Prototype Z (Photos 3)
Lots of Updates
March 13, 2002
Ok, now this thing is starting to look like a 777! I have painted the center pedestal and
lower EICAS stands to match the color of my panels. The panels are from Peter Cos's NOVA series, and they look VERY
close to the real ones! The volume control knobs have been harvested from an old TWA 757
ACP and are dated back to 1983, but they cleaned up GREAT and have been converted to work
with a Go Flight GF-T8 unit.
The green christmas lights were recently added and give the sim a REALLY nice glow! Also, in the middle picture you can see the elevated portion of the center pedestal where the floor lights shine through. Two +6vdc fluorescent light sticks are used for the floor lighting and are wired in series with the floor lighting switch. These will be changed to halogen or krypton lamps though since I believe potentiometers (or resisters) can't be used with fluorescent lamps.
Here is a nice shot showing off both Project Magenta and my new display frames from Peter Cos. I still need to line up my secondary instruments, but they are still currently operable.
Here are a couple of night shots of the sim showing the green "glow". Once I add all the switches and paint the edges of the panels, only the letters will be illuminated, and you will truly see the effects of the backlights.
This shot is identical as the one above, but during "daytime". You can see the manual trim cancel button that I recently found at Mouser Electronics, which looks very close to the real thing (it's a little smaller, but not much). The part number is 107-1262-B and they cost less than $2 US each.
By the way, that red EVAC annunciator on the right edge of this photo is from a classic 747 and had the serial number 4 !! Considering how long ago that aircraft was made, this is a REALLY old annunciator, but it still works and looks nice!
Continue to Photos 4 (4-28-2002)