Connecting toggle switches to Bodnar card

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately been having a few problems connecting toggle switches to a Bodnar (BU0836X) Card. I'm using DPDT switches and have only soldered one side as so to act as a SPST switch. I tested it with a Multi-meter, the current flows correctly, but when connected to the Bodnar card it is not recognised at all by FSX.

So, if I need to buy some new ones, would these be acceptable: http://www.rapidonline.com/Electroni...switches/30255

They are simple SPST ON/OFF toggle switches.

Thanks,

Jack:grin:

Hi , I have 8 of Leo's cards and I can say that you don't really NEED swithes at all to make it work. Just touching two wires together will send a button command the exactly same as a switch so don't worry about what type of switch, the one you have will work great. But you must check in the Windows control panel, Game controllers section and see if the card (leo's card) shows up in the window. If so, highlight it and then select "properies" and you should see a bunch "32" of red circles, now when you flip the switch the corresponding red spot will light up. If you can get this far then FSX will also read it . You will also have to check the box on the flightsim joystick page to "enable joystick" then you can assighn the button to whatever you want. Hope that helps.

Andy Smith

Thanks, I have managed to get it working now.

However, I am wondering what type of rotary encoder to use for HDG and SPD select on the MCP. Any ideas?

hi, quick question..... im designing a flight simulator for the Air Cadets (RAF) and i am wondering wether or not SPST switches can be wired directly to the controller. and if i leave a switch on for a length of time wether or not it will interfere with other switches on the board, or even FSX.

Thanks for the help

Keith

Try this video. It may help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB7FTO87Mzo .

hi guys ......
for 747, the Rapid switch is fine, i have some connected to a BU0836X. for encoders, i use CTS288 (from Opencockpits) on the BU0836X. set these up in the Encoder utility as type 1:1. i also use cheap encoders from Sure Electronics (on e-bay) with good results. set these up in the utility as type 1:4.
i founf that the best setting for the Pulse Width was 64ms.

for keith ....
if you are using a BU0836X board, each input is independant and therefore will not interfere with any other, irrespective of whether it remains in an ON state. once a switch has been actioned (i.e turned on or off), that switch change state is acted upon and the card then waits for the next switch change it sees.
if you are using a standard BU0836 card, then because it uses a matrix system, you will need to use diodes in line to make each row/column pair independant.
but once you do that, each input will be independant and will act exactly as the X Board does.

hope that helped you out chaps.....

rgds ... ian

there's a diagram on Leo's site

Hi there,

I have yet another question. How do you connect potentiometers to the card?

I have a volume control knob, taken from a real aircraft, with three wires: Wiper, Right hand maximum and left hand maximum. It is a 2.7K Ohm Value pot. Can you please tll me if it can be connecte, and, if so, how?

To wire a potentiometer to the BU0836x card using one of the group of eight inputs i.e x/y/z etc etc ,all I did (to make a 737 nose wheel tiller ) was connect 1 wire end to the left switch terminal ,the other end to the 5v board terminal,then the middle switch terminal to the 'x' board terminal,then the right switch terminal to the 'gnd' board terminal, and connected the supplied cable to a powered usb hub.I must point out that I am hopeless with electronics but this worked fine for me.


regards Jim

Thanks alot, but can a 2.7K Ohm pot be wired? Is it too low-a value?

Sorry I only concentrated on the first part of your question, my mistake ,i.e 'how do you wire a potentiometer'.The one I used was a 100k ohm ,better see if better advice is forthcoming I think.....


regards Jim

Jack

The potentiometer is not rquired to be a specific value, as it acts as a voltage divider to give a varying voltage to the a/d converter. So it makes no difference whether it is 10k or 100k, it is the voltage difference which is important. I generally use 10k. There may be a reason why 2.7k is not suitable, but if I was you, I would adopt the empirical solution and try it first.

David

Thanks Daivd, but I'm worried incase I'll blow the card. Using Ohms law, we can take voltage (5) divided by resistance (2.7k) = 0.02 Amps, which is a fair bit of current.

Jack

Ohms law says:-

I (current in amps) = V (volts) divided by R (resistance in Ohms)

In this case I = 5/2700
= .0018 amps

There are probably other factors at play here, but too much current is not one of them

David

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply... Just to confirm, is the card current protected (eg incase 5V is shorted to ground for the pot input).

Jack

Sorry, but I have no knowledge of this card

David

Hi,
As David says 10k or greater is preferred as the more pots you connect across the ref supply the resulting resistence reduces and a limit maybe reached dependant upon where the ref come from. Please make sure you have the correct terminals connected. The wiper or USUALLY the middle terminal
should go to the input of the Board. The other two to 5v and grnd. If the moving contact of the pot is connected to 5v then when the pot is turned to max
there will be a puff of smoke from the Pot as you will have connected 5v thru the pot to gnd and overloaded the pot. Its been done many times before.
So beware.
Les

Les

Now there speaks the voice of experience:)

David