Restoring a REAL aircraft panel for simulator use!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- I found a real A-10A Warthog panel (from1978) online, so I bought it for 85 bucks, cleaned it up and got it working in the simulator!
Big thanks to @RainmanHST for the DZUS retainers!
If you have any questions about my setup please check out my website: thewarthogproject.com/
All my plans, panel files, and 3D printing .stls are free for download at thewarthogproject.com/downloads
And check out my Instagram at- / thewarthogproject
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - Teardown
06:07 - Testing
08:03 - Cleaning
11:56 - Painting
17:40 - Comparison
20:05 - In the simulator
Intro Music-
Darkling by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
There are real A-10A throttle quadrants also out there in the wild. If you know someone who has one, please let me know! I'm chasing accurate dimensions so I can design and build my own, or I'll pay good money for a real one to convert to C model sim use!!!
I have one. Contact me, Hempstead at ED Forum, for the dimensions. I have always meant to build a 3D model of it, but never got to it. I can already tell you that you don't want to use a real A-10A's throttle... because the throttle axes are real analog era digital signals... It's got a bunch of microswitches in there instead of a pot (ingenuous really). So it can only output a bunch of on-off signals (5 microswitches per axis, hence 5 bit resolution).
@@JonahTsai that sounds pretty workable
And pretty sweet
Very cool. For about a decade I worked at Aerodata Aircraft Instruments (part of the Kalitta Air Group). Besides repair of regular instrumentation we occasionally did work for the Yankee Airforce on their WWII aircraft. Glad I found your channel, count me as a new subscriber.
This video brings back memories, in the 1980s I was USAF assigned to the F-4C Flight Simulator attached to the 191st FIG in Michigan.
You can try some of the aircraft sellers on ebay. That is where I get a lot of my parts to tinker with :)
Theres no link to Viper Simmer on the discription.
The lights embedded in the panel are incandescent lamps, not LEDs, so you don't really need to worry about the polarity. They do draw a lot of power though.
The heat output when ya flick on the instrument test switch in a real aircraft is smashing in these winter months ,the heat output is nuts from over 200 tiny bulbs ahhaaha
@@TRJx86 Oh absolutely. Those little bulbs not only get hot, they pull a ton of current too. I think the ones in the Type III panels like shown here are pulling somewhere around 150mA each.
@f15sim christ hahaha , I'm not an avio but that's like a phone slowly charging for every 2 bulb illuminated announcer 🤣🤣🤣
Quite funny to me seeing such an "antiquated" technology still commonplace in aviation wonder what if any jets are on LED tech now
737NGs still use incandescents , haven't seen a MAX yet but I am fairly certain those use them too
@@TRJx86 Oh the indicator lamps draw even more. I think the 28v ones in the MCP on the F-15C pull ~200-250mA EACH. You don't hold that thing in test mode very long or you'll burn your fingers. ;) (pressing in the face of the master caution panel will illuminate all the bulbs). I think they still use incandescent lamps in airliners because they can use the condition of the filament to determine whether or not a lamp was lit at impact. AFAIK, the hot filament will deform in a predicable way on impact, where a cold one would do so differently or not at all. (vague memory of this, could be pure conjecture on my part).
@f15sim i did not know that about the incandescent airliner 'telltale' sounds about right to me , alike car crashes and braking with the tungsten embedding in the brake light plastics.
I was a lead, back in the day, on the A-10 LASTE program. Wish I had kept all the various panels and parts I collected.
The backlighting on the panels are incodecent bulbs. the dots are the lamps and the dashed line are buss wires. Duringthe NVIS upgrade most panels were changed to not have incapsulated back lighting and instead used a two part design. The NVIS upgrade puts a green filter over the lamp.
The LED's didn't start going into the panels until the mid 2010's.
One reason the backlighting might be so bright at "only" 12v is because it might be only rated for 5. I have real FIRE TEST and ECS panels from a Hornet, and both have 5V MAX written on the back of the light plates next to the connector. The A-10 could be different, though.
Also, as others have mentioned, the embedded lights are incandescent bulbs, not LEDs. The white dots denote their positions, and the dotted lines denote the wire run locations.
This is correct. Most of the edge lighting I have seen from that time. is 5V 400hz.
Always wondered how the lights are embedded into the panels.
Most backlit panels that I have dealt with are running at 5 volts, the bulbs can handle 12 volts but the filaments will die sooner.
Just a heads up. I was a B-52 mechanic, so im not sure about the panel on the warthog, but the same style panels used on the B-52 are only rated for 5 volts. I toasted one testing it the same way you did with a 14v source. i think some of them have it actually printed on the back for 5v only.
It's funny, I was an Electronic Warfare Systems Journeyman in the AF, and yet I don't think I ever popped open a panel like this. Honestly, all we ever really did was run tests, isolate the bad unit, then swap it out with a new one heh.
