Welcome to cockpit.varxec.net, a site dedicated to Home Cockpit Construction for the FlightGear Simulator
flightgears 747 with custom paint leaving VHXX Runway 31
Introduction/main page is here. This page provides an overview of our project, motivations and plans.
News
Updates are also announced on the cockpit-updates mailing list
| 20050915 | Uploaded files for PHCC_DOA_AnOut1 Rev.0c. |
| 20050724 | Updated the PHCC pinouts diagram on the documentation page. |
| Added a shot of the finished 7segment display board. | |
| Added a picture and description to the 7segment display board assembly tutorial showing the driver chip selection. | |
| 20050618 | Added the board assembly tutorial for the DOA_40DO board. |
| Added some infos about the DOA_40DO to the digital output page. | |
| Officially announcing the PHCC forum. It has been in existance for about 6 months but not yet publicly announced. | |
| 20050525 | New PHCC board released: the DOA_40DO. This board has 40 output channels at 125mA/50V. |
| 20050106 | Finally did an update of the Available Homecockpit Interface Solutions. |
| Today, my Co-Builder Stephen leaves Germany to start University education in the USA. When I get around, I'll upload pictures of his stuff that were shot during the last 3 months. | |
| 20041229 | Its been two months since the last update... I just didn't have the time to update the webpages. Lots of time gets devoted to PHCC. Software, documentation and building boards/ordering parts,... Now, I have the Rev.4B Motherboard assembly tutorial ready. With many pictures. |
| I still have more than 100 pictures of Stephen's progress in the queue, but you'll have to wait a little longer for those, sorry. | |
| 20041027 | The firmware updater/downloader program for the AN851 bootloader is now also available precompiled for Windows, see the PIC Software page. |
| 20041020 | Put two more boards on the download page. |
| 20041019 | Added pictures of PHCC boards "avionics stack" on the PHCC intro page |
| Created a download page for PHCC where all relevant files can/will be found in one place. More stuff will appear on this page the next days. | |
| Added board assembly tutorials | |
| Tweaks on the contacs page | |
| Changed name of DOB_16x_BC636 board to DOB_74585+T | |
| 20040930 | Added a wiring diagram that show how to wire segment displays to the 32x display daughterboards. |
| 20040929 | First public release of the PHCC motherboard (Rev.4B). Eagle, postscript, and gerber files available here. |
| More boards in the following days ... | |
| Added assembly instructions for the AnalogOut1 Board. Look here, others will come in the following days. | |
| Added two graphics that show how the keymatrix works and how to wire switches to it. | |
| Several BOM updates. (Updates to the BOMs are often not announced here, so check the files) | |
| 20040830 | A few new galleries, one of some misc PHCC stuff, and three of Stephen's stuff: XPDR radio, wet compass, and HSI/parking brake. |
| Also uploaded "Bill Of Materials" files for some of the PHCC boards. Use the links of the last two updates to go to the PHCC board pages with BOMs. | |
| 20040818 | Second half of updated PHCC now uploaded. |
| Schematics and board layouts added for: keymatrix daughterboards, LED and 7-segment displays, USB interface, and a few more edits/tweaks on the PHCC pages. | |
| 20040817 | Lots of editing has gone into the PHCC sub-pages (but still more to come). Schematics and board layouts added for: motherboard, high current output board, servo board, analog output board. |
| Added two links on the links page, MikesFlightDeck and the Simbuilders Wiki. | |
| 20040727 | Added a big (>120 pictures) gallery of Stephens progress. More instruments, and enclosure, adjustable seats... Enjoy. |
| 20040723 | First public release of cockpit.varxec.net (.net, not .de). Most content from cockpit.varxec.de should now be copied over. If pieces are missing or you find links that don't work, please email me. |
| The script that creates this website is still in development, and therefore changes in layout and arrangement can occur any time without listing the changes here. | |
| Contentwise, there's a new Tutorial Gallery for the Toner Transfer method for making PCBs. Also I've added a few pages with bit of content in the electronics/phcc section. | |
| 20040601 | Dry run test of the new website developed without WML. Now using a small perl script to generate these pages from sdf or html. Each source file for this website is also a valid perl script :-). Changes to the page sources were minimal since I use sdf again, this time even more extensively. |
| 20040501 | Long time since last update. As always, things have been going on behind the scenes, albeit slower in the PHCC area. Stephen has been busy with his Cessna 172 panel (~40 new pics) started about 4 to 6 weeks ago. Its being built in parallel to his other sim, the modular helo/plane sim. |
| I now have another server that I have direct access to so I can install stuff and do all kinds of other things. But most importantly, it has a LOT more webspace. I am working on a new design for these pages. The temporary address of this server is http://cockpit.homeunix.net. Currently it will be a mirror of http://cockpit.varxec.de. | |
