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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 22 Feb 2018, 06:55
by Lewis - A2A
Oh for sure, the eye candy is the fun one for seeing things come together. Same with the way the team develop. Talk is exciting but the magic is when its all added and working with the eye candy modelling.

thanks,
Lewis

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 28 Feb 2018, 08:12
by zazaboeing
This topic and his construction are amazing! I’m excited to see how it comes together! Congratulations

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 16 Mar 2018, 04:39
by alioth
I'm building the throttle quadrant. The levers come from a real Scottish Aviation Bulldog plane. I have modify them a little in order to mount them in vertical panel. Real ones go in horizontal.
The tightening lever (which is functional) now is on the right, like standard pipers throttle quadrants. (Scottish aviation bulldog has this lever on the left).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpX286LFwmc[/youtube]

Im using some 3d print pieces and high quality pots.
When finish the cockpit, the 3d print plate will be behind the aluminium panel, so printed pieces wont be seen.

I hope this weekend will be attached to the structure and working with simulator. I will post a vid with the levers working :)

this days I have made an Elevator trim indicator:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV3EK0aGels[/youtube]


and Cabin air temperature gauge:
It is great A2A uses so many custom lvars for so many things. You can make working gauges for everything :)

Image


Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 16 Mar 2018, 07:04
by Lewis - A2A
Wow, lots of great progress again and so happy you are able to make use of all the variables 8) Its similar to how we work with the professional side of the business with our flight training partners.

thanks,
Lewis

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 18 Mar 2018, 18:14
by alioth
Throttle levers working!!

Image

And some other things..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-fdAYi ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]

There are many other things working. I have connected these just to quickly test the levers.

Next step... parking brake lever, and rudder trim.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 19 Mar 2018, 06:29
by caleb1
If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you make the GTN and how does it work? Is it 3D printed? Is there a small computer screen behind it running the Flight1 GTN?

Thanks.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 19 Mar 2018, 07:32
by alioth
caleb1 wrote:If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you make the GTN and how does it work? Is it 3D printed? Is there a small computer screen behind it running the Flight1 GTN?
it's always a pleasure to answer questions!

Inside the cockpit is a small pc (msi cubi) which manage gtn750, engine monitor and other software.

The gtn750 chassis and bezel is 3d printed. It has a touch display inside. The software is the standalone g750 version from flight1tech. The buttons and encoders work through an arduino that sends keystrokes to the software.

These are the pieces I have desing and print to make the gtn750:
Image

And a view from behind:
Image

I have to finish the buttons, one encoder (upper left), and sand and paint the bezel.

It works really well. And it has exactly the dimensions of real one.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 19 Mar 2018, 09:11
by caleb1
Neat! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 31 Mar 2018, 05:52
by alioth
Which is cooler than a homemade ka51b free-slave switch?....


... a real one :)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exq_0zF94XE&t=[/youtube]

Although a2a comanche has manual drift adjustment, I have coded the arduino to get the behavior of the real ki525a (which I have) and to be everything synchronized with century hsi comanche.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 16 Apr 2018, 06:01
by alioth
The progress has slowed because I have less time actually and I am spending some time flying.
It is great to use the cockpit as is. I am very happy how it works. And It really starts to seem a panel cockpit. Everything in the pic is working fine:

Image

Yesterday I was to fly LEIB -> LIEA
I was testing some new code I have added to my engine monitor, and I thought it was a bug in my code, becasue the Amp meter was too low and warning was on. I thougt it was my code and I take off.

Some minutes later... I saw the Gen circuit breaker jumped.
I love accusim!!

A vid showing what happened (A simulated later vid. It wasn't the moment in the flight):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca69dLsAEIk[/youtube]

Some weeks ago, I spent some hours looking in my arduino code because elevator trim system didn't work as expected. Finally, I found everything was ok, but the elevator trim system in the simulator was broken (You now... shift - 7).
I lost some hours but I felt in love with accusim again!!

I really love this plane. This is a treasure for sim users, really.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 16 Apr 2018, 13:34
by caleb1
Your engine monitor, is it downloadable software running it, or did you code it yourself? I really like engine monitors, and I'm sure they would be great in accusim planes.

Thanks.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 17 Apr 2018, 02:54
by alioth
Hi,
I have coded it with a software called Air Manager. I shared it in the air manager forum for air manager v2:
https://siminnovations.com/forums/viewt ... f=26&t=462

It is a replica of a real and old engine monitor called "vision micro vm1000c"
https://www.jpinstruments.com/technical ... -vm-1000c/
It is coded with its operation manual, and it has the same functions.

It is previous that more modern engine monitors like JPI (930, 960 and so on).

BUT, It has some limitations. There are no public custom lvars for each Cylinder EGT and CHT. Only one EGT and CHT are simulated. Instead, there are custom health Lvars for each cylinder. So I have coded the engine monitor to show diffenent values according to the health of each cylinder.

In this way I can detect problems in a cylinder showing the engine monitor. Although it doesn't show the real cyl temps, you can see different cyl temps and conclude something wrong is happening. This is the what an engine monitor is suppose to be used, right?

And it has beautiful features. It shows fuel flow, fuel burnt, fuel remaining, hours of fuel with your actual fuel flow... And I can load the tanks with the menus in the engine monitor when you are on ground. No need to press shift-4
You can see a warning if any parameter changes along the time (although it is not yet critical). Which was called Autotrack in the vm1000c.
And a warning for max and min values for any parameter.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 17 Apr 2018, 16:38
by caleb1
Ok. Thank you very much for your explanation. So if I buy Air Manager, I will be able to download your engine monitor and add it as a 2D window in my sim using Air Manager? Is this correct?

Thanks.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 18 Apr 2018, 03:47
by alioth
caleb1 wrote:Ok. Thank you very much for your explanation. So if I buy Air Manager, I will be able to download your engine monitor and add it as a 2D window in my sim using Air Manager? Is this correct?

Thanks.

This is correct.
I haven't share the engine monitor v3 version yet (the air manager v2 version is not fully complatible with air manager version 3). I had to modify the code a little in order to work in v3.
And I think now it is only air manager v3 avaliable.

I do not know if it's worth to purchase air manager only for this, anyway.
People usually make a whole panel with 2d intruments with this software.

But if you want/need it, tell me and I will send the engine monitor to you.

Arturo.

Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Posted: 09 Aug 2018, 19:30
by GrubbyZebra
Very excited to come across this project. I recently bought a TAS Indicator that had a broken bourdon tube (yay $40 real aircraft gauge!) I am pretty confident in how to get the mechanical stuff functional again (although I have to make a new card with the right speeds for the PA24-250), but am lost on the arduino side of it. Do you have a primer (or a site you referenced), or could you make one, explaining how to use and Arduino to drive a servo-actuated gauge?