Confused on IO cards...

[HondaCop]

I am planning on buying many panels and landing gear lever from Opencockpits but I have NO idea which IO card I need in order to connect everything and make it functional. Would I need a BU0386X card? Please help me. I have searched all over the forums and all the info available has simply going around in circles. :(

[Carlos Corona]

Hello

If you buy the opencockpits landing gear lever, you can buy at the same time the I / O Master card, to make the interface of microswitchs, and will also have outputs for led indicators to the landing gear and much more .. . just make sure your computer has the parallel port ...

Good flights :p

[Buddym]

In addition to the previous post, if you do not have a parallel port you can get the USB expansion card and connect the mastercard to that. In addition to providing a connection to the computer, it solves possible issues with parallel port compatibility, and leaves room for future expansion. If you need to display numbers on 7-segment LED displays then you will also need the displays board(s). Each board can control up to 16 digits that can be grouped for different functions.


BuddyM

[Kennair]

Hi HondaCop,

Let me make it simple for you. This is what you should be buying (at least to begin with):

1 x Master Card (72 inputs for switches etc. & 64 outputs for LED's etc.)
1 x USB Expansion card (for connecting up to 4 Mastercards to a single USB port)
2 x Input Breakout Board (for easy connection of 72 inputs)
1 x Outputs Breakout Board (for easy connection of 38 outputs)

This selection will get you started and allow you to connect the majority of your hardware. You will then need to research whether you want to use the standard software to configure and operate the switches or the higher level program called SIOC. The latter is more complex but far more flexible and powerful. I would suggest going with the simpler IOCards software to begin with however.

If cost is a factor and you are technically minded, you can save by purchasing the Mastercard and USB card in kit form and solder the components yourself. Pricings are posted on the Opencockpits Shop website.

As for the BU0386X card, this isn't an Opencockpit product, it's a very handy joystick card made by Leo Bodner. You can purchase this also and it will give you 8 joystick inputs along with 32 pushbutton inputs. It also has support for up to 16 rotary encoders but that's probably confusing you even more. Never mind, just realize that this card has nothing to do with the Opencockpit gear however will work along side it no problem.

Hope that helps and continue the research,

Ken.

[HondaCop]

Thanks for the info guys!

Kennair, your post really made things more clearer! So with the IO cards you mentioned, I shall be able to wire most of my hardware and even get the landing gear lights annunciators working properly?

[Kennair]

Yep, absolutely. This is exactly what I did for my first sim and my first attempt at Opencockpit hardware. With the hardware I suggest you will be able to connect up to 72 switches being momentary or toggle as well as joystick axis (the USB card has 4 x 8bit axis) and also light up things like landing gear LED's with the outputs. All other joysticks you may already have will work in concert with them also.

Once you are comfortable with the basic cards you will then want to expand them by getting a keyboard encoder card or 7 segment display boards along with outputs board and stepper motor cards etc. Basically anything you'll need to setup a complete home cockpit.

It can be a little challenging learning how they work and configuring the initial .ini file but it becomes fairly intuitive eventually. It all depends how technically savvy you are. There are probably other IO manufacturers that are simpler but not many who are cheaper. I would highly recommend downloading their instruction manuals and reading thoroughly, although these are translated from Spanish and lack in a lot of detail, it will still give you a good idea of how to configure them. Also head over to Nico Kaan's website at http://www.lekseecon.nl/ to get a very informative introduction into OC IOCards along with the powerful SIOC software.

There are many of us using these interface boards so if you have any problems we're here to help.

Cheers and have fun,

Ken.

[m_gansler]

Great info - I've definitely learned a ton just reading these couple posts. Can the OpenCockpit software also make the cards appears as joystick/HID inputs to the PC? Since I use other sims (outside of MSFS/FSUIPC) I assume that would be useful for interfacing some controls to them.

