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Guest Erups

(listing) Low cost annunciators

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Guest Erups

I'd like this topic to be a listing of possible ways to make your own annunciators.My idea:plexy + inkjet transparency films printed appropriately.You do an image with photoshop or whatever, where you have your black box with your coloured writing on it (like green "LEFT GEAR") and print it on transparency, then cut it and paste it to the back of a piece of plexy.What do you think?These won't be P.Cos' Elite panels, but i think that they could be used for annunciators or very low cost realizations.

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Guest Ramsberg

Hi!I have tried that one, the problem i had was that when i wanted to fit the backlighting i didn't find any good way to do it.Instead i found an alternate way to do it by reading some on somebodys "tips and tricks" page. Cant remember who though...Instead of sawing, cutting and drilling in plexi, which can be quite hard to do, use hot glue (some kind of pistol fed with plastic rods), and mold your button! Ta-da! You will get your button with the lighting encapsulated within the button.I used square pipe aluminiun 20*20mm inner dimensions as a mold. I cut a paper that was exactly 5x20mm and folded it to fit exactly inside the mold. This is to keep the glue from sticking to the mold.I made the lighting board with 2 green and 2 red LEDs i separate circuits, to get a announciator like the gear indicators on a 737, red on top and green below. I made the circuit just below 20*20mm to fit inside the mold. Take the cabling out the back of the mold and fit the circuit holder at an appropriate distance from the front inside the mold. the leds skould be about 5 mm from the front.Heat up the glue gun and fill the front of the mold, then place it against a clean metal plate for it to cool. Turn it upside down and fill the back of the mold.Let it cool off for an hour, push it out of the mold and peel of the paper.If you want it as an announciator, just fit the plastic part that you have just made to your panel.Or, if you want a button, use the alu mold ans a casing and attach a springloaded button on the back of the mold to make the plastic announciator push the button when pressed.Voila!Will try to get hold of a digital camera and take a few pictures of my work to better explain what I mean.Cheers!Olle Ramsberg

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Guest MattOlieman

I just mentioned this in a other thread:) Use Lexan.... it's like working with metal, you can cut it with a hacksaw/band saw, bend it(using a little heat) etch it, mill it.... on and on and on:))

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Guest Erups

>Instead of sawing, cutting and drilling in plexi, which can be>quite hard to do, use hot glue (some kind of pistol fed with>plastic rods), and mold your button! Ta-da! You will get your>button with the lighting encapsulated within the button.a few>pictures of my work to better explain what I mean.Hei!What a brilliant idea!I think you can also use long drying resin, and use paint in it if you need!Good! thankyou!

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Guest mbessler

>I'd like this topic to be a listing of possible ways to make>your own annunciators.Look here for some pictures of a really easy and cheap to build annunciator (adapted version from mikesflightdeck.com): http://cockpit.varxec.de/stephen/gal/helio...galleryidx.htmlhttp://cockpit.varxec.de/stephen/gal/helio...galleryidx.htmlI also have experimented with making Korry switches using hot glue, recorded here:http://cockpit.varxec.de/panels/switches.htmlManuel

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Guest mbessler

Hi Olle,>Instead of sawing, cutting and drilling in plexi, which can be>quite hard to do, use hot glue (some kind of pistol fed with>plastic rods), and mold your button! Ta-da! You will get your>button with the lighting encapsulated within the button.Doh... didn't read the thread completely before answering... you already described my hot glue technique. Well... still, my links show pics, although ...>Will try to get hold of a digital camera and take a few>pictures of my work to better explain what I mean.... I'd really like to see how your switch came out.Please post pics when you get hold of the camera.Manuel

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Guest Erups

Interesting site, thank you!How did you make your panels?Or did you buy them?If you have made them yourself, please share your method they are awesome!

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Guest mbessler

>Interesting site, thank you!>How did you make your panels?>Or did you buy them?>If you have made them yourself, please share your method they>are awesome!Thanks.No, we didn't buy those panels, they are home-made.The basic ingredients are:+ overhead transparencies, printed black where no light should shine through (basically everywhere except for the panel text and markings)+ normal paper, printed boeing brown, with the panel text and markings left out (white, from the paper)+ contact paper (wide-format thin transparent adhesive tape, sometimes used to protect book covers)+ plexiglass or lexan/polycarbonate or polystyrol How to do it:glue the overhead transparency to the back of the printed paper panel, then cover the paper with the contact paper and glue to plexi panel.Or layerwise(front of panel to back):1. contact paper2. color-printed paper3. black-printed overhead tranparency4. plexiglass (better: lexan/polycarbonate)This was developed by my co-builder Stephen. Manuel

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Guest Ramsberg

You're the man Manuel. Yoe are the guy I stole my method from :-)Thanks! ;-)/ Ramsberg

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Guest PoRrEkE

This is indeed how you make your own backlit panels.However, I did something similar for my overhead though not backlit. The problem it has is that the contact paper gives the panels an unrealistic reflectivness (? is this the right word ?).I'm now thinking to re-do the overhead since I'm not using backlight anyway. The reason why I used this method is because of the ability to just print the labeling on paper.At first (you can check the pics of my project) this part was the best of the entire cockpit. However, now this and the yoke are starting to look bad compared to the rest.

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Guest mbessler

>This is indeed how you make your own backlit panels.>However, I did something similar for my overhead though not>backlit. The problem it has is that the contact paper gives>the panels an unrealistic reflectivness (? is this the right>word ?).with the contact paper we're using, the reflection isn't a big problem.Its not like using scotch tape (or Tesa).>At first (you can check the pics of my project) this part wasyour project homepage is using flash for the menues... and I neither have java nor flash installed in my standard browser for performance and security reasons. Some sites with Java and flash stuff tend to let the browser crash occasionally. Since I restart my browser only every weeks and I have lots of pages open at the same time, these crashes are really annoying to me.Manuel

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