Lately I have been digging deep into the cockpit communications and intercomm system. Currently I am using JeeHell's intercomm system which is an acceptable solution with some improvements to be implemented in the future.. hopefully... In this context I wanted to have realistic looking handheld mike both for the captains and first officers side. So I did a 3D CAD design first to get a real fealing of the hand held mike and then performed 3D printed from PLA material for the actual physical mike. I will mention about the electronics and interfacing as well.
The original handheld microphone in an Airbus A320 cockpit looks like ;
I could not find anywhere over the internet dimensional information on this, so I had to fully improvise as always ; did an 3D CAD design, 3 parts (the main body, top part and the top cap). The dimensions I used for my hand held mikes are as follows;
The top part 3D modeled looks like this, I have installed an electret type condenser microphone module in this piece.
The assembly of all pieces looks like (in 3D design enviroment) ;
The hang this hand held microphone on the side console, a special type holder was designed as below;
The stl files may be download from the link below
The parts were printed in my 3D printed using PLA material. I find the end results very satisfactory as can be seen below ;
I will also publish a blog entry on how I interfaced this microphone, the push button with the JeeHell FMGS intercom software. So keep an eye on the web site