Glarshield Lighting

[Ronson2k9]

The wing (Glareshield) was intended to be used as head protection in case of a sudden stop/accident. So they would not be made of a very hard material and most likely a padded upholstered surface.

That said if you have a sudden stop in your sim causing such an injury you really have an awesome sim LOL...

I would go the route of Alex and 'Fake' or Faux as it called a finish to the wing/glareshield. Seems like a great and easy way to get that done. Now in order to do that you will need to consider a few things before heading off to the paint store. You will need to read up on faux finishes..

Painting Technique: Faux Leather
http://www.bejane.com/BJDIY09262006656

http://www.how-to-faux-finish.com/leather-faux-finish.html

Then you have to make a note of what you're painting as plastics and paint can react to each other sometimes with much less then desirable effects. So for the first coats of paint you need something that won't react to your wing material then after when you are doing your faux finish something that won't react to the paint you just used to seal your wing. Seems like that could be my next project as I've been thinking of how I was going to make my glareshield. Thank you Alex for mentioning the paint idea. I was going to use vinyl but had a time as Matt had mentioned getting my head around the glue/fixing the vinyl to the surface.

A few notes of glareshield / Wing construction...

I'm hoping to use High Density Isolation foam (Pink/Blue foam) and use a hot wire to cut it. It can be found at home improvement stores.. Already shopped around in prep of this idea. I'm also going to use masonite (hardboard) to give it some strength as the Styrofoam is pretty fragile all by itself. Wrapping non re-enforced Styrofoam with vinyl would have resulted in many frazzled pieces of foam and hair as I slowly went crazy trying to do that I'm sure..

The HDF will be the bread in the sandwich (masonite is the meat hehe) of glareshield. I'm going to design in pockets for lights and wiring to those lights and build the glareshield in cross sectional segments. The masonite will act as a template for the cutting and as a permanent re-enforcement to the shield. This will let me cut the foam efficiently as I'm gluing it all together in smaller pieces. The reason for HDF over regular Styrofoam is the size of the bubbles. When foam is made it's a whipped up polymer depending on the type of polymer the bubbles will be big or small. The smallest bubbles are what I need. If I'm going to paint the shield instead of covering with vinyl. I'm going to need to sand as smooth as possible the outside of the shield then hopefully with as yet found filler material get all the seems out. After that it's putting on the faux finish. Adding lights and so on.

Lighting I'm going to use a few 10 Christmas tree LED bulbs. As the season is approaching I've been looking for them too.. 5 white and 5 red. Probably get an all white set and add the replacement red bulbs.. I'll be using a dimmer switch to each set. The LEDs or cool (not very much heat) and are easy to find and replace. Making them a good choice. If I buy even the smallest set I should have plenty of spares anyway. I'll make sure they stay with the simpit so they don't accidentally get used for the Christmas tree.

That faux leather paint idea gives me a few more creative thoughts for the yoke as they are often covered in leather.. hehe..

I feel a another construction article coming on.. hehe.. Stay tuned in the GA area for more on the C206 Glareshield.

[No Longer Active]

Hi Ron,

.....You stole my glareshield! lol

Mine is coming on nicely, will have to compare glareshields soon considering that mine and your are EXACTLY THE SAME....!

Lol :)

[No Longer Active]

BTW Ron....

You say that you are going to use 5 red and 5 white bulbs, you will have to wire these as 2 circuits on 1 x DPDT, unless you wire them to 2 x SPST toggles.

Not that long ago I actually looked intensively at the lighting system in the Cessna 172 itself at my local airfield, and the white light was applied to the backlighting of the instruments and not to the actual instrument panel itself, I asked an instructor why the white light was not applied to the instrument panel and he said it was because it produces too much of a glare, hence why they use red....red doesnt produce a glare at night...

So I would only use red light to light up the panel and I wouldn't use white due to the glare factor.

By all means use white to backlight but dont put it in front of the panel.....

EDIT: The gauge lighters will do the job for the white light!

Cheers,

Alex

[Ronson2k9]

You perhaps haven't been in a darkroom (photography).. There a place that is hardly used anymore as it's all digital these days.. But having worked in one at one time there are other benefits to red over white lights.. Your eyes don't dilate when you look at red lights. As in white. That is your iris/pupil doesn't change size to do that. When flying as in driving looking at oncoming lights can be a disaster. So the red lights let you quickly move over your instruments without a pupil change keeping your vision able to pinpoint lights and other objects at night without needing to re-adjust..

Secondly Red is the easiest to see and there for makes for quicker recognition of your displays. This also reduces the amount of time you spend scanning your instruments.

White lights are for daytime flight...

I would never fly at night with the white lights on.. That is for the daytime only. Given we aren't in the open air when flying our sim (daylight) we have to rely on lights we have inside the space we are using. So I could add a light to the space but that would be very well non prototypical. So the white lights in the glareshield are a compromise to that end. They aren't to be used when flying at night as I like the red lighting effect and also primarily for the above reasons as they apply even though your in a sim the eyes are working the same...

I'm using a dimmer as that is what is used in the C206 for the lights..

