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Project45 Flagship L45-002 Simulator!

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(Original thread started on 11-20-08 by Ron Rollo)

Hello Hangar45 members and Lear45 enthusiast!

I wanted to get everyone ready for the release of the first completed shell, L45-002. I plan to make the big post on November 30th 2008 with several incredible photos. As a matter of fact, I will also be releasing the L45SAM (Shell Assembly Manual) on January 1st 2009. This will be free to everyone and we are going to make it a free download here at Hangar45.net and at Project45.us It is over 115 pages long with step by step instructions and illustrations which will give everyone an idea of what it takes to assemble their own shell.

 

Most of you have seen photos of my shell up to at least this stage (BELOW) but I could not resist posting them for our visitors and new members!

Ron 1222

 

Ron 1223

 

Posted by Eric Tomlin on 11-23-08)

Ron, although I have seen your shell in person many times...Own my own shell made by you...and speak to you nearly every day of the week...I never cease to be amazed by how good you've made your personal shell look.

 

Thanks for posting here- it looks great! I'm excited for you to share the photos showing the skinned shell and I'm sure folks will be glad to see the SAM for ideas on how to build their own design if they dont or cant buy one from you.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 12-01-08)

Here are the pictures I promised everyone. The fiberglass work is finally complete! Enjoy these pictures and continue to dream and plan big!

Ron 1224

 

Ron 1225

 

UPDATE:

Here are a couple neat pictures. Kris will especially like these because this is his shell, L45-006 all screwed together setting next to L45-002. Continue to dream big fellas!

Ron 1226

 

Ron 1227

 

Here are some really neat pictures of L45-002 and L45-006 bolted together for a day or two prior to packing L45-006 up in it's crate. I wanted to do this to show everyone that the shell design has not changed and the first shell is as straight as the last. This set of photos also serves as a neat cut away of some of the major components on the inside. These are my "mock up" components that served to help prove dimensions, angles and measurements inside the flight deck. You might find these pictures very useful with your own project regardless if you are planning on building a shell. Take special notice of the floor line and the angles of the center pedestal:

Ron 1228

 

Ron 1229

 

Now that the outer shell is nearly complete with the exception of paint, I have been working inside the cockpit and fine tuning the way everything is going to mesh together. (so much fun) It is kind of like trying to aligning the planets! The good news is, I just about have it all worked out.

 

I will be working on the columns, the raised pedal floors, windscreens and the seat placement. For the guys who already have a shell, I will be sending you a windscreen template that will also include the outer aluminum frame template and any pertinent changes you need to know about so that your shell will also be "As real as it can get". Look for it in the mail in about two weeks.

 

UPDATE:

Here are some details on the Base Frame for the shell. This information will help those of you who may be thinking about building a shell in the future. Even if you are not looking to build a fully enclosed shell, this information may be helpful.

 

The base frame dimensions are 48 inches by 80 inches. This is the minimum needed to support the shell frame. The frame can be built bigger but then it starts to loose strength unless you support it with another set of wheels in the middle. As it is, this design is solid and does not flex or bend when two pilots are getting in and or out of the cockpit.

 

I have two cross overs for additional strength and another small piece at the AFT of the frame where the pilots will be placing 100% of their weight as they are stepping in and over the seats. I also have wheels under the four corners of the frame so that the shell/frame can be moved around the work space easily. Take a look at this picture and drawling. I hope it helps out:

Ron 1230

 

NOTE: The base frame dimensions in this picture are 4' X 8'. Half way through the shell process, I decided to rebuild the base frame to add strength and I cut 16 inches off of the rear and added the support near the rear door:

Ron 1231

 

The base is made with 2X6's and 3/4 inch plywood. I used 3.5" wood bolts that you can find at your local hardware store. And of course the caster wheels to roll it around the shop! The overall dimensions are 48" X 80". The two main cross overs fall at 32" from the front and 16" from the rear. This will give you plenty of room to fool around with the column assembly which by the way 95% of it will be above the base platform.

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 10-02-09)

NEW FLASH!

My wife and I have decided to take the plunge and move into a house with a lot more space for our family and my Projects! I have lived in the same small house for 15 years and it is way past due for me to make the move!  So for those of you wanting to know how to talk your spouse into parking a Lear45 nose section in the dining room? Maybe someone else can pull that off in the future.

 

What this means to everyone here in the hangar is that in the short term, I am going to be busy getting a house ready to sell, moving and then settling into a new hang........ I mean home. In the long term, I will have tons of space to show off and work on my projects for myself and others here in the hangar!

 

UPDATE:

I am in the new hangar!  It has been a while since I have updated my personal build but just recently, I have had an opportunity to get back to work on it. As you all know, I have moved into a new home and one of the key things that I have been worried about is how in the heck am I going to get my shell up stairs with a 90 degree turn in the stair case!

