7 Segment Display Help.

[Buddym]

yepp, thats what I did. worked out great. Regarding your displays, were the OC displays not what you were looking for? I know some folks want different color other than the yellow or white.

Buddy

[No Longer Active]

Not sure if the OC displays fit the FS Bus PCB's, if they do then great, but 8 euros shipping is very steep, so 22 euros for 14 displays is a little harsh if you ask me.

Also, I have to drill the pcb's aswell, I am not good with drilling as I haven't got a steady hand, also I am no good at soldering and will not be able to solder these millions of wires without the pins touching each other.

I have a funny feeling that I will end up binning the pcb's (coz I will mess them up somehow like the holes don't line up or something where I can't drill them straight).

The more I embark on this project, the more I am realising that I just can't do this because I don't have the skill.

Looking like I will just have to buy a pre-made radio!

But I will have a go at these 7 segment displays but I am not promising myself anything other than learning from my mistakes (costly mistakes).

[Buddym]

Alex, don't get too discouraged! We all have doubts about our skills in certain areas. That's where this forum should show it's true form the best, in my opinion. We should be able to lend each other a hand and see what we can accomplish. I know that great distances seperate us, but if I can help in any way, let's do it.

Are you tied to the FSBUS system at this point? If so, how did you get the rest of the boards put together? If you need to get the boards drilled, I have a dremel and dremel drill press that we could do it on. Post expenses might kill the idea, but we can explore all options here, it costs us nothing to chat about it.

What type of radio module are you building anyway?

Buddy

[No Longer Active]

Hi Buddy,

Well I purchased 2 x PCB's for my GA NAV /COM Radio (Old ARC 300 Radio), and 1 PCB for the A320 EFIS (mates project that you know Im helping with).

For now, I would like to get the NAV/COM radio finished as this is what I am waiting on.

I have a dremel but it's quite heavy on the hand, just hoping that I can drill with accuracy as I don't have the press, also the 1mm or 1.5mm drill bits are really brittle and quite fragile. I don't wan't to snap the drill bits as I have before hand. Saying that the pcb can only be 2mm thick anyway so surely there isn't to much to get through, I am assuming that a slow speed will be better, bot not totally sure. What I don't want is my holes to be slightly off line so that I drill too much of the copper contact, if that happens then the pcb is obsolete because I would have no physical connection.

As for soldering, I know I need a better Iron than what I have now, having the ability so solder very little and small 'solders' is an acquires skill, and the spacing between the pins on the PCB is almost back to back, so how you solder so close without producing a 'bridge' or 'jump' is beyond me.

Also, what makes a good soldering iron? My iron is very chunky, cheap, only 1 tip and 1 temperature only, assuming that this iron is no good.

As for the interface, I am using fsbus pcb's as they are 3 times cheaper than OC, but will use an OC display card to power the digits fed from the oc master card.

I don't know what else to say really, apart from it all appears overwhelming. Its the precision of the close nit soldering that fears me most, then the drilling.

Kind Regards,

Alex

[Buddym]

Yep, a bit overwhelming to me sometimes too! I have done electronics my entire life, and I still bridge pins, we all do. For that tight work, get a 15-20 watt "princess" iron if you can. They have a small tip and are very light.

I have drilled away a few pads myslef over the years. I'll have to have a look at the FSBUS stuff again, I looked at it when I first started.

Buddy

[747captian]

I would like to build my own nav and com radio's but where do I start and how do I get it to link up with the flight simulator I am using fsx but I might switch to x plane in the future after I build my cokpit. I am starting with the center panel of the 747-400 first then to the thrust levers and flaps and speed brakes.

[mondo50m]

This may be coming a little late, but log onto Kingbright to see how their shipping is. They sell the .36 inch leds that you need. I use them. I believe that they are less than $1.00 U.S. each. Bear in mind that most radios have com1, com2, nav1 and nav2. That is more than your 14 you are stating, and do not forget that these are also good for the MCP (spd, vspd, alt, hdg, etc). Make sure of how many you need so that you do not have to make multiple orders and thus multiple shipping costs.