richfiles

I got my DACs in the mail today, along with my switches. I think I'm gonna try something else with the DACs. I need 10, and the max number you can address is 8. I was reading on another forum, that you can use a bus multiplexer to toggle between two I2C busses. I can also get the uniquely addressed chips from a local company (Digikey is located in the state where I live, so their shipping, even UPS ground, is lightning fast). I'm gonna desolder the DACs already mounted to the boards, and drop in the uniquely addressed versions. I'll do 2 banks, 6 addresses in one bank and 4 in the the other. That will give me my 10 addresses, and leave me able to access a total of 16, for future expansion. Since the chips are under $1 each, I might just get enough to do all possible addresses in a dual bank setup. For my own needs, I can leave 4 chips alone, meaning I only need to change out 6 chips on the 10 boards I bought, and I'd be buying 12 chips total (each chip supports 2 addresses, so with 2 banks the stock chips would support 4 addresses out of 10 needed). It would also mean only having to toggle a single digital out vs strobing 10 digital outs in time with the sequential I2C transmits. I also got my three EIL 1251 Dual edgewise meters... I have a short video of one doing about half range with a sine wave generated by an Arduino Mega 2560 R3. These are 0-10 volt meters, so I'll have to use a transistor or MOSFET to drive them the full range. My four GE 180 meters are actually 4-20mA industrial range meters, so i have to drive them through a voltage to current transmitter. I got the chips for those... WOW, they are tiny... Spent $10 to build it myself, cause the transmitters were $8-9 each... I might have been better off just spending the money on the pre-made ones... I might have to deadbug these chips under the microscope with some 30 gauge wire and my pencil tip soldering iron... I don't think I can etch boards fine enough for them, and ordering proto boards is a no go... They don't have the heatsinking die pad. I may just suck up the $10 loss and order the actually $36 in preassembled boards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OplHSnYCxvo?version=3&loop=1&playlist=OplHSnYCxvo Sadly, one of the three meters has the right needle broken off... They make the long bat from what appears to be coated graphite a thin hollow aluminum tube, to save on mass, so the meter has a faster reaction time. Light, but brittle. There IS a lot of space inside, so I might be able to repurpose it for something else... Maybe I could play with making a tape meter using a fabric ruler (long flexible plastic tape meant for measuring clothing). It'll have an incremental whole number scale with fractional divisions, and is flexible... If I can motorize a pair of take up reels, and then index optically off the markings on the back (it's common to have inches on one side, and cm on the other), then I could possibly make it work! The curved front face adds an element of uniqueness as well, as long as it doesn't rub the markings off the back. My only issue, The motors probably won't fit inside, because of the thickness, so they'll have to stick out the left side... I was TOTALLY gonna have my meters be on the right of my control panel, and I hope the motors don't interfere with stuff I planned to mount to the left of the meters. I don't know... It's a lot of work, and I don't know how durable it would be if it does work. Still, I pretty much managed to get 3 meters for the price of 3/4 of one. Still sucks, but hey, I at least have four single and two dual edgewise meters, plus my round vertical velocity meter! That's still nine enormous analog readouts, even if I set the half broken meter aside. The left meter DOES still work, so I could use it for a 10th meter, but it's just odd, with it being literally only half a meter. I had considered doing a vertical line of annunciators, but I don't want to distract from the DSKY themed annunciators I wanna build. One option may be to use it for orbital/targeting/node annunciators. I'll have operational annunciators on the DSKY clone, but the FDAI can sit right beside the broken meter. Since you can only display a single vector at a time using the crosshairs, it's necessary to be able to select them. I can have 10 small annunciators to indicate Prograde, Retrograde, Normal, ... Target, anti-target, etc. I know that getting these values calculated and incorporated into the packet are an important thing. We don't have them yet, but I plan to build under the assumption we will eventually get them. The navball is not nearly as useful as an attitude indicator without having the flight director functioning as well. ***UPDATE*** WOW!!! The guy already got back to me and they are sending a replacement for the broken meter. Told me to keep the broken one for parts!

