F-4 Phantom B-8 Stick Phase 3

[+streakeagle 871]

I have fully re-engineered the F-4 stick into its best form yet. No more hacked up joysticks and rotary pots. The PC interface is now a BU0836X USB board with industrial grade linear pots that precisely match the range of motion provided by the stick. I had to do some grinding to create a slot in the aluminum tube for the pitch pot, but it has worked out extremely well. Some springs were installed to provide centering for both the pitch and yaw axis. The pitch springs are fairly tight, so it takes some force to pull back 100%. The overall feel of the stick is amazing: like a Warthog stick with an extension shaft and no detents around the center range. The bit resolution is 0-4095 versus the Warthog's 0-65535, but I would know the difference while flying as I can make very subtle roll/pitch adjustments--this is much better than the resolution provided by the SIdewinder or X-45.

 

But the really big news is that I have used sketchup to design a cockpit installation. I am going to make a wood replica the aluminum box that covers the stick along with a cloth "boot" similar to a stick shift boot. I am going to use wood to make the ejection seat "bucket" and back rails to go with the real survival pack, cushions, and parachute pack that I just bought. The survival pack/lower seat cushion is out of F-4C 63-7704, a MiG killer! I will also make the left console and install the Warthog throttle in it (though I may make my own F-4 throttle handles at some point and connect them to the BU0836X at some point).

 

I am excited. I am very close to having my own replica F-4 cockpit :)

 

F-4C 63-7704 is now a gate guard with a fictional number painted on the tail:

 

My upper "lumbar" back cushion came out of 72-1482:

[+streakeagle 871]

I will post pics of the seat parts once I get a semi-scale seat bucket built to use them, but here are the AMARC tags identifying the parts and what aircraft they came from:

 

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[+streakeagle 871]

Some pics of the new stick configuration:

 

BU0836X and linear pot for roll axis:

 

New centering springs and linear pot for pitch axis:

 

Overall:

 

The beginnings of a wooden semi-replica Martin-Baker Mk H7 ejection seat with real components:

Edited March 5, 2013 by streakeagle

[+streakeagle 871]

Very useful progress:

 

 

 

 

[+streakeagle 871]

I now have a headrest :)

 

 

[+CrazyhorseB34 937]

That is pretty bad ass! I have a UH-1 seat that I need to figure out how to make a stable base for.

[+Dave 2,322]

Nice work SE!

[+streakeagle 871]

I have come a long way since I first sought to buy a B-8 grip to splice onto a USB stick... but I still have a long way to go.

My son is going to visit family over the summer (about 6 weeks) and I will only join him for the last week, so I anticipate a tremendous amount of progress before the end of the summer.

But I have not made any particular plans about exactly what I want to accomplish, so I might not get as far as I hope.

I have been spending all my free time enjoying the current setup with DCS and SF2... with the release of the UH-1H and AI Fw190D9 focusing nearly every last minute on DCS UH-1H and P-51D missions.

I love that the UH-1H used the B-8... I like it when the stick on the screen matches the one in my hand... right down to the button/switch functions.

I may focus on eliminating the Warthog throttle by making an F-4 throttle, but I would like to get more time in a real F-4 cockpit before committing to that.

So I may just sand/fill/paint what I already have and try to fabricate some ejection pull handles for the top of the seat and wire them to a switch on the BU0836X so I can map them to in-game eject functions.

So many things to do, so little time and money to do them!

[+streakeagle 871]

Finally made some progress. I have tried to get the upper ejection handles on ebay twice and failed to win the auction. I could spend a lot of money ordering from the same site that had the survival kit, parachute pack, and cushion. Or I could fabricate an imitation.

 

[TheTracer 0]

Hi Streakeagle! Great work! Have you ever looked for F-4 ejection seat parts on www.flighthelmet.com ? You should go there and search the site for "F-4". Then you should get many missing spare parts for your seat.

[+streakeagle 871]

That is where I got the survival pack/lower cushion, lumbar/upper cushion, and parachute pack. But my original goal was to make a much cheaper wood "sport" scale seat rather than build a complete real seat. Not having a real seat handy to get some measurements I missed while in Pensacola, I cheated by buying nearly $600 worth of real parts, raising the total price quite a bit. Now that I have actual dimensions, I may build another one purely of wood with home-made cushions for my son. I used thick high-grade wood for most of the structure to make it durable enough, so the cost for just the seat as it is about $800 or $900, with the console about $1,000. Of course a complete real seat in good shape is $5,000 or more. If I build a 2nd one, I may try cheaper materials and try to keep the finished cost of just the seat to about $300-$400. The price of decent seat cushion foam is fairly high, but I can get my mom to sew up the seat covers to save some money there. Eliminating the survival pack and using just wood also allows the seat to become decent storage space with a fliptop lid. I could keep unused/extra peripherals and cables neatly stored under my butt ;)

 

I bought two highly reputed 1/32 scale seats to make my initial plans, but discovered they were very inaccurate in some dimensions. I am supposed to go to Dayton, Ohio in September so my wife can run a 1/2 marathon and I can visit Dave's USAF Museum. I may get even more accurate numbers for even closer to scale wooden plans. I really want proper throttles. I would prefer real ones, but they are extremely rare on eBay and when they do appear, the bidding will easily go outside my budget. So, I want some good measurements that I can use to scale up some photos I have of the complete mechanicals hidden by the console. Proper rudder pedals adjusted by a handcrank like the real ones would be nice, too!

