A couple of weeks ago I posted some images of a 737-NG throttle quadrant design. Since then the design has been completely redrawn, after visiting and measuring 2 737 cockpits (thanks to the two airlines who asked me not to name them!), so that the electronics, clutches and gears that I will be using can be placed.Progress:Design drawings now 70% complete.Have an engineering company on tap with full CNC capabilities.Have a sheet metal working friend who assures me 'Yeah, that's easy...' (Yeah, right!)Have finalized the components for full autothrottle... (speedbrake and trim wheel yet to do).The intention is for a visually accurate (well, close enough), dimensionally accurate replica with fully working autothrottle, speedbrake and trim (plus all the additional manual controls you would expect). Initially this will only tie in with R&R Electronics EPIC.I've also had to figure out the autothrottle mechanism. I only want the lever to be moveable at idle (I've used a different approach to other units I've seen to keep the mechanics contained within the main throttle body.). This also means that some of the internal components will need to be machined out of titanium for added strength. I'm also working on the electro-mechanics so it will only move when the aircraft is on the ground. Still to decide whether to use a digital switch or to go the whole hog using pots for added realism, so that the amount of reverse thrust can be regulated. My heart says pots.Anyone know of any 10bit+ optical encoders that are reasonably priced?I'm hoping to start machining the first parts over Christmas. If you're interested, you can follow my progress at http://www.virtual737.com (when I get 5 minutes to update it).In the meantime, here's one of the newer representations out of Solidworks.....http://www.virtual737.com/images/Prot1_virtual737.jpgThanks to Mike for his suggestions.Regards to all,Chris

Hi Chris,nice picture!! I hope that everything will be soon for your cockpit.Do you plan to publish your drawings in the future for other builders?Btw, your site's link goes to a first page where there is only a picture and there in no "Enter link"Eddie ArmaosAthens-Greece

Hi,Thanks for the feedback. I must admit to spending more time on the actual throttle than on the website.I will spend some time on it over the weekend, and include some of the photos and dimensions I took in the cockpits. One of the 'owners' of the 737's has stipulated that I am not to publish images of their plane, and I will, of course keep my word.A few people have asked me to publish both the Solidworks files and/or the dimensions of a 737NG throttle. I wont yet share the Solidworks files although this might change in the near future.Regarding 737NG throttle dimensions...The 2 cockpits I have been able to measure were a 200/Adv and a 300 series respectively. The 200Adv has different levers and a slightly different actual housing to the NG, whereas the 300 has the older style levers but in a housing which is (I believe) the same as the NG. The only difference I know of, apart from the levers, is the spacing between flap settings. The NG has equal spacing which is far easier to simulate.To get rough dimensions of the NG lever I used the following technique.1.) I downloaded EVERY image I could find of a 737-NG throttle from airliners.net.2.) Open a suitable photo and rotate / scale so that the image fills as much of the screen as possible, with one edge of the throttle in a vertical position.3.) I then covered my PC monitor in clingfilm (pvc foodwrap!). I then 'traced' the outline of the levers onto the clingfilm with a CDR pen.4.) Opening Solidworks, I drew a rectangle which had the same overall dimensions of the lever (this is where the old lever measurements came in handy) and extruded it by 22mm (the rough width of the real levers).5.) I then changed the perspective of the rectangle in Solidworks to match that of the traced outline on the clingfilm. This is probably the hardest, but most important, step.6.) I then opened a new sketch in Solidworks on the front face of the rectangle and copied as accurately as possible the pen outline.7.) You can now remove the clingfilm from your screen.(at this point my girlfriend entered my office and wondered what the hell I was doing).8.) Set the perspective in Solidworks to view the rectangle face on and tidy up the lines.9.) The curved edges were not that accurate, but using the known dimensions, and comparing these with tho ones of the photos, I could determin relatively accurately the radii of the curves.10.) Hey presto, a pretty accurate outline of a throttle lever.This isn't the most scientific approach to measuring cockpit dimensions, but it looks pretty accurate and I'm not likely to see my thottle that close to a real one to notice the difference!I would also recommend you get hold of the 'plan' view of the 737 throttle which has been well documented in other posts. I believe it is still in the 'database' section on simpits.orgOn the subject of advice, if you ever get the chance to measure a real life part, do a little bit of planning first. Write down EVERY dimension that you intent to measure, and then remember to take that list with you, writing the actual dimension against the list. I did not do this on BOTH occasions. When I got home after the first measurement I discovered I'd missed at least 3 vital dimensions. After the second trip I was still missing 1.... Doh....Sorry this post is so long winded, but I hope it at least gives you some ideas.Regards to all,

I've finally put some time into the website http://www.virtual737.comThe photos section under the throttle quadrant project is active. I'll be updating more of the project over the next few days, including uploading some of the Solidworks files and dimensions.Hope this helps.John

looool at your into picturelooks somewhat like mine on my site .. but none the less it looks good :)

I was wondering if you ever got any of this built? If so do you have any pictures of what you have currently?I'm pretty interested in your progress because I know this is going to be a huge bump in the road for me.If you have any updates, pics, drawings, anything, I'd love to see them.Thanks!

Me too

Thanks for the interest.The short answer re the built of the quadrant - no, i've not progressed any further.The longer answer - I received my EPIC modules (main USB module, expansion module and 32 point output module) which I planned to control the throttle (the whole point was to have a fully automated system) several months ago and after several weeks of trying, I have yet to get my head round how to actually interface it with Project Magenta / FS2004, FSUIPC etc to get anything working (even a simple button etc). All the examples I saw just showed how to plug a standard joystick into it and have a key press happen. That was no use to me. Ralph at R&R did send me some examples but I have to admit that, even having been a C programmer in the past, and recognising the cut down version of Turbo C (I think), my head wasn't up to understanding things! - ANY HELP HERE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.Anyway, things have taken an interesting turn this week. Just yesterday (Sunday 13th June), a friend of mine arrived with a complete, fully functional, real pilots seat (not from a 737 but you wouldn't know), including seat runners, 5 point harness, life jacket, the whole works. My girlfriend was really impressed - NOT.He also mentioned that there was every chance of me receiving the complete cockpit from a defunct foreign 737 (with virtually EVERYTHING still intact) - I'd just have to arrange transport. Now, I'm not sure whether to believe this, but I also didn't believe that a pilots seat would ever arrive, so you just never know. This has got my juices running again. I wont be doing any more work on the quadrant until I know for sure whether or not I'll have a real one, so in the short term I'll be concentrating on getting the EPIC working.I'll update the website (www.virtual737.com) as soon as anything further happens!Thanks again.

Can I get a copy of your SolidWorks file so I can play with it? :-)I sure would love to have that and benefit from the time you've put into it. Thanks so much,-Allistah

Sure, I'll dig them out and have them on my website within the next couple of days :-)

>Sure, I'll dig them out and have them on my website within>the next couple of days :-)Hey there.. Just thought I'd check in with you and see about those drawings. :-)Thanks so much,-Jaime

Oops, sorry for the delay. Finally got my EPIC doing what it's supposed to do and couldn't stop playing with switches and soldering irons.The Solidworks files (uncompleted) be up on Saturday 26th.

Ha, nice! Well, I hope you'll show us some pics or something of your progress! :-)I can't wait to see the levers on Saturday. :-)Thanks!-Jaime

Right, finally got round to doing it! I've put the Solidworks files of my quadrant design on my website. You can access them from this page:http://www.virtual737.com/throttle.htmlI'm not sure that these are the latest, as I did arrange the 'bits' into different folders and add screws etc, but it's mostly here.Enjoy, and please let me know if you use them!!!Chris