I think the important thing to point out here, is that your office PC has Kerbal Space Program installed on it... Beautiful. I do hope you get everything working! Bugs suck!

I think I like these Microcenter ones. Microcenter has brick and mortar stores, as well as an online store. They carry both the original Arduinos, as well as clone versions. The clones don't say arduino anywhere on them, nor use the logo, though the packaging says They are manufactured from the original Arduino schematic. They are all "Inland" branded. They had other stuff, but these were the ones on sale. Normally, they are $7.99 for the minis and $19.99 for the Megas. The sale was a real deal! If you have access to lead based solder, I honestly find it to be far more forgiving of stress than lead-free. Lead free solder seems to be harder/more brittle. The red ring of death / yellow light of death on Xbox 360s and PS3s... That was due to lead free solder balls not he bottom of BGA chips cracking due to thermal expansion and contraction related stress fracturing. If you have problems with the retention of the socket, and have lead solder, try to reflow it with lead solder, before it breaks. Depending on the region where you live, you might not be able to legally sell the part commercially, but since this is for a personal project, there should be no issue. Here in America, we still make certain items with lead solder. I happen to make a cable used to power and control a surgical tool. We still use lead solder for it's construction, because lead solder is more reliable than lead free solders. Lead solder is more pliant to stress (softer/more ductile), and the most common ratios (60/40 and 63/37, for example) also don't suffer from whisker formation. Some lead free solders can form "whiskers" of metal deposits that crystalize from the surface, especially when under stress. Tin whiskers caused the failure of the Galaxy IV satellite in 1998, a nuclear plant shutdown, due to false alarms triggered by shorts, and have even allegedly been cited as a possible (though currently denied) cause of the unexpectedly accelerating Toyotas a few years ago. Long story short, if you can snag a little bit of lead based solder... It can actually be quite nice for enhancing high stress solder joints. - - - Updated - - - Arduino is an open source platform, but the original Arduinos (made in Italy) help to fund development of new designs and shields and libraries and stuff like that. Some people like to buy at least one legit original, just to chip in. A person doesn't have to, but it's certainly courteous toward the future development of the platform. The clones are cheaper, because they aren't charging the development premium that the branded originals carry. The difference between a clone and an imitation is that clones are just simply Arduino compatible devices. They are designed and marketed as just that. They use the open source design and are marketed as being arduino compatible, or based not he original arduino. Imitations are designs that try to imitate the appearance of the legit Arduinos, for the sole purpose of trying to sell cheap hardware on a false premium, Sometimes they even go so far as to even print Made in Italy on the boards, when they are clearly made in China, or even try to copy the logo. These boards are either marketed as "cheap Arduinos" or worse, to confuse people into paying more for cheap hardware. That's the difference. It is literally dishonesty in making something that's already free to make... I mean, come on! Really?

That controller is looking AMAZING! The green LED readouts look really great too! I went with the same... No way I was settling on red ones! The only question I have... Is there a lockout for the Oh SHI~!!! button? Cause, you know... You don't wanna accidentally Oh SH~!!! yourself! Also, that's a very nice virtual navball on that video stibbons linked!

