Professional PCB's for the Hispapanels FMC is there demand?

[capetonian]

Hi all,

There is an excellent tutorial at www. cockpitware.com (and here on MYC I think) for building the Hispapanels FMC with the OpenCockpits keyboard emulator and the PSone screen.

Here is the tutorial: http://www.cockpitware.com/download/download.php?file=14

As much as I would like an Engravity FMC there is now way at the moment that I going to have 1100 to spend on one in the immediate future. I have decided to build a Hispapanels one in the meanwhile, if (or when) I get to the stage that I buy an Engravity FMC then I will use the OpenCockpits one as the FO FMC.

But I digress .... I have made a few inquiries and found a supplier of exceptionally good quality PCB's. If I order a series of 10 or 20 boards then I can get them for a good price.

If I order a series of PCB's then I would like to get rid of the surplus ones of course. Would anyone here be interested in buying one or two of these boards?

I am not 100% sure of the price yet, but I can assure you that they will cost max 50 euro for a board, professionally finished and pre-drilled, including postage. Maybe it will be possible to send two boards for 90 euro including postage but don't pin me on that.

My questions are then:
A) would you take a board (or two)
B) would you be willing to pay let's say 10 euro up front? (lead time to you once I order will be about 10-14 days, obviously this might be different depending on postal speed, generally from the moment I order till pickup from the supplier will take 7 days) Obviously I will only order when there are enough people to order for, only then would I ask (possibly) for a down-payment of 10 euros.

If you are interested please let me know before the end of February as I hope to order on the 1st.

Cheers,

Andrew.

PS: Mods, ... if this belongs elsewhere, please move it, I felt it belonged here because it is not really a sale/wanted item but more of an info post to see if there is demand for these boards.

[capetonian]

Wow , I really thought that there would be people interested in building their own FMC's , .. guess not. I am going to wait until the end of Feb, if no-one has responded by then I'll go and order myself two boards.

The more people interested, the cheaper the boards will be.

[reevery]

Hi

Sorry for the delay, I've not read this board for a while.

I am definitely interested - will send you a PM or email. I'm also interested in a board for the FCU which includes the display card - maybe also including the EFIS panels and connectors for the rest of the glareshield buttons.

Matthew

[twisted8]

Just a heads up, I bought the opencockpits FMC kit which I believe is the same as hispapanels and I didn't need a PCB. It was tedious soldering all the switches but I saved some money. You can mount and solder the switches on the clear plate that the fmc kit comes with. If you want to save time they also sell the PCB. Might be much easier going this route. I'll post some pics tonight, I just finished building it.

[HansJansen]

Hi,

For those who think about building the OC MCDU, you may take a look at my tutorial on the subject, here: http://www.mycockpit.org/tutorials/attachment.php?attachmentid=18&d=1257369380 .

Regards,

[capetonian]

Hi there Twistedb,

I know about plastic board, Hispapanels includ it in their kit too. Although I am saying a lot of money on certain parts of the sim, I really want a solid PCB that I can solder components onto, I personally find it a better way of securing the wires to the board. There will also be, theoretically, no chance of loose wires after you have finished building the FMC.

Cheers,

Andrew

[fsaviator]

Hi all,


My questions are then:
A) would you take a board (or two)
B) would you be willing to pay let's say 10 euro up front? (lead time to you once I order will be about 10-14 days, obviously this might be different depending on postal speed, generally from the moment I order till pickup from the supplier will take 7 days) Obviously I will only order when there are enough people to order for, only then would I ask (possibly) for a down-payment of 10 euros.


Cheers,

Andrew.



Andrew, count me in for two. I was looking at that also while researching. In fact, I had forgotten where I had seen that tutorial. thanks for reminding me.

Like I said, count me in for two and I have no issues with a reasonable downpayment. thanks for doing this!

Warren

[capetonian]

Hi Warren, thanks for your input.

Okay, let's do it like this, ... We'll use this post as a list. If you are serious about ordering these boards, then copy the list below and repast it in a new post with your name at the bottom and the number of boards you wish to purchase. I am going to go ahead and order one board as an example to see the quality. I will post pictures here.

Once I have got buyers for 10 boards I'll order them.

*******************

Username Number of PCB's:
capetonian 2
wsoeldner 2

add your name and number of pcb's

*******************

[fsaviator]

It works for me. See now you're making me build out of order:p I wasn't supposed to get to the FMCs until I had finished TQ, MIP, Controls, and Overhead. Oh well, I guess I'll be flexible :lol:

[capetonian]

Well , .. I was on a similar plan ... but you need a FMC to fly flightplans ...... :) So I need to build that too!

