Hemp’s Flight Sim Stuff

The mode buttons use two-tone printing. Basically, the faces are printed with black filament, the bodies are printed with grey filament. Then, the 6 buttons are then engraved with a 40W diode laser to cut through the black (unnecessary, but because I could). I am getting a hang of the alignment. The mode button engraving is perfectly aligned with all 6 of them engraved in one shot. A jig, a previous print with some minor errors, is used to align and stood up the mode buttons.  Again, this panel is intended to be used in VR, thus no point of engraving at all. But I could, so I did. It just looks good. Again, the PCB still needs to be designed and made. Thus, there is a 1.6mm 3D printed yellow stand in for this assembly test. All the buttons are printed with PLA, laser engraved, and nothing is done to them other than peeling them off the support print, and filing off the stubborn flashings. No filing, no sanding... they all worked just as-is. That is, just print, peel off, assemble, ...

  This is just a render of the WIP F-16 ICP panel design. Yes, I did say it's a design, not just a 3D model. This is designed to be 3D printed, including the engraved text/graphics. However, the design file has provision for disabling the engraving. This is so that it's possible to just export the sketch of the text/graphics as DXF for laser engraving on the 3D printed buttons/panel (requires newer version of SolidWorks though). However, that does not mean that you cannot use Acrylic panels and laser cut/engrave, CNC mill to create backlighted version of it. It's just that this is not specifically designed for that. It will require some "design modifications" to get that to work. I should also mention that this is designed to use stainless steel dome switches for buttons, not using the optical switches I am also developing. The reason being that ICP does not need low latency, so software debouncing with latency of 20ms will do just fine. You ain't gonna use th...

 The ideas of this test is for the followings. The suitability of 3D printed parts. No back lighting.... because I am using this in VR. I certainly tested about 20 to 30 different ways of how not to make a backlight panel about 10 years ago. I can make a real realistic panel, but not for this. Test the tolerance values I put in. test the fit of the parts when assembled... most importantly, whether the very thin stainless steel dome switches are going to slip through the crack and get out of position.  I am still missing the PCB and the 4x analog dials... I am considering putting Hall Effect sensors on them. Which sensor I put on would determine the PCB layout, and the cutout I needed for the devices. I am using a dome switch that has an activation force of about 1.29 kgf, which gives a very satisfying click, but still far short of the real thing...  Anyway, the test is a resounding success..... the buttons, and dome switches rattle when I shake the whole assembly. But sta...

  I have not posted for awhile due to health problem, and recovery... Not much in this post, just to report the successful test of the TQS friction generator. The idea is to read the angle of the throttle arm, and use it to dynamically generate friction using an industrial servo motor running in torque mode (not all servo controllers allow that). Now... there are two possibilities. direct drive convert the torque/force into friction using a disk brake or drum brake mechanism. #1 has the advantage of simpler mechanism, but it is not exactly how we "feel" in the cockpit. That is.... for instance... let's assume the dumbest constant force response, i.e. at any position, you always get the same "preferred" friction force, just like what the original "friction wheel" does. But... remember, only if you move the arm should the motor generate that constant force opposite of the delta v. Now, if the pilot is not moving the TQS, then, it should maintain the posi...