MFD Parts

[fweinrebe]

I need to manufacture 2 Multifunction Displays (MFD) for the PFD and SFD of the Pilatus PC9M glass cockpit. The bevels will be placed on top of the panel with a LCD screen behind.

Does anyone have good resources on how to make these bevelled panels and mount the tact switches and buttons?

[XOrionFE]

I know you sent a PM to me and I apologize for not getting back to you. When I went back to answer the PM it was mysteriously gone so I didnt reimember your name to answer.

I did make MFDs out of acrylic and tactile switches purchased from GoFlight and later from Mouser and interfaced to a Hagstrom KE108 board. I did this for my generic combat simulator usage mfds as well as for a simulated GPS panel for my GA pit.

It was really quite simple. Use wood or acrylic to build the panels. I cut out little square holes for the tactile swithes to go through but the switches themselves were on small PCBs(the ones from GoFlight seen in the pictures). For the switches I purchased from mouser I just bought some PCB and cut out to fit the areas behind the panels. The switches are soldered onto the PCBs and then the pcb is just hot glued to the back of the panel. Be careful not to glue the switches themselves! I supplied a couple pictures showing the GoFlight Switches glued to a piece of clear acylic for illustration. Really not that professional but works great nonetheless.

The switches and caps I got from Mouser are:
101-0621-EV (TACT SWITCH 12X12MM)
101-0119-EV (12X12 SQ IVORY CAP)

You can also get the switch caps in black if you like.

The screens on my combat MFDs are really nothing more than electroluminescent green sheets that slip in a slot in the top of the mfd with a transparent template printed in black with clear lettering on a laser printer, cut to size, and placed in the slot in front of the EL sheet. Works and looks awesome. With the Hagstrom KE108 keyboard encoder and the ease of printing new templates I can basically build new key command sets quickly for any future sim. As for the GPS panel shown on this thread, it too was interfaced to the Hagstrom board along with a dual rotary encoder switch for tuning. The GPS panel sits on my MIP with a monitor behind it so the display comes from the GPS panel in FSX.

Hope this helps.

Scott

[fweinrebe]

Scott, I was hoping that you would see this thread. Thanks a million for the reply and photos, this is exactly what I needed. I like your GPS and something similar will probably be added to my sim instead of the default GPS for the PC9M.

Here is what I am building (Not to scale). I will be needing the Black caps. They will be engraved. The EICAS' buttons are smaller than the PFD's, so I will continue looking for smaller caps or modify the larger ones.

http://www.avcocalc.net/Portals/3/drawings/PFD_Bevel.jpg
PFD MFD Panel

http://www.avcocalc.net/Portals/3/drawings/EICAS_Bevel.jpg
EICAS MFD Panel

There are some forum posts missing as well as some PM, I noticed in my Outbox that the PM sent to you was also missing.