 

I had it figured out mathematically but just yesterday, my wife Michelle and I muscled the port side up stairs past the critical turn and then took it back down because I have to paint it still. But it will go up stairs without having to cut parts off it!

 

Today, I freshened up the base by knocking the dust off it, cleaning the caster wheels and giving it a paint job. If you are saying to yourself, "I have seen this somewhere before", that's because you have. Shane Barnes' L45-007 base frame was painted the same way a few months back.

 

Some of the prep work during the painting of the base platform:Ron 1232

 

 

Here I have added the rear raised floor section to the base platform:

Ron 1233

 

I am not going to get too crazy with the paint job of the shell next week. I am going to try using spray cans and see if I will be satisfied with the outcome. The shell will be primarily white and the bottom quarter will be blue. I will run a yellow stripe through the blue section. Let's see how it turns out!

 

UPDATE:

This morning I assembled the rest of the parts on top of the base frame and even had time to post these pictures! Everything is bolted and screwed into place. Next Saturday, I will start the painting of the shell:

Ron 1234

 

The green area in the forward part of the base frame is the shell foot print. It is amazing that everything will fit inside it! Without the shell for guidance, I would have built a Lear45 that was 6 foot across!

Ron 1235

 

Ron 1236

 

And now for the rest of the story.....

I didn't tell you guys that on the way up the stairs, (by the way, the base frame is HEAVY!) we temporarily lost control of it and Michelle got pinned between the base frame and the wall! Here elbow went through a sheet of glass on a piece of framed art hanging there! We think her collar bone might be fractured too! But even after all that, she helped me get the darn thing the rest of the way up stairs , around the corner and into the hangar bay.

 

Michelle is okay, no broken bones or scares to show for. She is a trooper! But she said that we are not repainting the walls until the other two shell parts are up stairs. The hall way looks like a scene out of "Saving Private Ryan!"

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-30-10)

You all have see the bumper sticker that says, "My other car is a Learjet":

Ron 1237

 

As I was working on the RMU's today, I decided to put as much together as I could just to see where I was at and boy, it was gratifying to see it all come together!

Ron 1238

 

I even wired up my MIP light. It's not as bright as the picture would have you believe. I know a few of you have gotten this far with your builds, but for me to see it first hand was one of those moments. I feel like I have been working on this thing for years just to get to this point:

Ron 1239

 

Here is the latest on the shell paint progress. I went with "Navy Blue & Gold" because of my years in the USNR. As you can see, I am still keeping the Business jet look by keeping the majority of the shell white. Tomorrow I will do a little wet sanding to knock off all of the little buggers and then if all goes well, I will be moving it up stairs to it's new home:

Ron 1240

 

Ron 1241

 

As far as the neighbors go, it is fun to watch people walking by, they look out of the corner of their eye and never make eye contact with me, let alone stop to comment on it!

 

I used Krylon spray paint from Wal Mart, $2.97 a can. I used seven cans of white, three cans of blue and one can of yellow:

Ron 1242

 

I spent a day wet sanding, buffing and fixing a few little issues here and there. I learned a few lesson between yesterday and today, mostly painting common sense stuff but I had to learn the hard way. The first thing is don't rush things. Put down a nice tack coat first and walk away for a few minutes. I had a few runs in the paint but I was able to fix them perfectly.

 

The other thing I had to learn the hard way is that I should of stopped after the white was applied and let it set for a day. The blue painters tape left a film behind after I pulled it up and it took forever to rub that out!

 

Tomorrow, the shell is making it's way up to the hangar bay and will be put on the base platform. I hope to have some nice pictures to share with you by the end of the day!

UPDATE:

I did it!  As far as the moving of the shell up a flight of stairs with a 45 degree bend half way up and another 90 degree bend at the end of the hall. There are really no words to describe where the shell just was at except it was as tight as a birth canal! Eric will be down in another few weeks and I am going to have him video tape the stairway and of course the shell itself for you guys.

 

SHELL L45-002 IS COMPLETE!

It only took two years but it is finally finished. The windscreens are in place, the shell is in it's new home, it's all bolted together and I do not intend to pull it apart again!

 

The shell with new paint in it's new home! Notice the windscreens are not installed yet:

Ron 1243

 

Windscreens installed:

Ron 1244

 

A really close look at the detail in the windscreens. Note that the authentic L45 windscreen is over an inch thick. I am using 1/8th inch thick Plexiglas. I painted the aluminum frame on the outside and the black trim that you see is on the inside. It was impossible to countersink the nearly 250 screws so I used a "pan head" screw:

Ron 1245

 

My avionics bay. Today, I also installed two vent fans that will remove the heat generated by the LCD screens. I purposely made sure that they ran at different RPMs to simulate avionics noise:

Ron 1246

 

Here you can see the black trim painted on the inside of the windscreens. Trust me, it is an incredible feeling sitting inside the shell now with so much surrounding you!