You know, I've heard a few stories about the micro USB breaking of some Pro Micros. What I've been using instead, Are the Pro Minis. They have no USB on them. Instead, they just have a header. you get a USB to serial adapter that has a female header, and you use the header to program them. If you are concerned with the USB socket, then just get a tiny box and mount it all inside, with just the header sticking out the end. That header will be far stronger than the USB. Unless you plan to do the entire project using the Pro micro (in which case I'd see why you want to have the USB), I'd say the Mini is better suited as a "sub" arduino. The Uno or Mega makes more sense as a primary unit, to me, just due to the beefier USB, and the more connections (incase you expand your controller). Here in the USA, I was able to buy 4 Arduino clone Pro Mini 5v versions for $3.99 USD each. I bought 4. They even have the headers already soldered on! Also picked up a pair of Mega2560 R3 for $9.99 USD each. They were on sale at a place called Microcenter. Not sure what prices are like elsewhere, but i thought that seemed like a good deal. The USB adapter was $7.99, but you only need one to program the unit. I plan on using one of my Mega2560s as my primary interface for everything, mainly just cause it has a LOT of I/O, and a lot of PWM outs. I have like, 14 analog gauges across everything, So I'll actually need to use EVERY single PWM line on the Mega2560! I plan to do my FDAI sine generators on their own arduino, so it doesn't have to juggle tasks. If I can fit it on one of the Pro Minis, I'll use that, and communicate with it via serial from the main arduino. I'll need 10 digital I/O as a chip select for my 10 DACs (Pro Mini has 14 Digital I/O, so I should be good). If, it doesn't have the RAM and or storage needed to execute the sine program, then I'll just use my other Mega2560, or possibly pick up and Uno. Bummer about the issues though... I must say though... That annunciator looks SWEET! ******** **EDIT** ******** I see that the Micro differs from the Mini in that it has an integrated USB interface, and can emulate keyboard or mouse, as an option. I can see how that could be useful for some applications, such as an HID mode. It looks like one option to consider might just be soldering a USB-B socket via a small cable to the board, and then mounting that in the controller housing.

I know, but it's a great excuse to brag about what I've found! Man, this is the little CPU that could!

That CPU may be only running 12 MHz, compared to an arduino's 16 MHz, but the difference is the addressability of this chip, and the fact that it has a custom gate array performing as a graphics chip (and more), offloading much of the hard work in creating video. Just thanks to the addressability alone, this CPU can have up to 64K-bytes of I/O port mapping, and up to 512K-bytes of directly addressed memory (compared to a Z80's 256 I/O mapped ports, and 64K of directly addressable memory). it supports bank switching too. On this particular word processor model, it has a 128K RAM, a 512K program memory, and 32K of Video memory. The service manual states that the program ROM can be expanded (via bank switching) to 8 M-bits (1 Megabyte). Video, the external I/O latching, and the keyboard matrix scan are all handed off to the gate array logic chip. The 32K video RAM is on the other side of the gate array (it handles it). The gate array chip runs at 15.33 MHz, and handles port mapping, video generation, and almost all the aforementioned I/O controls. Unlike a CPU running at 16 MHz, which is a serial sequential instruction executing device, the gate array logic chip handles all it's functions in hardware... It's performing all it's functionality at the hardware logic level, as a hardware state machine, and not as a serial instruction executor... at 15.33 MHz... An arduino takes almost EVERYTHING the Atmega's got to just barely generate a 128x96 pixel signal. This gate array hardware offloads all that work, and makes it possible to generate 819 x 240 @ 60 Hz refresh rate, without the CPU needing to even do anything, unless it wants to actually change what's on the screen! That's a thing of beauty, I tell you! According to the datasheet for the CPU, it has 12 additional instructions over a stock Z80, a wider address bus (A0-A19), a built in memory management unit with a 2 channel DMA controller. It has two channel Asynchronous Serial Communication Interface and a 1-channel Clocked Serial I/O Port. These don't appear to even be used in the word processor, meaning they are AVAILABLE for communications. There are other goodies in it too. It features a two channel 16 bit programable reload timer, which is described as being useful for "counting, timing, and output waveform generation"... It's got enough memory, I could do straight lookup tables for EVERYTHING, rather than waste cycles calculating ANY sine values. I could literally drop the synchro multiplier formulas in a spreadsheet, make tables for every third or quarter degree tick (or whatever resolution I decide upon), and make a lookup table for the three multiplier values! One of the new commands, IS a multiply command! It also has new commands that can basically load a value into a register immediately on reading a memory address, or vice versa. It has rapid block I/O commands that can increment or decrement, or run once or repeat (another potentially useful tool for loading lookup table values, and for transferring data to video memory) This chip, combined with the gate array "graphics chip" is practically begging to do fully graphic video output and make me a sandwi... I mean make my FDAI "navball" sine waves! Indeed, a Z80 C compiler makes sense, though it'll need to be an HD64180 specific compiler, as this enhanced Z80 variant has features the regular Z80 just simply doesn't have. I'd most definitely want to take advantage of those additional 12 instructions, and all those fun extra features! I mean, guys... The Z80 required you to loop "add" functions in order to multiply... the HD64180 HAS a native multiply command! With all those FDAI synchro multipliers I want to generate... Wow... I bet i COULD get double duty front his thing and drive both the graphic CRT AND the FDAI synchro sine wave signals! This thing is more than "just another Z80", and with the added support hardware, it's got a fair bit of beef to it, with memory that would make an Arduino Mega2560 CRY! Stock setup is 2x the program memory (4x with bank switching), and 16x the RAM! Arduino has no native video commands or signal generating capacity. This puppy has a hardware gate array logic graphics chip that handles all the signal generation and memory management, and adds 32K of video memory... This thing has 4x more VIDEO memory than a Mega2560 has TOTAL RAM! It's all about the support hardware. Arduinos make great I/O and sensor platforms. There are lots of peripherals that do those things... This machine that I have, is specialized in graphic video generation and pulse timing (for operating the printer mechanism). Since I don't need the printer, I could basically "steal" those programable hardware timers to handle my waveform generation! Tinkerer's dream indeed... You know what's sad... I have always been a hardware guy. I design stuff using logic gates. I've built Arithmetic Logic Units and stuff like that in Little Big Planet 2/3. LBP is a "platformer" type video game that lets you create your own levels. It has a cool "circuit" feature that lets you wire up digital logic to control the levels that you create... I only ever just make circuits! All considered, I'm "getting" assembly faster than I'm "getting" C. That's scary. I still get each about as well as I get quantum physics though. Once the task of programming scales up though, I know C will be easier to understand. Just need to find a compiler that takes advantage of the extra commands of the HD64180. Looks like SDCC does have at least some of the extra codes. Hopefully all of them. I need to get that to run on my Mac now.