Thanks,

Mike

[Buddym]

As far as I know, the USB expansion card does not present any sort of HID interface.
BuddyM

[barkay]

Actually the answer is yes. There is a specific Joystick offset that will allow you to act as if you have connected 4 joysticks with 32 buttons each. So whenever you connect a switch to an I/O card from opencockpits you can imitate a joystick pushbutton command from SIOC and configure i FSUIPC accordingly. For more info You have to visit Nico's How to page

Regards,

Barkay

[m_gansler]

I'm a bit confused. Does this mean for sims such as IL2 Sturmovik that the OpenCockpits modules will be recognized? My understanding is that FSUIPC only transfers data to/from MSFS. Therefore, for OpenCockpit hardware to work with a sim such as IL2, the OpenCockpit switch closures would have to appear to the sim as either joystick button pushes or keyboard presses, and the analog signals would have to appear as joystick analog axis channels. Is this what you are saying is indeed possible?

Thanks,

Mike

[Buddym]

That was going to be my question as well. I have not jumped in to SIOC, but I did not know that functionality existed at all. It opens some interesting possibilities if it looks like 4 analog axis + 32 buttons each. Nico, can you expand on this?

Thanks,
BuddyM

[barkay]

Gentlemen,

Read this please http://www.lekseecon.nl/howto.html

There is a section called KEY GENERATION in SIOC and a subsection called Method 2: SIOC toggling FSUIPC virtual buttons

There is a very clear definiton that starting from offset 3340 you can use 9 of these offsets to program 32 buttons each.

For the SIM to understand you have to set up the function from FSUIPC either by selecting the deaflt functions resident there or by adding a mouse macro to the gauges of the airplane you are using as described in the FSUIPC User manual. These offsets do not include any axis to my knowledge.

So the answer is yes again. You can assign any buttons or switches to perform certain functionalities via SIOC and the FSUIPC will recognize this as button push so you can program the SIM.

Of course you need a SIOC code for that

Regards,

barkay

[m_gansler]

Thanks. I just skimmed the FSUIPC manual and what strikes me is that since FSUIPC is a module (via a DLL) running under FS2004 or FSX, I don't see how it would be loaded, run, and operating if I didn't have one of those MSFS programs running. In the IL2 case I've mentioned below, I don't see how IL2 would see the keypresses generated by FSUIPC since FSUIPC can't be run from IL2.

Excuse me if this is a bit confusing...

Mike

[Buddym]

I agree, if the IL2 software is not based on MSFS, then there should be no knowledge of FSUIPC, nor would it likely matter since there may not even be any "offsets" as we know them in FS. In fact there is no way to even install FSUIPC into IL2 I suppose. That's where the Bodnar cards differ, since they install as joystick devices with the Windows, any program can use them. It would be for inputs only, however.

BuddyM

[barkay]

Hmmm the subject comes to a different point now.

If the IL2 software is not FS related by a standalone simulator there are 2 things to do;

1 - To find out if there is a SDK so that you an actually program the functionalities like Leveld 767 has

2 - If there is a specific way to send command to it like keyboard commands to run the functionalities of the cocokpit.

SIOC can also send key commands against button pushes to the simulator(s) if it is configured correctly. So still can imitate the button pushes of a joystick card with the help of USB keys card from open cockpits.

If you can be more specific about what exactly this IL2 software is and what it does and how it is different from MSFS I might contribute with some more ideas.

Regards,

barkay

[Mike.Powell]

IL:2 can export a limited amount of data. This was documented in the file "devicelink.txt" that originally shipped with the ACE expansion pack. A program called UDPspeed was developed several years ago to utilize this utility. I've lost track of what's going on with it. I think the original posts about UDPspeed were on SimHQ.

There was another effort by someone over at www.wingwalkers.org (http://www.wingwalkers.org) to develop a C++ wrapper for the utility. IIRC devicelink is scripted in lua. The goal of the wrapper was to make the utility available through C++ calls. Searching on "devicelink" on the wingwalker forum will turn up at least some of the development discussions.

There may also still be some useful threads on the IL2 forum at Ubisoft, though sifting through the volume of posts may be a challenge.