Ron 1247

 

UPDATE:

I just about have the new Hangar byy finished and in good enough shape to show it off and be proud of it. I am also getting L45-002 ready for it's first test flight Sunday evening. I am only going to fly with the CH yokes and pedals until I finish up the majority of the rest of the big hardware issues. This is the moment I have been dreaming of for over five years!

 

The shell is temporarily set up on the short wall so I can get around it a bit easier. Later on when all the fabrication is compete, I will turn it and set up three overhead projectors on the long wall.

 

I was able to answer two things that I was worried about but no longer:

1. Would the high gloss white paint reflect the projection and cause visual issues? NO. It is not an issue at all.

2. Would looking through the Plexiglas at an angle distort the view in any way? Nope, it is so clear that you can not even see it at times!

 

Here is the hangar!

Ron 1248

 

Ron 1249

 

UPDATE:

Today was the day I have been waiting for! It has been a good five years from the moment that I decided to build a flight simulator. Today, the majority of my ideas came together in one nut shell!  It is the most basic of any simulator that anyone in our group is currently flying. It is a striped down version of FS2004 with a video card splitting the image using a projector for the outside view. I am not using any I/O cards ATM, just the CH yoke and pedals. However, it is enough to experience the full effect and clearly see where this project is going!

Ron 1250

 

Believe it or not, the only issue with the Plexiglas is that it attracts static electricity and with that, dust. Maybe because it is dry and low humidity ATM. Anyone got any thoughts on this?  I also learned that the projection has to clear the high gloss shell 100%. If just a little hits the top of the shell, it creates visual anomalies.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 02-21-10)

Hey Ron, check out Aircraft Spruce or Sporty's Pilot Shop. They have a product called Plexi-Clear that is a Plexi cleaner, polisher and anti static product. They have several different brands that do the same job. Your sim is looking awesome!

 

(Posted by Rick Trantham on 02-21-10)

Lowe's and Home Depot usually carry plastic cleaner near the sheets of Plexi that will probably help.

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 12-09-10)

Although I have been working hard on the project and updating other threads, I have neglected my L45-002 progress thread. So here are a few photos of the overall project to date:

Ron 1251

 

I have always felt that I need to have a good foundation and space to have such a project. These week I recently finished painting the Hangar bay and I am working on completing the insulation of the walls from the attic side.

 

Hopefully in January 2011, I can start the work on the curved screen. The simulator will be turned around 180 degrees to face the window. The screen will of course cover the window and wrap around 220 degrees which will cover 100% of both pilot's F.O.V.

 

Inside the cockpit, I have been working hard on all of the major flight controls. Recently, I completed the rudder pedals, throttles, and the columns. I am still working on the column head, the roll axis and the yokes. I am hoping to have this completed in early 2011 also:

Ron 1252

 

As you can see from my last photo post in this thread, I have added numerous details and functions to the simulator including rudder pedal covers, landing gear free fall handle, etc.....

Ron 1253

 

Every year about this time I like to reflect back to see where I was and where I am now. It was a year ago December 10th we moved into this new house. The shell was still over at my father's workshop unpainted, the pedals were not even thought of (Thanks Tom!) and the TQ module was on Eric's wish list of things for me to get around to doing. And don't forget about Vince's DU's and RMU's! They arrived during this past year also. Thanks again Vince!

 

In all, I am very happy with what I have been able to accomplish this year. And as a group, we have all come a long way and we should all be proud of the work we have done. Here's to a new year and hopes that we can have another great year in sim building! And for me at least, looking forward to the days of sim piloting!

 

UPDATE:

Here is an update on what I have been doing! I decided to catch up on some items that I have been putting off and in some cases for over a year!  The big item was the work I have done on the DU bezels:

Ron 1254

 

I created a dual purpose bezel that hides the aluminum bezel to the LCD screens and it also looks closer to the real thing.  See photo below:

 

I know we have discussed this before in the past but for the new guys, I'll cover it really quick. When you first get the aluminum MIP from Tom and put your LCD screens in place, the first thing you notice is the aluminum bezels show!

 

But not to fear, after you create the DU bezels, they will hide it. If you have no clue what I am talking about, take a look at the photos above in this thread. There you will see that the aluminum bezels from the LCD screens show through the DU bezels.

 

These are the clear lenses that Vince sent me. I may go with smoked lenses in the future, or tint these:

Ron 1256

 

I used Satan paint after I scuff sanded the area to be painted:

Ron 1257

 

Here is something you guys may or may not have thought about. I used the black foam that Vince supplied and cut it in half, in other words down the middle. I then put the black foam strip closest to the pilots in the DU's. The lens sits behind the foam and is perfectly resting on the face of the MIP. This way the lens is as close to the LCD screen as possible. AND, it also looks as close to what the CRT screens look like without getting too stupid:

Ron 1258

 

This is the foam stripping that Vince sent before it is cut down the middle:

Ron 1259

 

I will have some more pictures and updates next week after I complete the others. Now on to a few other odds and ends that I worked on this week.

