gear up gear down

[Radar]

That is very true if you are using LED's powered from the board.

For 28VDC you need a DP switch. One side for signal, one side for power if it is supposed to light a lamp.

Oh no! Mr Skunk has me all confused again!!! Just kidding almost.

So, the switch that I use will depend on if i'm going to add lights to the system?

THKS Mike

[Bob Reed]

Well to be honest, most of the lights that need to be lit in a 737 can be lit by an offset from with in FS so there is no need to have the switches light the lights directly. When you throw the switch FS sees it and turns the light on for you. Example... Your gear handle. Push it to the up position and FS says hey the landing gear is going up. So FS turns off the green lights and turns on the red lights... Your interface does all that work for you. Now there is a little work involved but do not worry about that yet. Just get your handle built and your interface on the way and we will go one step at a time. In fact I am going to order some switches tomorrow so I will peek around and see what I think you might want to get.

[Westozy]

Hi Bob, I would be very interested in learning how to get my ldg gear lights to operate if you know how.

Cheers, Gwyn

[Trevor Hale]

Hi Bob, I would be very interested in learning how to get my ldg gear lights to operate if you know how.

Cheers, Gwyn

LOL, Of coarse he knows how Do you have an output board for your simboards yet Gwyn?

[Bob Reed]

Hi Gwyn. Trevor is right, do you have an output board? That is what is needed.

[Westozy]

Neg, but I'll put it on the wish list!

Finished painting all the bitmaps for the 737 Overhead, I will post them to Matt on CD to put on the site soon.

Gwyn

[Michael Carter]

There are other ways around having the gear lights sequence properly without bothering FS or even using anything connected to the computer at all.

Output cards will not drive aircraft 28VDC Korry indicators. Even if you changed the bulbs to 5VDC (which they don't offer) the current requirement would kill the board.

A relay card could be used with an output card for this purpose at added expence, but I've found the solution below to be cheaper and easier with no programming required. It is independent of FS and the computer.

This is an afternoon project using a minimal of parts. Eliminating a couple of resistors will provide 12VDC to the indicator lamps, and they do offer 12V replacements for those.

http://www.simprojects.nl/gear_up_down_indicator.htm

If you are building a newer aircraft you can pretty much stick with the output cards to drive LED's. Most of the indicators and switch lights are smaller and don't require the brightness or 'in-your-face' illumination found on many older jets using the older Korry indicators. Besides Korry, there are several other manufacturers that Boeing and Airbus are now using for thier indicators and switches.

Back in the day, there were very few push button switches in a Boeing. Attendant call, test buttons for the CVR, and a few others. The majority were all toggle switches, even the lamp test switch. Nowdays, a Boeing is full of push buttons. It's difficult to find as many toggle switches as on the older planes.

All of those new push button switches are using LED's.

[Bob Reed]

Hi Boeing, you are right about there are other ways to light them but I have 12 volt bulbs for them (Korrys) and I have no trouble lighting them with my card. Most of the cards you supply the power to the Korry and all the card does is the ground. With my interface makes no difference on the voltage because I supply it be it bulb or led, or buzzer or whatever... Also on a couple Korrys I have replaced the bulbs with leds...

[Michael Carter]

Bob, are you using a common ground for both signal and voltage?

Please tell me a little more aout this wiring. I'd be really interested.

[Bob Reed]

Lets use the led as an example. + side of the power supply (voltage only matters to whatever you are trying to turn off and on) to the + side of the led. - side of the led to the interface board. On this input for my board there is also a 330ohm resistor since I am feeding my leds 5volts. This drops me down to a little over 2.5volts at the led. Now this same principle works with anything the interface needs to turn on and off. Most of the interfaces I have seen out there work the same way. Some of them can supply power but as long as the only active part is the ground you could still supply your own voltage.