WebFMC Overlay

thingiverse

I would like to have added a functional FMC to my flight simulator cockpit, but what's out there is either too expensive or too difficult for me to make. The closest I could come was running WebFMC on an old tablet PC. This is nice, but still lacks the tactical feel of a real FMC. I was able to design an overlay that rests on the tablet screen with each button acting as a stylus. This was made possible with the use of a sheet of conductive rubber sandwiched between the button frame and a lower support frame that isolates each button area. Pressing a button pushes the rubber onto the screen only in the area under that specific button. I initially tried a sheet of silicone rubber, but that did not work even when putting a charge on the sheet. Apparently the silicone rubber used in stylus' must also be made conductive as silicone alone does not seem to work. This is not an ideal solution, but it does work. Also, while I have posted the files here, it's unlikely that they can be used as is given all of the variables, e.g. which tablet PC is being used, will you run it full screen and which virtual FMC will be in use. I mainly posted this to give others an idea of what can be done. The conductive rubber sheet is available from Adafruit.com (1mm thick).