Powder coating completed

I'm very happy with the results. The coating company did a great job. The finish looks superb (better than the photographs can show) and it's extremely durable. The paint is RAL9003 Signal White.

Now it looks even more like a microwave..ha ha!

Alu panels being powder coated.

Dropped off the aluminium panels to a powder coating company in Cardiff. I will hopefully have them done by Wednesday at the latest. The only worries I have with this process are: if I flex one of the panels too much the coating will crack. The company told me that there was a bit of play with it. The other problem is that the coating adds thickness and the holes for the 3mm screws will get smaller. I have allowed 1mm for this by using a 4mm drill bit on all the holes but if the coating ends up quite thick then I will have to file them down for the screws to fit.

Some progress.

WOW...when work gets busy it gets busy! Finally restarted the project and made a phonecall yesterday to a comapny that does powder coat painting. How much!?!?!!? Well I kind of knew it was going to be in the ball park of £100 for setup costs but I thought as it was private work they may make an exception and charge me less. I may give another company a ring to see if it gets any cheaper. I doubt it though. It has to be done.

Case almost complete.

A couple of photographs of the case which is almost complete. I need to cut some of the threaded rod at the back and take some burr off with a file (is that how you spell it?). The PSU doesn't quite match up with the holes on the rear panel (bugger) but it's not out by a massive margin so I just need to file them a little bigger. But everything else fits just fine so once I've done these odd little jobs, it's off to get powder coated. If they can do it.... hopefully.... I'm a little worried about that one!

Final two pieces of the puzzle.

Fingers crossed these are the last 2 pieces that will be cut tomorrow at the routing services company in Newport. I wanted to get this done as quick as possible since it will be full steam ahead for the Ryder Cup build up next week. The company is very near the Celtic Manor so traffic next week will be really busy.

I've had a slight design change of the air intake that will hold the fan. It now has less holes and they are spaced more closely together, hopefully this will help the airflow.

Last stage....(thank the Lord!!!) after having these cut will be to get the aluminium sheets powder coated.

I have set myself a deadline of October the 12th to have this project finished. The students start the new term on that date and I won't have any more time to work on it. So lets hope nothing unforeseen happens to it before that date.

USB Hub, UK PAT Testing, Fan....of the computer kind!

I just bought a D-link 7 x USB Hub to go in the case. I hope to pick it up tomorrow. I actually only need 4 ports, 1 for the CCU2, 1 for the Saitek Radio, another for the Simkits 32input controller and one more for a USB Simkits turn coordinator. But I figured that at some point I may want to upgrade to all USB instruments in the future and if I buy 2 of these D-link Hubs I will have enough to run all the neccesary hardware. Fingers crossed that I can run a USB instrument and CCU2 board together. I need to speak to Simkits to make sure that is possible.

A colleague has very gratefully offered to PAT test the Primary 6 Flight Simulator once it is completed. We have the machine at work and I am hoping to pass it with a current UK electrical certificate to make sure it is safe to use and that it won't turn me to ashes!!! Result!

I have completed within CAD to design a fan air intake for the case. I've been a bit concerned that the PSU may get a little hot when running so just in case I have added a 120mm fan at the back to cool everything down and allow for some flow of air. I noticed that Simkits have a grill in the back of their TRC472 for some air flow. I thought I better be safe than sorry.

Logo Design

I designed this new logo to put on the case once it has been painted. I was looking for a simple, clean design. The orange 6 is meant to represent a spiral off an aircraft engine spinner. I think it works quite well.

You may have noticed I have changed my blog to suit the new logo.