Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

[Tom_Hampton]

Tested 5mm inserts this morning.
@mechsicko I think your rule of thumb worked well. Half the difference between the narrow exterior section and the widest exterior section.

I "thought" I would just leave the rest of the hole 5mm for the bolt and to provide backing, but that meant I had to clean the squeeze out with an exacto knife.

Finally did print that elusive TCS knob.

Perhaps, you could leave a void for the "squeeze out" to push into?

 

[RCHeliguy]

I'll try to leave squeezeout space in my next insert test. I only care about this for the HMD hangar and the connection between frames. I expect to have the M3's on the surface and not from behind so it will be less of an issue.

This shows how the controls will be wired to the Bodnar 64 input card.

The left side will have a 3D printed clamp to secure the ribbon connector interface to the section with the Bodnar board. The Female to Female jumper cables will connect directly to the Bodnar board. Then the ribbon cable will plug in and connect to the ribbon connector interface on the control side front panels. The difference is that the jumper cables on the control side are male with a nice lead for either screwing down or soldering.

M3 inserts arrive tomorrow.

My Weller soldering station for all it's higher end goodness doesn't have compatible insert tips.
A new cheaper 40W Weller that will take the M1-M5 insert tips I have will arrive on Thursday as should my magnets. The rest of my backlit controls etc are still a week out.

Right now I'm working out the framework that will hold the control panels. The left and right frames will need to bolt together and have an accessway for ribbon cables to the rear section holding the Bodnar board.

All of the buttons, switches, toggles and joysticks will be on replacable panels. I see this as a necessity if I'm going to share this on Thingaverse. No matter how much I like "my" layout, I have no doubt that I will want to change my layout over time and I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt that others will want completely different layouts.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The magnets arrived but my hole sizes need to be larger and need to be further apart.
With the magnets wedged, but not fully seated they were surprisingly strong. With them fully seated, I think they will do quite well.
I'll be cutting the distance between them to 1/3 what I was testing with and one magnet would hold the label in place pretty well. With two well spaced magnets I'm optimistic.

The M3 inserts arrived as well.

The Design is coming along. I've got the hangar, phone holder and mounting between the two button boxes figured out.
I need to add the panel fasteners next. Then some cool looking panels.

Just because

 

[RCHeliguy]

I finally decided on a wedge fit partly because a 45 chamfer doesn't need any supports and partly because it will pull tight and have a lot of surface area. The M3 inserts went in easily and appear to be holding well.

The magnet holes were just a little bit too big, so I used tiny bits of non-hardening caulk. to hold them in place. The holes are 1.5mm deep with only .5mm skin coat on top. I'll adjust half way between where I had it last time ( too tight ) and what I have now. Maybe Goldilocks will be happy this time.

There was a printing irregularity and the frame is a bit warped. I printed it with supports on edge because that will be the print orientation for the two 40x160 opening in the button box frame holding these. I think it will be more stable when it is part of a much larger part.

The support ugliness is completely hidden when this goes together.

Here it is screwed together with controls.
I need to print more labels. Below are just the magnets where labels would go. I went with a 10mm center for the 5mm diameter magnets and they are not interacting anymore.

In this configuration I'm absolutely not worried about the labels coming off unless it is intentionally. They are solid.

The magnets below are on the surface and magnetically holding to those in the back. I only printed a partial blank label for this test so far. I'll experiment with the magnet hole diameter as I print more one at a time.

The underside for completeness. It looks a bit bowed in this picture, but it doesn't look that way in person. I must have gotten too close with the camera.

Overall this feels very solid. I think the magnetic labels will work very well and I think my 40x160 panels will work well too.

FYI, my first test button panel had the buttons on 30mm centers. That was a bit too far apart. I needed 26mm between them to have room for labels. Ideally for my hands a couple mm closer might have been perfect, but this compromise feels good, so I'm sticking with this.

 

[Tom_Hampton]

I like the look of that toggle. What MFG/PN is that?

 

[RCHeliguy]

I like the look of that toggle. What MFG/PN is that?

It has a very nice tactile feel to it and a very solid clunk as it switches. Those little red buttons have very good tactile response as well. They are the same one's on the DSD button boxes.

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[Atak_Kat]

Every d*mn time I click on your thread, I mysteriously end up researching 3d printers.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I think I'll use 5.1mm for the labels (snug) and 5.125 (pretty snug) for the holes in the panels.

A 2.2mm deep hole leaves the 2mm magnet slightly proud because of a bit of sag from unsupported filament.

I'll have a single label that I will use as a "master" for magnet orientation for all the panels so the labels will be interchangeable without worrying about polarity.

I tested with 5x1 magnets and because there are fewer layer lines I can get away with 5.025 diameter holes to get a snug fit 5.05 is even loose.

Also notice that I did add relief pockets on the magnet holes so I can pop the magnets back out with a pin or knife tip.
No point in throwing a bunch of these magnets away as I go through iterations. I can also double up the 1mm thick magnets to make 5x2mm magnets out of them, if I ever run low.

