My friend Dave is both a god of both graphics and avian photography. He’ll be writing the software that will show the various screens on the AWG-20 PACS or Programmable Armament Control Set (also known as the MPCD or Multi-Purpose Color Display)
Below is a test display he wrote for me and I’ve put my “spare” MPCD button collar frame around it so you can understand what it’s all about. 🙂
I rebuilt the MPCD that I have with a 7″ monochrome green VGA monitor. Within a couple of months of that feat (it’s not easy shoe-horning a “standard” CRT into the original enclosure!) I discovered that the MPCD is a COLOR display. Cue facepalm.
You cannot buy a 7″ color VGA display for any amount of money. I’ve tried. Repeatedly. For five years. The original display is a 5″x5″ color vector tube and while I could find a replacement, they wanted $5000.00. EACH. Cue 2nd facepalm.
I finally found a 6.4″ LCD kit from Earth LCD to the tune of $350. Painful, but no where near the pain of the original.
So what I’m doing is replacing a 1:1 aspect ratio display with a 4:3 aspect ratio display that “mostly” fits. The important part of the real estate that the LCD covers is the 20 buttons that surround the frame. With a little adjustment, it properly covers all the space that they “occupy” on the screen. I’m going to place a layer of 1/16″ or 1/8″ smoked plexiglass between the LCD and the MPCD button collar. When the unit is enclosed, no light will enter from the back and you won’t notice there’s a huge air gap above and below the LCD.
The original display had a resolution of 512×512. At 640×480, I’ll have the width I need, but I’ll be short 32 pixels (shy 16 at the top and 16 at the bottom for all practical purposes). This will make things a bit tight – there are some MPCD pages that are pretty dense, but I’m sure we’ll get it figured out.
Here’s a set of pictures that show everything that I have (minus some parts I can find!) installed in the cockpit.
The glare shields are not installed, nor is the windscreen in place..
Enjoy! 🙂
It’s taken a LOT longer than I would have liked, but I was finally able to finish wiring the IFF panel today.
There are only two more panels to build completely from scratch before both cockpit side consoles are populated with the right panels. I’m going to return working on the DIY cockpit that I built (http://www.geneb.org/pitkit) in order to get it finished completely before I return to the F-15 once again.
Here’s the process of wiring the IFF panel:
Pretty big rats nest, but it gets better, really. 🙂
After a number of delays, I finally got the EW panel completed!
Here’s what the panel assembly looks like:
edge on view of EW panel
You’ll notice that I’ve abandoned the tiny nylon wire ties in favor of waxed lacing cord. It looks a _lot_ nicer and much more “authentic”. Waxed lacing cord is used on “real” panels in both commercial simulators and flying aircraft.
This past week has seen some great progress on the panel front.
First up is the nearly completed IFF panel. After breaking a few tools due to feeding too fast, I was finally able to get the parts for the IFF mounting plate cut:
Edge-lit panel, main mounting plate and the connector mounting plate.
Through some further experimenting, the design of the REPLY indicator was changed a little bit. It now uses two .125″ diffuser layers and a single .062″ Rowmark lettering layer. This results in a MUCH better visual result, with no hot spots or faded areas in the indicator.
The parts that make up the REPLY indicator
Only the back diffusion layer has holes cut out for the LEDs. The LEDs themselves are shaped like flat top cylinders instead of the rounded top you normally see with LEDs. The two small black frames were made to more closely emulate the look of the original indicator.
The assembled REPLY indicator next to the LED circuit board.
The two LEDs used are 3.0v 180 degree FOV green LEDs. These LEDs can be purchased from here: http://myworld.ebay.com/cece718.
Here’s a short video that shows the indicator in action. Note that the camera I use was pretty much overwhelmed by the light from the LEDs. It’s really not that bright in person.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK9-v67XUFw
Some 2 years ago, I finished the main construction for the new FUEL panel in the simulator. Other things came up and I never got back to finishing the panel. As of today, it’s finally finished.
The wiring needed to be done and I didn’t want to mickey mouse the process. I created a little 25 hole template that would allow me to cut the wiring to the right length for mounting into the DB25 connector I’d chosen for this panel.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pumNCcbEU
The new panel that I’m working on is for the IFF control panel in the F-15. Since I have a “real” edge-lit panel for this, I only need to make the metal mounting plate and the “REPLY” indicator that it needs.
Here’s what the panel itself looks like:
IFF Control Panel
I’ve spent the last couple of years doing a lot of work on other simulator and R/C related projects. It’s now time to get back to my beloved ‘007!
This new website is the beginning of that process. I’ve got new work in progress and pictures of that will be posted soon. In the mean time, please bear with me while I get the content from the “old” site transitioned over to this one.
You can still reach the original site by going to http://wwwf15sim.com/index.html
Thanks for your patience and continued interest!