Oh my God... I freaking LOVE the guys over at the EEVBlog... They found the SERVICE MANUAL to that word processor, and they inform me that I apparently have a tinkerer's dream. Not even a hacker's dream. The service manual documents EVERYTHING... There is LITERALLY nothing to hack. Just reprogram it. It's a run of the mill computer running an enhanced Z80 CPU with the program in ROM. The Service manual documents the ENTIRE machine, right down to even the memory map. All I'd need to do is learn how to program Z80 assembly, and write my own code for it. Just desolder the ROM, and replace it with a socket and an EEPROM. Granted... That's a lot of work. I don't know Z80 assembly, but I HAVE learned that these old word processors are AMAZINGLY reconfigurable! It's basically a 12 MHz Z80 computer with a built in wide screen mono display, a floppy drive, a buzzer, a keyboard, three built in stepper motor drivers, a DC motor driver, a pair of solenoid drivers, and at least 2 inputs OTHER than enough inputs to encode the entire keyboard! The screen resolution is actually 819 x 240. VERY wide screen! Looking at this thing... I almost feel bad that all I want to do with it is display a few circles and arcs! If I actually could learn Z80 assembly, I bet I could handle most of the freaking control panel itself! The only thing it doesn't have are analog outputs... and the machine has unused memory addresses! You could add DACs in those memory locations if you really wanted! This thing is INCREDIBLY user accessible! http://www.maisiemanuals.com/brother-word-processor-2450ds-parts-service-manual-p-1515.html Even without knowing assembly, It might be possible to create a loader that loads data into the video RAM (which is a separate chip), and just let the machine run without input on the CPU. In doing so, it'd be possible to directly write bits to the screen... Though it seems SUCH a waste of a perfectly good Z80 computer... If only I knew Z80 assembly...

