The danish 727-project

[lasseh]

Hello

I'm not new to this forum; I've been around here for quite some time. It really is a great (the best!) source for solutions and inspiration for building a home cockpit! :)

However I am new in the matter of actually building a home cockpit. Through the past year, I've been collecting items for my 727 cockpit and think that I'm now ready to give it a shot!

One week ago I had less than no knowledge on how to interface buttons and switches, FSUIPC etc. It was all greek to me! But it turned out, that it's not really that hard and sources like mycockpit.org really is helpfull here!

So yesterday i managed to connect the mode selector on my 727 flt dir mode control unit to the BU0836X card, and it's working perfectly fine! Do you remember that first time you actually managed to function a switch or a button, and something really happened in FS?! ;) I's an amazing feeling!

I've attached a few photos of some of my "hardware". :)

The Sperry 150 autopilot is actually a new addition (recieved it a few days ago). If anyone has managed to modify a such, please share your experiences! I'm thinking a 24v supply will do(?)

I'm looking so much forward to begin this project! - And i wish you all a happy holiday! :)

Best Regards,
Lasse H. Christensen

[Geremy Britton]

Looking forward to seeing your progress with this. You really can't get more real than using actual aircraft parts, and also keep us updated on how you do it if you do manage to interface these parts as other people in the future can buy these parts and see what pins and plugs connect to what part of the instrument/panel.

Welcome to the forum, and i hope to see lots more posts from you!

Best Regards

[lasseh]

Thank you Geremy! I'll keep posting on this forum as soon as any progress i done. It surdenly takes time to build a cockpit, but that's off cause the charm of this hobby. :)

[claushansen]

Hi Lasse

Looking forward to follow your project. Looks good with the real components.

I have just "finalized" my own small cockpit, and yes it takes long time :p

Regards
Claus
www.737sim.dk

[LH784]

Hi Lasse,

24V will be fine for the Korrys, I replaced the original bulbs with 24V LED lamps (www.Conrad.de), the have a slightly colder colour but draw less current and don't get so hot.
I think the APD also needs 24V (but I'm not sure). Look at the bulbs, but these little ones (CM something) are likely to use 24 (28) V.
For the backlighting try 5V, both for the AP and the FD.
I'm not sure for the solenoids to hold the AP paddels, maybe 12V are sufficient, but probably they will be 24V (everything of course 28V in the real aircraft, but 24V work pretty well). To be on the safe side, probably it will be best to start at 5 V and slowly step up. I plan to use relais to control mine.

Good luck and post pictures,
Florian

[verticallimit]

Nice to see more Danish cockpit projects.
Looking forward to follow the development.

[AVIATor-Olav]

Cool that there are others doing 727's! In Scandinavia even ;) ! I'm curretly collecting stuff for my pit. I've got an over head panel, a Sperry AP and a flight director on the way! What are you doing for the MIP? I've designed my own, it will be cut in early January.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/Paganize/MIPAssy2.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/Paganize/MIPAssy.jpg

[lasseh]

Verticallimit, I've been following your md-80 project for some time now. It has been very helpfull, and has brought a lot of ideas and inspiration for my own sim. Thanks! :)

I came across your 737 sim today Claus - It's really great! Saw your video on youtube, please keep posting more of these!

Thank you very much Florian! I'll certanly try this out as soon as return from my parents after Christmas. I managed to desembly the "approach-annunciator-warning-light-assembly" (don't know what the correct description is?) and light it up with a 12v power supply. Works perfectly good!
Are you allso building a 727 Florian?

My MIP is currently made out of wood, as well as the bezels for the gauges. It's pretty hard to cut the bezels without breaking the wood, so I'm thinking to give it a shot with some sort of plastic and a hobby knife.
Looking forward to follow you on your 727 project Olav! Which material are you using for the MIP?

[AVIATor-Olav]

My MIP will be made out of sheet metal. It'll be cut at a friends work shop from my drawings (he has a water cutter). The bezels will also be water cut in plastic or aluminum.

[Chaser]

If you need some manuals to help with the layouts, I have a FCOM, cockpit layout, and a few items from an ATA 727-200, plus a Boeing DME and tiller handle that is just laying about....would love to see it get put to use.

The 727 is a phenomenal bird, and would have been my first pick, except that the TRUE flight deck is around 10-12 feet long and I just couldn't get the space...hence the reason for the DC-9-32. Whatever I can help with from a resource gathering perspective here stateside, please let me know as well, as I have a number of great resources that will help with getting a simpit off the ground. DEFINITELY recommend going with real pieces whenever possible, as it really helps to add that extra dimension. Additionally, it has helped me on the DC-9-32 as I'm "connecting the dots" to piece assemblies together, rather than trying to figure out how to create this aircraft from scratch (unlike Boeing, McDonnell Douglas actually hand built the cockpits, putting them together piece by piece....which is part of why the aircraft are so much more reliable/well built in the opinions of many mechanics. Boeing assembles the cockpit and then just basically slides the finished cockpit in, then wraps the shell around it).

Additionally, I can help you as some pieces for the 737 and 727 are interchangeable, and I'd be happy to help on that as well.
Jon

[lasseh]

Here's a miner update from Denmark.