 

I added some of the dummy screws for the RMUs and the standby bezels:

Ron 1260

 

I finally soldered in the two Alps dual encoders:

Ron 1261

 

Last but not least!  I notched out the REV holes for the new design and installed the REV panels. Looking good:

Ron 1262

I also installed and painted the CVR mic.

UPDATE:

After taking a closer look at some pictures to determine if I was going to install tint on them, I noticed what you pointed out. One of the big differences is the newer DUs have a piece of glass set as close as possible to the face of the DUs.

 

I have three goals I am trying to achieve:

1. Hide the LCD bezel.

2. Place the glass as close to the LCD screen as possible to reduce glare.

3. Last but not least, make it look like it is something you would find in a real aircraft.

 

So far I have met those goals.

The problem that we have is the LCD screens are set back further than what I believe they should be in the real DU. The other issue that we have is the DU cut outs are slightly smaller, however, that works out in my favor because it creates a lip so that the lens does not fall into the void where the LCD screen is. One my next days off I am planning on completing this task and running some test to see if I am happy with the results. At this point, the only things that I would change would be to add a second piece of clear glass as close to the face of the DUs as possible and either tint or use smoked glass. TBD. Here are some photos of the method that I am currently working on.

 

Here the foam and glass is installed. The painted frame area is facing backwards. This gives a nice finished look from the front side:

Ron 1263

 

Use blue painters tape to hold the glass in place. The glass will be sandwiched between the foam and the aluminum MIP. Really the tape is not necessary but will come in handy while I am moving things around.

 

CAUTION: DO NOT USE ELECTRICAL TAPE!  The adhesive glue in the tape will bleed into the visible area of the clear lens.  Ask me how I know this...

 

Here they are all lined up. Now to find the time to set them up in front of the LCD screens to see how they look:

Ron 1264

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 04-29-11)

Hey Ron, when you mount the DU's take a look at the cutout in the MIP vs. the black band that you painted on the glass. I think that if the cutout in the MIP was pulled in a little/ made smaller then we would get a better sandwich fit . . no area for the glass to push out in the back toward the MIP/LCD screen. If your MIP is cut the same as mine you will see what I am talking about. Reducing the size of the MIP cutout would not hurt anything as the black band would cover that area . . the reduced size hole in the MIP would not extend past the black bands and this would support the glass all the way around.

 

UPDATE: 

I spoke with Ron this morning and discovered that Ron has an earlier version of the MIP which HAS a smaller cutout for the DU's on the MIP which works in his favor as it allows him to sandwich his glass between the DU bezels and the MIP. The later versions of the MIP have a larger cutout and will take a little more work I believe. I will be working on this area in the next few days and will share any ideas on my build thread (L45-007) so as not to clutter up Ron's build.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 05-16-11)

As you know, I have been taking care of a few odds and ends. Recently, I finished working in the DU's and RMU's to the MIP. Here are some pictures of the latest progress.

 

This is the altitude standby gauge. It's a big deal because I found a way to get the knob and switch built into the bezel. It was a tight fit but it worked! If you have a CNC and want to do this, I would recommend going with the other standby gauge design. (You guys who look at the real pictures with an Eagle eye will know what I am talking about.) I like the look of this design but the other design gives you a little more room in the bezel for the switch and shaft:

Ron 1265

 

Here all of the DU's and RMU's are in place, including the bezels. Now you can not see that ugly LCD bezel that bothered us. The paint is off by a tad but I can live with it. In low lighting, it looks fantastic! Keep in mind these pictures are taken with a flash:

Ron 1266

 

View from the opposite angle. As you can see, I went a little backwards on the lower panels. They are on hold until I get a few more odds and ends taken care of:

Ron 1267

 

I received my resistors for panel building but they were the wrong value. I needed 390 Ohms, instead I ordered 390K Ohms, which is 390,000. I have come to expect this kind of stuff!

 

I did some testing on the clocks and so far they seem to be working fine. I have found a way to start and stop flight time which will be a neat feature. (Some of you guys have already done this) Next week I will be converting my glare shield lighting to 12 volt power and starting work on the control columns.

 

I have put a lot of thought into the wire management and power supplies. As you know by now, I am using 12 volt power for just about everything. I wanted to get some sort of hardware in place so that I could start hooking up panels, clocks, fans, lights, etc...

 

I also wanted to have something that would be neat and easy for myself and others to identify wires and cables in the future. There is no doubt that in time, I will be pulling stuff out and replacing it with smarter logic.

 

I am also using fuse boards and hot buses with plenty of room to expand:

Ron 1268

 

UPDATE:

Man how time flies! It has been almost three month since I have updated my own build thread. And as I looked through it, I see that I failed to add an important part to it.