Oh AWESOME! My trio of International Instruments 1251 dual edgewise meters shipped! About TIME! The 1251 is the one on the right with double meters. It's 6 inches (14.7 cm tall)! Got them 76% below normal cost! The company I got these from decided to try ebay. I got a bid in for $19.95 USD. They normally sell at $85 USD. I convinced them to send me THREE at the $19.95 price! I'll get a new set up pictures when they arrive, showing the three 1251s beside my four GE 180 meters. That's 10 readouts worth of analog information! Combine that with the extra glideslope readout on my FDAI, and my 4 inch (9.8 cm) round vertical velocity gauge... That's a total of 12 analog readouts that I can hook up! There's also the two heading readouts on the FDAI, but those don't count... They are reserved for when we can get velocity/target/maneuver nodes transmitted in the packet. Haha! I'm talking about maxing out the number of PWM lines on a Mega here!

No, the word processor has no external I/O, and internally, it appears to be configured with a programable logic array as a processor, rather than use a traditional CPU. This would be a very late model stand alone word processor as well, as the 1994 dates inside indicate it was made very close to the end of the run for this type of non PC word processor. As for how a signal is being displayed, at a simple glance, I can tell you that the main board is generating ALL the raster data from inside the ASIC. The circuit driving the CRT itself is simply not complex. It's an incredibly small and simple board, with very few semiconductors even! It's literally taking external signals, and using those to drive the electron gun and the deflection coils. It breaks down like this: I need three signals. Video, Horizontal sync, and Vertical sync. The Arduino TVout library only seems to generate composite sync signals (not to mention has a sad resolution). I also don't need any type of color support, so the tricks to send out extra bits with port writes doesn't help, as I still need them streamed sequentially. There is a VGA library, but again, I have no need for color, and I don't know if the timings can be readily adapted easily. It'd be better for me to try a NON arduino based means of controlling this, as pushing an Arduino this hard seems like a bad starting point for someone just learning C. I've actually been looking into a few retro CRT driver chips. I've found one that can be had for under $10-20, seems common enough, can drive 80 column text mode, and do pixel addressable graphics, and has a rudimentary line, arc, box, and circle drawing capability as well. My problem, again, is programming inexperience. Nothing more, nothing less. It's gonna take me a good long while to even learn how to interface this chip. It's not as straight forward as I was hoping. The NEC uPD7220 - The datasheet with TWO pages of just contents! http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/nec/uPD7220-uPD7220A_User_Manual_Dec85.pdf

You could also purchase transparency film that is compatible with a laser printer. Even if you don't have a laser printer, you should be able to feed it through a photocopier and photocopy your page. Then you can use any manner of thin material as your diffuser/background, whether you can print on it or not. Just wanna say that is one very nice looking annunciator panel! Very Cool!

So, I've been looking at this CRT while I wait for my FDAI controller parts to arrive on a slow boat from China. So I've done a little bit of reverse engineering on that CRT, but I have a LOT of work left to actually do anything with it. It has 3 signal wires. The three signals are fed through some inductors and resistors, and that leads directly to a programmable logic array being used as the word processor's "processor". The good news is that means It's a TTL driven video signal, and I can just desolder the couple analog components to recreate the signal conditioning circuit. The problem is in actually driving the signals themselves. Since the chip is a custom ASIC design, programmed into a logic array, it means I have no "video chip" to hack. I have to BUILD the video driver from scratch. It's almost certainly likely that with as small and simple as the monitor's PC board is (it's the small rectangular board to the right of the CRT, viewed from behind), that the three signals are horizontal sync, vertical sync, and the actual video stream. In order to do this, I'm going to have to measure the signals using an oscilloscope. I'll need to measure the timing for both the horizontal and vertical sync, and measure the timing for the pixels too. Until I do this, I don't know the frequency it refreshes at, nor the scan rate for pixels. It appears to be at least an 80 column display, so even though it's reduced height, it'll be pushing a rather high pixel rate per horizontal line. Each character on the screen (with the original controller) is 8 pixels wide (including the gap between letters). That means this monitor has a 640 pixel horizontal line resolution. I'm guessing the vertical resolution is around 300, give or take a dozen or two pixels. Hard to tell from the large blank spaces between lines. The Arduino TV out libraries don't exactly come close to this resolution. Even if this updates at only 30 Hz, that's still over 5.7 million bit flips per second, over 11.5 million if it refreshes at 60 Hz. That's really pushing an Arduino. They only run 16 MHz anyway. I might look into an Arduino Due, as I understand they are much faster. I only need to deal with monochrome, but there is a lot of bits to deal with for 640x300-ish. I might also look into some older style hardware. If I can find an old chip/chipset from an 8-bit/16-bit era computer that actually handles generating the video signals and maintaining the video memory, then I might try to make something like that instead, so I can just send data updates to it, and have it handle everything. I might also try a hardware based setup. I have TONS of CPLD chips that I can program logic hardware in. I can also scavenge some SRAM chips from the Word Processor board and create a scanable video memory. That might be another viable way to go about doing this. If I do it right, I might be able to do a proper bitmap, and display graphics on it. If I figure out graphics, I may skip regular text generation, and instead do something like an orbit visualizer. Now that the plug-in outputs SoI, I can potentially display SoI and render the orbit based on the already existing orbital data. It would not be particularly advanced. A circle to represent the body being orbited, and a circle/ellipse/arc representing the orbit. I don't think we have enough info to do SoI changes, but if we can get time to next SoI as a transmitted value, then that point could be plotted on the map. Since the screen is so wide, It might pay to do two angles: a top down, and an edge on view. What I can show all depends what's sent in the data packets. so, yeah, that's what I'm thinking about while I wait for the FDAI parts to show up.

