Quote from Ron Rollo on January 29, 2025, 9:12 am

Hey guys,

Just reached another milestone in the progress of assembling L45-002 v2.0!  By the way, you might have noticed Shane and I are about at the same point with the reassembly process.  You can follow his L45-007 V2.0 Project updates HERE

Over the past few weeks I was able to get all the furniture pieces sanded, painted and panels mounted to everything.  Now we can all clearly see where I am in the process.  My list of things yet to be completed has reduced to several dozen items rather than hundreds it feels like!

In the "hot seat" right now, next to be completed is the Standby Compass, v2.0 RMUs, v2.0 EFIS panels and the v2.0 WX Radar panel.

Here are a couple photos of what it all looks like so far.

And here are a few photos of the backside.  All the panels are wired up and ready for wiring harnesses.  I am still working on a few minor mounting issues of things like power converters which is why everything you see is currently assembled outside of the shell.

(It's much easier to reach and fabricate things while outside the shell.)

I also finally have the "Airplane" panel completed and ready to be wired up to the Arduino modules.

Last but not least, take note of the dual USB sockets mounted into the MIP.  This has been observed in at least one Lear45 (the Lear45 Dugald flew) and we thought in this day and age, it's a must in every cockpit.

Getting very close to being able to start creating the wiring harnesses.  But first, I have a couple more panels and components to finish developing.  Next up, RMUs, EFISs and WX Radar panels.  They are all about 50% complete, so once I get started on them again, the progress will be fast.

Another update soon!

Quote from Shane Barnes on January 29, 2025, 7:58 pm

I've got to get busy ... you have jumped ahead of me!  Looks like I have about 20 switches to wire in my future and add them to the MIP.   Looking awesome Ron!

Quote from Will_S on January 30, 2025, 8:25 am

Looking goood Ron. Glad to see everything fits!

Couple of questions about the Airplane Panel:

What MOM switches did you use? They look very low profile, and not easy to accidentally push.

Did you have to relieve the back of the Cover Panel?

Did you consider adding remote Start and Reset buttons for each PC.?

Quote from Ron Rollo on January 30, 2025, 11:46 am

Thanks guys!

It has been a long time coming to get to this point.  I am having a blast working on things, adding stuff, adjusting things, etc...

Reference the reset buttons, I am using 12mm low profile momentary push buttons with red LEDs.  They are used to reset the Arduinos remotely and will also have a flashing indicator light to tell you the status of the Arduino.  Jason has programmed a "heartbeat" flash for each one.  If the lights are flashing like a heartbeat, all is fine.  If the LEDs are solid on or off?  You got a problem.

I did not have to mill out the back side of the Weight Chart panel cover.  The reset buttons are low profile and are no taller than .055" high.  The Backer panel for the Left Crew panel is .11" thick so there is plenty of room for the reset buttons without needing to mill anything.

Here is a photo of the "Airplane" panel without the Left Crew backer panel surrounding it.  Keep in mind the holes for these buttons are drilled directly into the aluminum MIP.

I got mine from Aliexpress for around $1 each.  You can find the link HERE

These reset buttons for the Arduinos are designed to be used as "hot restart" buttons so you can reset a module on the fly without getting up and out of the cockpit.  Hopefully if we have an Arduino that freezes up or fails, simply hitting the reset button gets things back on track without disrupting the simulated flight.

It would not make sense installing reset buttons for the computers because at that point, if you have to rest the computers, your sim session is OVER and your going to have to get out of the sim to get everything set up again anyway.

When ordering your buttons, here are the things you need to insure:

1.  12mm size
2.  Momentary
3.  Low profile
4.  Red LEDs  (To help preserve night vision)

Quote from Roel on January 31, 2025, 4:05 am

That's a great idea!

But, I have to say I have not had much need to reset an Arduino yet.

Sometimes I have had issues with some Arduinos not being available on start of the PC, but since I use USB slot cards in this PC instead of USB hubs no more issues.

But never the less, nice feature!!

Quote from Mark Speechley on February 2, 2025, 7:46 am

That's a good suggestion, worthy of a follow up Roel. Instead of sending all USB cables to the USB slot card, maybe I'll just use it for the errant recurring USB Arduino's ?

I do have an Arduino that has to be reset everytime. I am living proof that Ron's Reset button not only works with the 'Heartbeat' but has made not going to the nose, to hit the tiny reset button on the Arduino.

Quote from Mark Speechley on March 11, 2025, 8:25 am

Well after Roel's excellent suggestion of a pci usb card, I trundled down to Melbourne to purchase some. Well word must have gotten out about Roel's excellent advice, in Melbourne, so I got the last one. Sigh.

So I installed it into the computer, a Client, which is giving me the most USB grief. Unfortunately my issues are intermittent, so it didn't help.

I have had to look elsewhere for what would cause USB issues. The possible options are ;

1/ old BIOS

2/ Cheap Chinese cable, extension cable and/or powered hub

3/ distance from USB panel to PC

4/ PC USB power, poor quality and EMF, so requires a USB Isolator, between the PC and the USB cables to the Jet45 USB Panels. ( thanking you DonnyRay for this advice ). Here is his recommendation, new. You can buy 2nd hand much cheaper on eBay.

https://www.startech.com/en-us/usb-hubs/st7200usbm

5/ USB 3.0 as against USB 2.0 cables.You need to consider distance. USB 2.0, 16 ft. USB 3.0, 6-9ft. Note Ext. cables will extend these lengths but with some degradation.

So more testing my end. At least I have more USB ports to use !

Cheers

Mark S.