total newb question

[Buddym]

when you say tutorial, do you mean from scratch? If so, panel dimensions are ez enough to get, layout is simple, and if you use the OpenCockpits stuff there are a couple of examples on the website using SIOC. I think Brian W. here finished his radio panel not long ago, using IOCards software if I remember correctly. My panel is not finished yet, but I have tested all of the peices using IOCards software. I forget, are you doing a Boeing or Airbus? Mine is the multi-radio style Airbus and I have 2 5-digit PCBs, one for stby and one for active. I have several pushbuttons for selecting the radio funstion I want to display or change, and one to toggle act/stby. I only have one rotary encoder, so I will either use the bushbutton in the encoder to switch from whole units to decimals, or get an encoder card that can read the dual-shaft encoder I got from cockpitsonicusa (they have been very helpful, even though I have only purchased an encoder and knobs). The dual encoder has a different output format and cannot connect directly to the OC mastercard. The overall scheme is that you use the pushbuttons to select a radio function, andthat radio becomes the "radio" that the panel displays and changes. It should work fine, but I do intend to build an additional panel with an LCD display that will show all of the radio frequencies at the same time to augment the multi-radio.

Look here for some more tips:
http://www.opencockpits.com/modules....ownload&cid=54

If you decide to make your own panel drop me a line and I will send you a panel layout if you want. I bought mine from a company that is no longer around. Too bad too, it's a nice panel.

BuddyM

[djcevera20]

buddy that would be great if you could send me a panel layout as i do want to build my own. you could send it to timgoodwinjr@comcast.net if you like. thanks again. oh yeah and thanks for the link.

[djcevera20]

another quick question....i have not yet tested my controls in fs however i have tested them using the oc software my question is i noticed i have a toggle switch connected to input oo1 and when using the oc software i flip the toggle and the 001 shows then flip it again it disapears now when i set this toggle to a command say i put it to the beacon when i flip the switch in the fs because it is a toggle is the program going to think i am holding down the key and it is going to turn the beacon on and off and on and off..... or does the master card just sends a pulse? sorry if i am being vauge

[Buddym]

in the software definition for the switch there is a type field you use to identify the switch at pushbutton type or toggle type. that sounds like what you are experiencing.


BuddyM

[djcevera20]

thank you buddy you are a wealth of knowledge....there for i have another question for you. you can tell me to shut up at any time i know i must be getting a little iritating...but what type of switch would i use say for a tranponder panel i know i would use an encoder to change my freq but what would i use to switch from standby to xpndr/ra/tcas and so forth...how would i wire this switch as well...if you can answere this one you truely are the man

[Buddym]

I am more than happy to offer help...just keep in mind that I am hardly the man on this forum, Nico, Brian,etc.... too many to mention in fact are way better at this than I am, and certainly have more knowledge. I suspect that I just have more time in front of the keyboard than they do, which enables me to offer my opinions more often. I am sure you have already found errors in my responses but are to polite to tell me! Which aircraft did you say you were building?

Anyway, I have seen some use a rotary switch to change functions, and I have seen some use a pushbutton switch for each function. I bet someone like Nico can do it with a pair of pushbuttons or a rotary encoder, being that he is proficient with SIOC. On the multi-radio setup I have a seperate pushbutton for each radio function, like nav1, nav2, com1, etc. Each switch is wired to an input and ground. Pushing the button causes the input to see the switch close and the software toggles the displays, rotary encoder(s), and act/stby toggle switch to reflect and act upon the FSUIPC offsets and IOcards variables for the selected function. An LED for each pushbutton could be connected to an output per button to indicate which radio is selected.Other panels like tcas and xponders could probably be wired in the same way.

Likewise, a single-pole, multi-position rotary switch could be setup to do the same thing, I think this is how the plug and play OC radio module works. Probably just change the switch type in the config. The upside here would be the position of the switch would indicate which function is selected and no LEDs are needed for that (saves outputs). I know Brian W has a recently operational radio (great looking unit too), perhaps he will read this and has additional input.

here's another scheme:
I havent tried it yet, but Nico (kiek) might know how, or if it even will work,

A group of 5 pushbutton switches for selecting different radios on a multi-radio will need 5 inputs. If you used an encoder and had software (probably SIOC) that could use the backward/forward signals to step through software variable values that indicate which radio is selected you would only use 2 inputs. You would still need LEDs to indicate which radio is selected, but it seems to me that saving inputs is a good thing.

I hope any of this helps. As I mentioned before, seek additional input from the veterans here when possible because I get things working, but there's usually a better way than mine. I am still working on my FCU and have only tested my multi-radio in sections on the bench, it's not even whole yet!

BuddyM

[djcevera20]

Ok I think I might understand this say I use a 12 pos switch to toggle from standby to xpndr I wire pole 1 to input #1 and pole 2 to input #2 and say the offset fr standby is just for sake 123 and the offset for xpnd is 1234 in the config io cards program I would set the values to correspond to the switch say when pole 1 is contacted it is putting the radio in standby and if I change to pole 2 the radio switches to xpnd??? Please correct me if im completely wrong. Can I just use simple 0 and 1 values for these in the onkey off key fields in the program….as you can tell ive decided to just stick with the oc programming rather than sioc…oh yeah and to answere your first question im basing this pit on the pmdg 737

[Buddym]

basically that's correct in theory, each pole selects a different function by way of the input and software funtion programmed for each pole.

[djcevera20]

has anyone built there own pcb for 7 seg displays im trying to figure out a way to connect 3 displays and limit the wire mess!! kenair had a cool idea by adding a connection bord directly to the display card but i need a way to connect the displays together ie piggy back the a thru g connections on the displays themselves...woooo hoooo starting to go crazy.....

[Buddym]

I made a bus card similar to 1 I saw on another builders site, takes the segment leads and jumps them to several other identical sets of idc pins, then each digit board plugs into 1 of those, and then the appropriate digit lead is connected for each digit, directly to the display card. I know what you mean with the wiring mess! I thought about making a pcb or backplane out of perfboard with sockets to plug the digits boards into. With some care it would actually work well to integrate that function onto the same perfboard that I have for the LED backlighting. Only issue would be distance from the sockets to the panel, since I made my own panel and the switches and encoders mount directly onto the panel. Like many others here, I have designed the PCBs for such things, but don't end up ordering them due to the cost, although as of late the cost has gone down quite a bit. If we all made the same plane/panels/etc we could co-op...alas...no 2 cockpits alike!

BuddyM