My A320-like cockpit

[MCrevot]

Hello everybody, Hi Jack

My sim is a A320-like : only 1 pilot (i lake of place), and some simplifications, to be sure to
finish it within a reasonable time (my basic option is to realise everything by myself). I began
3 years ago, and i have acheived now a first satisfying (for me  ) version, with 3 FSX views on 3 1280x800
projectors, on a 180 degrés screen.

Today, i am showing you how i built the screen : a very light and easy construction, and very
inexpensive, but nevertheless of quite good quality (excuse my poor english).

Just remenber what happen to a play card when you pinch it between thumb and index !

The screen is divided in 3 parts, and each part is composed of 2 3mm mdf sheet (i have not found
a single sheet with the good dimensions), one above the other ; we shall see how to insure a very
good reunion of both.

I have screwed on each side a square aluminium profile.


Then, with 2 others profiles, i gathered the 2 top corners, and the 2 lower corners (you have to
draw the scheme of the screen to determine the good length of those "tensioners").


To insure a good curvature, i cut two circular areas (10mm mdf) of the same radius as the screen,
and screwed then on the upper and lower tensioners.


And now, we have to insure a very good junction between the 2 mdf sheets ; i sawed 4 pieces of
wood with the external profile of the screen (witch such a length to cover the whool junction),
and a fith piece with the internal profile of the screen ; then, i drilled a hole in the center of each piece.



After that, one after the other, i glued each 4 pieces on the back of the junction ; for each i
drilled a hole in the screen, between the 2 sheets, in front of the hole of the back piece, and
temporarily screwed the back piece on the back with the fifth piece on the front, just the time
for the glue to dry.



It is a bit delicate, but the result is perfect ; just remain to fill the holes with some
synthetic coat, and sand.


After having realised 3 parts as that, just screw them, add some rigification between each with
four aluminium square profiles, of new fill the holes ... two coats of satin white acrylic paint,
and it is finished.



I shall describe others aspects of my cockpit later ...

Michel

[B747-400]

Hello Michel,

great setup! Congratulations!

BR Hans

[jackpilot]

Hi Michel

Very clever and simple design.
Please post pictures of your visual as I think it is quite impressive and can inspire all the Jetmax/half cockpit builders to go beyond the classic 3 monitors outside view display.

Good job!
Jack

[MCrevot]

Yes Jack, my sim is a (almost) A320 half cockpit : i had no sufficient room, but i wanted a 180 degrés screen (3m diameter), so i had to sacrified the FO ! And as i am almost more interested in building rather than piloting, i decided to do everything by myself, (except the MDCU, most of the electronic cards, and the sidestick handle), but with many simplifications, because it was my first sim, and i worried a little face to the amount of work. So i kept only what was really necessary to fly.

An other important point is that i had to modify the panels repartition, because an A320 cockpit is organised for four hands, and i have only 2 hands ...

All the cockpit is made from mdf and aluminium profiles (mainly for the shell).

I use OC cards and 2 bodnar cards for the electronic.

I have 3 PC, one as FSX and A320FMGS server (2600k), with the front view, a second one as A320 FMGS client (i7 920), with SIOC, RC, ..., and a third one as FSX client (4970k), with the left and right views. the 2 FSX are synchronized with wideview, the views are warped with fly elise elise immersive display pro.

All the panels are made from PPMA (i built a CNC to cut and engrave, it has been a hard experience because the basic kit was of very poor quality and i had to modify/add many parts), and the particular instruments (throttles, sidestick, tiller, flaps, speed-brakes, ...) are made from mdf, PPMA, POM and aluminium.

I am very proud of some pieces, for instance the sidestick witch respect the real caracteristics, or the korrys, the FCU push-pulls (5 successive versions), i will show them you.

Here is a global view, you can see an interesting disposition of the 3 projectors : it is quite hard to mount them to the ceiling and have then fine tuned, so i included each one in a litle mdf box, just placed then on a platform included in the roof shell : the secret is to select very short throw ratio projectors, mines have à 0.39 ratio (Mitsubishi), so they dont have to be superposed each on the other.





The seat is made from parts of wheelchair, and mdf ; all the adjustments remain.

Here is the main panel, i brought up the  ECAM panel, i put the gear lever in the middle, at the place of the standby instruments (partly pushed on the left), and added a screen (on the lower right) for radar contact.
On the Glareshield, i put the radar panel (inoperative).



Here is the pedestal, i have modified the radio panel with a specific keyboard for radar contact, and added an other specific keyboard, on the upper part, for AES and the sonorisation control.



