PoKeys cards and 7-segment displays

[Wendy]

@Bernie,

The drawings are ready for the display mounting boards, but still have to make prototypes and test the pcb's, but to test I'll need displays and they haven't arrived yet. So as always in cockpit building it's waiting and waiting...



@Dion,

I'm using FSUIPC because this interface works also with FS9 and others while SimConnect works only with FSX. The tests I did with a SimConnect program was not that difficult but I have found it more complex in coding then FSUIPC.
As for now I'm not sure if I will be selling the displays.


Regards, Wendy

[dion73]

Hi Wendy,

thanks for the quick replies, i'll be looking forward to the upcoming products : )

dion

[Wendy]

Hello All,

Last weeks I have worked hard on this 7-segment system and it is time to give you an update. As I mentioned before you could drive 16 digits from 1 PoKeys card using 2 of my driver boards. Every board can drive 8 digits, you are free to use 5 and 3 or 4 and 4 or 3 and 5. By using 8 digits you only need 3 ports from the PoKeys. The second display card with 8 digits takes also 3 ports from the PoKeys.

Also available are the display mounting boards populated with KingBright SC36 11YWA. These are suited for all multiplexing systems.

As you all like pictures a lot, let me show you some pictures.

First picture is the board itself



Below you can see the full system connected with 2 driver boards and 16 digits, showing some of the different things you can display



Below are the display sets available in 3, 4 and 5 digits. 6 digits coming soon.



And last but not least, how to connect everything



Regards, Wendy

[dion73]

Hi Wendy,

i like the pictures : )
i am looking forward to implement your products into my flying machine!

kind regards,

dion

[fsaviator]

Hi Wendy,
I'm back to building and very interested in PoKeys (and Prosim). I'm about to pull the trigger on three 56U's when I start thinking... USB or Ethernet??? Can you run me through the PROs and CONs of each (56U vs 56E)(other than price)?

I've already got a stockpile of .36" Cathode LEDs... Do you offer just the boards?

Also, the webshop won't let me add the LED expansion boards to my cart. It gives an error with the shopping software.

Finally... If I were to use Pokeys to wire my overhead, how many would I be looking at needing?

Thanks, and I look forward to buying some cards.

Warren

[Wendy]

Hi Warren,

Basically both cards have the same possibilities. A few exceptions are that the ethernet version cannot do keyboard macros and that it needs a separate 5 Volt power supply. Mostly used are the USB versions.

For the pcb's please contact me directly or via PM.

Regards, Wendy

[threegreens]

Hi Wendy,

This may be a stupid question but I am new to this hobby...
I am considering building a comm panel with Pokeys, i.e I need two 5-digit freq readouts.
Since the first digit of the freq is a fixed 1, is there a way of driving it directly so that I could drive the remaining 4 digits of both sets with a single display driver board? I do realise that there might be a brightness issue because of the mpx system.

I am looking fwd to the driver board being available. Still February?

Regards

Philippe

[Wendy]

Hello Philippe,

Yes you could do that but you have to leave the first digit out of the multiplexing system and wire it separately.
The boards are available shortly, just waiting the software implementation.

Regards, Wendy

[amocave]

Hi,

I am not using Prosim so I am coding the displays directly on the Pokeys using X-Plane datarefs.

I have tried to code the main autopilot displays (heading, speed, altitude and vertical speed) with various datarefs but none seems to work.

I'm sure it is just my ignorance on choosing the correct datarefs and typing the correct syntax.

In the Pokeys.txt file I have tried the following code without much luck:

