Open Cockpit Overhead Gauges

[davemckee]

Thanks Aaron. I use Marty Bochanes Prosim and using S.I.O.C. on myCDU. Looking at the script it seems to have everything INCLUDING scripts for the overhead gauges. I'm not concerned about baklighting for I have done that in the past, I AM concerned that these gauges perform properly. Have you downloaded the S.I.O.C. from opencockpits and can you confirm the gauges are in the script? Thanks Dave

[davemckee]

OK, after all is said and done I purchased the OC overhead complete gauge set. Several factors were taken into consideration, but the main reason was the price. Estimated delivery date is this next Wednesday. As I am a novice don't be surprised if I yell "HELP" in the near future. Aaron if you can send me your scripts I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance. Dave

[blueskydriver]

Dave, back lighting is easy. Just do like the way I described earlier. Use some motherboard standoffs to create a gap between the gauge and the backside of the Overhead, and then use leds to box in around the gaps. Thus, you will be lighting from the sides. It works fair enough...

Curious, do they come with the rings and plexi now or just the gauge sets? Whatever you do, make sure you hook them up to the OC cards correctly! Many people have burned their servos and/or USB Servo Card(s) by not having the plugs from the servos in the right way. Just read up on that a bit... Otherwise, you should be happy with these gauges. Although, has all the gauges been written for in SIOC now? Last I knew it was only 3 or 4 of them that worked within SIOC.

Best Regards,

BSD

[Aaron]

I burned two servos in my first try hehe, im still remember the smell, and the servo was conected just 1 or 2 secs.

I forgot to send the servos, next time I went to the sim I will upload them to my dropbox to send back to you.

[davemckee]

OK I got the gauges and the servo cards today, after reading the installation instructions it says I have to use a seperate power source (5 volts) for the servos to work. They DID NOT supply any connectors for the power source. Aaron or whoever...what power source did you use, and where did you obtain the female connector? Thanks Ahead Dave

[Aaron]

Hi Dave,

Yes, they dont supply any connectors. I use a standar 8x8-fan-to-molex cable, solder it to the USB-Servos card board pins, and then connect them to the PC power supply where I have running the overhead systems and SIOC (which was already over the roof of our cockpit)

case_fan_80mm_4pin_molex.jpg

Cuting the cable near to the fan, and use that cable to join and solder to the male pins on the usb-servos.

Due to the short servos cable I need to cut it and solder more cable to make it longer till I reach the board. I also use the USB-Servos board to manage our tiller (with the analog inputs), so I extend the tiller cable till our overhead too

You can use a dedicated PC powersupply or a standar powersupply and solder to it directly, but using one of your current PC Power supply you avoid the need to start more and more things every time you want to fly.

This saturday I will send you my scripts.

[davemckee]

OK guys...just to let you know how dumb I am to attempting to know how to work with SIOC. Aaron was nice enough to send me his scripts for the gauges and I wound up with not only the gauges not working but now my OC CDU is inoperative. Can anyonegive me a quick tutorial on assigning scripts to SIOC or work me out of mess I've created? My Best Dave

[davemckee]

ps All gauges are recognized and work with the OC gauge test program. Dave

Another ps, I now have the OC CDU working. I had downloaded the newer version of SIOC (4.01). I got so mad that I uninstalled it and reinstalled the older version (3.something) and as soon as did the CDU isback to working fine again. Now to the gauges.