737 Mini Overhead Panel and DIY737 MCP 3D print

[idle yarrow]

Started working on the 737 DIY MCP and finished, it worked great but I quickly realized that I kept using the in sim buttons and knobs because I was still using the in sim overhead panel and other panels and forgot I had the MCP in front of me when I needed to change heading or altitude and used the sim instead. Basically, muscle memory. Space is at a premium for me so I don't have an option to put a full size overhead panel in my office. Fired up my blender and cad sketcher and started coming up with a design to fit the desk for the important stuff that I wanted which was primarily lights, apu unit, hydraulics, anti ice, and pressurization.
The left side of the OH Panel is fully operational, just got done printing the right side (farthest two panels) and putting the components on but not wired yet. Ran in to an issue on the 7seg displays where I thought I found a unicorn in white displays in 8 digit versions but realized that they were not compatible with mobiflight. I have some 6 digit versions that are TM1637's coming mid-April and will have to reconfigure that last right panel a bit or figure out an adapter, the fun of self engineering 🙂
The MCP was printed entirely on a Creality Ender 3 v2, the OH Panel was printed entirely in a Creality Halot One resin printer. I was not happy with how the Ender handled small lettering and the resin printer did a much better job, plus the tolerances were much tighter which was an added benefit for my screw holes and positioning. The LED boxes entirely self designed and also Resin Printed. the next batch I'm going to do some more testing but basically resin print a shell that a LED can fit in to, then for the top I used resin dye and UV resin to fill in the coloring around the lettering. The cavity was about 4 mm deep so not too much resin. Had a few bubbling issues but solved that by doing a slower cure on the UV. Each switch also has a resin printed cap on it. Work in progress!

The blank space in the 3rd panel was a thought to try and add the starter switches there but I wanted to utilize the automatic reset solutions for the switches after the engines had fully started, unfortunately the solenoid option along with the servo option was a little too bulky for the space I had. Contemplated some other redesigns to fit that space on the servos as those appear to be less taxing on the power supply. I should note that I used one Arduino on the overhead but two arduinos on the MCP, due to the number of displays needed. The OH Panel has 3 multiplexers going into the one arduino which open up a bunch of options on connections. All in all, I'll probably keep tweaking it, most likely going to add a comm/nav/squawk but also trying to determine space limitations. The joy of wanting and being capable of building your own sim but also being space limited. I suppose the solution is buy a bigger boat 😂

[still rivet]

great job!

wanna make something similar

old measures, dont look at them

but this all will be in my mini overhead

isntead of screen and gauge

[idle yarrow]

yeah it is a give and take when you are looking for solutions that are space limited. I really do want to build out a full overhead and having done the mini one I have a lot more confidence in being able to entirely complete it as a DIY, it's now just space considerations. For now this should keep me pre-occupied and thinking of improvements.

[still rivet]

yep

iv got some problems with space too

xD

i am thinking about the position of this overhead

i can do it on the right side of cockpit