Don't forget the Post-It note saying: "I "fixed" the circuit boards. Use these special ultra compact cables. Bill Kerman P.S. I ate your snacks while I was working Jeb."

That sounds terrible! I've never heard the term "opportunity shop" used before. Ever... No electronics seems like not that much opportunity... If this is something cooked up by lawyer and insurance/assurance companies, then that is just terrible! If it's a law, it's a royally dumb one. Re-use is far more important than recycling, in terms of reducing overall waste. If this is law, it's bad. A real bad one. Here in Minnesota, USA, there is a push to actually sign a bill into law that would give citizens the "Right to repair". Companies would not be permitted to inhibit shops or individuals from attempting repairs if they sold products here. If a customer requests technical information on repair, the company would be obligated to provide that serve information. They can charge for it, but they have to provide it. If they request parts, and the parts are still in production, they have to sell to the customer/shop. Of course, all the big manufacturers have been lobbying against these types of laws, cause they want you to recycle your old stuff and buy new. Re-use is a GREAT way to keep old e-waste from contaminating the Earth, and gets us all cool parts to hack and salvage for Kerbal Space Program! This is my latest find: An amber monochrome wide format CRT. It's 8 x 3.5 inches (19.6 x 8.6 cm). No burn in at all!

Yeah, the EL lighting was used because it was lighter than incandescent, or even fluorescent light bulbs. LEDs were not available back then. They existed, but only really as pin-point dim lab curiosities. So, I went to the hardware store. Most of those u-nails are generally referred to as "fencing nails", but that particular type is also much narrower at the bend than at the points. Not ideal for our application. What I did find that appeared to be ideal, were the u-nails from gate/door hook latches. They are a perfect "U" shape, and the right size. If you find a set that uses them instead of eyelet screws, then you'll get two per hook set. They were under $2 per set, and the store I went to had over a dozen in stock... I didn't buy them, however. What I bought were these: These are used to suspend pipes from above. I think they are a little bigger than the official Apollo switch guards, but the look is definitely right. I might still go back and buy some of the gate hook latches, and try those, but these, I like them. They also came in 5 packs, and they had 4 in stock. That gives me 20 "U" shaped parts to work with, till they restock. Bonus points... Since they are so long, you get the long horizontal bars for free! Also, on a side note, I found this AMAZING CRT: It's 8 x 3.5 inches (19.6 x 8.6 cm), and I want to DO SOMETHING with it SOOOOOO BAD!!! It's currently residing in a fully functional Brother WP-2450DS "Portable" word processor. I was thinking of issuing it an eviction notice. * Unfortunately, it doesn't use any processor I'm familiar with. I'm hoping it's just a standard NTSC type composite signal, but it might not be, considering the odd aspect ratio. I'm gonna have to TOTALLY reverse engineer this one. Man, I don't even know where to put this! I'm thinking, if I do use it for ANYTHING, it'd end up overhead. * (It uses an enhanced Z80 CPU!)

