Since we're showing flight decks. . .

yagni01

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Here's a couple pictures of mine. Its rather generic for STS or DG flights.

 

movieman

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That's pretty neat; maybe I should build an Apollo capsule in the basement :).
 

yagni01

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That's pretty neat; maybe I should build an Apollo capsule in the basement :).
Go for it, mate! If AMSO or NASSP had interfaces the hardware could talk to, that would be an awesome sight.
 

unussapiens

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I've been considering setting up a TMA panel for myself. I was planning to do it for a 737 a few years back, and I think I still have my circuit diagrams and ideas written down somewhere.
 

yagni01

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Great work. :cheers:
What do you plan using for your keypads?
Thanks. I'm jealous of your panels though. :)

The top center keypad is for changing the display modes of the left-most screen. That would contain systems information normally found in modern airliner EICAS/ECAM displays. Heres a preliminary layout of the engines display (upper right is for status/warning messages).


The right keyboard is primarily numeric for entering nav freqs and also to support the 'flight computer' control of the DG-IV. It is modeled after the shuttle keypad (although not a duplicate).

The throttle quadrant can hold two of the Saitek TQs to eventually be able to support independent engine operations, but I've only mounted one for the forseeable future.

The console below the throttles contains additional engine controls, trim switches, and Shuttle-style autopilot (DAP) for killrot and RCS.

The right side panel will contain APU, Life support and egress controls. Orbiter functions will also be over there somewhere.
 

lockingtoggle

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Cool. But how do you plan to make your keypads? I'm desperately looking for a solution. There are some matrix keypads on ebay every now and than, but they only have 16 keys.
 

yagni01

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Cool. But how do you plan to make your keypads? I'm desperately looking for a solution. There are some matrix keypads on ebay every now and than, but they only have 16 keys.
Sorry I didn't see this sooner. The keypads will be custom using momentary switches connected to a Key-Wiz keyboard encoder. Its not matrixed, which I think will make the work easier. The keys themselves will be cubes of 3/4" acrylic adhered to the switches with caulk. That's the theory. The legends will probably be laser printed on clear labels.

Why 3/4" keys? That's what I scaled off some STS panel images, and it matches the "Korry" switches commonly found in commercial airliners. Should be easy to find when I'm boosting at three g's :)


-----Posted Added-----


I just mounted my joystick enclosure, to make it look a little more 'built-in'.


If you're wondering why the hole is so big, the palm ledge on the bottom was wide enough so that I couldn't get full deflection unless it could go practically to the top of the joystick. The upside is that it gives me access to the centering pots and the z-axis, if I ever want to use it for anything.
 

yagni01

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Well, here's the latest addition- a trackball. I couldn't really find a place where the mouse worked as the right console is sloped and it wouldn't stay put. I also moved the secondary monitor of my main system to act as outside view, so at this point its now flyable.



 

MajorTom

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Really cool.

Your "deck" appears to be the right half of a larger cockpit, just the pilot's seat (not the commander's?!). I'll have to study your posts to get some good ideas :speakcool: One idea for you: Put in a mirror along the dividing line between left and right, it might make your cockpit look "full" instead of "half." (But you'll always have a twin pilot on your left, mirroring your every move, which if it were me, would be very strange. :p)

I've also been wanting to build a simpit in the basement. My vision so far:
Build a large, full-width "capsule" with two tandem seats, and lots of extra room for my little boy to crawl around in or lay out a sleeping bag, plus compartments for food and such, etc. Maybe an Apollo-based panel, but because I will be using PC monitors and such for displays, I figured I might as well alter the design to be more a glass cockpit, such as for the Orion spacecraft. It would be light on the technical bits and heavy on the comfort factor, some place my kid can play and possibly host sleep-overs. It would make for an accessible way to teach the basics of spaceflight, with much more "immersion" than sitting in front of a PC on a desk in an office. In short: a great "father and son" project. ;)

Thanks for the great post-
 

yagni01

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Really cool.

Your "deck" appears to be the right half of a larger cockpit, just the pilot's seat (not the commander's?!). I'll have to study your posts to get some good ideas :speakcool:
Thanks for the support! Congratulations, you're the first one to bring up that its the PLT side! I've been waiting for that question forever :lol:
There are a couple reasons. . .
1. After months of cardboard mockup trial-and-error, I couldn't come up with a single-seat design that would give me the screens, switch and throttle layouts I liked along with a convenient keypad.
2. Joysticks have a wide base, and doing the normal (for aircraft) center stick created problems getting in/out, with leg interference, etc. Outside of shuttle, spacecraft use sidesticks. Soooo. . .
3.<rant>YOU CANNOT FIND A GOOD, UNDER $100 LEFT-HANDED JOYSTICK</rant>

That's how I ended up in the "right seat". :)

For a tandem seat layout, I think lockingToggle's is pretty snazzy.
 

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Extremely impressive. It would probably cost ten thousand or more dollars to pay someone to make something that good.
 

yagni01

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Extremely impressive. It would probably cost ten thousand or more dollars to pay someone to make something that good.
I take paypal :lol:


-----Post Added-----


Looking good :speakcool:
Thanks. As you can see, the ExtMFD leave me a lot of unused real estate. Remotable ones that I can tune are definitely on my radar. I also noticed that when Orbiter is in full screen mode, I couldn't access the secondary monitors with the mouse. I have to experiment with other display modes to see if I can overcome that.

You'd think that as I completed things, my project list would get shorter :blink:
 

yagni01

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Yagni flight deck progress

Well, it basically took me all week, but I now have my HUD controls interfaced to Orbiter.


I updated my interface code to use a config file to specify what the inputs and outputs are (analog, digital) and what Orb:Connect command to send for each value. Two tricky parts were using a rotary switch connected to an analog input for the HUD mode and figuring out how to do the brightness control. I used analog for the mode to save on digital inputs - basically I created a resistor ladder to create steps of input values.

Through trial-and-error, I determined there are about 768 values of brightness to control. Since there is no 'setBrightness' method but only increment and decrement, what I do is for any change in value decrement 768 times to ensure I'm at minimum brightness and then increment x number of times where x is the percentage brightness required times 768. Outside of some flicker when I adjust the brightness, it appears to work fine.

Now its on to getting some indicators lit up (and helping with the remote surface MFD).
 

davewave

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just out of curiosity, ive been looking really hard all over the internet and I wander if you can tell me how I can link up physical switches like those pictured there, with the computer.
I have programming and hardware interface experience and training but I want something that has a simple API and also drivers and under $100.

Please PM me yagni with your answer as I may forget where I posted this

-cheers


Edit:
and i know its a bit more expensive but touch screen MFD would be the way to go I reckon, particularly if you want to remove all mouse control

Oh and good work, you are now the envy of many orbinauts.
Too bad it isn't something we can all just download
 

yagni01

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just out of curiosity, ive been looking really hard all over the internet and I wander if you can tell me how I can link up physical switches like those pictured there, with the computer.
I have programming and hardware interface experience and training but I want something that has a simple API and also drivers and under $100.
Check the cockpit pages on the wiki for examples of interface hardware. I'm working mostly with Phidgets right now.

and i know its a bit more expensive but touch screen MFD would be the way to go I reckon, particularly if you want to remove all mouse control
Ya, if'n I had the resources, I would have gone touch screen for the MIP; but at $500 per monitor, I can live with the mouse.
 
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