Author: dak47922

The MIP has arrived!

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As I mentioned in the last post, I ordered the MIP for my sim from HomeCockpits. They Arrived sooner than I had expected and are quite nice quality.

Once I got them home I discovered that they didn’t quite fit the support structure I have been building. At one point I was considering scrapping what I had built and starting over. However I ultimately decided to modify my build. The captain side and middle sections now fit as they should on the support structure….. but I think it’s very likely that ill be having to make more adjustments down the road.

I am eager to start building the pedestal but I would like to get my hands on more components first so I know that I am building it in the proper scale. I am eyeing some of the products from javasimulator.com as well as some more panels from HomeCockpits.

MIP Support Structure Taking Shape

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Over the past few days I’ve been working on the support structure for the MIP. The pilot’s side and the middle section is mostly done at this point. The first officer side will be a bit longer because I decided to modify the design a bit. I’m planning on making it easily separable from the rest of the panels. This will make transportation easier down the road.

I also made the decision to buy the MIP itself from homecockpits.fr. Its a bit of a complex piece and they can do a better quality and likely quicker job than I could with this piece. The parts came to a total of €495.00 or $685.58 CAD. Not exactly cheap but hopefully worth the price! It is made to order and will be customized with my aircraft registration and SELCAL. C-FOLF will live! (I’m just not sure when) :p

I’m heading back to work soon, but if I have time I may start working on the pedestal. I’m excited to see that take shape. I can put my real airbus door control panel in it right away!

Layout begins!

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Like I mentioned in my last post, I acquired a 3d model and thus dimensions for my cockpit. That combined with some free time I began laying out some pieces on plywood. My plans called for 10mm MDF but that is near impossible to find in my area so I chose 11mm poplar plywood… not the cheapest option at $31.44 CAD but for the structure of the MIP it should work really nicely.

I bought three 24×48 inch sheets and have all of them nearly filled and ready to cut.

I haven’t had time to pull out the saw and cut them yet but I am super excited to do so soon!

To draw them as precisely as possible I did pick up some additional tools.. First up was a Metric 300mm T-Rule and Protractor both from Incra Tools. Neither of which are cheap but allow me to mark to a fraction of a MM or degree. To compliment these precision rulers I bought a nice 0.5mm mechanical pencil. (0.5mm is required to fit in the marking holes on the rulers)

I chose the Kuru Toga Roulette Model 0.5mm. I’ve been wanting a nice quality pencil for a while now and this seems to fit the bill. This pencil is unique in the fact that the lead rotates as you use it to keep it evenly tapered, sharp, and precise.

I hope this post didn’t seem too much like an advertisement! I have 10 pieces ready to cut and am excited to hopefully update you all on that soon. 🙂

An important moment for the A320 sim

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For the longest time, I’ve always had a bit of a worry with my A320 project. I had not made enough progress to ensure I wouldn’t give up and be left with another unfinished project that slowly fades away… something that has happened many times before.

I’m happy to say I reached a point where I think that would be difficult. I got my hands on design files for the MIP, Pedestal, and Sidestick box. Using these files I have been able to determine all the measurements for the main structure pieces!

This allows me to get past the huge initial hurdle. I’m super excited to see the upcoming progress this will be leading to. The design calls for 10mm MDF which is tricky to find in my area… so i’m hoping that 3/8″ will work without too many issues. Only time will tell.

I also received a set of replica engine start switches from a fellow simmer from China off of eBay.

Designed in aluminum with glass/acrylic inlay, they far surpass anything I could manufacture on my own. They are designed to slide onto regular toggle switches and be held by a set screw. Im super eager to eventually have them in the cockpit.

A320 Cockpit Colors

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I’ve been a bit of research on what colors are used in the A320 cockpit.

Let me preface by saying that yes… these colors may not be exact but I can say for certain that they are pretty dang close.

There are 2 colors in the cockpit, the grey that can be found on the MIP, the pedestal, the overhead, and all the breaker panels. And a blue that can be found on the sidewalls of the pedestal and on the sidestick housings.

Grey
Blue

The grey used is RAL 7031 (#6B767B). Using the site: https://www.easyrgb.com/ I was able to find close matches found in normal house paint collections. I decided to try Whale Gray (N470-60) from Behr which can be bought at Home Depot.

As you can see it’s a pretty close match but I would like to get even better. Not to mention having to roll paint onto my custom panels is not exactly Ideal.

The blue used is RAL 5017 (#136398). The closest match in the Behr collection I could find is Cosmic Cobalt (P500-7D)

Again not a perfect match so on to my proposed solution…

I came across https://www.myperfectcolor.com/RAL-Paint-Colors/148.htm which lets you enter RAL color codes and order custom mixed spraypaint cans! Which I’m thinking would look way better than rolled on house paint. Not to mention easier and quicker. Once I order some and get a chance to test the results I’ll be sure to post my findings.

