MIP and Christmas

[Flying_Fox]

What MIP and Christmas have in common? 

Yes, MIP may look like lit up Christmas tree:




Yet there is another more direct connection.
My MIP that I bought had annunciator boxes  but no LED lights/panels. So I needed some DIY solution. And I bought nice panels from Opencockpits. Then, for the actual LEDs I turned my eyes to cheap and inexhaustible source - Christmas lights. 










The leds from Christmas lights are typically for 3.1-3.6 v, so they will not work well with FDS cards - they will be too dim. But they are perfect solution for those who use Pokeys cards, however Pokeys itself can guarantee only 4 ma current per output, so LED lights need LED extension board that can be build yourself, like I did:



or such board can be bought from www.flightsimparts.eu

Note also, that Pokeys card outputs need a common plus, not ground. In case of using LED extension boards the outputs go through ULN2803A chip then limiting resistor (560 Ohm in my case for +12v) then through DB-25 cable to MIP that has common +12 connector for LEDs.
Another detail is that Opencockpits annunciator LED panels have pair LED connection in series, not in parallel like FDS cards do.

I actualle had to rework my FDS 6-packs when I decided to replace LEDs in them to the ones from Christmas lights. I had to reverse the LEDs so they could have common + instead of common ground. Those 6-pack LEDs are powered from dedicated 5-volts LED Extension board (with 120 Ohm resistors), as well as AFDS single LED lights.







So, this is how Christmas lights are connected to MIP. 
Now would be a good time to get them on sale. 

P.S. BTW, I now have unused FDS SYS4X card for sale, if anybody interested.  (Update: card SOLD)

[markfire]

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