And that is the over-head, you can see many simplifications (no fire panel, minimum aircond panel, no ventilation panel, no evac panel, no emergency elec power panel, ..., and the Adirs panel is not finished ; but all the necessary is here.



On the left side, the sidestick (witch take a lot of place underneath), and the tiller, two interesting instruments ; i could have gain some space on that side, lake off premeditation !



The whole cockpit measure 125x165 cm, and 305x170 with the screen. It tooks me almost 3 years, and half a year to obtain a sufficently precise cnc (1/10 mm).


Michel

[757Simulator]

Very nice looking project and one I'm sure you'll enjoy for many years.

[jr2mey]

Very nice work!  Impressed not only with the flight deck, but your visual setup as well!

[MCrevot]

Hi,

today i am going to show you how i built the sidestick ; in an A320, the forces applied are much stronger than what is encontered on a commercial joystick, and are different depending on the axes : 10 daN for the pitch, 3 for the roll in, 2 for the roll out.

There are 2 chalenges :
1) design a gimbal (?) with the 2 axis in the same plane, to simplify the attachment of the springs and the dampers,
2) design the springs : each ons has to react both when pushing and pulling, with the correct forces,

3) and recently,i have added a third one, to replace the potentiometers on the 2 axes by  hall effect devices, to avoid the imprecision due to the gears,


1) The gimbal
Here is the principle :


The pieces are made from delrin (POM) machined on my cnc ; POM is very resistant, and very easy to work with, much more than aluminium :


That is a proof of concept, in the final version i will use aluminium for the inner nut, because the torques are quite hight :


And here the gimbal in his cage :


2) The springs
I designed a very simple double action device, with easy to find components ; here is the principle :


The pieces are made mainly from copper and aluminium tubbing, and delrin, the springs are commercial springs with precise caracteristics :


And the assembled device ; the definitive devices are bigger because i made a mistake in my first calculus :


3) The cage
I made it from mdf and aluminium profiles, the pieces are cut with the cnc :


Here, the cage almost assembled :


4) The final assembly
First, all the mecanicals devices : the gimbal, and a double action spring and a strong damper on each axe ; the axis are made from steal (10 mm), and the levers are strongly attached with 4mm keys.


The moving part integrated in the cage :


The cage closed :


The side stick completed, with an open cockpit card to interface the 2 axis potentiometers :


And the sidestick in place :



The sidestick has been tested by an A320 pilot, and has received its agrement !


Lately, i added an improvement : i have replaced the 2 potentiometers by 2 hall effect devices, witch allow me to suppress the gears, and gain in precision. These device are also home made.

Here, a principle sketch :


And the differents parts, made from delrin with my cnc ; you can see the little sensor with the 3 legs, and the magnet (brillant) very strong.


And the final device



The result is really perfect, and can be plugged at the place of the potentiometers without changes.

That all for today !

Michel

[iwik]

Michel,
An awesome job and makes me very envious of you skills. Well done and please keep
us posted. Airbus cockpits are a rarity here, im one of them but my progress is very
slow. Skill set is not on a par with yours. It was great you showing construction.
Had you thought about making a tutorial as I know many Airbus constructors would love to replicate your side stick.
Les

[mickc]

Marvelous work Michel!

First one I have seen that re-creates the whole mechanism,
Well done

[MCrevot]

Thank-you, Mick and Les ; no, i had not thought to a tuto, because it would be a hard work, the plans have evolved several times during the construction, and they are not really uptodate ! but if there is a need, of course i can help !
Michel

nb : i wrote a french tuto for the display system (curved screen, 3 views with wideview, only 2 PC)

[MCrevot]

Hi,

when i began my sim, four years ago, there was very little documentation about how
to build the panels ; so i have realized numerous tests before obtaining a satisfying result.
It quickly appeared that a cnc was necessary to acheive a sufficient precision, and so i bought a kit from swiss ; it has been a very bad experience, because the kit was of very poor quality, with wrong parts, design error, ..., and a very bad contact with the supplier ; i spent almost 4 months to obtain a working machine with a 1/10 mm precision, but now it can machine almost all what i need, except big piece (max 18x23 cm).



My first generation panels :
In an A320, there is almost a hundred of korrys, which are very very expensive : so the first thing i realised was the korry : they are made from black delrin (POM), and i use 2 little pieces of translucent plexi (PMMA) to diffuse the  2 leds light ; the top of the button is also made from PMMA, painted with acrylic, and then engraved with the cnc.