Damn the emergency flood light overrides the power cut of the aircraft, really shows how the A-10 was build for surivival, incase the plane got hit so bad that all power fails due to the destroyed generators. The pilot can still access an emergency flood light so he can still check some dials adn do what he got to do to make it home! Also the way you have to pull up the switch shows that it is really for emergency and cant accidentely or too easily switch it on. The A-10 is a great aircaft.
I work at a place that makes face plates/comms equipment for helicopters, typically for search and rescue and police. We make this exact kind of stuff. And honestly the temptation to try to recreate my own A-10 is really growing.
I don't think I can remember seeing this excited before
This was amazing, just knowing those switches were probably touched by a real pilot during actual flight and now its in your pit, wow, fascinating.
Yay a Worthog project update!
The question is if the opportunity arises well you one by one convert all of the panels to the real thing?
Eventually he'll have a real warthog! O:
@@emmaisalone Lol
Nicely done. I worked on the F-106 when I was in the Air Force. I wonder if I could find an old F-106 simulator somewhere, 'rescue' the cockpit and wire it up for something like Flight Sim. Well, it would be a dream, maybe a nightmare. I think you did a great job on your cockpit, and I applaud your work.
felt the excitement as the lights lit up
I got a mate that does this too. He bought a cheap laser engraving machine. That’s to weak to cut trough acrylic’s so he fine sands the acrylic, paints ‘em, lasers off the lettering. Sometimes he gets black panels and etches the letters in. It’s a cool hobby
The recovery from the beer spill to continue work was impressive. I doff my hat Sir.
Doing this with a Mirage III instrument panel, etc. Started watching your channel as you have some good content about DCS and interfacing real hardware. Got the undercarriage lever working today!
I love this project and I can't wait to see how it evolves further
That is great that you have finally found a real panel !!! looks great
Most panels from that periode are 5 V iDC incandescent bulbs. I have drilled out and soldered in a lot of bulbs to replace worn out ones. I have worked on panels for 15V AC and 28 V DC. Some had red or green transparent panels and needed to be replaced with white depending on what aircraft or helicopter it was going to be mounted in.
Well you've started now, only logical to add the entire aircraft one gizmo at a time.
WELL DONE, Mate! Very nice workmanship.
Very good work. Your project is incredible
love how excited you are when the lights just lit up. that's awesome all around!
Waou Fantastic job Congratulations and Thanks
Always blown away by how perfect it all looks and fits....amazing.
Outstanding job on the restoration there! Also the panel you replaced couldn't have been any closer to the real one without you seeing it. Honestly top job!
What I find neat is I live near the former Fairchild plant in Hagerstown, MD, where the A-10's were assembled. So that panel went through there at some point in 1978.
Thank you for entertaining me while I ate my dinner in Los Angeles. Come and visit next airshow season. Miramar and Huntington Beach AirsHow. Best ever
Awesome restoration sir. Well done indeed
Man, this was great. A universe of UA-cam to watch, and I had a great time for 20 minutes watching you clean and airbrush switches. What a world. :)
This is so cool what an amazing project!
Fantastic use of a real panel. Wish I had the skill to do what you have done sir.
It is a good feeling when you put actually real parts in your jet!! Awesome conversion, well done mate!
You just levelled up the Awesome factor on this cockpit project.
I have an NMSP i'm converting.. Amazing to see how well these things are put together when you open them up!
Bro this is crazy and your community is incredibly smart holy fuck i am more than impressed
Amazing fan bloody tastic love it
Can't wait for the ALE-40! Ripple!
That is an incredible simulator!
I have no words. Your level of dedication is second to none!
Amazing.
holy cow no wonder why planes are so expensive , that is some quality hardware right there.
WOW Just wow!
MY MAN!!! You’re an ANIMAL!! Outstanding! Cheers
This brought back memories of my time in the air force. Six years working in shop avionics on the F16 and the A10. We normally would just touch up the scratches on the faceplate with a flat black paint marker.
Awesome sim.
Thats awesome! Gotta love having real life switches for simulations!
Dude this is *SO* cool!!!
Takes me back to when I was in the Navy repairing panels like these
Very cool! I am not much of an A-10 guy but this looks very fun to fly!
He removed the rust and dust 😞 the best part.
I have a lot of aircraft cockpit boxes, it is the first time I see plastic being used as rear cover, usually it is made with a folded and welded aluminium sheet. Weird choice here even more for a military part.
Some old soviet aircraft instrument enclosures were made of Bakelite. Never seen plastic ones either.
So bloody cool! I’m very jealous!
