Hi SimonThanks for the encouraging words. My wife also says those words sometimes and I don't blame her.....actually she is quite supportive and has recently done some flights with me during online ATC sessions.....can't get her to bring the coffee yet but I'm working on it!The lettering is done using MS Word, a Boeing font, and a colour deskjet printer. I played around with the background colour to match my Boeing brown paint. I print it on photo paper and then affix two sided adhesive tape before cutting out very close around the word. It doesn't look to bad and stands out a little just like painted letters do a little.....and is easily replaced although I haven't found that necessary.Good luck with your project.... and your marriage:D CheersIan

Hi TuomasYes 12 position rotaries should be no problem either using the same set up. Meant to mention that I do cut the shafts down and use the off cut piece to slide on the music wire or brass tube to tighten the knobs to. When cutting those springs I have not found it necessary to shorten them at all....the feel seems about right to me with them just cut in half.I'll try the black light one day....so many other things to do at the moment!CheersIan

I would never have guessed, they look to good for stick ons.Forget bringing the coffee, if you can get her wear the uniform that should be enough.:)The Porcupineaka Simon Webbwww.desktopflying.co.ukVery slowely putting together a generic twin desktop unit.

Hi Ian,Nice to see what you have done.Been thinking along the same lines for rotaries and lettering.Nice to see what can be achieved.Can you tell me if you had to dismantle the rotaries to drill them.I have some of those bourne types which i hope to do the same with very shortly.Any tips so i dont destroy any.ThanksLes

>Tuomas>They are rotary encoders....Bourns ECW15-B24-BC0006...1/4>cycle gray type. By chance more than reason if set up as a>knitter or Alps in FSbus (connected to two key position) on>FSkey they work faultlessly.>Brad Heller has some for sale if you are interested....he's>moved to IO cards and needs full cycle type.>If you send me your email address I'll send you a spec sheet.>Thanks for the tip re black light...have been considering that>but wasn't sure how successful it might be. A signwriter told>me there is some sort of clear coating that makes white>lettering glow under black light but from what you say this>may not be necessary?>Best Regards>IanHi Ian: can you confirm me the part number?. I try to find the data of this encoders at www.bourns.com. I find the ECW1J, but not ECW15. Thanks You very much.Jose

Hi LesNo you don't have to disassemble the Bourns rotaries. I have a friend with a lathe and he just put the main shaft in the lathe chuck and drilled from the rear of the rotary. A lathe is recommended as drilling needs to be more accurate with the rotaries.I'm just in the process of assembling 4 radios. I've decided to use a mix of rotary switches and rotary encoders.....the reason is with the small top knob you need a lot more force for rotary switches and the knob shaft friction grip on the centre piano wire shaft is not great. I don't want to glue those shafts in place in case I need to replace one of the switches....I tried reducing the spring tension on the rotary switches by cutting down the springs but the feel wasn't good.This method seems to work well so far. Have attached some pictures of the curreent stage of construction of these radios showing how I mount the two switches.Hope this helps

Hi JoseSorry....yes ECW1J....the J refers to the shaft type....there are other variations which may suit you better depending on the type of knobs used....If you give me your email address I'll send you a spec sheet.Best RegardsIan

Ian could you mail me please at [email protected] I might have a proposition to get those Rotaries more Realistic :)Roberto

>Ian could you mail me please at [email protected] I>might have a proposition to get those Rotaries more Realistic>:)>>RobertoDuuuude! Discuss it here please, we others want to know too.. :)Hmm. speaking of encoders, does anyone really have a clear picture what encoders are suitable for IOCards, to be directly connected to the master card? The opencockpits forum is a bit hard to figure out sometimes because of half the topics are in spanish :)So it needs to be a phase-shifted encoder, what kind of output is needed from the encoder? ALPS has interesting hollow shaft encoders that could well be used to make a nice dual concentric setup combined with a regular one with pushbutton (for my gps panel) - but it's a bit hard to figure out what kind of output I should be looking for in the spec pdf's..Also, if people know places to get them for reasonable price and smaller quantities? Mouser and Digikey have a lot, but looks like european retailers are a bit limited in their encoder stock..//Tuomas

Hi TuomasYou will find all you need to know about this on Nico Kaan's site. Basically the ones sold by FDS at around $5 US connect directly to the IO master Card and work extremely well....from memory they are full cycle gray code encoders.CheersIan

Thanks Ian,much appreciatedLes