[TheTracer 0]

If you need any information or details concerning the H-7 seat I can help you. I have a complete german GH-7 seat and I am restoring a former USAF H-7 at the moment. In the next months I plan to build a  front cockpit section to get all my F-4 parts in the correct order :-)

So if you need something, let me know.

Edited July 30, 2013 by TheTracer

[+streakeagle 871]

I envy you  ;)

I could use dimensions to the nearest mm for everything you have pictured on the left throttle console and the main/center panels.

I have the wood waiting for me to make the gear/flaps position aux panel for the front of my throttle console, but I don't want to draw/cut anything until I am sure about the size.

I have accurate drawings, but only approximate scale.

Combined with real numbers, I can get a lot more things done much more accurately.

But I should be able to get some if not most of the numbers I want myself in September, so don't waste your time helping me unless you have nothing better to do than dimension photos of old F-4 panels ;)

[TheTracer 0]

Here you have the left sub panel.

[+streakeagle 871]

Thank you very much! I can easily scale these kind of pics in Sketchup and get wood marked up and cut out :)

Are the little black knobs with 4 ribs twist caps for fuse holders? I tried finding those for sale on the internet and can't get anything even close.

Where you have 175mm, I have 180mm and where you have 185mm, I have 190mm.

I was just a 5mm out of 175mm in error (less than 3%), not too shabby for the rough numbers and calibrated eyeball estimates.

But that may mean that my entire throttle console is off by that much.

[TheTracer 0]

I simply took my left sub panel and measured it :-) The little knobs with the four ribs are little red cockpit lights that you screw in to light the letters of the panels. They also hold most of the plastic panels on the metal panels.

Since yesterday I can give you most of your dimensions you need. I got a huge package with parts for my cockpit and now on the left side I have everything except the throttle and a blind panel as you can see.

[+streakeagle 871]

Fantastic! I wish I had everything you have. I will settle for good photos with dimension labels like the first one you did for me. My intention would be to eventually have some company make engraved plastic panels for me that I could overlay onto a wood frame and equip with appropriate knobs/switches. In the meantime, I could use good photos to make laminated paper printouts for overlays.

The original printout I used to position the Thrustmaster A-10 throttle was from the USAF flight manual. It was very low resolution, yet still looked very good. Laminated photos might look so good that I could get very lazy about having proper plastic ones made.

Edited August 3, 2013 by streakeagle

[TheTracer 0]

Streakeagle send me your email adress and I will send you pictures and measurements. I don´t want to post them here, because it´s your thread with your great project.

[+streakeagle 871]

OK. It would be nice to have a website with all this documentation to help others.

I fully intend to publish my sketchup drawings when I have finished my project and can make them as accurate as possible.

Thanks for the help!

[TheTracer 0]

Okay, today I did some pictures for you. Only the left panel. I think that will help you a little bit.

Sorry for the bad picture quality but light conditions were not the best.

Hm I see the blank panel is missing. It will follow tomorrow.

Edited August 14, 2013 by TheTracer

[+streakeagle 871]

Absolutely awesome! I can edit these into photo real printouts to use as placards until I get around to ordering engraved plates.

Much better than the low res slightly out of scale manual drawings I used to lay out the wood console.

[TheTracer 0]

Nice to hear that I can help you with it. One of the last two missing panels. The last one I´ll upload tomorrow.

 

 

[+streakeagle 871]

How is your cockpit arrangement going? Please post photos when you are finished.

 

I got all the left console panel photos squared up, resized, and pasted on to my wooden console.

Could you take another photo of the left sub panel that is centered and perpendicular from a distance, but zoomed in to help minimize the perspective effects.

Alternatively, if you could just post the original without the yellow measurement across the panel, I could make that work, too.

 

What I need now is to get some switches and knobs mounted, then place some clear plexiglass or lexan about 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick to place on top.

 

Is there anywhere I can buy those black knobs with 4 ribs that provide the lighting for the lables?

 

Thanks,

Stephen

[+streakeagle 871]

I have some Honeywell lever lock toggle switches coming in from ebay to do the YAW, ROLL, PITCH, and INT WING TRANS switches, these should be real close if not identical to the switches used in the real panel.

I am in the process of building an order list for a variety of switches and knobs with a supplier to cover as many of the controls as I can.

 

Now if I can just get my hands on a clear sheet to cover the panel.

[+streakeagle 871]

Found one panel light on ebay and used that to get a national stock number which corresponds to many equivalent part numbers:  6210-00-812-0243

On ebay: grimes aircraft A7075: http://www.ebay.com/itm/A7075-Grimes-Aircraft-Instrument-Panel-Avionics-Control-Panel-Indicator-Light-/131035890671?pt=Motors_Aviation_Parts_Gear&hash=item1e825903ef&vxp=mtr

Now to see if I can get some of these at a reasonable price :)

 

This part number gets results: MS25010A15A

Complete brand new parts are about $23 each, a bit steep for me.

Ebay has some of the knob parts in bags of 5 for about $2.50, but the shipping is about $40. Very tempting, and I could cheat and rout LEDs in the lamp covers to simulate complete lighting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-x-Lampholder-Aircraft-quality-MS25010-13A-NOS-/291011048033?pt=AU_Transportation_Collectables&hash=item43c19c3261

 

Readily available in California at $10 plus shipping per lamp: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panel-Mount-T-1-3-4-Bayonet-Indicator-Lamp-Assembly-270-1930-0111-702-/321221463099?pt=Motors_Aviation_Parts_Gear&hash=item4aca4a8c3b&vxp=mtr

Edited November 16, 2013 by streakeagle