The panel itself is a stacking of 4 layers :
-the back is made from mdf, and it support led strip for back-lighting and the connectors.
-the 2d layer is a printed circuit board with all the necessary connections (for instance, the push button, leds and resistors for the korrys).
-the third layer is made from 5 mm transparent PMMA, it support all the heavy components (rotary switch,potentiometers, ...).
- and the front layer, made from translucent PMMA, painted with acrylic, and then engraved with the cnc.

The printed board :


The front panel :


The second layer, with the korry's button :


The back panel :


The wiring :



And the finished panel :




The second generation panels : a great improvement consist in moving the back-lighting led from the rear layer to the printed board, just against the 2 front layers. Here is an exemple, a special panel to interact with radar contact : it is just a panel with push-buttons.

The printed circuit, witch will support cms led :


The button caps are made from delrin (delrin is very easy to machine,  whereas PMMA is quite delicate because of its very low melting point).






The front panels :



The wiring :




And the final result :



Next time, i will show you a very intersting panel, the FCU, with the difficult to realise "push-pull" ...

Michel

[Flying_Fox]

Excellent design and workmanship, Michel! 

[jackpilot]

Few of us make their own panels here !
Hence....a round of applause for your dedication !!
Bravo, for a spectacular result

[MCrevot]

Jack,
genuine parts are so expensive in France,  and moreover A320 parts are rare... we have to be inventive !
Michel

[MCrevot]

Hi,

next episode, the push-pull : the A320 FCU require four quite difficult to build devices (to select speed, altitude, heading/track and vertical speed), a rotary encoder with a push and a pull switch ; moreover, one of those device need a concentric switch (altitude 100/1000 ft).

I made 6 attempts before reaching a realy satisfying result ; a cnc is necessary to achieve this.

The basic component is the CTS 288 encoder, wich provide also a push switch.

Here i my first version :

A few images of the building of the FCU,







and the push-pull itself : the push and pull function is provided by an on-off-on switch, but the concentric switch is not implemented.


Later, i made a second version, because the push-pull feeling did not satisfy me : so i replaced the switch by 2 push buttons, witch bring a more pleasant touch feeling.



That second solution work well, but the device was to bulky to allow the implementation of the concentric switch ; so i made several others attempts, to finaly find a really pleasant solution : i use the integrated push function of the CTS 288, and an external push switch for the pull function, with a very similar feeling than the push switch.

The components :


and the building :




The final result is bery compact, and very smooth to use :


Then i added the concentric switch : the main component is a micro switch (the same you encounter in the smartphones), the complete mecanism is integrated in the front plate off the device ; the black part, wich is concentric with the encoder shaft, activate the microswitch, and provide  2 notches for the 2 positions of the concentric switch ; it is made from delrin (POM), i use it to have a spring effect ...





I hope all that will help the rare A320 simmers (in america), because you can buy rotary encoders with the push pull function (Grayhill, in optical version), but it is really very expensive, and the concentric switch is not provided.

Michel

[jackpilot]

       

this is neat or what !

[B747-400]

Hi Michel,

well, I'm a Boeing driver. But nevertheless: you're doing a great job!
You seems to be highly skilled in constructing clever solutions! Compliment! 

BR Hans

[geremybritton]

What an excellent setup, I very much like the way everything is very compact yet compromising very little on realism

[emulov]

Hello Michel!

Congratulations to your very nice A320-like cockpit! It is really impressive to see how you come up with very neat and functional solutions. Your final version of the encoders with push/pull function (and especially the one with the concentric switch) just blew me away! ;-)

I am planning to make a FCU myself, so I am wondering if you are willing to share the files for cnc-milling the parts for the encoders?

Best regards!
Isak

[MCrevot]

Isak,

i can share all the files, but up to you to decrypt them ! (I have done many successive releases, but not redesigning all the pieces each time, so they are spread among different files ...) ; i can gave you Turbocad or autocad files, and .dxf files, PM me your email.

Michel

[tennyson]

My congratulations, as well, Michel.

I'm just at the finishing stages of my sim build (737-800NG) and it's been  3 years as well.

I predominantly went Boeing, cos it's just my thing, but I am glad, cos as you say, it's not easy to source parts for Airbus and the idea of making all that stuff would have killed it for me.

You, on the other hand have done an exemplary job. That is some first class work and if there is one thing that the cockpit builders here do well, is recognize talent and you've got buckets of it.

Continue your entries here, I'm enjoying seeing how you've created this wonderful example of global ingenuity!


Frank Cooper

[MCrevot]

Hy everybody,

Want to improve your french ?

Here is my new website :
http://www.myA320sim.com

Michel