Work in progress with MCP and radios

Last weekend I began the building of the new panel with MCP, EFIS and radios I bought from CPFlight.

The panel is composed of a box of 64x17 cm to be positioned below the left monitor. In the upper side of the box there will be the EFIS then the MCP. At the bottom, from left to righ, XPNDR, COM, ADF VOR. 

At the present the scheleton of box is completed and the elictrical components are in place. There will be one button for turning ON/OFF the electronics and a two poles switch button for upgarding the firmaware without insering the 2 dip switches in the rear side of the MCP by hand. In this way the firmaware can be upgraded without moving the panel.

At the right upper side of the front panel there is less space then I initially supposed: only  a 8x6 cm little panel. I will put there the master switch, the GA and the button to switch between auto and manual setting of the VOR for the capitain.

In the first step this panel will be empty but ready for the replacement with the panel with the buttons.

For the GA button I have found at conrad a little squared button that can be reasonably used. It has no led on board and so it can't be back lighted. 

The master switch is the most complex button because it has more then one led, at least a red and a yellow one for caution and warning. Till now I have found no button like that on the market. Of course it is sold by specialised web sites but it is very expansive.

The button to switch between manual and automatic VOR tuning can be one of the button (with a green led) I have already used for the light panel.

I am currently investigating the way to build the master switch and korry buttons. I subscribed to mycockpit forum and ther I have found some interesting solution. I will create a new post later with some good solution.

Refactoring of the MCP/EFIS/RADIOS panels

It seems that next week I have to put all my stuff out of the shelf :(

I'll take the chance to fix the not working button of the light panel. At the same time I want to change the setup of the MCP, EFIS and radios. Current setup was in fact a temporary solution that is in place for more then one year. 

The idea is to create a wodden frame having the MCP and the EFIS in the upper side and the 4 radio modules at the bottom. If I have enought space, I will insert some controls in the upper side of the panel. I am thinking of the master switch and GA button or the annunciators or something else. The new panel, painted in RAL 7043, will be placed below the 2 monitors, where the MCP and EFIS are at the present. Giving that I already have at home all the wood I need, i guess that this remake will last for some days only. 

At the end, I will have the left side free for new panels and space on the left for e new panel that I am designing right now.

My idea for this new panel and for the following is to be modular. I mean that frame of the panel will be fixed and sub-panels will be mounted. In this way it will be possible to unmount a sub panel for upgrading or fixing without the need of open everything. Actually, this is nothing new...

Beside this refactoring, I am thinking of a new panel to put on the right side of the MCP/radios panel. I ahve thought a little bit on what controls I have to put in and I am now focused on the engines startup, the gera lever and myabe the flap. I have brosed the net for componets and I have found a gera for the 767 for 280EUR. It is crazy so I am going to build my gear level from scratch and depending on the result I will build a flap lever too.

I am quite disappointed fro the prices of hardware components on the net. Specialised web sites have crazy prices and I am probably not the best to browse electorinc web sites...

IVAP moved in the laptop

Excited by having the hardware connected to the laptop, yesterday I moved IVAP from my desktop in the laptop. Just to be a little more clear (and repetitive): I run FSX in the desktop while opencockpit hardware (the light panel for instance) is connected to a Dell laptop.

The installation went quite smoothly apart that I had to install SimConnects in the laptop. But even this step was quite easy and automatic.
Initially I decided to have all the IVAP subprocesses running in the laptop but the connection with IVAO did not respond. I ended up having in the desktop only the GUI and the IVAO connection while all the rest runs in the laptop.

Surprisingly the IVAO traffic was immediately there, all the hardware (OpenCockpit and CPFlight) worked as usual as well as TeamSpeak for voice communications.

I still have to try with a full online flight to double check if the engine weather works well. By turning the encoders of CPFlight MCP it seems that it now reacts much better.
What is not satisfatory is that the online traffic that is not smooth enough: I have to check connecting the laptop through an RJ45 instead of the wireless.

Moens, the author of IVAP, does not warranty about increasing of performances having IVAP running in a separate windows box in connection with FSX. From this point of view my PC is too old and slow to give definite results but if my CPFlight hardware is more responsive than it means that the performances are better then before.