In order to do the best possible job on this project we need high quality references. Hopefully there are people in the community that have access to some of the material we need. If you have the material we are looking for and want to help please feel free to post it in this thread, or PM me or Flexman with links.

We currently require high-res photos or diagrams of a few items in the cockpit:

• Control stick
• Left side console panels, specifically those behind the throttle.

References for the AH-64A are not wanted as the listed items are completely different for the D model. The text in the photos/digrams needs to be legible for the material to be of use to us.

If you have access to a 'D pit, can take photos and want to help out please contact me.

Cheers

I doubt this will help... But I tried, I'll try again tomorrow.

Here's what I have at the moment...if more would be helpful, just let me know what you're looking for and I'll PM it to you. No pics from me, just diagrams.

Panels behind the Pilot's throttle quadrant:



Panels behind the CPG's throttle quadrant:

You little BEAUTY! That was exactly what I needed. There's a couple of others I need some help with:

There's a panel in the pilots pit on the right side at the front above the 'WINDSHIELD PANEL', I believe it's called 'OIL CYP TEST'. I could do with a diagram for that.

Also, I recently found out that the throttle quadrant in the D is different to the A, so I could do with a diagram of that.

Finally I need a drawing of the control stick that shows the text.

Thanks again!

Cheers

I need to caution, if you guys are going to model Active US Army aircraft, we do not have the ORT anymore, we all switched to TEDAC.

AD, email or PM me with the panels you need to see, I have the -10, I can scan them for you, provided the panels are not countermeasures or such classified pieces.

Any on here any good?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glyndavies/sets/72157601448088535/

Cheers

Yes, we are aware. Thanks.

AD & Flex,

There are tons of images as usual, here is a rare night one I took,



Any shots for the night pit yet?

Notice the corners of the MPDs...

Yeah I noticed the rounded MPDs are actually quite square on the inner-face where it meets the display unlike ours. We will fix that when we get a moment. It's not that simple a fix when it involves painting and complex geometry parts. But it won't interfere with the display output.

- What is the current character resolution of the upfront controller? I have one with the 35x10 display which is a good resolution to read. I've seen ones with a higher resolution and I'm guessing they are from a new block version. I'm reluctant to go too far as it carries information people might want to read and not squint at.

- Getting an accurate font for the MPDs has been a pain, those pics will help me with the other references I have. The one I'm using is close but not 100%. Is there a test page with a character table?

- Question about the fuel page, the "E" positioned between engine one and the forward tank is the emergency reserve (in lbs how much)? Or is that an empty warning indicator, those tanks look pretty dry in that shot. At what value do the fuel figures turn red?

I think you're talking about the engine overspeed test panel:



I'm still working on the other things you asked for.

Thanks again AlphaOneSix.

The pit has moved on quite a bit in the last 48 hours and I've begun to build the CPG station. Any references for the TEDAC would be welcome.

Cheers

That display seemed fine to me, I can take a look at -10 if you want, but I say leave it the way it is.

MPDs do have a test page however I don't have a photo of it. Can I see what you got as far as fonts are concerned?



I don't think it is the emergency reserve because we had the bird emptied for a test run. It had fuel booster problems, so we had it completely empty. The numbers you see there are being input by the test kit which we connect. There is no fuel in the tanks.

Thanks for all the help gentlemen. Both pilot and CPG pits are pretty much done save for a few minor details.

Super super sweet! You are THE man!

AD, can you turn around the TEDAC to its side, I want to see the side profile of it...

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/mfc/Photos/MFC_TADS_photo6_h.jpg

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/mfc/Photos/MFC_TADS_photo1_h.jpg

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/mfc/Photos/MFC_TADS_photo4_h.jpg

The geometry isn't perfect but it's inconsequential as you'll never be able to see the profile.

With a trackIR unit, this is about the closest you'll get to seeing the side of it. However, the 3d engine self-shadows so the TEDAC base will be almost entirely shadowed-out.

I was just curious because I wasn't able to see the depth of the screen, it felt like a plate sticking through that boom, but it looks as real as it gets I see here...

By the way, I'm sure about the markings at the top of the pedals, in the references I had all I could see was the H, so I presumed it was HUGHES. Also I believe that there's either a logo in the center circle, or it's cut away. Any pictures?



I'm still trying to find a reference that shows the text on the flight stick.

Cheers

You want to see the cyclic? collective? TEDAC handgrips?

