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VERSION 6 - Part 1: Instruments
The instruments and controls that form the simulator.
These are only the displays and controls which tie into the actual flight simulator through
an arduino microcontroller development board using a free software called SIMVIMX (at: https://realsimcontrol.com/ )
The instruments are displayed on a 19" screen with a home made panel in front which has actual controls
to manipulate some of the instruments (such as: Barometer, gyro compass etc.)
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VERSION 6 - Part 2: Preparation for flight
Using the controls to prepare for a flight from Cornwall to Trudeau airport of Montreal.
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VERSION 6 - Part 3: Landing
Landing at CYUL (Montreal P.E. Trudeau airport)
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VERSION 6 - Part 4: Wiring
How each sub panels are wired. I'm using wires from a network cable in this version.
It didn't work properly until I later discovered that resistors needed to be added for the controls boards.
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VERSION 8 - Semi completed panel: The cockpit
Com/Nav/Transponder in the aluminum cockpit frame (Courtesy of Greg Higgs)
The displays are COM 1, NAV 1, COM 2, NAV 2, Transponder (ADF wasn't completed yet) whereas
COM 1 and 2 are communication radios to talk with airports, other planes etc.
NAV 1 and 2 set the navigation frequencies to navigate the radio beacons.
The transponder is a two-way automatic system that displays the plane's position on an air traffic controller's display and,
the radar beam activates the transponder. There's also an IDENT button to light up the air traffic controller's display
if he asks when in crowded airways to show where you are.
The instruments on the left are shown on a 19" display screen controlled by a second computer which
communicates with the main flight simulator.
The COM and NAV radios have two displays, one to set the frequency and the other shows the actual active frequency.
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VERSION 9 - Interconnection boards for flight simulator (Work in progress)
This video shows one of the main boards that control the COM and NAV 1 and 2 displays showing
the communication frequencies for the simulator as well as the controllers for the actual frequency select knobs.
The next board shown is the Arduino Mega controller which talks to the actual flight simulator computer to
get and send information from the actual cockpit. It communicates with a DATA BUS board with
multiple connectors which are tied to other boards.
One of the boards is the DISPLAY BUS with a 1 of 16 analog multiplexer boards which is responsible for sending
the information to the 7-segment numerical displays and also a DM13A LED driver which can control up to 16 LED displays.
This board also has connectors which, with the DATA BUS, talks to 11 (and more) control boards which control
the actual numeric displays and collects the various knobs and switches info to send to the Arduino controller.
More videos will be added as I progress with the cockpit build.
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VERSION 10.3.1 - Reducing the number of wires and perf boards.
This is part 1 of version 10 of the simulator cockpit. This version will reduce the number of ribbon cables and connectors.
I have located "vero strip PCBs" which has dozens of tie points for each connection, allowing me to have multiple connectors
on one strip which eliminates a lot of soldering and wiring. I have also finally found 12 and 10 pin connectors so that
a single connector will replace 2 or more. The problem with multiple connectors is that you lose a signal between
two of them - Example, to connect pins 31 to 40, if you had 6 pin connectors, you would have connections to
pins 31 to 36, 38 to 40 skipping pin 37, which means you would have to solder a wire to pin 37 in order to connect it
with another connector.
I am waiting for larger vero strip PCBs to be able to add the display MUX and DM13A on the same data bus board to have
a single connection point to all other Multiplexer boards. I will add a the board layouts for all the multiplexers I am planning on using.
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VERSION 10.3.3 - Part 1: The Main board of the final version of my cockpit
DESIGNING MY OWN PC BOARDS
This describes the main board which ties into the interface boards described in part 3 of this version.
The design has space to mount the arduino Mega controller directly to the main board on top
(If you have one where you need to solder your own connectors to it) or
(from the bottom of the board which would make it awkward.)
The board also has a connection for the 4057 output multiplexer which has it's outputs tied to the clocks of
the 7-segment displays or LCDs via the 20 pin JST-XH connectors.
Also, there is a DM13A LED driver chip which has 1 LED output in the 20 pin connector used for the
Transponder interface (Radar Reply LED.) as well as connections for the 15 other LED outputs that may be needed.
The board has connectors which tie into other interface boards that don't require LEDs or 7-segment displays whereas
they only have inputs (Switches, Instrument controls, Analog controls etc.)
Part of the 20 pin connector has input multiplexer addresses (pins 32-35 and 40) which are jumper selectable
on the interface board and the same is true for C0 through C9 of the display MUX to select which output goes to
which 7-segment display.
I sent the gerber files (describes the physical layouts of the PCB) to JLCPCB which made 5 boards for
a total of about 19.00 Canadian (Plus shipping) - Unfortunately, I only need 2 boards (1 for show and tell)
but the price is right.
If you're interested in making your own boards and need a bit of help, let me know and I'll make another video
showing the steps I did to make these boards.
Thanks to Vlad and Roman of Simvimx for everything they do.
Also thanks for Notes and Volts for showing me the way to creating my own PC boards using KiCad.
The gerber files to send to the fabrication company (Extremely Inexpensive) can be found at:
heyphil.net/gerbers
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VERSION 10.3.3 - Part 2: Interface boards for the cockpit
DESIGNING MY OWN PC BOARDS
The gerber files used to make this board as well as the main board can be downloaded from: heyphil.net/gerbers
You can download them and send them to most pc board manufacturers (usually dirt cheap)
With version 10.3.3, I was able to design my own PCboards in order to save on point to point wiring and
a messy bunch of wires. The interface boards are designed to attach to the various panels (COM, NAV, ADF etc)
where the ribbon cables from the main board attach to the rear of the interface boards and the 2nd set
of parallel connectors tie into the next board and so on.
The inside part of the board have connectors which connect to the 7-segment displays, encoders, switches etc.
If I created an enclosed box, the main connections are on the outside and the inside connect to the components
inside of the panel. These boards cost me about 15.00 Canadian for 15 boards (plus shipping)
If you're interested in making your own boards and need a bit of help, let me know and I'll make
another video showing the steps I made to make these boards.
Again, thanks to Vlad and Roman of Simvimx for everything they do.
Also thanks for Notes and Volts for showing me the way to creating my own PC boards using KiCad.
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