 

The curved screen that I have made is posted up in another thread somewhere but I wanted to post it here also. Just a quick overview, it is 24 foot long on a 6 foot radius with 220 degrees of FOV. It will require three short throw projectors, a TH2Go system and Nthusium software. It is going to be incredible!

Ron 1269

 

A side photo of the windscreen. It is really cool now that I have the curved screen up because it blocks out house stuff like windows, blinds and outlets:

Ron 1270

 

Inside the flight deck I have been doing tons of work although on the surface, it does not look like much. Most of the work has been soldering, wiring and working with the LEDs:

Ron 1271

 

This is the back side of the center lower panel completely ready to go! All of the other panels that I have installed are also built up to this point:

Ron 667

 

Just recently, I have hooked up and fine tuned the back lighting on Vince's DU's and RMU's. I have also hooked up my two REV panels to compare the lighting which I am about 90% satisfied at this point. I have a few more things I have to try before I am ready to move on.  This is one of my favorite photos. What I like about it is the way the lighting from the panels reflect off of the windscreen glass, just like in the real L45!

Ron 1273

 

Some other things that I have redone is changed the under glare shield lighting to 12volt lighting. This way everything will run off of my two 12 volt 30 amp power supplies.

 

In this photo, you can see the updated power supplies mounted to the bulkhead. Also in this photo are my three interface cards that I received from Flight Deck Solutions. Eric T. and I went back and forth for a day or two and determined that one 128 in/64 out interface card and one 128 in interface card is enough to do everything in the aircraft with the exception of the CDU, FGC, flight controls and RMUs:

Ron 1274

 

Another item that I ordered and received from FDS is an eight channel relay card. This is what we call the "secondary layer of hardware" (coined by DonnyRay Jones) that will really make our sims function like the real aircraft. We will be able to let the software tell the relays to switch over and apply power to the left/right buses, stick shakers, Davtron clocks, Hobbs meter, etc.... More on this later and more than likely in another thread.

 

At this point, I feel like I have a really good handle on the project and things are moving along nicely!

UPDATE:

Check this out!  It has been a few months since I have updated my personal build thread. But this is worth the update!  Over the past month, I finalized my computer specs and made the purchase! As of this moment, I have everything I need to build my server and client computers:

Ron 1275

 

On top of that, I purchased the projectors!

Ron 1276

 

I have three Mitsubishi EW230U-ST (short Throw) DLP, 1280X800, 16:10 Aspect Ratio, 2500 Lumens, 2000:1. These are the same ones that Scott Wagner is using. The only difference is I got them for $636 each. Here are my computer specs:

 

Project45 Server Computer

CPU: i7 3.4Ghz 2600K QuadCore LGA 1155

M/B: MSI P67A – G45 (B3) LGA 1155 ATX

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 @1600

Vid Card: EVGA GTX580 3GB (Fermi)

Pri H/D: Crucial M4 2.5” SSD 64GB SATA III  (For OS boot up)

Sec H/D: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 SATA III (For FSFS Programs & Files)

CD/DVD: Asus 24X DVD Burner

Case: Thermaltake Level 10GT ATX Full

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX750M V2 750W

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper N 520

OS: Windows7 Professional SP1 64-bit

LCD Disp: Acer G185HAb 18.5” LCD Monitor

 

Project45 Client Computer

CPU: i3 3.3Ghz 2120 Dual Core LGA 1155

M/B: MSI P67A – G45 (B3) LGA 1155 ATX

RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3 @1333

Vid Card: (X2) EVGA GeForce GT520 (Fermi) 1GB

Pri H/D: HITACHI 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB SATA II

Sec H/D: N/A

CD/DVD: Asus 24X DVD

Case: Thermaltake 3D Black Edition Mid

PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2 500W

Cooler: Cooler Master DP6- 9EDSA-0L-GP

OS: Windows7 Professional SP1 64-bit

LCD Disp: Acer G185HAb 18.5” 18.5” LCD Monitor

 

UPDATE 09-19-16: For the latest computer specs on Project45 click HERE

 

I have some building to do! Don't expect YouTube videos anytime soon. I still have a lot of hardware work.

 

I wanted to throw this photo in the mix. This is where I have been sitting for the past four days completing all those HSI's on the other thread:

Ron 1277

 

I'm in the process of moving my ceiling lights out of the way for the three projectors and had to move the shell as best as I could. (I keep calling it a shell. It is actually full of stuff now so maybe I should call it, "The Simulator")

 

So I had to move the simulator and stick it at a 90 degree angle. It is in an unnatural position but it makes for a great profile picture:

Ron 1278

 

UPDATE:

I got the client built today and it fired up on the first try! The Sever is built but I need to go buy one SATA cord.  This was the first time I have ever built a computer up let alone two of them. I took it slow and learned as I went along. If I had to build another computer, I would be able to do it three times as fast:

Ron 1279

 

I was surprised to see that the mother board had built in software that helps get you started. Down loading the OS was super easy too! I did not have the first issue with either computer.  So the bottom line is if you have never built a computer and are nervous about doing it, you have nothing to worry about in this day and age as long as you take your time and have a little common sense!