Super cool video 👍
You're making my Echo talk :) Another super cool project!
love it
Just to say it looks great, the DZUS fasteners x4 you fitted are aligned to show locked in place inboard to outboard. That way you can see they are locked in place it’s the same on all these kind of panels.
I want that. that is a MASTERPIECE!
You might want to use some contact cleaner (potentiometer cleaner) instead of the windex. Windex will help it oxidize.
I've got a real A-10 CDU, the backlighting on that is 28V bulbs. I wonder why Fairchild used two different voltages for the backlighting ? Maybe it was because the CDU was a done deal that was already installed in other aircraft types and it was cheaper to provide a seperate lighting voltage than ask Eaton for the faceplate to be changed. The CDU is almost identical ( or identical ) to the one installed in the AH-64A
came out real clean, but im partial to the worn look myself. well done either way
It looks great. One day i'm gonna get me some mil spec switches for a few of my hornet parts.
Awesome panel maye, small green brush looks familiar 🤔
holy shit this setup is insane
Nice vid! Having the unique opportunity to compare your homemade panel with an actual panel you should be pretty chuffed as you did a bang-up job.
I know I'm a little late to the party, but in order to cover up those scratches, us avionics technicians simply color them with a black sharpie. super cool project none the less!
Nice! There's nothing like the REAL thing!! I've integrated several real panels in my F-16 pit and it's always a thrill when the lighting works and the switches function as advertised. My next project is a Boeing 727 sim. That one.....has a few more to do! 😆
A 727 sim sounds awesome!
Had a left ac Gen switch go bad while TDY to Kusan AB a few years ago. Luckily they're the same switches F-16's use and we were able to do E&E backshop maintenance on a redball to get the jet out of there and back to Osan that day.
I probably would have left it at the first coat to keep just a bit of the worn down look, but that's epic either way
holy i would love to have this
I never knew that Alexa in Aus has an Australian accent. Sick!
All I can say is - it is fu****g crazy!!!
Maaan thats cool as hell. Consider me intensely jealous!
Yo!! Slick!!
Just when I think I was pretty handy for organizing the wires behind the TV, this guy has to go build himself a replica of an A-10...
The faceplates all start as flat black, but get glossed by the cleaning tasks of the avionics tech with the lint free cloth and the pilot with their gloves during flight. If the faceplate is still functional (just dinged up), at I-level repair the faceplate would be touched up just like you did.
For the painting, ours were gray, we just had a bottle of Testors model paint and touched it up when necessary. AIMD Norva.
Wow, although it doesn’t match the green, having an actual piece of that old bird is amazing
having real parts is always nice
I wish i could get my hadns on a F-4 Phantom 2 cockpit
I know where i find an F-4F but i dobt they let me rip out its cockpit
Even tho i would rather use The GAF T.O. than just ripping it out
LANGUAGE!!! but nah man, that is exciting!! Love the channel and your work
Cool video. You had Alexa telling me i dont have a garage. 🤣
Bro gonna build whole plane by the next year
I think I like the one you had in there more, maybe just change the switched, but I for some reason like that one more
next for the gua 8 gattling gun from a real A-10!
if you want real aircraft components, the aircraft boneyard in AZ or NM would be the perfect place for them
Damn I sure hope this comes from a scrapped aircraft and not just stollen out of the aircraft witch I hear is a pretty big issue in many militaries arround the wrold.
How lucky you are. ONE mil-spec switch alone is worth more than 50 bucks.
Not always - once I've managed to source these Honeywell locking toggles for 10 bucks a pop on Ebay. You should always hunt for good deals.
I'm watching this at like 4 in the morning, and some of the background sound at like 15:40 for example caused me to remove my headphones / repeat the section to ensure these voices and such are not coming from outside my house. Lol. Don't know if anyone else has experienced this. : P
lol just a nitpick cos I had to do a whole presentation on it, but its DZUS as in zeus not DeeZoos lol, amazing stuff
thats cool but now you need to make it have real ejecting seats so you get thrown through your ceiling
Hey man, I'm new to your channel and I am VERY happy I found you! Your content is so cool and inspiring me even more to become a professional pilot. Just one question, could you do a video where you give a quick tutorial on how to setup an arduino for one of your modules (like this panel)? I would really love to know so I can build something like this for my own!
Thanks dude, hope to see some more content soon!
I subscribed aswell :)
I think you need a pozi-drive screwdriver instead of a Phillips, good chance of stripping the screws with a Phillips. Most work with pz2 - Cheers Pete
I’d suggest a semigloss lacquer for durability if nothing else
I was built in 1977 and it's in way better condition then I am lol!!!😋
stop activating my alexa!!!!
Dialectic grease is your friend
can you please make a video or website post about the power management of the sim. I'd like to see how you power all of this up. Thanks
waiting for him to find a GAU-8 motor and barrels for a bargain price you know to complete the look