Entropy Reduction

Personal log of yet another digital native.

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Project maintained by andre-abadi Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Purpose

• Design an adapter to mount the VKB GNX Front Switchboard Module – General Aviation (FSM-GA) onto my self-designed TCA Accessory Rail, which mounts onto the throttle quadrant of a TCA Captain Pack Airbus Edition

References

• Part 1: TCA Accessory Rail
• TinkerCAD: tca-vkb-adapter
• Printables: Thrustamaster TCA VKB FSM-GA Adapter

Design Files

• tca-vkb-adapter.stl

Actions

V1

• Created a plug shape to fit into the socket of the accessory rail
• Added a 22.5° angle to (inadvertently) match the angle of the throttle at TO/GA
• Identified that the back of the FSM-GA had M3 screw holes recessed slightly
• Measured width of FSM-GA screw holes and width of accessory rail sockets to determine how far in from accessory rail socket the screw holes needed to be
• Iterated a few prototypes to nail down vertical spacing of screw holes
• Added 4mm holes in adapter for heat-set nuts
• Printed prototypes noticing easy fit of the plug for the accessory rail socket
• Inserted heat-set nuts and noticed that this made it difficult to pull the FSM-GA to the adapter
• Noticed that this version was very far away from the throttle quadrant, looking a bit odd and exacerbating wobble

V2

• Reduced length of adapter to be closer and in doing so reduce wobble
• Increased length of heat-set purchase area
• Reprinted
• Inserted heat-set nuts
• Was not able to attach the adapter to the FSM-GA
• Noticed that the heat-set nuts, being threaded, prevented the adapter from being pulled closer
• Tried drilling out the threading on the heat-set nuts but this heated up the heat-set nuts and caused them to pop out of the adapter, leaving a hole too big for just the M3 screws
• Reprinted again

V3

• 3.5mm hole for M3 screws
• Shortened to be closer to the throttle quadrant
• No heat-set nuts
• *Print settings *
  • 0.8 nozzle
  • 0.55mm layer height
  • 4 vertical walls
  • 20% gyroid infill
  • 2 bottom and 2 top walls
• This worked perfectly

Reflections

• Heat-set nuts in my adapter and the existing FSM-GA heat-set nuts didn’t play well together as I was unable to get tension between the parts, owing to the threading they always remained a set distance apart
• PLA just bends a bit at this sort of distance, adding vertical walls didn’t improve stiffness much, would have to use a stiffer plastic to aleviate this, like the original VKB adapter which is ABS or similar
• Overall very happy with the result
• Would be nice to incorporate some further cable management or room for a USB hub at the back of the quadrant to neaten the whole thing up

Pictures