FMC building tutorial

[Guest heclak]

Thanks George,i've just send you an email. what are you using for the physical buttons. The pieces to push the tactile switches. Nico,thanks for the help. Looking at the archived page is really helping me understand more about the complexity of this and this i would need to look out for. i would love to have the same switches as you did but i think its a little expensive for me now.

[kiek 1,235]

>Ok.. want to compare ? ;-)Well I have had a more closer look, my recollection was much too pessimistic (I'm not a good sales person ;-) ):DIN board: approx. 5 Euro1 red led: 0.10 EuroFunction switches (with led): 15 * 2.05= 30.75 EuroSquare Alpha switches: 30*1.30= 39 EuroRound Numeric switches: 12*0.36= 4.32 EuroLSK keys: 12 * 0.64= 7.68 EuroKey caps: 12 * 0.15= 1.80 EuroB/W TV: 35 EuroGreen Plexiglass on top of TV: 2 EuroMakes up a total of: 125 Euro, yours sums up to: 162.30 EuroConclusion: mine is actually cheaper!!! ;-)I have put the part numbers of my switches on my website, in the FMC section.Nicohttp://www.nicokaan.nl

[Guest heclak]

Wow. Battle of the prices.This is good. We'll have nicer prices for FMCs. Shows how over priced commercial products are.Nico. why did you use function switches with LEDs? are they really lit up in the real fmc? Did you get everything from conrad?

[kiek 1,235]

>Wow. Battle of the prices.This is good. We'll have nicer>prices for FMCs. Shows how over priced commercial products>are.>>Nico. why did you use function switches with LEDs? are they>really lit up in the real fmc? Did you get everything from>conrad? I only use the green led of the EXEC switch (of course), the others are not visible. I used these switches because these switches have the right size. (and I use them at lots of other places in my sim as well).You can order all parts from Conrad, in The Netherlands web shop they are available. Nicohttp://www.nicokaan.nl

[kiek 1,235]

>Wow. Battle of the prices.This is good. We'll have nicer>prices for FMCs. Shows how over priced commercial products>are.I don't agree with you that these commercial products are over priced. Note this is a niche market. Labor costs are high. If I hade to charge my hours to the hourly rate my boss is charging for me, well you could have bought a nice BMW for that ;-)Aerosoft Australia tried to produce an MCP for say 500 Euro, they are out of that business now.Nicohttp://www.nicokaan.nl

[Guest heclak]

Thanks. I'll drop by to my local electronics mall and check for local prices. Maybe i'll find some interesting stuff. I'll probably go for a PCB. Soldering 69 switches to wires just seems too much for me to handle. Now i'm hoping to find out what fantastic LCD screen did erik use. How good is the PSone screen George? Is it worth the money? Can i use any screen. I'm thinking of going down to a second hand store and look for something with a LCD screen i can rip out?

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

>Thanks. I'll drop by to my local electronics mall and check>for local prices. Maybe i'll find some interesting stuff. I'll>probably go for a PCB. Soldering 69 switches to wires just>seems too much for me to handle. >Now i'm hoping to find out what fantastic LCD screen did erik>use. How good is the PSone screen George? Is it worth the>money? Can i use any screen. I'm thinking of going down to a>second hand store and look for something with a LCD screen i>can rip out?It's pretty good and worth the money. Original price was about 120Euro, but their production is discontinued and you can find them at ebay for about 25-30 GBP brand new, original unopened sealed box.It has a native resolution of 640x480 while most other LCDs around at 5" have 240 horizontal lines and meant mainly for viewing DVDs etc.This one is made for playing games with the PSOne so it has better analysis. There are also tutorials on the Internet to hack the display and connect it directly to a VGA output. Otherwise you simply use the TV-Out of your VGA.Got your email, I will prepare some specs and send them to you.George DorkofikisAthens, Hellashttp://online.vatsimindicators.net/811520/1704.png

[Guest heclak]

Thanks George, looking forward to checking them out.