Considering the roster... WOW, that girl gets around!

'I just wanna get that Minmus base finalized...' ... **at work** Co worker: "You look like crap!" "I know, I know... I got that stupid base landed on Minmus. Then I grabbed breakfast and ran to the car... You know the rest" **gets home after work, falls asleep, wakes at 10:30 PM** 'Hmm... I was having problems maintaining power during Minmus's nights... I'll just launch a probe with extra batteries and solar panels to dock up at Minmus base' ... "That Mun station is really nice... I... yeah, I can get 2 hours of sleep before work..."

When i want to terminate stuff, I manually switch my vessel to debris, undock the dead item, and then reset my original vessel to whatever it was (probe, station, base, crewed vessel, etc). This has the effect of actually manually marking discarded parts as debris. Furthermore, I tend to "fly" all my debris, before deletion if I am unsure as to it's nature. Efficient??? NAW!!! Safe??? My KIA list is EMPTY! Why??? NEVER trust KSP tracking station... It harbors the spirit of the unholy offspring of Danny and the Kraken, awaiting the macabre sacrifice of the little green doods you love! I kid, I kid!

Yeah, I have access to a welder. Even if I am no good at it (it's been YEARS since I touched it), my father has been welding for most of his life. I've seen him do everything from cut hole patterns out using nothing more than an arc welder, to him putting together the craziest of thin stuff together. This won't even be difficult to do, I think. It looks like all it actually is, is a thin sheet of steel, two long straight steel dowels, and the u-nails. It'll basically be a tack weld between the dowel and the u-nails, then the metal sheet is laid out and tacked not he outside the edges to the dowels, I would imagine. At least, that makes the most sense, construction wise, to me. Aaaaand... That's EXACTLY how they were made! This will be INCREDIBLY easy. Heck, I could make a TON of these things in one go! The reason the switch guards and switches are recessed: The panels with the lettering are thick plastic panels that have electroluminescent backlighting. It's the thickness of the panels that creates the recess.

I didn't play mods for my first month or two. I switched from Sandbox to Career once I realized the science equipment was useless to me, and enjoyed it. I STILl didn't run mods. I eventually found MechJeb, and a couple part packs. I Like MJ, but I still usually launch manually. I use it for landing targeting, and ABSOLUTELY for maneuver nodes (The editor is AMAZING to have, over stock), and cause Smart A.S.S. rocks. I've also used the rover tool before. I tried Kethane, and liked it, but Mac support was lagging, and even in .25, it was throwing up compatibility warnings at launch. Clearing it out made my game more stable, so I abandoned it. As far as other mods go... Nothing more. Never tried FAR. Never tried Deadly Re-Entry. Never tried TAC, Never tried RSS, never tried Remote Tech... I looked at ALL OF THEM... but never decided to try then out. I now play with stock re-entry heat, I enjoy the new aero, I am trying to set up my first ISRU base on Minmus... I DO play mods, and I've never touched the mods that once provided those features. All the people here who say "get mods" forget that not everyone has a kickass machine with tons of RAM and a sweet CPU. Not everyone is the type to even CONSIDER mods. The mod community is an AMAZING thing, and they have created TRULY AMAZING works... But you reach only a fraction of the players. Don't kid yourselves. Stock brings this to EVERYONE, and the difficulty levels ARE adjustable on all these features. And you know what? I look forward to trying those other features. I will probably wait for stock, but I WILL give it a shot. If I don't like how stock works... Guess what? I CAN TURN IT OFF!!! If I don't like HOW it works, but like the general idea... Guess what? I CAN GET A MOD!!! Cool your jets! Geez! All these people whining about the stock antenna stuff being too watered down, or to much added difficulty to deal with in stock... JUST ADJUST/MOD to your little Kerbal loving' heart's content! Seriously... The attitudes here are just DUMB. I trust that the game will continue to give me enjoyment, and that I can expect to look forward to more cool spacey things that make green dudes go fast and up! Hopefully. Speaking of mods... I want to try that one... The one with the extra planets, but not RSS... Outer Planets I think it's called. That's gonna be my reward for finishing my Simpit. Still gotta build the hardware controller for my ADI/FDAI navball!

