Howdy everyone, Just joined. Making a 737-800NG simulator together with my brother in law. Doing a lot of research starting with the overhead panel. I'm designing them right now in SolidWorks. The hardest part is not knowing the exact sizes of the panels and even more confusing the size of each switch, since apparently there is a mix between 6mm and 12mm? I hope some of you can shed some light on that for me or share some awesome resources that could help out!
The first panel:
(https://i.imgur.com/Vzb4VZg.png)
Roderick / Pitje
It looks like your design is not going to use Dzus rails for mounting. You may want to consider this since there may be real aircraft parts you want to use, or replica parts from manufactures you can find on the web. The design you have right now would make mounting and removal interesting.
I suggest you look at designs for your panels and mounting procedures that afford easy removal and maintenance in the future. There will always be a reason in the future to partially dismantle a panel or remove it for work.
For the forward overhead, also look at designing a method that allows the entire panel to be hinged on the aft edge so that it pivots down when released from the front using some form of retainer screws/bolts as in the real aircraft. When I bought my Sismo forward overhead, it always was a two and sometimes three person effort to remove the panel for maintenance. Now when I have any failure it just tilts down for easy access.
On top of what Jim said, there are no 6mm switch holes. They are all either 1/2" or 3/8" for a few. If you want to make it as real as possible, look only at pictures of real panels, not what other vendors make - quite often they are not right.
For basic panel dimensions, this site is quite handy http://www.barrytech.com/boeing/boeing.html (http://www.barrytech.com/boeing/boeing.html)
With enough research, time & patience, you can get it pretty close to the real deal.
get a cockpit poster and scale to.what works for you .
. simple cheap fast
Correct, I'm not using a DZUS Rail. I'll be fastening the bottom board to a frame, which can then hold all the panels and hinge like the real thing would. I've chosen for this option so I can fit all my backlighting and such on a thick wooden frame. I will not use any real plane parts or manufacturers parts in this build, mainly cause I don't have easy access to them right now and I kind of want to build everything myself.
I've been trying to find some cad drawings to work off from, but not very lucky so far