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-13-12)

Slow and steady progress. Today I finally got around to installing the CWP from Eric T. and my own HSI:

CWP Backside1

 

It was a little more challenging for me to route all the wires down between the RMUs compared to others because this MIP is generation 1. I think there are three of us that have this version. The difference here when it comes to the wire routing is the cut outs for the RMUs are extreme compared to the latest versions. In the end, everything seems to work very well.

 

That clear film you see is actually packing tape, nothing to fancy or space age like. The reason I used clear packing tape in this area is so that there is no way the aluminum tape, (if I had used it here) could ground out any of the wires coming out of the back of the CWP. Eric did a great job making sure that there was as little as possible of the bare wire showing but I did not want to even have to worry about it.  This same train of thought is why I crimp the wires to the pins AND solder them. The last thing I want to do is go gremlin hunting. Or at least try to reduce them as much as possible.

 

In the case of the CWP, it takes a good amount of time to remove the MIP to repair, fix or update something. I know one day I will probably have to pull it out again but hopefully way down the road and more or less a planned job.

 

Finally, I have all three of my standby's in place and the CWP. It's crazy reflecting back at the ideas we had of putting an encoder into the side bezel of the altimeter, and then all the functions we now have in the HSI:

Ron 1280

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 01-14-12)

Ron, good point on the tape. I checked every circuit by powering each one at the FDS circuit board connector to make sure I had continuity. Just did the same thing with the Electrical panel and found that I had a couple of LED grounds crossed up. Good to find this before we get them fired up. I have had a couple of wires pull out of my crimps but I put that down to not enough strip length on the wire. I have revised my crimp procedures to make sure I get a good crimp. With upward of 56 crimps for the Electrical panel alone (apart from the 52 solder connections at the AMLs) I think I would be inhaling too much solder fumes if I soldered every crimp.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-15-12)

We are all funny about certain things. In this case, I am looking at about a mile of wire in my sim and would at least like to have an idea of what is what. One way to do this is color coding.

 

My "GREENS" are the power side of all my indicator LEDs.

My "REDS" are the power side to back lighting, fans, motors, switch inputs etc....

My "BLACKS" are the grounds or commons.

 

If I could have found a forth color cheap locally, like "blue", I would have used it for all my switch inputs. Radio Shack has these three colors all day long at a pretty decent price. But as it is, I can glance at a wiring bundle and know what it what.

 

An important point, I am using 22 gauge stranded which is what most of us are using. 22 gauge because you get more bang for the buck over 20 gauge. Stranded over solid! Stranded is easier to solder and bends much easier than solid.

 

The funny thing is about two years ago and all the time prior to that, I was planning to use all white wire for everything, just like you would find in a real Lear45 and most other types. I know your kidding about FAA approved. But let me show you what FAA approved looks like:

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After seeing this, I changed my mind and decided to go with some sort of color coding system so that I could keep track of this mess at least somewhat.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 01-15-12)

Nothing "funny" about Ron's choice of wiring except he likes to listen to K.C. and the Sunshine Band when doing his wiring and listed below is his favorite song when doing the green wiring!  All jokes aside, color coding is the way to go. There will be a lot of wire running around and it is nice to know at a glance how a particular wire is used. I personally will be running blue, purple, white black and red in my build. McMaster Carr has a good supply of wire/color and quick shipping if you don't have a Radio Shack close by.

 

I, like Ron had considered using all white wiring originally. I would say that it occurred to Ron and I both when we started doing some basic initial wiring that the all white was not going to be a good option. Another good example of learn as you go process.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 01-20-12)

Wow! Who would've thought that there would be a real LJ45 that was painted nearly the same as Ron's ship #002?

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http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?id=2041623

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 07-20-12)

It has been well over six months since I have updated my personal build thread. I have done countless things and I am slowly inching towards my goals this year which are to have the visual systems up and running, Jet45 up and running and the main flight controls up and running. Here are a few photos that high light some of the bigger things:

 

The rear wall is finished. You can see and read more about this finishing work and some of the other interior panels HERE

 

I have made some serious headway with the visual system as well. This photo shows the visual system prior to using the warping software, Fly Elise NG:

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You can read more about the progress on the visual system HERE

 

Last but not least, over the past six weeks I have been working on the column head and columns. I am very happy with the design and the progress that I have made to date. Check out these photos:

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For more information on the columns check it out HERE

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 08-16-12)

Had the pleasure to visit with Ron for a short while yesterday while in town taking care of other matters while in the area. It was my first time seeing his visual system in person (with projectors running) and also the first time I'd seen the yokes mounted on the columns (although the Roll moment is not connected yet, Pitch is).

