Landing Gear Indicator Lights

As I am trying to get the MIP and the glareshield area finished up a bit, I did the simple task of wiring up the landing gear position annunciator lights.  This stuff is similar panel to panel to the stuff I showed on the glareshield annunciator lights in Part 35.

Here are three more Flight Deck Solutions annunciator light units with LEDs mounted with a bunch of clear silicone and ready to go.  Again, there are two LEDs in each one (with the common grounds tied together), but in this case unlike the glareshield ones, the two LEDs are different colors to be driven independently:  one red one for "in transit" and and one green for "down and locked".




An important point that I have made before but I'll make it again here ..... FROST THE LEDs!  I use a file to dull off the domed end and then 220 grit silicon carbide paper to frost the plastic of the LED.  This difuses the light in the annunciator for a far more even overall glow.  I also used wide dispersion LEDs for these lights.




Below I am soldering the common (green) ground wires for the three units together for connection to the Phidgets 8/8/8 interface card.  Two of the outputs of this card were already used (see Part 35) for the Master Caution and Master Warning LEDs....so now all 8 outputs are running something.




The Cat 5 cable that will link the parts together hanging out of the MIP.





And below... after configuring the outputs to be on at the correct times in the FS2Phidget software ...... we FINALLY have "three green".    I'll add the legend plates on the fronts of these annunciators later.



As the gear cycles, these lights go red or green independently to match the rate of travel specified in the aircrafts cfg file for each gear unit.  So they do not all go on and off at the same time... there is some "lag" as would be the case in a real aircraft.  I will also assign a simple sound file to the nose gear one to make a more distinct "thunk" at the ends of the travel....... that will come out of speakers in the floor; the nose wheel would be felt a bit in the cockpit... but not the rear wheels.. 

More as it happens...........

best,

..........................john

Hi John.

You are really looking good, but if I may point out one item to you. The gear handle of the 146, the end where you have what looks like a small white wheel is a red lamp in the shape of a main wheel. Imagine what you have, but red plastic with a couple of lights inside (in the real world they blow quite often and it is right fiddle to change them) If memory serves me (I have been off the aircraft for 4 years now) it illuminated when the gear was in cycle (but don't quote me)

Matt

its looking great!

what tools and things do you use to make sure each componant works like it should in the sim?

machineman9 wrote on Aug 9^th, 2007 at 5:04pm:


machineman,

Good question.  A lot depends on what you mean by "each component".  If a component is say a LCD monitor... then you need a computer to drive it.     If you are talking electronics at a really serious level (components inside a monitor) ... a testbed of equipment would include stuff like osiloscopes and frequency analyzers and all sorts of sophisticated goodies.  But for 99.999999% of the stuff...... it is FAR easier than that.

Probably 95 percent of the "components" are switches or rotary encoders.  4 percent are "off the shelf" modules that either work or don't.  The last 1 percent is........ ??????

For that a basic multimeter unit that allows you to test AC and DC voltages, resistance, continuity, amperage, and so on is asbsolutely indespensible.

A simple 9V DC battery with a set of alligator clips attached to the + and - poles for testing certain non-computer circuits. 

A simple home constructed "test light" that consists of a set of aligator clips to which you've added a red LED and a current limiting resistor.

That likely will get you most of what you need.

Add in a good soldering iron, good wire strippers, small needle nose pliers, tiny diagonal cutters, and an assortment of phillips and blade screwdrivers.

For building the rest of the wood stuff..... a circular saw, a sabre or jig saw, a good drill with a wide assortment of bits including countersink ones and hole saws, and good straightedges and measureing tapes and rulers.

If I think of more stuff... I'll post it.

best,

......................john

machineman,

Please... take the time to go back to that listing I gave you.  in that is almost a "step by step" explanation of how to build a pit from the ground up.

In there you will see how to connect "lights".  There are different ways based on different outcomes. 

Building something like a pit is almost as complicated as designing and wiring a REAL plane at times  .

best,

..................john

JBaymore wrote on Aug 4^th, 2007 at 11:55pm:


Welcome to Guatemala, John!     Hope you like your stay here! Drop by the house, so I can invite you to a couple of beers!  

Good to see a simv fellow (virtually) landing in this remote corner of the world! How did you liked the approach?

As for the pit, I´m sure you have read this many times, but I´ll repeat it: AMAZING!!!!!!    

Thanks again for the help and info!

Cheers!


Frank.


P.S. I know that you were doing the VOR approach, but I noticed that your nav is tuned to 110.2  Just for info, i you want to give it a try, the ILS for MGGT RWY 01 is 110.1 

On to Part 37 : http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1191629393