| I've also set up a mailinglist "sim-hardware" for hardware builders with an emphasis on hardware that will work together with flightgear. This list will hopefully also be a good resource for those on a small budget (with Stephens interesting ways of building simulated instruments from mostly junk) and for those wanting to have some deeper discussions about electronics, for example. See the new mailinglist page for details. | |
| 20040305 | Added three galleries of stuff Stephen has been working on. I have to admit that these pics are already few weeks old, just didn't get around updating the website. |
| Updates to text and pictures on the PHCC page. | |
| It was about time to add the link to Daniel "dutch"'s 737 home cockpit to the links page. He builds everything himself, similar us, just he's progressing well with his project. | |
| 20040208 | Added three galleries of Stephens cockpit. |
| 20040205 | Made a dual board for driving (2x) 48 7-segment displays for the PHCC. |
| Added two pictures to the third gallery on Stephens page. | |
| I'm working on a spreadsheet with infos/comparisons of different homecockpit interface electronics. See here for a "work-in-progress" version. I need help in filling the gaps/correcting stuff in this table, so please email me if you can help. I don't have all of these. Actually, I have only one of them, so all the info that I found is from the web (and some guesswork). | |
| 20040124 | Uploaded a AN851 derived bootloader for the Microchip PIC18F452 and my linux utilities to read/write/erase flash (program) memory to go with it. |
| Updates and new board layouts/schematics, including the first Digital-out circuit for 48 7-segment displays on the PHCC pages. | |
| Remade the upper parts of the throttle levers. There's also a DXF file with my dimensions. However, these dimensions are NOT from the real aircraft. I made them up myself. They might be in the ballpark of the real numbers... | |
| Three pics of Stephen's cockpit from around x-mas. | |
| 20040103 | A new screenshot and some comments on X11GC. I wanted to create a Korry Knob and also a Korry Switch. |
| Just a short status on PHCC: My bootloader based on Microchip's Application Note AN851 works great, Since I couldn't find a Linux based program to communicate to an AN851 bootloader, I wrote one myself. Both the bootloader firmware and the linux-side programs will be made available in a few weeks. | |
| I'm making progress on the firmware for PHCC, but am still waiting for some parts. In the meantime, I got all 35 analog channels, as well as the keyboard matrix working great. Soon have to make some more PCBs. Stephen will need over 50 digits of 7 segment displays for his COM/NAV radios, MCP and GPS units. The driver circuit for those 7 segment displays (48 of them) consists of one PIC, 24 resistors, and 3x CMOS 4067(16x analog switches). One of these driver circuits should cost less than 20EUR in parts :-) | |
| 20031223 | Some updates on the X11GC page, including four screenshots. |
| 20031208 | Corrected typo in overhead dimensions drawing on the plans page. |
| Some updates on the PHCC page together with a gallery. | |
| 20031124 | Main Overhead Panel dimensions drawing on the plans page |
| 20031122 | Last weeks update hit the space quota on my webspace :(. I had to delete some old stuff (don't worry, not from this cockpit.varxec.de site) to fully upload last weeks stuff. It won't be long until I hit the quota again, so I'll have to think about a good solution. |
| I updated my gallery generation script with some new features. See the new gallery about the AP Disengage Bar, watch for the red "NEW" on the gallery index page the check out those features. | |
| Added a link to the Supplies section on the link page. | |
| 20031117 | Three new galleries: My remade Flaplever mechanism, Some progress on the electronics front with a PHCC motherboard prototype PCB, and Stephen installed the collective and two-engine throttle in his cockpit. |
| Beginning with todays galleries, I put "watermarks" with "http://cockpit.varxec.de" into each image. This is only for our visitors, so that you can remember where you got the pictures from when they get dumped into a directory together with tens of thousands of others :-) I know it helps me when I go back through my downloaded pictures and sometimes can't remember where I a particular picture originated from. | |
| 20031108 | New gallery of a small two engine throttle unit for Stephens cockpit. |
| Added a paragraph about software used in this project on the tools page. | |
| I changed my gallery generation script a little, so new galleries will look slightly different. If the colors hurt your eyes or you get a headache, or ... then let me know :-) | |
| A few minor reorganisations/cleanups. | |
| 20031028 | Lots of updates. Including an extra section for Stephens own cockpits: a Piper Cub cockpit and its successor, a helicopter/GA generic modular cockpit. Also some pictures of his panels and the collective he is building. |
| AP disengage bar and Korry-type MCP switch | |
| A new "notch-plate" for the flap lever made from bread cutting board material. | |
| The long promised pictures of our homebuilt XYZ table | |
| Updates and schematics on the PIC Homecockpit Controller circuit. | |
| I also counted how many pictures we have on this site using this Unix commandline: | |
