I test printed a model today that I created last week based on SimHQ posting I saw.

Here’s what the solid model looks like:

The lettering on the face of the grip relates to the control that hinges in the center of the grip – it controls propeller pitch.  It roughly translates to “Coarse” and “Fine”.

Here’s how the print came out:

As you can see, the lettering didn’t turn out at all.  This could be fixed in one of three ways.  Increase the size of the lettering (not really practical), print with a smaller diameter nozzle – this was printed on a .5mm nozzle.  A .35mm might be small enough.  Last, you could print it flat and then mechanically engrave the lettering in post production.

My choice would be to do the lettering as a post-production step because the smaller nozzle diameter would dramatically increase the print time of the part.  At 0.5mm it took roughly 2 hours to complete.  With a 0.35mm nozzle, it would be closer to 5 to 7 hours.

The square pockets shown in the second photo are there to take a C&K 8221 tactile push-button switch.  Here’s a photo I shamelessly lifted from Digikey’s website:

The rocking lever that goes on the face of the grip would hit the switches as it is rocked from top or bottom.  I don’t know if I’ll finish the design, but it was a fun design lesson and an interesting print.

This project has been simmering on the back burner for a very long time now.  I only recently got a chance to scrounge up a round-tuit in order to get this thing done.

With the advent of the Arduino hardware ecosystem has come a general bar-lowering for people doing all kinds of projects.  This especially holds true for those of us building simulators of various stripes.  You can find Arudino-based gadgets driving instruments and masquerading as all kinds of little cockpit gadgets these days.

One of the holes in this has been a genuinely easy to use flight control interface based on the Arduino.  Well with the introduction of the MMJoy2 firmware as written by “mega_mozg”, this hole has been filled.

Continue Reading

As I mentioned before, the instrument panel on the Bf-109K4 (and some G models) consists of three parts.  An upper “casting”, a main panel and a blind flying panel.

Since I had the day off today, I took a little time to get some work done before it got too hot in the shop to work.

The original panel mounts that I created aren’t going to work with the current cockpit design, so some months ago, I fabricated some new panel mounting brackets on my 3D printer.

The green part is the original bracket I printed last year when I first started poking at this project.  The small white part is a drill template, which is also 3D printed.

Continue Reading