Here's how to build N1 SET and SPEED REF knobs - lot of pictures...

[XOrionFE]

Hey all.   I just finished building my N1 SET and SPEED REF setup and thought I would post a series of pictures to show how it was done.   Note that this was not my idea but taken from a fellow builder's site Bjorn) so I credit him with the idea.  His site is here: http://www.boeing737sim.se.

I decided to document more pictures as I did mine.  A couple of notes:

-The Mip and front panel you see is by Flight Deck Solutions (gotta love IBL and Pro MIP)

-The Knobs are from Nihad at Sim Knobs (now out of business I guess)

-8 Pos Rotary Switch is C&K from Mouser (Mouser Part No. 611-A12515RNZQ).   I believe these are similiar to

what FDS offers as well.

-Encoders were sourced a long time ago from Open Cockpits (item 3T7).  You can use whatever suits your

interface so long as shaft is large enough to drill out and tap.

-Brass Tubing is 1/8th inch.  Rod is 4-40 Hobby linkage rod.  Set screws are 4-40.[/li][/list]

Hope this helps some of you.
Scott

[dharrison]

Scott,

I see you've been busy man. Sorry I couldn't make it over this week. We just put in a new laminate floor in the family room/living room so that shot my whole weekend. Really cool work. Lets target next weekend for sure for some build/fly time!

Don

[ivar hestnes]

Nice job Scott. Very well documented too

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Fantastic work! I wish I could think of something to use one of those for so I could build one.

[carlos hermida]

Really nice solution and very detailed. I wish have knew about this 5 years ago as
my sim never had this working like it should...

    Thanks to share it ! Will be very useful for new builders and others.

[jackpilot]

Scott.
Real nice.
One question though as the most difficult part is opening and closing the rotary switch without having those little devils spring out into oblivion with their tiny balls!
Is is really necessary to open it, or can it be very carefully drilled through?

[XOrionFE]

This was a good question from Jack.    The spring unfortunately goes right through the center axis of the switch so if you try to drill without taking apart (which I did at first) you basically get everything messed up inside the switch and it will not function.    The spring and 2 ball bearings are actually pretty easy to carefully remove just make sure you are cupping the switch with your hands when you pull out the shaft.    The spring as you see in the pictures is cut in half and I actually removed one coil of the spring on each half because because they will end up being compressed a little more then they were originally as one piece.   (I hope that makes sense).   Putting them back in is really easy as the switch manufacture included a little groove to get the balls back in place while replacing the shaft.  Hard to explain but once you try it will make sense.

Hope this helps.

Scott

[mpl330]

Really useful post - it now makes sense how others have achieved this for the efis.
Anyone got a bench drill that fancies drilling 4 of those switches for me - i don't think it will work by hand...

Cheers
Mike

[milezee]

Opened up a rotary switch yesterday to see what was inside (curious type).
Even though I'd read this thread, I still failed to catch the flying ballbearing that flew out.
Now lost in the living room somewhere. Doh.

[archen]

I open the switch inside a plastic bag to collect the flying balls and springs :-) Works perfect.

/Anders

[milezee]

Good tip! I'll do that next time.
I'm going to pull apart a cheaper 12 way for the bearing to fix the 8way.
Btw, do you think a blob of  epoxy would work for restricting the detent?