Homemade Comanche cockpit.

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Very Very cool! Always amazed whenever I end up in this thread, its just out right stunning work! 8) 8)

cheers,
Lewis
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curtis72561
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by curtis72561 »

One questions. HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU FIGURE THIS OUT!!!!? I wouldn't know where to start. This is awesome and I would live in the cockpit if I had one.
Beeachcraft V35 Bonanza, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Cessna C-172 Skyhawk, Cessna C-182 Skylane, Curtis P-40, North American P-51D Mustang Civilian
North American AT6 Texan, Piper PA-28 Cherokee, Piper PA-24 Comanche, Piper J-3 Cub, Supermarine Spitfire

alioth
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by alioth »

Thanks for your words all of you!
curtis72561 wrote: 24 Nov 2019, 17:55 One questions. HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU FIGURE THIS OUT!!!!? I wouldn't know where to start. This is awesome and I would live in the cockpit if I had one.
It has been a long way. Not building the cockpit but learning how to do it.
Everything started with a broken arm that not allowed me to ride bike.. So I had to look for others ways to pass the time.
Always wanted to have a physical cockpit, so I started looking for info, saitek, simkits.. then I tried to interface my own hardware, switches, then steppers, pots, encoders, displays etc..
learning LUA, C, electronics, arduino, avionics, how real gauges work, 3d printing. I had a little knowledge of all this, but I had to increase the knowledge a lot.

The first idea was to build a realair lancair, becasue it was a smaller project, and easier to interface.
But when I finally learnt how to work with custom lvars fluently, and got a good yoke from an old proffesional as300 simulator, I changed the route to my favourite GA plane, the comanche.

I was never in a hurry, and I didn't mind to change lot of things if I learnt something useful new. So, the cockpit was never the target, but the path.
I think every gauge in the cockpit has been done twice (at least). The same with arduinos and coding.

In this years (something like 3 years), I have collected many real gauges, radios, so I can build something bigger in future. I have always the Aerostar in mind. So if it finally is done (p3d, xplane, fs2020 or whatever), I will probably be there.

I discovered all this beautiful world of cockpit building, thanks to a broken arm :)

Arturo.

alioth
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by alioth »

Ok. I'm slow, but I don't stop :)
I am working with the fuel selector.


First idea was to put it into the panel cockpit, like this:
Image


But I am finally going to build an structure with floor and seats, so I will put the selector knobs where they should be.

Image
So... this is what I want to achive.


Image
Some 3d modeling


Image
3d print, sand, paint, and 3 ways selectors.


Image
And finally, 3d print plate, bezel, and a support to install the whole thing into the future floor.
I have installed a push button too as you can see. This button will add 1 gallon of fuel for each push, in the tank or tanks that are selected. It only works while plane on ground.
In this way I don't have to open the fuel menu in the simulation with the cockpit.


Now is finally working:
https://youtu.be/cuMTGdSiMb0


Arturo.

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Scott - A2A
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Scott - A2A »

Fantastic work Arturo.

Scott
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locmar
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by locmar »

Amazing work on the Comanche cockpit Arturo !! Someone give this man an Aerostar :D
Image

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Oh my fricken god this thing just gets better and better. How much a ticket when you finish and open up to the public? :lol: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol:

Honestly just stunning as always, the craftsmanship scares me how cool it makes you come across haha.

cheers,
Lewis
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twsharp12
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by twsharp12 »

Great to see such passion and talent in the hobby. Excellent work.

alioth
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by alioth »

locmar wrote: 07 Apr 2020, 07:28 Amazing work on the Comanche cockpit Arturo !! Someone give this man an Aerostar :D
Please A2A. Listen to this man!! I am prepared for the Aerostar 8)
Image

Lewis - A2A wrote: 09 Apr 2020, 07:00 How much a ticket when you finish and open up to the public? :lol: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol:
Free ticket for A2A staff :mrgreen:
(pandemic promotion, you know).


One more pic. Post lights finished:

Image


Arturo.

Tyrion
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Tyrion »

Impressive work!
I'm in the very, very, very early planning stages to do something similar. Maybe dreaming stages is a more accurate description at the moment. :P
Best regards,
Lars Domen

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Scott - A2A
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Scott - A2A »

If the real Comanche only had cockpit lighting that good... and nice choice color temp on those lights.
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alioth
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by alioth »

Some updates:

-Rudder trim knob. I have design and 3d print a knob:

Image


- Circuit breakers are installed into the panel:

Image

Image

Image


- I have interfaced the DME. This one was hard. The initial idea as to replace the digits displays for moderm and easy to itnerface displays.
But I finally I manage to make it work as is. No changes were needed in the whole dme. P3d sends the data through an arduino and the DME shows the data.

testing:
Image

and finished:
Image


And a video talking about some gauges in the cockpit. (spanish, sorry. But it is just to see the same gauges in the software and my panel).

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Eag0DRNq86s[/youtube]

link: https://youtu.be/Eag0DRNq86s

Arturo.



oh... one more pic. Have you seen what happens when you click in the yoke hole to hide the copilot yoke? :P

Image

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Oh nice A2A end caps lol 8) Lovely little touch to the project. Still amazed at this no matter many times I come and see the thread, the utter amazement at what you have done is always the same

cheers,
Lewis
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alioth
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by alioth »

A lot of time I posted last time, but the proyect is going on.
I have been flying a lot in Condor Soaring and Virtual reality. A lof ot fun!

About Comanche, I am waiting a little to see it in msfs, but there are some updates.
I have rebuild some electronics parts. While you build something for the first time, you are learning a lot of things while building. And when you think you are finishing, you know that some things you did now can be done better/cleaner/simple etc.. (I supose it is happening with msfs comanche development in A2A too...).

I had only pilot (not real) pedals, and a yoke from ans old AST300 simulator.
And... now I have a real rudder pedals and dual yoke set (ok, they are from a cherokee, not a comanche). But they are good enough to be mounted in my cockpit. The pedals are quite simliar to the comanche, and the yokes can be change in future if I want. It is not easy to find this kind of things in Spain.


Image

Image

Image
Left: the actual working yoke (from and old ast300 simulator)
Right: the real cherokee one.
I will try to install a dual yoke system with the cherokee yokes.

So, the idea is to build the base of the cockpit, install this pedals set, and build and code a force feedback for dual yoke and pedals.

Force feedback in yoke and rudder pedals is a big proyect on its own. A lot of fun (and problems) to come!

Arturo.

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ClipperLuna
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Re: Homemade Comanche cockpit.

Post by ClipperLuna »

Holy smokes, looking REAL good! When you get this paired up with the MSFS Comanche, it's going to be hard to tell where the sim ends and reality begins!

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