B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

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B-17 Flier
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by B-17 Flier »

Yes, that is VERY confusing to me. I don't know how you learned all this but it's amazing nonetheless. How does the box actully connect to the PC? Did you have the wires going into the box then output to a USB?

boris4356
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

B-17 Flier wrote:Yes, that is VERY confusing to me. I don't know how you learned all this but it's amazing nonetheless. How does the box actully connect to the PC? Did you have the wires going into the box then output to a USB?

Hi Paul,

This is a good pic to illustrate how it works. You can see the BU0836X on the bottom of my co-pilot box. It is connected to a PC with the black USB cable at the top of the device. The white telephone wires are soldered to the switches and connect into a power and a ground slot on the BU0836X.

The yellow wires are connected to one side of a DPDT switch, to the lights and to a PC Power Supply. The other side of the switch is connected with telephone wire to the BU0836X. When the switch is operated, it physically turns on or off the hardware carb air lights and performs the function in the sim at the same time.


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Bill

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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by B-17 Flier »

Bill, thanks. This is absolutely amazing, very impressive work there. It must have taken a lot of planning to get it all wired up correctly. Do you have any recent photos of the entire setup?

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Beautiful seeing all the wiring in the flesh, amazing work.

thanks,
Lewis
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boris4356
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

B-17 Flier wrote:Bill, thanks. This is absolutely amazing, very impressive work there. It must have taken a lot of planning to get it all wired up correctly. Do you have any recent photos of the entire setup?
Thanks Paul. After I decided I wanted to build a complete dedicated cockpit, it took me around 6 months to plan and visualize in my head how I was going to do it. Then I worked on the 3D model in Sketchup for a few months.

The pics in this thread are the latest I have.

Bill

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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

Lewis - A2A wrote:Beautiful seeing all the wiring in the flesh, amazing work.

thanks,
Lewis
Thanks Lewis!

Bill

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Always in awe of the build threads we have here, cannot comment enough to convey how very impressed and a little jelous I am :lol: 8)

cheers,
Lewis
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Killratio
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Killratio »

boris4356 wrote:
Hey Darryl!

Good to hear from you!

I see you have been busy as well!

Awesome pit!

Bill
Yep, I am on the home straight. Looks like we will both be finished soonish!

D
<Sent from my 1988 Sony Walkman with Dolby Noise Reduction and 24" earphone cord extension>


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boris4356
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

Killratio wrote:
boris4356 wrote:
Hey Darryl!

Good to hear from you!

I see you have been busy as well!

Awesome pit!

Bill
Yep, I am on the home straight. Looks like we will both be finished soonish!

D
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be finished. I always seem to find little niggles that I want to change or update.

The gears in my throttle are wearing out after over six years of heavy use, and the precision is now lacking. I am going to have to do a complete overhaul and replace all the gears. At the same time I am going to re-engineer it, and fix a few things that I don't like.

That is going to be a major evolution!

Bill

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Killratio
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Killratio »

The thing about sim pits is that they require just as much, if not more than , the maintenance a real aircraft requires. I think in terms of hours maintenance per flying hour these days, particularly for the F-16. That runs at about 2/1 !! Including physical maintenance, software and upgrades.

The Spitfire is more like 1/1.

Anyway you look at it, those happy afternoons flying with mates are bought at a reasonably heavy time cost "After the Ball" is over.

;)
<Sent from my 1988 Sony Walkman with Dolby Noise Reduction and 24" earphone cord extension>


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boris4356
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

Killratio wrote:The thing about sim pits is that they require just as much, if not more than , the maintenance a real aircraft requires. I think in terms of hours maintenance per flying hour these days, particularly for the F-16. That runs at about 2/1 !! Including physical maintenance, software and upgrades.

The Spitfire is more like 1/1.

Anyway you look at it, those happy afternoons flying with mates are bought at a reasonably heavy time cost "After the Ball" is over.

;)
You got that right!

Bill

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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

I finally had to open up my throttle to do some badly needed repairs. The throttle handle large gears were badly worn out and I was getting wildly fluctuating inputs. I also did some re-engineering when I had it open. I took off the left outer and inner sides first and removed the handles. I cut each handle down in length by 2 inches.

I also replaced the center handles with new ones. On the originals, I cut the 1 1/4" dowel exactly in half and used both halves. This made each handle too thin because of the width of the saw blade. This time I made allowances for the saw blade and discarded the thinner half. Then I replaced the gears and put it back together. I also put throttle stops on the top and bottom which you can see in the pic as the unpainted wood on the bottom of the handle. I didn't have these on the original, and it would lead to the gears stripping by allowing the handle to move further than the gear travel.

In this pic you can see the finished left side, and the right side removed to repeat the procedure.

I wanted to cut down on the width of the whole throttle but with the current design I couldn't achieve enough by using thinner wood to make it feasible. It would take a completely new design to accomplish that and I really didn't want to get into that. The current design works well, and I am used to it.


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The next few pics are the finished distressed version.

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Bill

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Lewis - A2A »

That turbo dial is a thing of pure beauty WOW! :shock: 8)

cheers,
Lewis
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boris4356
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by boris4356 »

Lewis - A2A wrote:That turbo dial is a thing of pure beauty WOW! :shock: 8)

cheers,
Lewis
Thanks Lewis!

Bill

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Killratio
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Re: B-17 Enclosed Home Cockpit Project

Post by Killratio »

Nice work Bill..sorry I missed this back in Jan.
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