Tutorials
Building the Opencockpits COMM
Building the Opencockpits NAV
Building the Opencockpits ADF
Building the Opencockpits XPDR
Radio Pedestal Circuit Diagram
Backlighting the Opencockpits MCP
Simple and Cheap Home-Made Panels
December 2008 Builder of the Month
mode control panel
The Mode Control Panel (hereafter called the MCP) is central to the operation of all sophisticated aircraft. The most commonly available hardware version is the 737MCP from various manufacturers at various prices. As I am an advocate of Opencockpits hardware I decided to purchase their version. It helped that their's was also the cheapest! When it arrived I was a little apprehensive as to the difficulty in getting it operational in the simulator, but as it turned out I needn't have worried. It was simply a case of plugging it into a USB port, loading the cofig file in SIOC, and starting Flight Sim. Below are some pics of the beast in action.
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This plug & play device is fully built and ready to plug into an available powered hub.
Download the SIOC file to run this unit. |
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The only drawback with this hardware is that it doesn't come with backlighting and it's going to be a tight fit retrofitting backlighting between these circuit boards, but not impossible. Download my complete tutorial on backlighting the MCP. |
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The grey cable is the USB lead but there's also a separate 5v power cable which is recommended if you intend to run the device direct from your computers USB outputs. If you run if off a powered hub you don't need to connect this. |
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This is a modification I made in order to activate the pushbutton component of the 5 rotary encoders (grey cables for switches, lower black cables are the backlighting). These aren't wired by default so I connected them to a terminal block and then to spare inputs on my OC Mastercard. These will be needed for the 777 MCP functions. You can also see the mass of LED cables out the bottom for the backlighting. |
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All bolted in and running in the sim. Here you can see the default 737-800 loaded for testing purposes however it works equally well with most other aircraft. |
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NOTE: Some aircraft designers code specific autopilot functions within their aircraft for greater realism as appose to utilizing the default functions available in FS. Case in point being the Flight1 PC12 and Mustang along with a raft of others. My investigations have proven that the Opencockpits MCP will control the aircraft as programmed but some of the selections may not actually display on the aircraft panel itself. Eg: On the Flight1 PC12 if you set an altitude and climb rate on the OC MCP these values won't be displayed on the aircrafts EADI however the aircraft will climb and level as per the MCP settings. It obviously talks to FS but not the aircraft panel.
To configure the device, simply load the text file "IOCards_FS2004.txt" into SIOC and compile it as an .ssi file. Edit the SIOC.ini file to load the above file and voila! Whenever you run SIOC.exe this file will run with all the required parameters to run the MCP in any aircraft you like. |
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Of course if you already have a .ssi file with all your other OC hardware parameters then you'll have to incorporate the functions in the above text file in order for them to run together. |
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The operation of the encoders is a joy to behold! They are so smooth and accurate. It's definitely a worthwhile purchase no matter what aircraft you fly. |
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