Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 21
  1. #1
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    throte quadrant backlight

    J want to add a bac klight to my throtlle quadrantr,but i don't wont to spent 50 pounds on a input output board just to connect 6 or 10 LED'a.
    So any idea how to do in other way.
    I want to the back light to be turn on from the flight sim so I need somthing to interface it.
    Just how.

  2. #2
    300+ Forum Addict



    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Tampa
    Posts
    487
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    The cheapest way in my opinion would be to build an interface to your parallel port, but newer PCs may not have a parallel port. It would give you at least 8 outputs. If you are inteested I can polint you to a schematic. If no parallel port you could build a cheap USB board with a PIC or AVR mictrocontroller. The hard part will be getting the output to turn on and off from FS. FSUIPC will provide an offset for things like that, but you need a driver to get the offset data to your hardware device to operate the LEDs. That's where the tried and true boards like IOcards and FSBus show real value, since the hardware and sowftware are ready and tested, and well supported.

    If you wanted an ultra-cheap USB solution, a cheap PIC or AVR coupled with a small .net driver program is probably the best bet. Here's a link to a project that does this. http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/powerswitch.html

    If you have a free parallel port then I'd say that's the cheapest route. Here's a link to a typical article on how to do it: http://www.cleghornelectronicskits.c...lPortLEDs.html

    !!!!!!!!!!! Always be careful when interfacing directly to the parallel port... you can easily damage the ciruitry in the PC if you get short pins together, etc.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are other circuits out there that include an external buffer chip to prevent this, but then you have to build a circuit that includes an IC chip, needs power, etc.


    I'll put one together and write a driver program and see if I can get it working.....

    Again, you'll have to write a driver for either one to get the data from FSUIPC and control the LEDs accordingly.

    BuddyM

  3. #3
    300+ Forum Addict Steve A's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Paphos Cyprus
    Posts
    336
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    I have 12 led lights connected to my fire panel using a very cheap battery operated system. The lights are powered by 2x 1.5 volt aa batteries and connected in a line to one toggle switch. About every three months i will have to swap the batteries so i placed the holder conveniently on the inside wall of the pedestal out of sight but reachable. Its not very technichal but it works a charm.

  4. Thanks choffmann thanked for this post
  5. #4
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    Quote Originally Posted by Buddym View Post
    The cheapest way in my opinion would be to build an interface to your parallel port, but newer PCs may not have a parallel port. It would give you at least 8 outputs. If you are inteested I can polint you to a schematic. If no parallel port you could build a cheap USB board with a PIC or AVR mictrocontroller. The hard part will be getting the output to turn on and off from FS. FSUIPC will provide an offset for things like that, but you need a driver to get the offset data to your hardware device to operate the LEDs. That's where the tried and true boards like IOcards and FSBus show real value, since the hardware and sowftware are ready and tested, and well supported.

    If you wanted an ultra-cheap USB solution, a cheap PIC or AVR coupled with a small .net driver program is probably the best bet. Here's a link to a project that does this. http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/powerswitch.html

    If you have a free parallel port then I'd say that's the cheapest route. Here's a link to a typical article on how to do it: http://www.cleghornelectronicskits.c...lPortLEDs.html

    !!!!!!!!!!! Always be careful when interfacing directly to the parallel port... you can easily damage the ciruitry in the PC if you get short pins together, etc.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are other circuits out there that include an external buffer chip to prevent this, but then you have to build a circuit that includes an IC chip, needs power, etc.


    I'll put one together and write a driver program and see if I can get it working.....

    Again, you'll have to write a driver for either one to get the data from FSUIPC and control the LEDs accordingly.

    BuddyM
    Hey BuddyM
    It's a great idea that paralet port,I think I will go for this one,I don't have a paralet port,but i was thinking of using LPT to USB adapter.There are some schematicks in the link that you posted but if you have others I sure would like to have a look at it.
    So now it's just the driver and fun part with making it work with te FS.
    Manny thanks

  6. #5
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    If I use LPT do I need a driver ,or can i just find the right ofset and use it to sent signal to turn on the LED's on the LPT output

  7. #6
    300+ Forum Addict



    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Tampa
    Posts
    487
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    No, depending on the OS you are using (windows 95 , XP, etc) we will not only need a driver program for the parallel port, we will also need a program to grab the FSUIPC offset data and use it to control bits on the parallel port. There are several driver programs for the parallel port out there, I think the last one I used was portio, I used it when I was playing around with FSLCD. I will look around some for the links I used back then, here's some I had on my desktop:

    http://logix4u.net/Legacy_Ports/Para...000/NT/XP.html
    http://www.driverlinx.com/DownLoad/DlPortIO.htm
    http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/vblpt.htm
    http://www.thaiio.com/prog-cgi/0006_vb.html
    http://logix4u.net/Legacy_Ports/Para...terfacing.html

    I have Jan axelson's book on parallel ports at the house, I am sure there is ome great info in there too. I will try and put a cable on a port tonight and see if I can get something working again, then write a small program in C or VB to map some FSUIPC offsets to the different pins on the port.... I am sure we can get this going with a little effort,

    Buddy

  8. #7
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    Thanks BuddyM for all you help and looking forword for that program to grab offsets.

  9. #8
    300+ Forum Addict



    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Tampa
    Posts
    487
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    No problem, I love this stuff. It's closely related to another project I am working on anyway. You know, the parallel port will give us an easy 8 or 12 lines of output, but if you really only wanted a couple of lines we could probably use the control lines on a serial port... DTR/DSR/RTS,CTS, etc. These are easy enuff to play with, it's just that there's only a few of them for outputs.

    I was toying with building a card for inputs, but ran across the the MJoy16 and built that instead. It works great and no need to re-invent the wheel. Next I wanted to build a card for outputs so I started looking at what's already out there.... Lot's of good stuff, plenty of stuff using serial ports... very ez with a pic or avr. I really want to use USB, a bit more complicated there... I should have something going soon. The goal is to build a USB card with at least 24 outputs. I don't plan on doing anything major like using it to drive 7-segment displays, since the IOcards and FSBus systems do that in brilliant fashion already. I just want to build something usable at a very low cost. The MJoys16 is very cheap to build, and I hoping to get an output card built just as cheaply. There are some USB boards on eBay that have 12 outputs and 4 inputs for about $25 USD including shipping. These will only give as many I/O leads as the raw parallel port, but at least it's USB. I like the price, but would like more outputs... we shall see....

    Buddy

  10. #9
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    Well one way or another i'm crap with programing so what ever i use I need the softwear.
    the links that you give me as fpr [aralet port have some programs.
    So i have the electronics but i need softwear.
    It would be great if FSUIPC could sent signal straight to 8 lines on paralet fort.
    Like you have the 8 Led's connected to paralet port and in flight sim you press L for lights and it lights up those 8 LED.s.

  11. #10
    25+ Posting Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    London
    Posts
    55
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Re: throte quadrant backlight

    By the way I have a board 2090 from descktop aviator.
    Maybe i could use it in some way

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Finaly, the backlight for the MIP!!
    By Anderson/SBSP in forum My Cockpit Update
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 12-02-2010, 06:33 PM
  2. White backlight?
    By Anderson/SBSP in forum General Builder Questions All Aircraft Types
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-25-2009, 08:16 PM
  3. Backlight Opencockpits MCP
    By Goldmember in forum OpenCockpits General Discussion
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 07-09-2009, 04:41 AM
  4. Wet Compass backlight
    By joaquim Sa Nogueira in forum I/O Interfacing Hardware and Software
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 02-04-2008, 02:10 PM