Key Kit "Holder" parts
One of the biggest challenges the builders face is locating the correct hardware. Many folks have asked me to supply and frankly I found very little in the way of parts that were decent for what we needed. Logical step forward was to create our own. A few months back I experimented with some Glare panel parts alongside some simple momentary switches and liked the result. A bit after that we released the CDU/MCDU kits and managed to create a setup that did not require an expensive PC Board. Many builders have displayed their results with the CDU Kits and we realized that this had merit for other parts. One of my builder/friends pushed me to look into this and out now is the new Key Kit holder parts that will start appearing in the new Key kits slowly over the next month or so.

This is the Layout for the new Keyholderparts, which we now start to include in the switches kits.




Here is a sample of one of the "Holders" for the A320 EFIS Panel. Tricky part with five switches in very close proximity. Good example of how they work though. Various holes have various jobs as outlined in the next pics.



Step one is to mount the supplied momentary switches to the holder. These should be glued into place. The leads from the switches are poking out the back. Its tight getting a soldering iron in there but it can be done.



These are the correct key shapes with different labels ( I did not have the EFIS parts handy so I used the CDU keys for example). The keys are glued together in three parts. The top part is the "Legend" and is rear engraved. The Second layer is clear plexi and is a "Spacer" to raise the key up to the right height. The bottom layer is larger and offers a square cut out the attached to the momentary switch. You can glue these as well if you wish.



Here you can see that I mounted "Indication" Leds. These will be wired to the InterfaceIT unit that is about to ship to a small Beta team for a quick test. ( An FAQ page will go up on the FDS site shortly I promise). The LEDs are glues into place and can be "Masked" to push the light into the key as opposed to shining all over. One of the advantages of this system is that we are using clear plexi again and not blocking much backlight.



Another angle. Several holes are placed strategically across the panel so that you can bolt it into the Plexi Backer panel. If you have any questions email us.