Electronics Noob + Button Help

[Atomic_Sheep]

I started trying out some designs for various switches and I ran into a question which you answered, yet I didn't quite understand the full gravity of. To get things straight.

1.) Basically, I will not be able to get FSX or the like to provide the required outputs to get Korry switch output states? i.e. offsets from FSUIPC are only for switches and not lights?

2.) Output card wise, would it be possible to direct me in the direction of some examples? Arduino are output cards that could be used for LED indicators lights? Any more examples which may perhaps be more widely used in home cockpits?

3.) Output cards have the same sort of connection to components as input cards correct? i.e. you've got the same 2 or 3 terminals depending on what you're outputting to? How would an LED be controlled by an output card? I'm guessing the computer program e.g. ProSim737 which you suggested sends some sort of signal to the card (what sort of signal would this be? Digital or does it even matter lets say in the case of an LED?) and then the card's IC with its chips which have logic gates inside, send electrical impulses of some sort to the output connectors which are in turn connected to the electrical component such as an LED?

[RadarBob]

Hi Atomic_Sheep,

Very good questions, and ones that encompass quite a range of areas - Some of which I am not that clued up on.

However, here is my understanding, which I am sure that someone will put us straight on if I haven't got it completely correct!

FSUIPC offsets hold the current value of FS parameters and communicates with external software/hardware to read/modify those values when requested.

FSUIPC provides a means for external hardware such as joysticks / keypresses generated bythe PC keyboard or an input board such as BU0836 that emulates a joystick with lots of buttons to modify the values.

BU0836 is one of the most popular input boards.

To get outputs to drive your indicators you are right in saying that need some output hardware. I would say that the most popular choices for this would be the Opencockpits family or Phidgets - Although there are others. I'm not familiar with Arduino I'm afraid.

Software such as ProSim models aircraft systems that are not fully modelled by FS, and communicates the state of these modelled parameters to FS using FSUIPC.

Opencockpits SIOC software provides links to the Opencockpits family of hardware I/O boards, to communicate the state of the hardware inputs to FS using FSUIPC and to set the states of the hardware outputs according to values read from FS via FSUIPC.

SIOC does much more than that though, as it provides a scripting 'language' which allows you to implement logic/arithmetic functions/timers etc in simple code. It also provides a graphical type User Interface which allows you to implement the same funtionality without having to write the code.

You don't have to use SIOC though, as OC also have software modules that can handle the interface to the hardware and communicate with SIOC/FS in a simpler way - Have a look at the
documentation that is available for download from the OC website.

ProSim can also read the state of Opencockpits hardware inputs (switches) directly from SIOC variables and communicate the state of the systems model parameters to SIOC to control indicators.

ProSim also talks directly to Phidgets I/O boards - Don't know anything about Phidgets, but I believe that these are Martys
I/O board of choice.

Typical output board e.g. OpenCockpits Master uses a 74HC series CMOS logic chip as an output device. Output state is 0 or 5V and it can sink or source around 25mA max. You can connect leds with resistor from output to ground (source mode) or you can connect leds (again with resistor) between +5V and output (sink mode)

Usually one wire output with either a common ground for all outputs - Or a pair of output terminals may br provided, one of which is ground.

If you want to drive something that requires greater current or voltage, then you could either use a different output board (say OC USBRelays) or feed the Master output to some kind of driver circuit of your own design.

In the case of a relay board, a pair of contacts or possibly common/normally open/normally closed contacts would be provided.

General operation of driving an ouput using SIOC/OC Master might be:

User would write a statement in SIOC code to create an SIOC variable and link it to the value of a FSUIPC offset

Another statement would be written to link the state of the SIOC variable to a particular output line on a particular OC Master Card.

The FSUIPC offset value might then be changed (say toggled 0/1) by clicking the control in FS with mouse or perhaps by an input from a BU0836 board/ OC Master Card.

SIOC would be scanning the FSUIPC offset, and 'see' that the value has changed. It would then modify its own variable which in turn would trigger an internal instruction to vary the state of the linked Master Card output line. How the communication between SIOC and the hardware works I am not sure but I guess it depends on how the hardware is connected - For example you can connect an OC Master to your PC parallel port or you can connect it to a USB Expansion Board and connect that to your PC USB port.
If it were parallel connected, then SIOC would I suppose control the parallel port directly - There is no processing on a Master Board, just multiplexing/addressing/data latches - USB Expansion on the other hand uses a USB micro-controller (PIC). SIOC would send (serial) data to the PIC which represents the current state of the outputs, and the PIC would emulate the parallel data format produced by the PC parallel port.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Rob

[Atomic_Sheep]

Thanks for your response. I'm still trying to figure all this out. How do I gain access to the states of various switches, lights and numerical displays in FSUIPC? I want to try to write a simple program which will be able to see the values which FSUIPC interrogates FSX for and then use them to drive some stuff I want to try to connect. In particular, I'm trying to get some 7 segment displays to show corresponding values.

[RadarBob]

Well, if you just want to drive some 7 seg displays, then I would say that your easiest way would be to use an OC Displays card, read the appropriate FSUIPC offsets into SIOC and then write them to the card.

If you want to do it the hard way and write your own program in something like Visual Basic, then there is an SDK downloadable with FSUIPC that has code examples demonstrating how to read and write FSUIPC offsets in various s/w languages. You would of course also have to build suitable hardware to talk to your software - There are some PIC examples in Mike Powells book on building simulated instruments which show ways to drive 7 Seg displays and handle serial comms - Or you could use a PIC with onboard USB and search the net for some firmware framework examples - A bit tricky really.

So, if you are still struggling with the concepts, and are not handy at programming and building electronics my advice would be to stick with 'virtually off the shelf with some tweaking' e.g. OC and SIOC.


Plenty of folks on the forum have done exactly what you are trying to do in different ways.

Anybody have any further thoughts/suggestions for Mr 'Sheep?

Cheers,

Rob

[Atomic_Sheep]

Thanks, no shortcuts it seems... I was hoping that I was overlooking something. I'm just going to be switching over to X-Plane so I need to figure out how to interact with simulators in general. There's an X-Plane FSUIPC but I haven't read its documentaiton nor do I think it's anywhere near as developed as the FS one. Either way, certainly an interesting challenge. Not sure which route to take... off the shelf or try to make my own. Creating my own electronics boards will be the hardest and that part I'm least willing to experiment with as it's my weakest area, the programming should be doable if I stick at it long enough. Time will tell.

[RadarBob]

You might take a look at the POKeys Extended Joystick Card as introduced by Wendy -See product Reviews from Home Page for an overview of what it can do.

Not investigated it myself yet, but it looks to be a cost-effective and versatile board - You can also talk to it using your own apps or using the GUI which keeps your options open. Pro-Sim support and programmable I/O also make it appealing.

Would like to get one myself to play with, but sadly don't have any free time for project work at the moment.

If you go the PIC route, then you could build something yourself on matrix board that would be reasonably tidy without getting involved in making PCBs due to the relatibvely low component count.

Cheers,

Rob