Baron with G1000 Simulator project - first pictures

[thunderbird1978]

Hello everybody,

after one year of digital planning, sourcing and testing of parts from around the globe I finally made the step to get a short time membership in a fab lab and to laser the panel with the G1000 avionics with a skilled friend of mine.

Actually I did not want to build the complex G1000 myself in the beginning but the choice was very little. Either investing the amount of a used car and get a very good one or invest less but get something that is also not cheap and with some limitations. So still with no experience in electronic stuff I decided to order those lcd screens in china and the story began...

baron1.jpgbaron2.JPGbaron3.jpgbaron4.JPGbaron5.jpg

As I will integrate this panel into a real Piper Arrow shell I have bought last year I needed to slightly tighten the dimensions of my G58 setup in order to fit the cockpit in the end to the real situation. In the first two pictures above you see the right panel. In real life there is not much going on there so I have put the (correct labeld by the way) circuit breakers directly to this panel. Picture in the middle shows the inner frame of a G1000 unit. I tried to make it a little dimensional like the real one - so there are panels to be on top of the left and right side. The buttons were tricky to find so I decided to build them. They have two layers of acrylic plates (3mm each) in order to just push them with some slight force onto the apem buttons. Last picture shows the full setup with all elements of the lcd on board.

baron6.jpgbaron7.jpgbaron8.jpg

First look and feel with my new G1000. I was a little surprised how real it looked. The encoders and knobs are from Leo Bodnar, the software will come from Flight1Tech.

The last two pictures in this post show preparations for the panel itself. It is covered with a laser engraved layer that is partly covered with gray color. In order to fully backlit the panel later on is is kind of necessary to really get the color strong enough to do not see very strong leds shining through. Last picture is the wooden frame to support the whole setup. It is 8mm plywood that can be cut by the laser cutter. As I have produced my first cockpit completely by hand it is really amazing to see how such a panel is produced in minutes to the mm perfectly...

[thunderbird1978]

baron11.jpgbaron12.jpgbaron13.jpgbaron14.jpgbaron15.jpg

Of course I needed to quickly assemble it to see how everything would fit together. I was also curious to find out if the G1000 units do fit without any problems into the space I have prepared in the panel. Some minor accidents demand new lasering of supporting panels (picture 2) - that's going to be redone... In picture 4 you see the first attempt of a also lasered starting button. It is not bad but needs to be higher - so I add some layers when I get back lasering on the weekend. Last two pictures: here we are - finally - that was a moment I can tell you. The glareshield is the real one from the Piper.

baron16.jpgbaron17.jpgbaron18.jpg

Last things I have added so far are the standby instruments. That was also something I wanted to solve with simkit instruments before. As there was no discount to get from them I decided to buy two cheap high resolution 7 inch screens (€ 40 each) and use an old computer. Actually a little intensiv technology for just three gauges - I know - but I was not ready to invest that much. But still I made an order with them - I bought the beautiful but hair raising expensive magnetic compass. Is is a work of beauty and works very well - but it costs nearly the same compared to the material invested in my whole G1000 setup. Still I wanted one and there was no way for my skill-level to build something that would look real.

The problem with the lcd screens is the limited space on the backside of my panel. I still came into a conflict with the large vga plugs that reach into the backlight area of my G1000. Need to adapt that. The final result is quite nice. The advantage now is that I can change the Airspeed gauge to Cessna or King Air - whatever I want to fly in the future...

So - that was my first summary of some exciting building time. If there is interest in the community I can continue posting.
All the best
Alfred

[wa5zxu]

Amazing work Alfred. Something went wrong with the images you attempted to attach to your second post.
What are you using to interface the switches and encoders to the sim?

[xFlystar]

OMG! This looks great!! I've sent you a P.M with some questions, please take a look!

[thunderbird1978]

Hello everybody and thank you. I thought the people here would just be viewing this post without any conversation - would not be fun to continue here talking to myself:P

I think I have found the problem of the second post - quick reply is not a good way for posting images it seems.

I am going to interface my setup with the BB32 Button Box card from Leo Bodnar -have bought already several of it.

@xFlystar: I'll get back to your PM tomorrow...

Best, Alfred

[huskerwr38]

Hi, where did you get the bezels and knobs for the gauges/standby instruments? Awesome job by the way...looks really professional.

[thunderbird1978]

Hi. Thanks! I have bought the bezels in the US. Look for DIYrealism.

[xFlystar]

How much did it cost to build the G1000?

[MrPharmer2012]

Would you be able to provide a parts list list of websites you ordered these parts from this looks amazing, how did you interface the lcd what boards did you use?

Hello everybody,

after one year of digital planning, sourcing and testing of parts from around the globe I finally made the step to get a short time membership in a fab lab and to laser the panel with the G1000 avionics with a skilled friend of mine.

Actually I did not want to build the complex G1000 myself in the beginning but the choice was very little. Either investing the amount of a used car and get a very good one or invest less but get something that is also not cheap and with some limitations. So still with no experience in electronic stuff I decided to order those lcd screens in china and the story began...

baron1.jpgbaron2.JPGbaron3.jpgbaron4.JPGbaron5.jpg

As I will integrate this panel into a real Piper Arrow shell I have bought last year I needed to slightly tighten the dimensions of my G58 setup in order to fit the cockpit in the end to the real situation. In the first two pictures above you see the right panel. In real life there is not much going on there so I have put the (correct labeld by the way) circuit breakers directly to this panel. Picture in the middle shows the inner frame of a G1000 unit. I tried to make it a little dimensional like the real one - so there are panels to be on top of the left and right side. The buttons were tricky to find so I decided to build them. They have two layers of acrylic plates (3mm each) in order to just push them with some slight force onto the apem buttons. Last picture shows the full setup with all elements of the lcd on board.

baron6.jpgbaron7.jpgbaron8.jpg

First look and feel with my new G1000. I was a little surprised how real it looked. The encoders and knobs are from Leo Bodnar, the software will come from Flight1Tech.

The last two pictures in this post show preparations for the panel itself. It is covered with a laser engraved layer that is partly covered with gray color. In order to fully backlit the panel later on is is kind of necessary to really get the color strong enough to do not see very strong leds shining through. Last picture is the wooden frame to support the whole setup. It is 8mm plywood that can be cut by the laser cutter. As I have produced my first cockpit completely by hand it is really amazing to see how such a panel is produced in minutes to the mm perfectly...

[thunderbird1978]

Thanks for the comments. The G1000 costs me in total about € 900 - € 1000. Not included is the software and the PC running the G1000 application.

@MrPharmer: I am not regularly updating my website, but there is a "sourcing" part on www.twinSim.eu that shows what I have bought and where. So I am not sure what you are meaning in particular, some parts where bought and others made myself. For interfacing I am planning to use the BBI-32 Button Box from Leo Bodnar - still have to check if I can put all F1Tech G1000 Student Simulator buttons via the ini file onto several of those button devices. If anyone has experience with this software I would appreciate inputs on that.