 

[Moonmachine]

Today at 06:01



Every d*mn time I click on your thread, I mysteriously end up researching 3d printers.







Same here, some fantastic work. This thread has also given me the Virpil bug!

 

[RCHeliguy]

I keep going round and round on the control layout. I'm about to add text to all of the labels.
I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing.

I think this is a bit easier to see.

 

[Tom_Hampton]

Hmm... Not sure about the top mount for the bias knob. Bias adjust (in iracing, at least) takes many revolutions to fully adjust with an encoder like the 288. Also from my own learning... I think you might want more clearence between the knobs.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Hmm... Not sure about the top mount for the bias knob. Bias adjust (in iracing, at least) takes many revolutions to fully adjust with an encoder like the 288. Also from my own learning... I think you might want more clearence between the knobs.

Thanks! Exactly the feedback I can use!

So think it belongs by itself on the front of a panel?
Maybe split TSC and ABS and put a button or even nothing between them.
How about this? I've not used a rotary on my button box before.

Still lots left to lay out.

Ideally I think I would like the connectors mounted directly to the removable panels so I can just route the ribbon to the back.
Still playing with this.

I still need to handle 12V. I'm starting to feel like I'm in product development.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Printed up some 8pin / 16pin / 20 pin connectors.

Button Box Ribbon cable 8P / 16P / 20P 2.54 head connector mount by RCHeliGuy

I'm using these to secure ribbon cables near my button box panels. These are for 8P/16P/20P 2.54mm Socket Header Connector ISP Male Double-spaced Straight needle Curved needle connectors. I'm using them on both sides. One on the panel side and one on the Bodnar 64 input card side with ribbon...

www.thingiverse.com

Running through a bunch of M3 bolts.

I'm getting closer to pulling my 64 input Bodnar board out of my existing button box.
Hopefully the rest of my buttons and joysticks will arrive this week.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I have a set of these 19mm buttons ordered in blue that will get here some day....

I'm thinking of adding a replay binacle shown below to use those buttons.

Is this getting to be too much? Or do you think it is worth doing?

Everything in the picture below is to scale.

I had to order a pair of new joysticks after the last order was canceled, but they will be here Friday. So I'm just waiting on the 12V disconnects and header block and the backlit buttons.

Some of these prints are going to take well over a day to run and it may take 5-6 days to print the button boxes and panels. AND I KNOW that as soon as I actually get this assembled I'm going to want to change a pile of things. Despite all my iteration over the last few weeks, I know that the moment I have everything at hand something won't be right.

I know I've designed this specifically to accomodate my changing ideas of what this button box should be, but part of me wants to get it right the first time and I just need to get over that, but I want this to be right so bad!

 

[RCHeliguy]

Down to dotting I's and crossing T's now. Making sure everything will bolt toghether and laying out where the wiring will go in a reasonable way. Running 12V wiring should be easy by comparison.

Still have some more attachment points to layout between panels and button box frames and the backpanel to create to cover the Bodnar board and lots of wiring.

 

[Tom_Hampton]

Really solid work. Very well done. You'd have made a quality aero structures engineer in another life.

Incidentally, I just got the go ahead to buy a 3d printer. I'm looking at the cr-10S. This is partially your fault.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Really solid work. Very well done. You'd have made a quality aero structures engineer in another life.

Incidentally, I just got the go ahead to buy a 3d printer. I'm looking at the cr-10S. This is partially your fault.

I am an engineer. I have designed metal fabricated products that I put into production. I did teach ACAD to the Architecture and Art and Design students while I was in college. So I have a bit of background even if it wasn't in aerospace.

Good Luck and I hope you enjoy your 3D printer as much as I have mine!

 

[RCHeliguy]

I have the first two pieces ready to print! Let the printing and iteration begin!

I had to compromise on hiding the magnets under the surface for the button on top since there was no bottom access there, so I'll top load those and only use 5x1mm magnets ther.

3 hrs for the small peice and 18 for the larger one.

Just passed the point of no return, dismantling my old button box.
It had a good run and lasted me over a year.

 

[Tom_Hampton]

I am an engineer. I have designed metal fabricated products that I put into production.

I knew you were and Engineer, but I thought you'd said BSEE---hence, my comment.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It's happening! All the pieces are coming together...

The little M1-M5 Insert set is working well.
I have the magnets placed using my "master" label front so all the labels can move anywhere.

The ribbon cable connector is in place. Now I just need to wire up the other other side to the panel.
I'm only using 10 of the 16 pins for this, but I left room for adding more controls on this panel.

Here it is. I haven't figured out what these two buttons will do yet, so no labels for them.

Love that textured surface build plate!!!!

Tomorrow morning at 8:30AM I'll have the next piece ready.
Hopefully by then I'll have another part ready to print.

I have buttons arriving Sunday and hopefully I'll get the backlit buttons I'm waiting for by Dec 23rd at this point, but I'm seeing reports of many shipments being stranded and not moving right now because the USPS is completely overloaded right now. So.... I may end up printing a temporary front panel for my larger button box just to use my existing controls.