hardware interface cards - iocards

Have a good look at the Opencockpits website and study up on their many interface cards. They are really quite simple and cost effective and there's lots of help via the forum if you get stuck. For an in depth study of SIOC programming, particularly related to the Level D 767 check out Nico Kaan's site, and this site is also worth studying.

I won't go into any construction detail here as the Opencockpits website has comprehensive instructions along with all the other helpful sites that have used their cards. Below is just a bit of a look at what I have used and the In/Out connector cards I built.

The Master Card is the heart of the sims interface. It controls 72 digital inputs (toggle, momentary and some rotary switches), and 64 digital outputs (to drive led's etc.). It has a bus to connect up to 4 display cards for 7 segment displays, and connects to the PC via a 25 pin parallel port or a USB Expansion card.

 

For greater flexibility the USB Expansion card is a must. It allows you to connect up to 4 Master cards to one USB port and includes 4 A/D converters for added analogue axis.

 

 

Master card on the right, and USB card on the left. Both mounted in an old PC box with power supply hooked up to provide power to the master card. Also mounted in here will be the Keyboard Encoder and USB Axis cards.

 

 

A 5 axis analogue axis card with 24 buttons from Open Cockpits. I'm no longer using the axis on this card since purchasing the Bodner card below. I'm only using the 24 buttons for various switches such as the Audio Controller. Unlike the Bodner, unused axis must have a dummy load applied or else strange and wonderful effects happen on the card!

 

This card is one of the best value joystick cards around. It has 8 analogue axis, 32 buttons and a 4way HAT switch. I use it to control my 6 throttle quadrant levers and I use the buttons for various switches such as the EFIS controller. You can order it online from Leo Bodner. The other good thing about this card is that any unused axis are not recognised by the card so there is no need to connect a dummy load. The remaining two axis will eventually be used for Aileron and Rudder axis control.

USB Keys is a device that emulates the 88 keys of a standard PC keyboard. Switches can be connected via this interface to allow external activation of areas of the sim that are only simulated by the keyboard. I'm using several inputs for the TCAS controller. Momentary pushbuttons activate inputs which, when configured in the software, can be made to simulate and combination of keyboard keystrokes. I am using a combination of CTRL-SHIFT-?? to activate various options on the Reality-XP Jetline EFIS gauges. The SIOC applications handles these functions to the sim.

My homemade input connector card. Lots of wiring and soldering but at around $15AUD its a pretty cheap alternative and allows lots of flexibility with the many cables that will come into it. The wiring can get very messy due to the fact the the Master card inputs are not in sequential order, so I rearranged the order from the 40pin connector to a sequential order on the screw connectors. Opencockpits sell a pre-fabricated version on there website but it wasn't cost effective for me. Here you can also see my homemade rotary encoder wired up and tested on the PC12's coms panel.

This is a view of the rear of the input card. I chose to wire some on the rear to avoid lots of wires getting tangled on the top surface.

 

 

 

The front view of the output connector card. Much more tidy due to the sequential layout of the master cards outputs.

 

 

 

The rear view of the output connector card. Simple!

 

 

 

 

Bodner joystick card breakout board (left) and Open Cockpits board (right)