No pics of rudders with me, but I like what I am seeing. Honestly never paid attention to those, can't believe the nice detail you are implementing. I like that.

Dig this a little bit

http://www.eechcentral.com/files/

http://www.eechcentral.com/files/EECH%20Central%20content/cyclic%20and%20throttle/

Let me know if there is anything specific on the controls.

I'm late but does this shot help your renders any? (from my Photobucket)

Crap, just noticed that you have this one already. Sorry.

The references I currently need are:


A high-res photo or diagram of the flight stick that shows the text markings.
A close-up of the rudder pedals.

Everything else is complete.

Cheers

Operator's Manual do not have this, if what you mean is CYCLIC by flight stick., diagrams are divided by opearrion...
Dont have that.

These are likely not good enough resolution (I've had to magnify)






Got a great diagram... with no bloody labels.

I apologize; I'm a not much of a rotor-head. I'm used to having my 'rotor' in front of me! :



No worries hopefully a photo will surface at some point and I'll make any corrections if they are needed.

Cheers

Additional info - to the right of the switch that says radio on the left, it will say IC on the right (I above the C).

It says CT above the trim switch.

Next to the red button is a C

Small center hat is similar labeling as the weapons selector, but with only first letter

G
R M
A

Not 100% on the M on the right.
This last hat you should get a second source on.

Thanks Corsair. All done now.

Cheers

Actually, it says ICS.



M is correct.

Nice photo, way to go Arneh!

Thanks Arneh! Does anyone know what it says above the right-most switch?

Look like:

#VM
S#L

SYM
SEL

It's the switch which changes HUD symbology. Up is Cruise and Transition (CT) and down is Hover and Bob-up (HB).

Thanks again.

Cheers

Can anyone request imagery or information about the apache in this thread? Or is it only for those on the team?

All I can say is no, what did you need?

I will be working on a Delta and Alpha cockpit and while I have plenty of material for the pilot and cpg's instriument panels I don't have any 'readable' reference for the consoles on either side of them and was wondering if anyone had any images of such.

This is an old test I made in 3dmax some time ago. http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/NodUnit/Model%20work/AH-64D/render7.jpg?t=1268819452

My goal is to have that kind of clarity on the side consoles as well but as I said the reference material for it has been scarce.

If anyone has any they would like to share of both A and D I would be very grateful, if only one of them then I appreciate that too.

Also I forgot to mention, this is not for a helo sim per say, this is simply for an addon for the game Arma I and Arma II so there is no market competition.

Hi Guys,

Currently looking at making the flight controls for the Apache and was just trying to source the switches. Does anyone know if the 2 toggle switches on the cyclic (top right and botton left) are momentary or latching and if they only have to 2 positions. ie on-off-on or mom-off-mom.

Cheers

Rich

Can anyone help Rich with this? We'd love to see some working replica sticks.

Could you show on the pic? I have no access to an AH64 right now so I will try to remember, we can also ask my flight school buddy.

Hi,

Its the one with labels CT HB and RADIO RTS ICS. Hope that helps, if not I will label the pic!

Cheers

Rich

It is interesting that operator's manual greatly differs from that of a F-16 where how the switches behave greatly detailed. FLT SYM rocker switch is used to select symbology for IHADSS Cruise or Transition is selected with a push upward, and Hover or Bob-up is selected with a downward push onthe switch. I do not remember that this switched stayed once pushed for a mode selection. Logically it would beat the purpose.

Second one is the radio rocker so once you transmit in one of those channels, the switch has to return to its zero position.

Ok thanks for that. For the time being I will make them both momentary, the swithces are less than £2 anyway so can easily change them if we get an update!

Thanks again.

Just for an update, I am starting the initial mould carving today. Can start a new thread for progress reports if people are interested!

Cheers

Rich

Yes Rich, keep us posted although maybe the Pit Builders forum would be more appropriate and we can have a sticky link to it from here?

I am going to post helmet cam video later on this week, you guys should be able to compare it with the TIR views of CH. At least I am thinking it should be give you a perspective how things look like up there. What you have right now is spot on, so it will be only for reference.

Just found this online; interesting depiction of IHADSS

I'll look forward to that, it'll be interesting to compare your helmet cam with mine

There's some elements of the IHADSS I can't quite get right because still images or text don't give a full picture of behaviour. Pitch ladder motion and so forth. Do negative pitch marks (the dashed ones) have end ticks that point up or down in level flight. Are they static and so forth.

