total newb question

[djcevera20]

buddy thanks again for the help...last night i ordered the master card and display card with some 7 segments...shipped two day got excited..spent a ton of time reading last night about wiring and unfortunatly the oc tutorials were pretty hard to follow as they are done with some vauge phots and the wording is tough...is this any where you would recommend i go to get step by step instructions on wiring toggles, push and leds...thank you for your continued help..

[djcevera20]

ok just spent a while doing some more reading and i believe i have the just of all of my connections....now i need a suggestion and guide as to how to power the master card i have a few old psu at home and was reading something about using an at or atx psu on the oc site but im a little confused as to how to hook it up to the master card. the connector is whats getting me do i need to puchase a special connecto? I appologize to everyone if these questions are getting annoying.

[Buddym]

No problem, I tell ya, the oc stuff is working well for me. The info is out there it just takes some time to sift thru it. I use a small wall-wart power supply for my MC, it has a 1 amp out at +5 volts DC which should be plenty for driving LEDs.

Read the forums on the OC website alot, and pay attention to the posts and questions regarding the "compatiblilty cable" stuff. I went ahead ang got the USB expansion card to get around that issue, I was having the common problem of some pins not working due to parallel port compatiblity issues. They do sell a cable now that is supposed to work, but I thought the USB interface would just be easier too since lot's of PCs come without parallel ports these days.

After some time of getting switches and rotaries to read, LEDs to light, displays to show numbers, etc, I also ending up some of the input/output boards from OC. They plug into the MC using ribbon cables and provide a screw terminal for each group of I/O pins plus the group ground pin. They sure make wiring easier.

Have you looked at the FSUIPC program yet? You'll need it to get you OC stuff working (well, there is an alternative, I just haven't played with it). It is the dll program that exposes the innards of FS so the OC software can read/write to FS. FSUIPC is easy to load and so is the IOCARDS software. Like I said before I haven't played with SIOC yet. There is a program that comes with IOCARDS called controlador too, it let's you test inputs and outputs. if you get the MC connected and the software all installed you should be able to see an input change when you connect it to that input's group ground pin. If you get that working you are only a few steps from seeing a FS control light an LED or read a toggle switch. It's worth mentioning right here that you shouldn't try to drive anything that draws more current than an LED directly from the MC output pins. If you need to light a lamp, activate a relay, or anything else, drive it with a transistor so you don't burn out an output. When you are driving LEDs be sure to use a current limiting resistor in series with the LED, I use 330 ohms on mine.

When I had made it this far, the then next thing I tried was reading a toggle switch to control the AP master switch on FS. To do this you have to configure the IOCARDS software to know where your switch is connected on the OC MC, and what FSUIPC offset you want it to control. The FSUIPC offsets for normal FS9/FSX controls are listed in one of the OC manuals in the OC downloads section, i think it's annex IV.

http://www.opencockpits.com/modules....ownload&cid=66


As an example, offset 07BC is the FSUIPC target for the the AP master switch. If you wanted to control the pitot heater the offset is 029C. Some offsets are harder to use than other, you will see that soon enough.

You run the iocards config program to define your inputs and outputs, displays, switches, encoders, etc. First define a variable, give it some meaningful name, next the OFFSET from FSUIPC that you want to interface with, and how long it is. If the offset involved a value that may need a formula applied to (like ALT) you can double-click in the FUNCTION area of the variable you are defining and it will show you a list of available funtions. I think you can create your own too..... Next click on the SW-NORMAL tab to define a switch. Again you gibe the switch a meaningful name, the input number (this is the input number on the mastercard you are connecting the switch to), the control states (value on/value off), and the type of switch.

Save the config file with a new name for testing, close the config program. Open the controlador program and test that your MC responds correctly when you operate your switch. If som you hardware connection is good, if not check your wiring. Now find the ini file. I suggest making a copy of the default file (I think it's iocard.dat) and then edit the line that tells the IOCARDS pogram to load when you start it. the line looks like ConfigFile=xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Change the file to point at the new file you created. Save the ini file and start FS, then start IOCARDS. If everything is correct, you will see that when you operate your switch the coreesponding switch in FS operates as well, if not check over your config file.

I hope this helps, I will continue to try and answer where I can. I am sure it wont belong before you pass me by and then I will be asking you questions! I am really just getting started myself, there are so many people out there that know this stuff inside and out! Be sure and question my info when it seems to be wrong, I am sure that I will make mistakes! Hopefully we can learn from each other. I make progress kinda slowly, I have way too many projects going at one time (character flaw!) but that's just me! Also if I am telling you stuff you already know let me know, no since if you already know!

BuddyM

[djcevera20]

dude...buddy awsome reply thank you for taking the time to answer in such detail...i noticed that the oc guys use the 12 pos rotary switches alot i have some encoaders from desktop aviator that have the three terminals and two if i want to incorporate a push button...with the 12 pos switches they have a ground and then they wire the terminals to each other to ultimatly end up with three terms and one ground..do you know if i can use these encoder seeing they only have the three terms and no ground? oh and just to let you know im the same way with the multiple projects after i post this i have to check the salinity in my reef tank then run upstairs to check the epoxy on one of my rc planes....thats if the two month old son of mine lets me do that before he wakes up to eat. wouldnt say its a character flaw as much as it is a character builder. oh yeah figured i would let you know im gonna base this pit on the pmdg 737 i think that is gonna come into play i thought i read that somewhere..go big or go home right

[Buddym]

Ha, go big for sure! Yep, that slogan seems to apply to this hobby in every way! To be honest, it's one of those "biting off more than you can chew"situations for me, so I will forever be doing some things 2 or 3 times to get it right. I am not sure anyone can get a sense of what this involves until they attempt it.

The encoders you have may or may not work with the OC mc. The mc wants th encoder output to be "gray" (grey?). I use the "CTS288" encoders from Digikey, although I did just buy some smaller encoders on ebay and have yet to test them out with the mc. They are all 3 pin encoders, the center terminal connects to ground and the other 2 terminals connect to 2 CONSECUTIVE inputs on the mc. Other types of encoders, maybe the ones you have, need to be connected to the OC encoders card. The CTS288's end up being about $3 each I think, maybe worth spending the money since they are tried and true, and only use 2 inputs per encoder, not counting an input for the pushbutton switch if you use it. If you connect an encoder to th mc as I mentioned, you can run the controlador program and look at the pattern it generates when turned. If connected to pins 000 and 001 on group 1, you will see a repetitive pattern of the 2 inputs going on and off, and the pattern will be reveresed when the encoder is turned the other direction.


I found the link I was looking for that has more info on IOCARDS stuff:

http://personales.ya.com/micabina737...hard/guiai.htm

Click on the green checkmarks for each item.

Buddy

[djcevera20]

buddy thanks yet again...my cards should be arriving today so i am excited about getting things started...

[djcevera20]

ok parts are starting to come in now to build..gonna start tonight..i was wondering if anyone knows of a site were i could download some lables for my mcp and nav/com stack? thanks

[Buddym]

I take it you are building a Boeing cockpit?


BuddyM

[djcevera20]

yup gonna base the pit on pmdgs 737...which reminds me is there anything special i need to take into consideration with this project and plane seeing its not a default fs plane

[Buddym]

yeah, i think there quite a few differences with the FSUIPC offsets, but since I am no expert, and have zero experience with that aircraft model/system it's prob best to consult the Boeing drivers.

BuddyM