[34968]
MatrixLED=8,8
#AIR SPEED
MatrixLED1_Digit6=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/airspedd_dial_kts_mach,f,0,10,1,_
MatrixLED1_Digit7=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/airspedd_dial_kts_mach,f,0,10,2,_
MatrixLED1_Digit8=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/airspedd_dial_kts_mach,f,0,10,3,0
#
#MatrixLED1_Digit6=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/airspeed,f,0,10,1,_
#MatrixLED1_Digit7=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/airspeed,f,0,10,2,_
#MatrixLED1_Digit8=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/airspeed,f,0,10,3,0
#
#MatrixLED1_Digit6=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/airspeed_kts_pilot,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit7=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/airspeed_kts_pilot,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit8=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/airspeed_kts_pilot,f,0,10,3,0
#
#HEADING
MatrixLED2_Digit6=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,1,0
MatrixLED2_Digit7=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,2,0
MatrixLED2_Digit8=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,3,0
#
#MatrixLED2_Digit6=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit7=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit8=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,3,0
#
#MatrixLED2_Digit6=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/heading_AHARS_deg_mag_pilot,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit7=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/heading_AHARS_deg_mag_pilot,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit8=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/heading_AHARS_deg_mag_pilot,f,0,10,3,0
#
#MatrixLED2_Digit6=sim/cockpit/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit7=sim/cockpit/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit8=sim/cockpit/autopilot/heading_mag,f,0,10,3,0
#
#ALTITUDE
MatrixLED2_Digit1=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,1,0
MatrixLED2_Digit2=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,2,0
MatrixLED2_Digit3=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,3,0
MatrixLED2_Digit4=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,4,0
MatrixLED2_Digit5=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,5,0
#
#MatrixLED2_Digit1=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/altitude,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit2=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/altitude,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit3=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/altitude,f,0,10,3,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit4=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/altitude,f,0,10,4,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit5=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/altitude,f,0,10,5,0
#
#MatrixLED2_Digit1=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/altitude_ft_pilot,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit2=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/altitude_ft_pilot,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit3=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/altitude_ft_pilot,f,0,10,3,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit4=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/altitude_ft_pilot,f,0,10,4,0
#MatrixLED2_Digit5=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/altitude_ft_pilot,f,0,10,5,0
#
#VERTICAL SPEED
MatrixLED1_Digit1=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,1,0
MatrixLED1_Digit2=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,2,0
MatrixLED1_Digit3=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,3,0
MatrixLED1_Digit4=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/altitude_vnav_ft,i,0,10,4,0
#
#MatrixLED1_Digit1=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/vvi_dial_fpm,f,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit2=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/vvi_dial_fpm,f,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit3=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/vvi_dial_fpm,f,0,10,3,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit4=sim/cockpit2/autopilot/vvi_dial_fpm,f,0,10,4,0
#
#MatrixLED1_Digit1=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/vertical_velocity,i,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit2=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/vertical_velocity,i,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit3=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/vertical_velocity,i,0,10,3,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit4=sim/multiplayer/autopilot/vertical_velocity,i,0,10,4,0
#
#MatrixLED1_Digit1=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/vvi_fpm_pilot,i,0,10,1,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit2=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/vvi_fpm_pilot,i,0,10,2,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit3=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/vvi_fpm_pilot,i,0,10,3,0
#MatrixLED1_Digit4=sim/cockpit2/gauges/indicators/vvi_fpm_pilot,i,0,10,4,0

For the ADF and the transponder it works fine with the following code:

[33308]
MatrixLED=8,0
#TRANSPONDER CODE
MatrixLED1_Digit1=sim/cockpit/radios/transponder_code,i,0,10,1,0
MatrixLED1_Digit2=sim/cockpit/radios/transponder_code,i,0,10,2,0
MatrixLED1_Digit3=sim/cockpit/radios/transponder_code,i,0,10,3,0
MatrixLED1_Digit4=sim/cockpit/radios/transponder_code,i,0,10,4,0
#ADF FREQUENCY
MatrixLED1_Digit6=sim/cockpit/radios/adf1_freq_hz,i,0,10,1,0
MatrixLED1_Digit7=sim/cockpit/radios/adf1_freq_hz,i,0,10,3,0
MatrixLED1_Digit8=sim/cockpit/radios/adf1_freq_hz,i,0,10,2,0

Could you help me get the correct code to display heading, speed, altitude and vertical speed from the autopilot?

Thank you and regards,
Andre

[Wendy]

Sorry for my late answer but I was on a short holiday.

I'm afraid I cannot help you with the X-Plane datarefs, but there is a X-plane plugin that supports our 7-segment display driver boards. It was developed by the manufacturar of the Pokeys cards. You can find it http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=62459

Hope this helps, Wendy