 

I have to say, I was very impressed with surround visuals. I know this sounds strange, because we all know that surround visuals are the holy grail of simming, but even though it has a little ways to go I can tell right away that it will be fantastic when completed (right now it is only 1 big view stretched across 3 screens, still impressive though).

 

The yoke/column heads he is producing is in my opinion about the best you will be able to buy for the money he's charging. I don't see how it could be any better considering the amount of time and effort that has gone into making it the best it can be without being milled from a single piece of material- kudos to Ron for the design and making it available to other folks.

 

It was fun to start setting up his JET45 AAS, and particularly good for me as a support person for the product to get to work in a brand new, sterile environment to start from scratch on setting it up. Now, you should have seen his face when we got the JET45 DUs up and running. His first comment: "Wow, that really starts to bring some life to the project, doesn't it?!" That is a wonderful first assessment and by next week we will hopefully have all his avionics fully configured and working within the FS environment.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 10-11-12)

Thank you very much Eric for the comments! Funny thing guys, I was talking along about something and Eric said "hang on, I need a minute for this all to sink in." Well that's how I feel about the software!

 

Eric has made a few visits down to Jacksonville Florida and got me kick started on the Jet45 AAS and Dave's standby gauges. Over the past two weeks I have started wiring up all the lower panels and a few other panels. Again with Eric's help, he got me kick started with the interfacing of all these switches. As of yesterday, I have reached a nice stopping point and I am very happy with where I am currently at.

 

The wiring, soldering and wire management is a massive undertaking and requires nothing but time and patience!  This wiring harness has eight inputs and eight outputs.   Here is a photo of a typical wiring harness that I made which took me about 8 hours to complete:

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This is a photo of the avionic bay and the wire management:

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You will also notice that I have some plugs that do not have anything in them, yet. As you know, the FDS SYS cards work on the principle that for each set of eight inputs or outputs, there is a single ground. In some cases as I was wiring things up, a set would only have six inputs or maybe only five inputs. I took the extra time to create simple plugs for these extra inputs and outputs which have already paid off in a few cases.

 

And here is a photo of the FDS Relay card.

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I will tell you that this thing is worth every penny that it sells for. Over the past few days, I have been wiring up functions that we have talked about in theory for at least two years. Everything actually works!

 

The funny thing is we were worried about not being able to use all eight relays on this board. Not a problem, I have them all in use and need more:

Relay 1   Left Electrical Power Bus

Relay 2   Right Electrical Power Bus

Relay 3   FDS SYS card which cuts power to the LEDs inside the AML switches

Relay 4   CPT side Davtron Clock FT "Flight Time" start/stop

Relay 5   FO side Davtron Clock FT "Flight Time" start/stop

Relay 6   Hobbs Hour Meter

Relay 7   CPT side Stall Stick Shaker

Relay 8   FO side Stall Stick Shaker

 

Last but not least, here is a photo of the Jet45 AAS and some of the AML LED functionality. (Notice that the left back lighting is brighter than the right side? Don't panic, it's just a simple knob adjustment.)

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(I wish the photo was better) And the photo does not do the sim any justice.

 

On September 29th, Eric Tomlin, Alan Norris, Mike Badger and company were present when we interfaced the sim's first functions! This marks the first time that the hardware within the sim has come to life!

 

As far as getting to the back side of the MIP for additional wiring, this is not a problem. I can easily remove any of the panels to add or modify any of the wiring. All the panels have a short wiring harness of about six inches. The longer wiring harness goes from there to the interface cards.

 

The only reason I have to keep taking out the MIP is to make changes to the physical parts. Like what Mark is talking about with removing the RMU's and making a change in the circuitry. I also need to remove the MIP to make ANOTHER change to the DU lenses because I discovered that electrical tape and clear Lexan panels do not mix. Somehow, a chemical reaction between the two bleeds something into the viewing area of the clear lens. (it was there when you guys came to visit. It's hardly noticeable but it bugs me!)

 

So long story short is I have to remove the old DU lenses and replace them with new ones and the only way to do this is to pull the MIP out. So what I do is make a list of things that need to be done all at the same time while I have the MIP out.

 

UPDATE:

I found a few extra minutes to test fit the fiberglass glare shield that I picked up from Shane last week. I slid it in very carefully without having to remove the windscreens................

 

I must admit that I was surprised that it fit as well as it did! It literally fits like a glove. Now it does fit a little differently than it does in the real Lear45 but considering that the main difference between the real L45 and the Project45 shell is the thickness of the windscreen, we could not ask for more. And even at that, the way it fit in the shell is exactly the way I would have designed it to fit. Thank you Shane for taking this on for us.

 

Here are a couple photos of the glare shield cover temporary sitting in the sim:

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I have spent some time studying photos and have been doing some brain storming, trying to get some ideas in my mind for this phase of the project. It's all stewing around up there and as soon as it's ready, I'll share it with you. This thing is going to look good!

