New company out there called www.prosimparts.com

[NedHamilton]

fsaviator:

What's in your Sismo Pedestal now?

And do you know what kind of controls are on the radio sets? I would assume digital segments, a few switches, and rotary concentric encoders???

[fsaviator]

Right now all I have in my pedestal is panel faceplates. I'm missing one of the comm panels. I haven't mounted anything into the panels yet. I also have all the SISMO cards I need.

The radio sets need five to six .36" 7-segment Displays each and some encoders, LEDs, and switches. Are you looking for a list? What I do is go to the Opencockpits store and look at the hardware list for each panel. That tells you the minimum you need.

While I have all the hardware I would need, my encoders are PCB mount so I would have to either make a PCB or use some test board just to mount the encoder. My CNC is down right now, and I don't have the time to mess with this. Trying out this guys stuff seemed like the perfect opportunity to outfit myself with COMMS and NAV as well as ATC. The price is very reasonable. Keep in mind... these are NOT plug and play. They need an interface solution such as OC, Sismo, FDS, etc.

[NedHamilton]

Is the hardware list for OC panels the same as the ones for Prosimparts?

Are you saying that the prosimparts encoders are PCB mount? So there are dual concentric encoders mounted in the panels but the encoder's terminals are for mounting in a PCB?

I have Sismo boards but I'm not sure I want to have to wire up 3 panels each with five or six 7-seg displays and 2 encoders

[fsaviator]

I'm not sure what is on the panels... He says they are ready to be wired, I'll take his word and see what I get. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I do know that its up to you to do the wiring. That is why the panels are so cheap. Prosimparts is providing you the panels, the hardware, and the labor of putting it all together. Very reasonable at 50 Euro a module I think. The savings comes in you having to provide the interface (FDS, SIOC, Sismo... it doesn't matter... even FSUIPC will work). If you want to just plug something in, and it works, regardless of interface, then you are looking for Plug and play... meaning no wiring involved and it will cost you 375 Euro at Sismo, over $1000 at FDS, and 510 Euro at Opencockpits.

Hardware is hardware... a switch is a switch, and encoder is a switch, a pot is a pot... they all connect the same. The software that drives your sim (Prosim, PM, Sim-Avionics... they all read those inputs directly or through other software such as SIOC, FSUIPC, Interface-It or whatever). At the end of the day, it's still two wires coming off of a SPST switch, or two wires and resistors going to an LED all through some interface such as Pokeys, OC, FDS, etc. As for 7-segment displays... I have plenty of PCBs for those if needed.

Hold on a bit and I'll do up a nice review of the panels when I get them.

[fsaviator]

Well, I received my Radio Sets (VHF, NAV, ADF) from Prosimparts!
Very nice panels. The package included everything needed to connect to whatever interface you choose. Along with the panels that already had the switches, encoders, and 7-segment displays installed, the package included wire with female pin receptacles on each end for connecting the Displays, and ribbon cable with connectors for the switches. Some assembly is required though in the form of soldering the switches to the supplied wire. The package also included LEDs in seperate housings that you insert into holes in the lightplates for backlighting. These would need to be hot-glued (or superglued) into place.

Let me stress that these panels ARE NOT plug-n-play. One needs to have some idea about wiring and soldering. Nothing difficult. What you get for 50Euro a piece is a nice looking panel with all the hardware already fitted in. I find the quality to be very good. Unfortunately, there will have to be a part two to this as I will not have access to my sim for a couple of months, and so I can't hook them up to show you. Here's pics:

[nricky]

Hi Warren

Cool Pics, now we know what we get for 50 Euros each panel. For that price you can't make them yourself.

Cheers Norbert

[Sammy-E]

I too have ordered and received this set. As the pictures show it is well worth the money.
I am rather new to this cockpit building stuff, so I was a little confused how to make it all work, because there are no specs provided how to connect the digits, or the 4 pins on a pushbutton.

I sent an e-mail asking for the info and I got a very quick reply with my answers. So support seems good too!
Hopefully I will be able to connect it all soon to my pokeys USB card + displays cards.

greetings Sammy-E

[NedHamilton]

I'm interested in seeing how fsaviator wires up these panels into the Sismo boards.

I'm totally sold on Sismo (I think UDP/http connectivity is where the sim world needs to go--USB is too old).

[Sammy-E]

I'm interested in seeing how fsaviator wires up these panels into the Sismo .

Well, I am wiring them to Pokeys USB... Am I too old too? Lol.

[Bassam45]

Hi Everyone,
what an interesting website prosimparts, i like it already and i am thinking about buying the radio set but i dont know what interface card to get for them?

i would really appreciate some help from you guys to point me to some interface cards, i know there are few out there but i need to know which one will do the job!!

thank you all.