Just a quick note about the finish. On the actual panel I own it is definitely a matte or satin finish. I’ll be comparing that once I custom order my paint batch.

Finally an update on the A320!

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Work and life in general has been pretty hectic lately so updates have been pretty slow… But I had a user on the FlyByWire discord suggest I make more posts. So I’m going to make an effort to do that.

I ended up buying a real Airbus component. A cockpit door control panel. (119VU) Not the most exciting panel but one of the cheapest. It is also a great source of reference material! Paint color, a korry switch/indicator, toggle switch, pushbutton, backlighting color, dzus fasteners and of course the panel sizes themselves!

Once I got it I spent a while admiring the wiring and trying to reverse engineer it. I eventually got it all lit up and was happy to find that it all worked!

Aside from that ive been collecting a bunch of pictures and reference documents, even some wood and tools! I’m super excited! It looks like I’ll be starting on the pedestal first. In the next post I’ll go into a bunch more detail about all the small things I’m trying to sort out. Like paint colors and actual panel construction.

Thanks for reading!

Long time no see

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Wow! it’s been a while since my last post here. Life sure has gotten busy and hectic for me…. and while I guess many people eh? There haven’t really been any big projects on my radar but I’m happy to say that’s going to change. My new job has allowed me to be able to buy a tool I’ve wanted for a very long time…

I bought a 60W Laser cutter/engraver! Ultimately I hope to be able to start making an Airbus A320 flight simulator. I have started doing some planning work on it already and of course will post here when I am able to start working on this project. I do have some smaller laser projects in mind and I will keep you updated on those as well. This laser is quite a beast weighing over 300 lbs and with a work bed of 20 x 28 inches. It will take a while to set up and start learning, but im super eager and excited!

That’s about all I have for now. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Happy Holidays!

My new alternative to wood screws… kinda

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As you saw in my last post where I built a prototype MTG card tray, I had some pretty decent issues with wood splitting. In retrospect using screws on 1/2″ mdf wasn’t the best choice. Initially I thought a brad nailer may have been the best choice. However I found an even better method thanks to Adam Savage and his YouTube channel, Tested. In a couple of his recent videos he mentioned pin nailers. Pin nailers are like brad nailers but they shoot very thin fasteners that are virtually invisible once in your material.

I haven’t had a chance to use it in any of my own projects yet but the results are quite amazing on some scrap MDF I had lying around.

There is atleast 20 nails in this board!

I also put some pegboard up in the shed today, turned out quite nice. Next up will be a workbench to go under it.

Card Tray Built!

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I managed to make my way into town the other day and buy some supplies for the project I mentioned in my previous post. I picked up a 24x48x1/2 inch MDF sheet and a pack of 6 x 1″ flathead robertson woodscrews.

I made quick work of drawing out the parts to be cut.
The base plate and 4 walls cut out!
After all the the dividers are installed and everything is screwed in. You’ll notice some problems have arose.

Results

As you probably noticed I had some pretty substantial splitting issues this was due to 2 errors on my part. Initially my pilot holes were too small putting too much stress on the wood. Additionally my chosen screws were a bit too wide. I suspect I should have been using around a #3 or #4 screw rather than a #6. At first I was a little disappointed but have decided to treat this first run as a proof of concept. My chosen size and dimensions seem to be perfect for what I have in mind.

All in all I am pleased with the experience even if the quality is lacking, for the next trays I build I am expecting the quality to be much higher.

Mistakes are never a bad thing if you learn from them!

Quarantine Creativity

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After weeks stuck in the house I needed some sort of creative outlet so I decided to begin planning a long needed project….. A storage solution for my MTG card collection.

They’ve been stuck in a box for years now. >.>

The Idea I had in mind was a set of around 4 drawers in one unit. So as a start I began designing the tray portion which I hope in the end I can make removable from the unit.

My goal was to make it fairly minimal and easy to build while still having a large capacity. This design uses exclusively 1/2″ MDF and will hold approximately 8,162 cards. Each tray is made up of 11 pieces in only 4 sizes.

  • 1x Bottom Plate: 25″ x 15″
  • 2x Sidewalls: 15″ x 2.5″
  • 2x Front & Back walls: 24″ x 2.5″
  • 6x Dividers: 14″ x 2.5″

Total: 780 sq in

As shown in the side view the cards will extend up to one inch above the sides of the tray. This allows you to be able to file through your cards easily.

It may be impractical for me to make it out to buy the materials for a while but I will be sure to post updates when I make progress!

Stay healthy everyone!