[tigert 0]

>Thanks. I'll drop by to my local electronics mall and check>for local prices. Maybe i'll find some interesting stuff. I'll>probably go for a PCB. Soldering 69 switches to wires just>seems too much for me to handle. Making PCB's is not really that hard. It's messy with the chemicals and those are "problem waste", thus need to be disposed of properly. But other than that, its not hard.I used this method: http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htmI mean, if you are reasonably capable of learning stuff and don't fear a bit of a learning curve, it shouldnt be a problem. http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...s-pcb-ready.jpgI found this is a very good method of making panels: PCB on bottom, then components soldered to the PCB, then 8 or 10mm "spacer" nuts between the pcb board and the front panel.http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...audiopanel3.jpghttp://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-.../audiopanel.jpghttp://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...audiopanel2.jpgVery clean and nice solution. The front panels are made with FrontPanelDesigner program (www.schaeffer-ag.de or www.frontpanelexpress.com for you north americans) - you design, click the price button and it tells you it costs something like 30 euros, depends on how much stuff you put there.. The quality of the work is just awesome. It's definitely a good method of making The Final Version of your panels, once everything else is done and you found the best way to do it. It's a bit too expensive for prototypes though :-)>Now i'm hoping to find out what fantastic LCD screen did erik>use. How good is the PSone screen George? Is it worth the>money? Can i use any screen. I'm thinking of going down to a>second hand store and look for something with a LCD screen i>can rip out?It's OK. This is how it looks with the RealityXP (www.reality-xp.com) Garmin GNS530 gauge using TV-out.http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-.../baron-gns2.jpgIt's not a small version of your desktop TFT monitor - this is a video monitor, but I find it works just fine as a GPS display. Shouldnt have any problem with a FMC text screen.

[kiek 1,235]

Hi Guys,Yet another approach is to use the FlightdeckSolutions CDU keyboard, a PSOne TFT display and 1 Mastercard from Opencockpits.Valerio Collalti has just finished his, see some pictures at my web site, page FSCONV, section show case, Valerio.Cheers!Nicohttp://www.nicokaan.nl

[Guest heclak]

wow. but isn't the FDS CDU for project magenta? How was it converted? by pass the pcb and hand wire every switch? Looks really nice though

[Guest heclak]

Hi tigert,thanks for the link. I've read that before. I'm pretty alright with making my pcbs. I'm getting used to chemicals since i make pcbs for my audio electronics projects. Amazing how diy relates to each other so much. I'm just worried about how fine the traces need to be. Getting fine traces perfect hasn't been going well for me.And the George's pcb is double sided so align would be another challenge. Thanks for the helpYour GPS is great. Now you are making me feel like having on too. The PSone screen is really looking well. I'm going to scout around for some local tft screen suppliers. Since its just a FMC, i think a cheap one would do(made in China?). If all fails i'll ebay a PSone screen. I know a local sign maker that can cut and engrave arylic panels for me. I might get hold of him after i finish my pcb. Thanks for all the great information. I might get metal panels in the future. How long did it take you to do the GPS? was it alot of work?

[kiek 1,235]

>wow. but isn't the FDS CDU for project magenta? How was it>converted? by pass the pcb and hand wire every switch? Looks>really nice thoughhand wired every switch, see the second picture at my site, (connected to a Master Card of IOCards)Nicohttp://www.nicokaan.nl

[tigert 0]

>How long did it take you to do the GPS? was it alot of work?Hmm. One does not tend to count hours in this hobby :-)But the making itself is not very hard - etch the pcb, solder in the components, stick in the LCD and screw it together with the panel. Then stick it into IOCards, program some SIOC for button -> key event mapping and configure the RealityXP .ini to respond to these key events.Not that long - but then again, this whole process of "getting this far" has been ongoing since autumn 2002.. :-)http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-stuff/console1.jpgThe method of doing pcb's and panels in front definitely makes things easier, but it requires a lot of planning beforehand, to do the pcb right, depending on your interface solution and the pin order your input card expects etcetera..I think the GPS took about a year from the idea to the actual working thing. Although I noticed in my junk folder that I had sketched a GNS530 panel "for fun" in August 2004. But I dunno for sure when I actually got into building it for real.The planning tends to take long - or, if it takes less, then it tends to take a few iterations of actual building to get the final result right :-)//T

[Guest Baba]

Yes, I finish my FMC yesterday!The work not was be very hard, only connect directly 2 pins (switch) to master card input and 4 LED (light message) to output.A little be late because when I buyed the FMC (second hand), the light was green so I had change all the switches and now here is the right Boeing color YELLOW!...:-). The leds for backlighting (integrated inside switches) fortunately are connect using the same printed board so are necessary only to wires. I'm waiting a power supply from ebay to purpose...The panel of FDS are impressive but I had make this adaptation because I had choose to build the whole cockpit based on Open Cockpit card. The 767 level-d is too much great!!! and I want driver the cockpit using only this product.Today is possible have in our hand the 767 level-D......thanks Nico!!Regards,Valerio