I've now managed to desemble the autopilot, wire the switches together, install an electrical circuit and esemble it all together again. It only took me three whole days! ;)

A few pics and a short video demonstration:

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My roommate working with the paddles.

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Simon again. We took some micro-switches from my CH yoke and installed in the pitch-wheel.

And the final work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1FYl-bX0Z8&context=C3c0f17dADOEgsToPDskLw6f8GemFdQd81Io5mbxzk

[claushansen]

Hi Lasse

Great to see how you progress. And a lot of work with the solder ion, I have also spent many hours with this tool :p

I have use Foamalux to my MIP. You can get it in Bauhaus 30 EUR pr. plate. It's very easy to cut in, and with a spray gun you can get
a good result.

Continue to post ;)

Regards
Claus

[lasseh]

Thanks for the suggestion, Claus. I went straight to "Bauhaus" and bought a plate of foamalux. I'm pretty happy with the result so far. The material is very easy to cut in indeed!

Here's a little shot on the result so far:
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For the bezels I've used a 2" water pipe. Actually it's a tiny little bit smaller than 2", so it fits very accurate into the holes that I've cut using a 2" hole saw. I've made each bezel 8 millimeter deep. The foamalux is 5 millimeter, so when fitting the bezels into the wholes it extends 3 millimeter out of the panel surface.
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The hole for the landing gear lever was cut using a hobby-knife. Again this material is very easy to work with using a hobby knife, and still it remains strong/solid.
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Thanks to "AVIATor-Olav" for a nice set of drawings/dimensions! I've found them very usefull!

Next thing to do is to cut the rest of the bezels, polish the panels/bezels and then give it some RAL7011! :)

Have a good day,
Lasse

[claushansen]

He He, good to see that you can use it.

Looking forward to see the final result ;-)

Claus

[AVIATor-Olav]

Glad to see you could put the drawings to use! :) Looking good!

[roppeca]

Really nice work...that dream will be a great set up...go ahead !

[lasseh]

Thanks for the kind words! :)

Allthough it has been a while since my last post, I'm still working on the project. I'm waiting for some new "stuffs" to arrive so I can move on with project; In the meantime I've played around with the panels, and here's a very (VERY) early "demo" of the center MIP:

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Lasse

[claushansen]

Wow, fantastic.

Great to see your progress :)

Claus

[roppeca]

That center mip facinates me 'cause is plenty of flight instruments ! What program do you use for to show the panels ?...thanks in advance !

[lasseh]

Thanks Claus!

Roppeca: At the picture above, it's only a printet piece of paper, illustrating the gauges. But I am using a program called "FS Panel Studio" to move, add and edit the gauges. The gauges its self are from the dreamfleet 727, and some from the Richard Probst's freeware 727 panel.

Lasse

[roppeca]

Very useful info to me... I'm a 737-8 simmer but 727-2 is a great flight deck...looking forward to follow your work !

[AVIATor-Olav]

Looking good Lasse. When do we get to see the rest of the MIP? :p

[lasseh]

Hello guys.

Here's a "minor" update from a nearly finished captains side MIP.
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Progress is fairly slow at the moment, as I unfortunately don't have the space to build or set up any parts of the simulator in my current apartment. I've also spent the last months on real world flying, and the European ATPL really takes up a lot of your spare time! ;)

However, I managed to put this together the past week. I've used foamalux as previously described to build the panels as well as the bezels. The plates are 5mm thick, which just makes space for the tiny encoders to be well placed between the monitor an the panels.
10019
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Next project will be to interface the tq and the radios.

[AVIATor-Olav]

Great work Lasse! :) looks really nice! Good to see you're still working on your sim! I did the ATPL theory back in 2000. Had my CPL, Multi, instrument and instructor ratings, the whole lot. Took a lot of time and money that lot! Now I just keep my SEP rating current. I'm planning to start flying gliders this spring. Lots of fun that too!

Keep it up! Cheers!

[lasseh]

Wow, impressive Tor-Olav! :) It surely cots a lot of money to keep the licenses current. Still have to do the IR, ME and CPL. Used to fly gliders 10 years ago, was great fun!

By the way - did you ever come up with a solution on how to configure the flight director control panel? I was thinking about converting the selector knob to a rotary encoder rather than a switch.

And how's your FE station coming along? :)

[AVIATor-Olav]

I have interfaced the FD, but not properly. It kind of works, but I'll certainly have to revisit that one. I also have thought of going the encoder route, but I will wire the exsisting switch like an encoder. As described here: http://www.737ng.co.uk/simple%20encoder.pdf
I've done that to the rotary switches on the FE panel.
not much progress on the FE panel to report. I'll definately update my thread when there is! :)

[Avro748]

I think I sent you a PM a while ago with a possible way of interfacing the Lamps on your F/E panel with the Dreamfleet 727. Have you looked into it?

[AVIATor-Olav]

Hi Avro. Yes I saw your PM a while back, and I appologise for not getting back to you earlier. Just too busy doing other things at the moment. The Sim has a lower priority at the time. Thanks for the pointer though, I'll definately look into it when I get a bit further down the road!