We have 4 IHADSS modes in game, Cruise, Trans, Bobup and Hover in various stages of completion.

With regards to the various IHADSS modes and the earlier call for control images - at least, these two things have spawned the following question.

Falcon has a really nice setup with controls where if some HOTAS control is multi-function, it can act as multifunction in the game. Take the pinky switch button for example. It performs different functions at different times depending on a given situation. In the end, there is a key on your keyboard that essentially controls that button (let's say it's CNTRL P). Pressing that key means pressing the pinky switch. I find this makes programming HOTAS both easier and a tad more realistic.

Now I know that your focus is not on modeling every single avionic feature on the aircraft. However, do you think that you will adopt this meathod of key assignment as an option? Thank you in advance for any light you can shed, and naturally for the sheer effort of just creating this thing to begin with.

Let me check those for you Flex, but I can assure you that during our maintenance runs I never seen a circle like that in the above pic when I used the IHADSS.

I need to get clear what it is you're saying. So I'll state what I think you meant and you can tell me if that's correct or not.

In Apache terms, a key assignment that says "Cyclic C Button" and have the game respond to that switch in whatever manner it's supposed to for any given mode? There's not much duplication like that on the controls, pretty much all controller switches do a specific job with the odd exception, from what I understand?

It's no hardship putting some of those in.

If you're interested, all MPD buttons (all 5 MPDS) will be assignable to input devices so in theory you'll be able to have 5 of those Thrustmaster MFD bezels working except they only have *5* buttons along each side and not 6 like the Longbow MPDs. They wouldn't match up too well.

Only circle I have in the IHADSS code is the Stinger seeker thingy-me-bob. If you're referring to that Arma? Apache cockpit mod then that's probably just down to the game engine. It's not something we'd use as a reference. It looks quite good for an Arma mod though.

You summed it up perfectly. I wasn't sure how specific each control was on the controllers but it sounds like they are very dedicated to their function. So I guess it's really a non-issue. Thanks for clearing that up for me.



It sounds me me like you saying that each one of the MPD buttons (for all MDPs) will have a key assigned so that I can use whatever controllers I want. If so, that makes me happy. I'm using CH MFPs so I can have "bezels" of six buttons should I wish (and I will wish ).

Thank you for filling me in.

Flex, was it demonstrated in any video how the brightness/color knobs worked on the MPDs?

They twiddle. Everything twiddles, flips and clicks. Any videos or screenshots we post are out of date by the end of the same day.

I have the brightness knob (upper right) rotating 300 degrees clockwise to a stop which adjust the brightness of the screen from nothing to full. Day/Night does nothing as I'm not sure what the effect is, it's a two way knob. I had a mind to use the day/night switch to toggle the pop-up repeater for that MPD in the corner of the screen. It's not like you're wearing NVGs in front of your PC so doesn't have any real value otherwise. The pop-up repeaters are nice to haves when you're looking out of the pit.

I presume it just changes the color? (From what to what?)

We will do another video in the next week so you can see where we're at. Today we put in working canopy doors, lined up next are wipers followed by external lighting system and finally....working blade flexing (that was problematic to get working but just needs them slotting into place).

There's also been some fixes to the bodywork, proper transparent glass, switch illumination, engine fire effects (see blog for pic) and we're sequencing the startup, at least we're ready to do that but we're waiting on some data. I'm not complaining as there's all these little things to do. But they add to the whole experience of having you very own Longbow helicopter.

Most of that was done this week. Working on this stuff full time is a hoot, (too bad we don't get paid for this). Nothing doing tomorrow; It's Just Cause 2 day. I wish we had THAT 3D engine, oh boy, huge streaming world.

They won't have buttons assigned automatically, you'll have to do that yourself (specify the function, MPD1-4, button 1-24 and input device/keystroke). We don't have a GUI for that yet but there will be one.

Do the CH pads work as joystick devices? Can they output joystick buttons instead of keystrokes?

They can output a joystick button as well, they have a DX mode or you can have it output a keystroke. The CH stuff really shines though when you use a file that contains what all your keystrokes will be however. In addition, you can write scripts and then assign them to one of the buttons as well. Cockpit in a box really.

I imagine that a person can mouse-click on your MFD's anyway - which is what I will likely do anyway once I get my touchscreen.

Rich, Day/Night/Mono switch makes the MPD bright/dim/monochrome (green)

RGR that.