find . -name \*.jpg -or -name \*.png | sed 's/.*\/th_.*\.jpg//' \ | sed 's/.*\/th_.*\.png//' | sed 's/.*_scale.*\.jpg//' \ | sed 's/.*_scale.*\.png//' | cat -b | tail -1yields: 671 ./project_logo.jpgWow. Way over six hundred pictures, not counting the thumbnail versions of the pics. |
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| 20030929 | Added 3 galleries: one for rudder pedal plates, one of the throttle unit and another one of my concentric rotary with a holder made from PCB material. |
| We've made some pics of Stephen's J3 Cub, but I don't have them yet, so I can't put them online right now. Hopefully during this week. | |
| Some blurbs about a circuit for Stephens and my cockpits that is low-cost, modular and extensible. | |
| 20030905 | Gallery with a step-by-step explanation of how I assembled my rudder pedals with some measurements of the parts used. |
| Stephen, the other builder (my former co-builder of the big cockpit) has been working on a Piper J3 Cub cockpit which is done except for the 5 analog instruments and the heel brake. Maybe I'll get some pics of it within the next weeks. | |
| 20030820 | Two new galleries. Some weeks ago I first flew with my standalone yoke/control column/rudder system hooked up to the gameport. It is so much different flying with a yoke than with joystick, keyboard and mouse. See here. As seen in this gallery, I'm working on a papermarche form around the yoke (see other galleries for how it looked before). |
| The second gallery shows the ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming) adapter that I added to my PIC programmer. This allows me to program most/all PICs that are now available. here. I'll be using it mostly for 12F675 and 16F877 and maybe some 18F parts soon. | |
| 20030714 | Three new galleries: PCB of PICkeymatrix512, yoke/control column, and rudder pedals. |
| Note that this project has 'downgraded' in the last month. Effectively, its not a fully enclosed cockpit anymore, but instead just some parts at the desktop. This allows me to build working non-linked controls for yoke/control column and rudder. The software part will get more focus thru this. Since I don't have the space for an overhead and too many other panels, I might work on replicating that functionality in software. | |
| 20030623 | New gallery with the EFIS panel and PICkeymatrix64. |
| Work on the software is progressing... soon I should be able to map (hardware-)switches to values in the PropertyTree. The displays can then react on these changes. | |
| 20030614 | I changed the page layout a little bit, including a new logo. I'm not perfectly happy with it, but it'll do for now. I will probably work on it in a couple of weeks. The aspect ratio is not very good. |
| I also added/changed some text on both the Introduction/main page and the software pages. I also rewrote most of the X11GC page. | |
| 20030613 | (For IE users:) Concerning the PNG transparency problem: If you want support for transparent PNGs in your browser then either sign this petition or use a better better browser (there are really enough to choose from. I prefer [firefox]) |
| 20030610 | Made a gallery showing the assembly of the first EFIS panel. |
| Although there hasn't been much new here the last days, we have been making some progress... eg: the PFD/ND/EICAS/CDU Display software has made some progress. More on that soon. | |
| 20030530 | Added a schematic of a 512 switch/button key matrix that hooks to the serial port: here |
| Apparently, the PNG transparency is not fixed yet. Instead the pics have a white background. Need to work on that and bill M$ for the hours :-) | |
| 20030523 | Hopefully fixed the transparency of the PNG images (small airplane pointers, varxec air, varxec.de pics) for IE (which still can't do transparent PNG as specified by the PNG standard) |
| 20030522 | Added a diagram to the hardware section |
| 20030521 | Added two new sections: Tools and Ideas. In the tools section we will show what we used to build our cockpit, and the ideas section will have stuff that came to our mind or that we found somewhere else on the net that could be used for our project |
| New gallery of the yoke and upper control column part showing the steel wires for the aileron/yoke linkage getting attached. | |
| 20030519 | Temporarily attached the 7 segment displays to the MCP panel: here |
| Changed my gallery generator script so that the thumbnail overview page contains direct links to each picture for easier downloading. (Right now, only new galleries will include this feature, like the one above) | |
| 20030514 | Uploaded screenshots of the EICAS/PFD/ND font. |
| Uploaded pictures of our home-made throttle handles. | |
| 20030513 | Created and uploaded a CAD drawing of the MIP, including the corrected error mentioned below. |
| added another gallery of the MCP: MCP panel page | |
| 20030428 | Found an error in the MIP drawing on the drawings/plans page. |
| This will be corrected soon. The problem is that the cutout at the lower part in the center is not wide enough for the CDUs and the lower EICAS. It should be about 51.0 instead of 41.6 | |
| 20030424 | Created this news page to allow visitors to check for changes more easily |
| Updated electronics page MCP | |
| Updated software pages PIC asm sources, X11GC | |
| Added page panels/mcp | |
| Added pictures of nearly every section | |
| Reorganized pictures into (hopefully) more userfriendly galleries |
