Fusion Pedestal for King Air B350

As we've been documenting in the past few posts, here's the finished and fully-assembled pedestal panel that we recently completed for a King Air B350 simulator.

And a quick shot of the pedestal prior to painting and engraving etc.

Fusion-style MKP for the B350 Pedestal

The multifunction keyboard panel (MKP) is the third and final component that we manufactured for the B350 Pedestal Plate we completed recently. As mentioned in earlier posts, this module was based on the Pro Line Fusion range of hardware.

The Pan/Zoom knob is a four-direction hat switch, which also has encoder and pushbutton functions as well.

 A box header allows the unit to be connected to a controller via a 40-way ribbon cable.

There's no actual backlighting on the panel itself, but all of the buttonheads are illuminated.

Fusion-style CCP Panels for the B350

And so this is the second panel that we've designed for the King Air B350 pedestal unit that's based on the Pro Line Fusion range of hardware.

There's a pair of these to be found on the pedestal plate: one either side of the MKP (which we've also just completed, and which will be posted here shortly) ...

 

The large TAB knobs are all CNC-machined from acrylic, which gives them a nice solid feel.

The TAB knob operates a four-directional hat switch, that's also a single encoder, and which has a pushbutton action too. Unfortunately we weren't able to replicate the exact functionality of the real unit, as this actually calls for a dual encoder/hat switch combination - and with eight directions as well!

We tried our best to find a solution - one involving all sorts of internal gears that required the mounting of an additional hidden encoder - but in the end we were unfortunately forced to realise our limitations. Our solution actually got pretty close to working, but was nowhere near reliable enough to run with. Instead, the two separate TAB knobs are effectively one, as they're both mounted to the hat switch, albiet individually.

In the above image, you can see some remnants of our attempt at producing a makeshift dual-encoder hat switch, as this originally required a second hardware PCB (not shown) that would be positioned on a set of stand-offs which would then be mounted on the rear of the circuit board that you see here. So there's a lot of superfluous circuitry on display - not all of which can be explained by what's seen from the front!

The panel's backlighting, and that of the buttonheads, runs on 12V.

Fusion-style Tilt and Baro Panels for the B350

These are the first couple of simulation panels that we've been working on for a B350 pedestal unit that's based around the use of Pro Line Fusion hardware.

 

 

 

 

These fully-backlit panels run on 12V.

 

 

 

 

 

In the above image, you can see the sub-mounting plate that the individual Tilt and Baro panels are fitted to. This mounting plate is then fitted to a larger pedestal plate, which will be shown in subsequent posts.