Closest maker space is a 2.5 hour drive for me... It's all what I can afford/fit in my apartment, or what I can safely leave at my dad's farm, in the unheated barn/shop (no animals, just a barn converted into a shop/garage... But it get COLD here in winter). I tend to do woodwork at my dad's place. I can weld there too. Considering that welding IS an option for me though, I want to find some appropriately sized bits of angle and dowel steel to try to recreate the recessed switch grouping with the switch guards that were on apollo. u-bolts are great, but I'm really curious to try for something a bit closer to the real deal. It's more of an experiment is seeing if i can actually make something reasonably usable. It's not a huge deal though, if it doesn't work. If it proves too troublesome, I'll just get u-bolts and call it good enough. Actually... U-NAILS... not bolts... Those come to mind as roughly being the size and shape I may be looking for... straighten the ends with a plier and vise, so they all are nicely lined up, then grind the points off, and tack weld them into place in the rails. The u-nails should be cheaper than u-bolts as well, I would think! Kouston, we've had a solution! These are typically sold as "fencing nails" Note the recess to the switches, and the shape of the switch guards. AAAND... For those who built wooden consoles... Get some nice long ones, and tap, tap, tap with the hammer, and you're good to go, just paint!

If you do find an acceptable edgewise meter, this is a detailed photo of one of the NASA models. If you print new scales, this is basically what to model them on.

Don't forget the drawer for Snacks, and Not Snacks... Is beer a not snack?

Lookin' Good! I am VERY impressed so far!

Oh. My... So these are the Apollo toggle switches: Guess what I found... These are what some epic part number searches and some boring, photo-less digging around found. At least I got a nice photo at the end of my search! These are made by Honeywell. http://sensing.honeywell.com/product-page?pr_id=35890 Sadly, these are also not what you would call cheap... I think a few people have posted small kerbal kontrollers that have costed less than ONE of these switches! The reason for the cost, is these are entirely sealed, and rated to military specifications. That translates into $$$.$$, and yes... Some of the switches actually use all those $ places in their actual price! It's an unrealistic goal, but hey, maybe China will step up to the plate and make a cheap look alike someday. Honeywell's site refers to this style as a "Tab Lever" toggle. If that helps people in their search for more authentic Kapollo parts, then awesome! For the time being, however, China does sell these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pcs-12VDC-20A-SPST-ON-ON-12mm-Mounting-Thread-Dia-Black-Toggle-Switch/130901360723 They are a FAR CRY from the real deal, but they are close enough in size and throw, and the general-ish shape, that these are what I'm settling on for my toggles. Went and ordered 20 of them for $14-15 USD, shipped. For those looking for a slightly better cheap analog, but are willing to spend a little more for a MUCH better shaped lever, this is an option: http://www.ebay.com/itm/54100-01-25A-Series-On-Off-Toggle-Switch-/171867822485 http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/GTS447C301HR/CW161-ND/2349756 <--And a similar style from Digikey. That'll be it, for today's episode of NASA uses REALLY FREAKING EXPENSIVE AND HARD TO FIND PARTS!!! Just a thought... Hmm... I wonder how hard it would be to make molds that you could dab some grey epoxy into, and then just "smoosh" onto either side of a toggle lever... Basically MAKE the tab lever style switch. Grey epoxy, I KNOW exists, and would hold color through wear and scratching. It'd be something fairly available, and doesn't require special equipment, like injection molding of plastic would... Hmmm...