Start of my Learjet 45 chimera cockpit

Hi Guys,
Just started my cockpit project so thought I'd better keep you all informed.
The first and hardest thing about starting this project was convincing my wife that it is normal to want half a plane in the dining room. We eventually came to an agreement that I could build the cockpit if I sold my arcade cabinet :(
Your probably wondering why its called a Learjet 45 Chimera?. A Chimera is a hybrid and my cockpit will be mainly based on a Learjet 45 but will have a glass cockpit using a combination of the free Freefd and P8Rsoftware. I may also use the "GA Radio Stack" software from Peix Software. My aim is to get a cockpit with great functionality for the lowest cost. I am very much in the planning / learning stage at the moment but have already got the failure lights, Gear lights and warn/caution LED's working using FSUIPC and Velleman K8055 USB interfaces ( http://www.esr.co.uk/velleman/k8055.htm ). The sale of my arcade cabinet should give me enough money for 3x 17" LCD monitors then the building will start. At some point I will create a website so watch this space.

Cheers

Dave

LOL..:D
Nice wife you have....I had a very very hard time convinsing my wife that is normal to have a half plane in mine own room I have build especially for my project...:D (go figure..)

I wish you all the best with your project, Im always glad to see new coporate builders around we are rare in this business.
rgds,

Adino.

Dave, Im very interested in seeing your project and learning more about how you got your warnings working with just FSUIPC and the card!

Thanks for sharing,

Just a bit more info on how I am using the K8055 Card:-
I am running FSX with FSUIPC and WIDEFS installed. Then on another pc on the network I have 2x K8055 USB cards connected. Using the FSUIPC SDK and the K8055 library I have written a C program to iluminate LED's for fault conditions and the WARN/CAUT indications. One of the digital inputs on the K8055 is also used to reset the WARN/CAUT indicator. The compiler I am using is the free GCC compiler for MINGW. I actually use MINGW Developer Studio which gives you a complete C/C++ programming environment.
My program is not fully finished but already displays the following indications on the LEDS:-
Nose & Left & Right Gear moving or down, ENG1 & 2 Oil pressure warning, ENG 1 & 2 Fuel Pressure warning, ENG1 and/or 2 Generator Failure, ENG 1 & 2 Fire Warning, Emergency battery caution, Currently working on Gear Failure. Not managed to detect break failure yet though.
For those interested in seeing the C code so far you can get it from here :-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.ault/k8055ctrl.c
It is unfinished and probably very badly written ( I am not a programmer ) but it may be of help to anyone else who wants to dabble with this interface.
Up to 4 of these interfaces can be connected to a PC which will give in total, 32 digital outputs, 20 digital inputs, 8 analogue inputs and 8 analogue outputs.

Cheers

Dave

Dave,
Id love to see a pic of your Arcade Cabinet and WHAT THE HECK IS IT? LOL :):):)

Tim

Dave,
I would like more information on how you talked your wife out of the dinning room table in exchange for a Learjet shell.:D
In a few months I'm hoping to do the same thing!
Ron Rollo

Dave, I am thankful to see your programming posted and also that you got some things working that I want to get working. Im hoping to start learning some programming soon but have NO idea where to start. I wonder if I could get this to work with my interface cards? I use the SYS3 from Flight Deck Solutions for my main interface. Its software has lots of options, but it's easy 'drop down' menues and your software is very much what's needed most likely for the system programming.

Maybe since you 'are not a programmer' but got it working anyhow, you can PM me on here with a list of resources to get to where you are now? :-)

warvet: I made the arcade cabinet a few years ago and it runs a number of the classic arcade games. i.e Frogger, Invaders, Phoenix, tapper, Tron e.t.c.

Heres a pic of it as it is now with my computers on top of it.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.ault/arcade.jpg

ronjonrollo: As you can see from the picture she is already putting up with this in the dining room so it may actually look neater if there was a cockpit there instead.

Tomlin: I will PM you over the weekend with some more info.

Cheers

Dave