There is the Overhead lights (flood 2 for crew and one for cabin)
The O2 panel lights (located in the overhead)

I found out a few things when studying the C206 POH. The cockpit is full of lights well they are where they need to be. But there are more of them then I had thought..

- The Pedestal for instance has 3
- The radio stack has a lighting control (dimmer) as well.
- Primary instruments on each side have there own dimmers.
- The Switch and Circuit breaker panels are back lit (internal lighting)
- There is also a map light under the yoke

As my manual is the one for the G1000 avionics group it has no mention of post lights or lights for the instrument panel save that of the standby instruments. As it has an LCD for the main instrument group. The LCD has an automatic and direct lighting mode. That is controlled along with the radio stack lighting control.

The dimmers are a push/pull rotary light control. Similar to a duel encoder or car stereo control. When in it controls one light group when out a different one. This I think is to save space/confusion on the lighting panel. The only lights that aren't on a dimmer are the exterior lights and the dome light in the cabin (push on/push off). All others are on dimmers.

In my case.. This is what I'm thinking I'll do....

Glareshield
- White (daytime lighting) - Simulating weather conditions
- Red (night time lighting)
Both on one dimmer knob control (could be doable if not separate switches)

Household dimmer = AC power and lights.

Radio Stack
- Dimmer switch to control LED brightness (if workable)

Pedestal
- Rudder/Elevator trim wheels and fuel selector lights (dimmer) same dimmer as for the radio stack (if workable) or duel switch as above. If I can make one I can make two.. hehe

- Map light (easy to do without making a fuss)
- Overhead light just in case (If I have an overhead hehe)

Aux / non prototype lighting (as needed)
Controlled from an AUX lighting panel under the armrest of the center stowage area (Ala James Bond). Not his plane but you can't leave to much fun out this idea..

- Rudder Pedal - Foot area (checking controls and finding dropped items)
- Mouse track pad/Keyboard - NUM keypad (if keyboard doesn't have it's own lighting)
- Stowage lighting (maps,charts,checklists,flght plan,log book etc) in an armrest box in between the two seats.

With the dimmer I can control the amount of light.. So it's say darker when flying in stormy weather and brighter when in clear skys.. When at night I can control how much red is in the cockpit as it can be a bit annoying to fly with that on and bright at all times.

I'm even thinking of adding a strobe light to the exterior of the simpit. Simulating lightning and the navigation light at night.. That could be wired from the strobe light control in the cabin and the aux control for lightning effect in the stowage compartment.

Lots of work.. hehe. First the glareshield though..

[No Longer Active]

I have moved a previous posting from 'Ronson2k3' over to here (where it belongs).....

[Ronson2k9]

Thanks man. Wondered how that happened.. I didn't remember starting a new thread ??? LOL...

Everything a foam Glareshield builder needs to know.. Cutting/Sanding/Painting/Sculpting...
http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=95725

One big safety concern is when working the foam sanding/cutting do so in a well ventilated area away from open flame or large heat source (save that of a hot wire cutter) both fumes and dust are toxic. It's meant to be used outside remember. So that would be an excellent place to work the foam. After all your shaping is done painting and so on can happen indoors but paint has it's fumes too..

[Ronson2k9]

For the lighting inside the glareshield. A little pre planning will go a long way to saving frustration later..

Elements.
- Christmas tree lights (LED 2 white and 2 red per pot) x 5 pots across the shield.
- Pots are small Tupperware food containers. Big enough to hold 4 lights and there sockets+wiring but small enough they can all be contained inside the shield

Pot modifications..

- Wooden band around the rim of the pot so that a Plexiglas cover can be screwed on to the pot.
- Custom Plexiglas cover to keep out dust and refine the look.
- Enough wiring to allow the pot to be removed from the shield.
- Velcro to secure the pot to the inside of the shield. Enough to hold it not so much you can't remove it. So minimum is the word for the velcro. Could also use a fridge magnet for this too. Glued to both surfaces.

Removal is so that lights can be swapped out easier and for pot replacement if need be. You never know..

I'm going to string the wiring during construction as it needs to pass from the front to behind the MIP a bit to clear all the mip monitor and support equipment. With some to spare about +1 foot should do. So the pot can be pulled out to change out lights. This wiring could be pulled/pushed into the shield. Need to get the 'pots' first as they come in so many different sizes and need to fit the plan but you can't really buy a custom one. A trip the dollar store should take care of that. They have tons of that stuff especially the small stuff.

For the lights.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/Green/EnergyConservation/SeasonalLEDLights/PRDOVR~0512312P/Noma%2BOutdoor%2B25%2BC9%2BLED%2BLight%2BSet%252C%2BWhite%2B%2528Icy%2BCool%2529.jsp

Plus a set of red replacement lights or a red set with a white replacement bulbs which ever they have..

Luckily I'm not adding the warning panel into the glareshield. Although being quite cool would add much work. Although I could design the glareshield with that addon ability. I currently don't have all the data on that panel so I don't know what it has in it. I've seen much of it but not all.. When/if I find out more I'll consider it. ;)