Slight Transponder Progress

[Guest airhead]

From above in this thread:>hehem... that's what i call a custom panel.>beautiful.>>Is the panel from the company where you can draw on a CAD tool>then have a quote for the panel be cuted and engraved ?Yeah, FrontDesign, www.schaeffer-ag.de in europe and www.frontpanelexpress.com in the US.It's anodized aluminium, so no backlight (though they do perspex too, but well, I rather pay for metal panels than plastic.. a red map reading light will do fine for night illumination anyway, I need to see outside the window rather than get blinded by the instruments )//Tuomas :)

[tigert 0]

>Yesterday night, i tryed and i removed the cable behind the>PCB and i split in two pieces the tft monitor from pcb.>You should take care to pull-up the brown small piece to>release the cable and be very very easy to take it out.>>I was lucky and when re-connect them later, everything was>working :-)Yeah, I have done that too. The problem is the flat ribbon is so short. IF there were extension cords for them, it wouldnt be a problem :)I think it will fit behind the panel though, we'll see.//T

[tigert 0]

Yep. FrontDesign _rules_. It is a bit costy - but I dont do an airliner, so the number of panels is not THAT big. And considering that I can design _everything_ from scratch, just the way I want, just one piece if I want, and it is anodized aluminium that should last years and years, it is pretty good service. I have ordered twice, and they have given excellent service both times.They can do perspex too, but I prefer metal, this is not a toy :)Try the software from their site, and play with it - it will tell you how much the design you do would cost, and when you would get it - for

[Guest GusB]

Thanks......... I was afraid of that!! I was talking with my friend here where I work (he cut my panels for my Simkit's instruments) and he said he could do "engraving" as well on the CNC mill. I was hoping for a easy method to paint those "grooves"!!!Gus

[tigert 0]

Yeah. I think the CNC of Schaeffer has some paint "tip" they use to apply the paint on the letters.It should be very easy to paint the engraved text pretty easily by hand too though - just use a thin thin artists brush (perhaps even cut the tip a bit so it is a flat "stub" and dab paint on the groove - you can always use a cloth to wipe out the excess of wet paint if you spill over . It shouldnt be too hard since you have the "groove" - use scale model enamel paint or such. And dont put too much - a "dry" brush shouldnt spill at all.Another interesting thing to try would be titanium dioxide powder mixed with epoxy glue - (the stuff is what makes tootpaste white, available at the pharmacy in Finland at least, not sure where you might find it, but worth asking I guess) - it might be possible to fill the whole groove with the white stuff, making almost flush letters..?But paint would work just as well of course.//Tuomas