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 10-30-12)

Thanks Ron, now I am happy! It fits two shells and MIPS! Looking forward to seeing it finished out with the black vinyl and trim. That is awesome that you could fit it in your shell without removing the windscreen. I would have bet you would have to. Really cool seeing the glareshield assembly sitting behind the windscreens. First time I have seen it that way!

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 11-25-12)

I have caught up on all the orders I have received recently and I had a few minutes to work on a few odds and ends in the past few days. To start with, I have made myself what I call the QRH tray for the end of the Center Pedestal:

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It's made of aircraft grade aluminum (from Lowes ) and I bent it on my hand brake. If you take a look at your arsenal of Lear45 cockpit photos, there are several different things that you can add to the rear of your Center Pedestal.  Here it is installed on the end of the Center Pedestal with one of my Quick Reference Handbooks inside it:

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The other item that I have finished is the curtain track and curtains. The hold up on this part of the build was that I needed to make a 1/8th inch spacer for the track to move it out and away from the rear wall so that the clips could slide easily without catching the vinyl on the rear wall.

 

Then I enlisted the help of my mother, Sandra Rollo, and her sewing skills to sew the curtains after I cut them to shape. By the way, these are two panel curtains that I picked up at Wal Mart. Here is a close up photo of the snap strip sewn into the top of the curtains. Take note that I cut the top of the curtains to match the curve of the top of the shell. This way when the curtains are pulled closed, they hang evenly across the bottom:

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When they are pulled open, they hang nicely out of the way behind the seats:

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This is the best photo that I could take of them closed from inside the cockpit:

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From the outside, they look pretty cool!  The main purpose of the curtains in our case is to block the light, if any, from behind and more importantly, enclose the cockpit even further so that if you look over your shoulder, your not immediately reminded of the fact that your really just in a room somewhere:

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You'll note that the curtains are about six inches off the deck. This is so that no ones steps on them getting in or out while they are pulled closed. They are also cut to this length so that when they are pulled open, they will just barely touch the deck and not bunch up at the bottom.  A big thanks to my mother, Sandra Rollo. She gets the credit for putting some stitches together! More neat stuff to come!

 

UPDATE:

To start with, I painted my glare shield that I picked up from Shane last October. I plan to finish it off in Pleather but for now, just painting it black takes it a long way.

 

The straight on and down photo is always cool!

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Side photo is not bad either!

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And an inside shot of the painted glare shield along with a few other goodies installed and working:

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Next let me show you some recent work in the Avionic bay in the nose section. I added a couple of Pokeys cards so that I can start working on hooking up my RMU's and DUs. I also added a 5 volt and 24 volt power supply along with the CDR sub module:

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I ran out of relay outputs on my FDS relay card. There were only eight relays on it and something came up where I needed a ninth relay. So what I did was picked up a $10 double pole relay from Radio Shack and doubled up my stick shakers on it. I thought that there would be a noticeable delay from the time the stick shakers were selected to the time that they were activated due to the two relays that the current has to pass through. If there is, it is hardly noticeable:

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UPDATE:

For the full story and tutorial on the Project45 visual system, check out this thread HERE

 

Here are a few photos of the visual system to date. I have 220 degrees of view, however, I am only using three views with three projectors which equal about 160 degrees of view. It is not perfect and I am still working on a better solution with the help of Greg Branch but in the meantime, it is pretty cool to see it pushed forward this far!

 

I am also proud to say that the frame rates are pretty impressive considering I am essentially using four views if you count the fourth background view. (This of course is depending on where you are flying.) Typically if flying in moderate scenery, like around Jacksonville International Airport, (JIA), I will get 30 to 40 FPS. Flying in or around Tampa International with the FlyTampa scenery, it drops down to about 14 fps. But even with that said, 14 fps does not look bad at all. It is very flyable:

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This is the same view as the photos above but at night time:

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This is from the FO's point of view coming in on final in Clearwater Florida:

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Same point in space and time but looking out the right front window from the CPT's seat:

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Here I am sitting on the runway from the CPT's point of view:

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This is extreme left view:

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And this is extreme right view:

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After about three minutes of flying the sim, you forget all about that fact that the extreme ends are stretched to fill in the full screen. Like I said previously, this is still a work in progress but in the meantime, it is such a joy to fly!!!!

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 07-26-13)

Another huge mile stone was completing and finishing off the yokes. For the full story and en-depth tutorial please check out this thread HERE

 

Here are the final photos of the newly reworked and powder coated yokes in the sim:

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This is a photo of the refinished yokes, custom made Project45 column heads and Column head covers:

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Currently, both yokes are being controlled by their own potentiometers in their respective column heads. However, the design is to eventually connect the two yokes together so that the roll is once and for all connected. (The pitch is already dual connected as you may know.) I am holding off on that until I know for sure that I will not need to be taking out the major parts of the sim because I suspect that connecting the roll together and more importantly, tuning it in is going to be a tough cookie and I really don't want to do it twice.