In my ongoing projects of ceasing flight simulator devices for my son’s flight sim (as he gets closer to flying for the airlines) and this project was the cluster of 3 warning lights/buttons under the glare shield on the 737. On the plane this part includes 3 lights, one amber one which is the “master caution”, one “fire warn”[ing] and the third is a set of 6 other warnings with amber lighting. Each light is also a tactile switch (the is a 12mm tactile switch mounted at the base of each of these which silences/acknowledges the thing the light is indicating. Each light is a pair of LEDs which I saw was not sufficiently diffused by the thin layer of frosted on the backside of the acrylic, so I cut a piece of medium frosted to sit between the LEDs and the face plate to diffuse th light more. Each pocket has 2 LEDs inside which each pair is controlled by a MOSFET transistor as the combined current exceeds the current of a arduino’s output; this arrangement also lets me use a 12V LED dimmer on the main circuit so you aren’t blinded by the LEDS. I used the 1/8” (3mm) 2-color black/frosted from inventables which makes such nice backlit signs.
Note: I removed the diffuser between the LEDs so you can see the LEDs inside. Note that entire 6-pack is a giant button (actually a pair of buttons to provide stability). Note the smaller buttons haven’t been painted yet.
Test with one indicator turned on (when not zoomed in the slight ragged edge of the letters is invisible to the naked eye).
The MOSFET board (yes I could have soldered my own, but this allows easy disassembly and repair)
