Louis Ingenthron @LouisIngenthron@qoto.org

Next, I needed to figure out the gear faces. I want the designs to be crisp and readable, so free painting is out of the question (too finicky). I considered printing the design into the face as recessions that could be filled with paint, but that's pretty finicky too. Then, I realized I could just print the pattern negative space and put that over a white sheet of paper to show only the design I wanted to see.

Unfortunately, I ran into precision issues on this one too, as you can see in the image below.

Ultimately, I think I'll just be printing the designs onto paper and pasting that on the back of the dial. But it'll have to wait until I get a replacement ink cartridge for my printer.

So, I applied this gear design to a #3DPrint dial with a pressure-fit cap and two 3D printed clips. This allowed the #motor to drive the needle on the other side through the #gears.

The gears are a 3:1 ratio, and they're double-stacked, so that's 3^2 or 3*3 or 27x. That brings our 7.5 degree/100 fps margin of error down to 0.3 degree/3.5 fps, which is perfectly acceptable.

Enter the icon of industrial #engineering: the #gear!

I went through about a dozen iterations trying to get these to work. The one pictured below was the first to work properly!

Originally, I started with the standard gears like you think of in a watch, but I quickly discovered that there were precision issues with the sizes I wanted, and getting the gears aligned when they don't barely weigh anything was tricky.

So, I quickly discovered that thicker gears work a lot better in these situations, but they have issues with lateral slipping. So, I discovered this herringbone design that works way better than all the rest.

Finally, I had an almost working design, but there were issues with precision from my 3D printer. The design was just too small. So, I upsized it to the biggest the 3.25" dial diameter could fit and got the gears pictured below.

If you're interested in learning more about the herringbone design, check out this video I learned it from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqNkHA6-61c

While I waited for all those to arrive, I picked up a stepper motor at a local parts store to start prototyping the gauges. I'm using the vertical speed indicator as my first prototype because it's simple.

However, the stepper motor has a step size of 7.5 degrees, which is a lot (which seems to be common with smaller motors?). Anyway, doing the math, 7.5 degrees on the vertical speed indicator is almost 100 feet per second! That's way too big for a single step, so I either needed to buy better motors, or find another way to increase the resolution.

Finally, I got Logitech G Flight rudder pedals with toe brakes. I like these so far, they're simple and to the point and have the features I need, so I'll likely be using them in the final build.

https://www.newegg.com/black-logitech-945-000024-pedal/p/N82E16826197227

I bought a Cessna-style throttle too, but I can't recommend it for a few reasons:
1) It's 3D-printed parts that are simple sliders; it doesn't have the rotational actuation or button locks of the actual Cessna throttle.
2) The Cessna I plan to simulate does not have a propeller angle control (the middle blue one).
3) I left a middling review for the above reasons, and the seller delisted the item and it popped up under another seller the same day, so something fishy is going on.

There's a pretty good chance I'll be rebuilding this controller myself to match my specs.

I got this Honeycomb Aeronautical Alpha Flight Controls Yoke.

The yoke itself is great, but it has a number of switches that I planned to implement myself (and are in the wrong place for my build). So, I'm probably still going to use it, but I'll mount it with its switches hidden behind a panel.

https://www.newegg.com/honeycomb-sb003011-flight-control-system/p/N82E16826858004?Item=N82E16826858004

Just got dime-sized #hail rained on me in central #Florida. Then wind destroyed my clamshell awning that had previously survived several hurricanes.

Ten minutes before, it was a beautiful day.

Thanks Florida!

#weather

My #cat, Archer, after trying an alfredo pasta shell (shhh, don't tell him; he has no idea)

Trying to 3D print tiny custom-designed double-helix gear assembly... partial success so far!

Okay, this was actually way easier than I thought.

A #duck has apparently chosen a nook in my roof as its nest.

Are wild duck eggs a delicacy?

My first attempts at turning around a point and doing S-turns in #VFR #flight !

Huh. Turns out about 80% of my massive dev rig was powered through one 30-year-old bulky ancient disgusting power strip.

Homemade french onion soup. Time consuming, but surprisingly easy. Also, absurdly delicious. Can't stop eating it...

Next on the docket: A minimum age for dancing.

Wow, Venus is super bright tonight.

@mmasnick I actually thought you embedded porn into TechDirt by accident because TikTok's interface is so terrible that the default play button in the middle of the screen plays a video of a woman in a skin tight body suit making seductive comments instead of the bearded man giving a business interview that I expected.

I don't know how TikTok's algorithm thinks these are "related videos".

Spoiler alert: No scripts have been added to the project. #Unity3D #Unity

A little #GameDev #PixelArt cargo tug in space. I think I'm gonna call this model "Lobster".