[dmoblay]

Please can you put me down for a board, let me know when/how you want the money.

Thanks
Luke


Username Number of PCB's:
capetonian 2
wsoeldner 2
Dmoblay 1
add your name and number of pcb's

[capetonian]

Okay, Luke sent me a pm asking to be removed, . .the count as of now:


Username Number of PCB's:

capetonian 2
wsoeldner 2


add your name and number of pcb's

[capetonian]

I am not 100% sure of the price yet, but I can assure you that they will cost max 50 euro for a board, professionally finished and pre-drilled, including postage. Maybe it will be possible to send two boards for 90 euro including postage but don't pin me on that.

Hi.

I have just got off the phone with the supplier and done some searching on the net.
Since International postage is so expensive the price of the boards including postage will be slight higher than forespelled.

The boards will cost 43,00 each (all prices based on a minimum order of 10 boards).
Postage inside Europe

Europe Priority Standard
0-500 g. € 6,16 € 5,92
500-2000 g. € 11,55 € 9,62

Outside Europe Priority Standard
0-500 g. € 10,45 € 7,40
500-2000 g. € 19,95 € 17,76

Now I assume that the pcb will weigh about 400g when it is finished. this means that, after packaging it is going to fall into the 500-2000g catagory. I base this on the weight of my opencockpits master expansion board that I have here, the mcp moard will be about 2,2 times the size and maybe weight of this one!!

Based on the above I estimate the costs to be:

Inside Europe : Standard: Priority:
Per board: € 53.00 € 55.00
Per 2 boards: € 96,00 € 98.00

Outside Europe : Standard: Priority:
Per board: € 61,00 €62,00
Per 2 boards: € 104,00 € 105.00

Well, the price is minimally different to what I had initially thought.

If you want me to calculate shipping via UPS, please send me your address via PB as I need your zip/area code.

[capetonian]

Just a quick heads up.

I have gone ahead and ordered one prototype board. Once it has been delivered I will photograph it and post the pics here so that you can see the quality (or not) of the board. Then we will decide on a date and count the hands, (at the moment 6x). As soon as we have done that I'll order the boards.

[capetonian]

Well I have been inundated with work and it has been taking it's toil on the sim and it's build. Taking pics and posting them has also bene put on a back burner, .. anyway I have the first prototype of the FMC board in my possession and I am impressed.

The holes are are all drilled and the silver tracks look good. The board is slightle on the wide side and I have trimmed it to fit the FMC top plate. Here are a few pics,

http://www.737ng.eu/300410/pcb1.jpg

http://www.737ng.eu/300410/pcb2.jpg

after trimming the board and cutting a hole for the LCD wires etc.

http://www.737ng.eu/300410/pcb3.jpg

I currently have orders for 55 boards, I am going to wait till I have orders for 10 boards and then I will order. In the meanwhile I will continue to build my FMC and post pics through the build, .. that way I will also discover any bad workmanship or hiccups before I order boards or take anybody's hard earned dough!

|Here the pricing info again, .. any questions, please pm or email me!

The boards will cost €43,00 each (all prices based on a minimum order of 10 boards).
Postage inside Europe

Europe Priority Standard
0-500 g. € 6,16 € 5,92
500-2000 g. € 11,55 € 9,62

Outside Europe Priority Standard
0-500 g. € 10,45 € 7,40
500-2000 g. € 19,95 € 17,76

Now I assume that the pcb will weigh about 400g when it is finished. this means that, after packaging it is going to fall into the 500-2000g catagory. I base this on the weight of my opencockpits master expansion board that I have here, the mcp moard will be about 2,2 times the size and maybe weight of this one!!

Based on the above I estimate the costs to be:

Inside Europe : Standard: Priority:
Per board: € 53.00 € 55.00
Per 2 boards: € 96,00 € 98.00

Outside Europe : Standard: Priority:
Per board: € 61,00 €62,00
Per 2 boards: € 104,00 € 105.00

Well, the price is minimally different to what I had initially thought.

If you want me to calculate shipping via UPS, please send me your address via PB as I need your zip/area code.

[fsaviator]

Hi Capetonian,
I was checking off things on my to-do list and remembered this thread... did we make any further progress, or have we moved on?

Warren