A little side project.

I recently started a project which has been keeping me busy for a few weeks. It was born out of the frustration of having to use the keyboard when flying aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
I designed it in photoshop (picture to left) and the project is moving at a fairly quick pace. This is a simple little panel that has toggle and rocker switches that controls the systems usually found on an a typical single engined aircraft such as lights, magnetos, starter, alternator etc.... The panel is made out of aluminium which I cut myself. It uses a circuit board from Simkits in the Netherlands that allows for 32 input switches to be used and connects via USB. It then shows up in Win XP as a HID device so there is no software needed. The board is currently on its way to me, and it will arrive (hopefully) by next week. I can then start testing the device with a single pole, single throw ON-OFF toggle switch to make sure that everything is working and then order the switches to fit the panel. I have also bought some white caps for the ends of the toggles from Flightdeck Solutions in Ontario, Canada. They will give the panel a touch of class but they are certainly not very cheap. Once I have bought the rocker switches and filed down the holes correctly, I will get it powder coated and stencilled. Work will then be underway for the casing, but i havn't designed that yet.