Okay, etched my first circuit board! Woohoo!Started with this:http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...l-piirilevy.png(Designed on Linux with Inkscape, just a graphics program) - basically took a screenshot of the actual panel design in FrontDesign and scaled it to correct size to get the holes for buttons on the right places. Then pulled some virtual wires.. :-)Printed it with laser and used the technique described here:http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htmto get this:http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...on-transfer.jpgNot 100% perfect and pretty, but it works. For the first ever try, I'm pretty happy :)Soldering...http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...audiopanel3.jpg(the resistors are for the leds, IOCards needs them. Handy to have them on the board directly..And a nice connector for the cables of buttons and leds.. http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...audiopanel2.jpgNot bad, eh? :) I'm pretty satisfied with this.. Now I need to do the GNS and other avionics boards. A learning experience was that I forgot to check the direction of the leds on the buttons, so of course they are the wrong way around :^) - but luckily it's easy to open the button and swap the leds around..http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-.../audiopanel.jpgI got the inspiration from the opencockpits.com folks, they seem to do everything on a pcboard, and I agree, it's a good way to build these. 10mm spacers keep the board nicely behind the panel (which is made with FrontDesign, I have posted pics of those before too) - buttons are from mouser I think.. Nice! Now to design the other stuff with 7-segments etc, that'll be interesting to see how those turn out..Oh, and by the way, got my second shipment from the FrontDesign guys in Germany.. Whoa!http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-stuff/fdes5.jpgThe quality of workmanship is just awesome. And I love the fact that I can do the design myself, so it's just the way I like. Not something ugly :)References: FrontDesign: www.schaeffer-ag.de / www.frontpanelexpress.com//Tuomas

TuomasLooking REAL GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Gus

Nicely done! VERY Professionalism looking... Just one question... How did you drill all of the holes on PCB after etching for switches or components to mount in?

A Dremel tool with a small bit works well, as does a high speed drill press with carbide drill (same as a PCB house would use).

Carbide bits are definitely the way to go. High speed steel bits wear out far too fast on glass epoxy boards. I picked up a box of re-pointed carbide bits for $10 (as I recall) on Ebay. Well worth it! You do, however, need to use a drill press. Carbide is very brittle and breaks easily if flexed.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

>A Dremel tool with a small bit works well, as does a high>speed drill press with carbide drill (same as a PCB house>would use).Yeah. Either way works great.A good trick is to etch a small "hole" in the solder pad copper (like, where the component pin goes) - it acts as a nice guide for the drill bit.This time it was a drill press, but the dremel would work just as well.//Tuomas

I could have used dremel drill press... much easier than the actual (Big) drill press. One more thing, which windows program could I use to create traces for the PCB?

>I could have used dremel drill press... Or a handheld dremel, it works nicely too. This is not brain surgery :) As long as the parts are roughly there it works. Of course you want buttons nicely aligned, so yeah, a CNC drill would do the best accurate work, but well, the dremel works just fine if one has steady hands.Dentists do it by hand, so can we :)>much easier than the actual (Big) drill press. One more thing, which >windows program could I use to create traces for the PCB?Pretty much anything that can do graphics. OpenOffice.org draw program would work, as would some commercial vector graphics apps. Of course there are real PCB design tools too, but these are so simple I just did them by hand.//Tuomas

Good stuff, Tuomas. Really nice to see your assembled units and the use of custom PCB. Those PCBs really make for clean construction.

Okay, I didnt find my thread about the GPS anymore, in any case - here's a completed panel for our C172 sim at the aviation club. Next job is to mount it in the radio stack.http://tigert.1g.fi/mik/vatsim/gps-audiopanel-works.jpgAnyway, The audiopanel is the same as you see in this older post. The GNS is new.* PSOne LCD for the display, wired via tv-out from the videocard.* Panels by www.frontpanelexpress.com / www.schaeffer-ag.de (they rule!)* PCBoards by myself, with the "gooteepc method" :)* Everything is wired to IOCards mastercard using 40-pin flatcables as "bus" and wires are taken from the flatcable connectors where needed.* GNS software is Reality-XP.com GNS530.* Code is simple key emulation mapping for the GNS and fsuipc stuff for the rest, using SIOC by opencockpits.* The rotaries are from Rafael, as many of us remember his excellent dual concentric stuff.Schweeet, I could say :) It's funny, if someone would have told me 4 years ago we'd do this kind of stuff, I would have laughed :) But one learns step by step it seems. Happy new year, everyone!I'll post some drool shots once the panel is installed on the sim.. One of our younger members of the club flew the sim to Odense, Denmark into Air Alpha, Inc for the avionics installation work, he'll fly it back again once we have it done.. EKOD - ESSB is ~4.5 hours leg, ESSB - EFHF is about 2. I love the dedication :) All this in VATSIM of course.By the way, how many else of you a re flying VATSIM with your home cockpits? I know Nico is, and "the baron58 guy" whose name I now forget :) Also I know the worldflight australia people are doing this. It would be nice to have a vatsim event for home cockpit hobbyists?//Tuomas

Excellant work Tuomas.Rhydian (Rojan)www.cessnasim.blogspot.com

TuomasI also have a PSOne screen running from my video card. How did you isolate the screen in GNS to fit the PSOne?ThanksDave

>Tuomas>>I also have a PSOne screen running from my video card. How>did you isolate the screen in GNS to fit the PSOne?>I made a custom panel.cfg:--------------[ Window02 ]Background_color=2,2,2 size_mm=320,240window_size_ratio=1.000 position=1visible=1ident=GNS530gauge00=RealityXP_FL530XP!GNS530, -93,-32,499,367--------------(It's mandatory that your WindowNN -sections are in a complete sequence, so 02 needs to be your-last-existing-number-plus-one.The trick is the negative coordinates for the gauge - it puts just the screen visible on the window, as topleft is top-left off screen and bottomright is off screen past the bottom right edge.And Window02 needs to be in square brackets, the forum code messes it up.Sim in windowed mode, right click GPS window -> Undock -> Move to PSOne screen. Save flight and it remembers the position.//Tuomas

TuomasThanks, it works great!