Hi AllJust sharing my recently completed compass with you...its not operative...just eye candy but helps with the realism factor.Built from bent up aluminium sheet, some 2mm ply, 4 rivets, 4 phillips head screws, a small tin can. The "rose" done on MSword, bent in a semicircle and glued to a balsa mount. This was then fitted inside the tin, the inside of which was painted black. A perspex piece was fitted behind the face... I put a tiny groove in the perspex and painted this white for a hairline marker.I was happy with the result and in reality it looks better than the photos.

Ian,Your compass looks great! "Background" elements like that really add a lot to a sim's appearance and the feeling of immersion. Very nice. Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

Whoa! This looks good! would you have any chance to create manual with picture explaining step by step procedure on building home made whiskey compass that you created? This would be great for other 757, 767, and 777 home cockpit builders, but also for rest of other boeing builders too.

Nice but it would be great if it's not fake and really workI find the simkit's one too expensiveAny idea to built one ?BOB

>Nice but it would be great if it's >not fake and really work>>I find the simkit's one too expensive>>Any idea to built one ?The simkits one is a real compass with a magnet under the compass to force it to a certain heading instead of real magnetic north.A servo turns the magnet around.Could be done with a stepper motor controller with FSBUS for example.A real, not "aviation approved" compass costs about $50 or so in aircraftspruce.com. Approved one is more expensive, but one doesnt need that certificate for simulator use.Or just do your one like the one we just saw. Nice looking one, but would make me very confused wiht the checklist when it would always show wrong :)//Tuomas

How do you calibrate the position with a stepper ?With a servo you can set the start-middle-end positionHow to do that with a endless rotating wheel ?BOB

You can initialize a stepping motor's position with an optical interrupter. On power up or on a reset command, spin the motor until a flag on the motor shaft moves into the slot of the optical interrupter. Easy to do.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

Hi ArthurThe thing is fairly simple and the instructions above should be enough...its really just a tin can with tabs cut which are bolted to the metal front plate with a ply ring rivetted to it. The only "hard" part was making the rose on Word....if anyone wants a copy of my version just email me...its only 19k. All I did was cut this to a suitable size and bent it in a semi circle and glued it to a piece of 12mm balsa at the base of the semicircle to hold it in that shape. This was then fitted in the tin can and glued with cyano once in position. Just email me if you want more info.CheersIan

Hi TuomasAgree with you about having a working one but I really needed to fill the space in my sim.....it looks so much better than none at all. I guess its all a matter of priorities....to get it working is on my "one day" list, and lets face it how many times do you look at the whiskey compass when flying an airliner these days? I had in mind using the moving magnet idea with a servo but have so many other things to get operational it really is low on the list at this stage.At least when I do the checklist I can say "Compass present if not correct" :) CheersIan

Hi MikeThanks for your comments and info on making the compass operational.As you say the immersion factor is worth the small effort involved and that unoccupied space annoyed me....it looks more complete now. I would like to make it operational "one day" when I get around to doing the "not so essential" items.Wondering if you can tell me where the whiskey compass got its name and which is the correct spelling???CheersIan

Hi Ian,As I understand it, it's called a whiskey (spelled like the drink) compass because the fluid used inside early compasses was alcohol. Very pure kerosene and trichlorethylene have been used as well. Compasses of recent manufacture are most likely filled with some variety of silicone fluid.The fluid both partially supports the compass card, and damps its movement. The compass card assembly actually has a float in its middle to offset most of the weight on the pivot to minimize friction. Mikewww.mikesflightdeckbooks.com

>You can initialize a stepping motor's position with an>optical interrupter. On power up or on a reset command, spin>the motor until a flag on the motor shaft moves into the slot>of the optical interrupter. Easy to do.>>Mike>www.mikesflightdeck.comEasy to do? would you have schematic for build up interface BESIDE FSBus... that can get motor to perform like this? I would love to build one myself... Let me know.

Arthur,This is the technique used in the sample chapter you can download from http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/sim_instruments.htm . Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the download button.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com