good. I wish i could afford a real throttle for my 737.