Sismo IRS Panel - Anyone Have One?

[MistyBlue]

I recently bought a fully assembled Sismo IRS Display Unit for my Aft Overhead.  Nice piece of kit.  I also bought their SimCard MB, which I "thought" would be all I needed, and according to them it is.  The IRS panel has 3 ribbon cables:  40 pin, 20 pin, and 10 pin.  The SimCard has all 40 pin sockets.  So something is amiss. 

Anyone have the Sismo IRS Display Unit and if so, how did you hook it up?

[Ed]

Hi Everyone,

On my own accord I am removing my blurb about Sismo as it has no relevance in helping the posters issue and I dont want to start a wasteful thread on different users experiences with certain companies. If anyone cares to hear about my experiences with the above company they can ask in a PM.

Thanks for your understanding,

[ifeliciano]

Tony,


You might need to figure out the pin out or get an I/O board to go between the IRS and the Simcard Motherboard. 

[blueskydriver]

Hi Tony,

Okay, I looked at the info on the Sismo website and this is what a I think the problems are:

First, you have the IRS Display Unit (ISDU) Module, which is nothing more then 3 sections under the name of the module. Shown here:

https://sismo-soluciones.com/en/modules-idc-interface/126-irs-display-unit-isdu-module.html

So, you have this module and the sections are: A: Display Module, B: DSPL Panel Dual/Single and C: the Keyboard Panel. Look at page 3 here:

https://sismo-soluciones.com/en/index.php?controller=attachment&id_attachment=13

Now, the Display Module is basically the 7-segment displays that show numeric values and your 40 pin connector corresponds to each of these displays (number positions). Each display has 7 segments that when lit will make up the number (based on the value sent to it). Look at pages 4 & 5 of the same document and you will see the pin locations for each display and it's related segments.

Next, is the 10 pin connector that is for either a Dual or Single Rotary Encoder, which is basically a knob that you turn that has positions and each position has a connector pin location. So, looking at page 5 again, you can see which pin goes to which knob positon.

Moving on, you have the 20 pin connector that handles the keyboard/key number pad push buttons. Thus, on page 5 it shows which pin is for each key/number position, and for example key number 0 is pin number 5 of the 20 pin connector.

If you're still with me, please understand what they're doing here is just providing options. One option is to use the Sismo Electronic Backpanel AFT (the card you did not buy), which is simply a straight forward direct method of true plug and play. The other, what you chose, was to go indirectly with a Sismo SC-MB card. The SC-MB is more or less an input/output card that you can connect Sismo modules/hardware to or you can use other brand modules/hardware. The point is you get to choose what you connect too it, for example an Autobrake Panel from FDS has a rotary knob and knowing which pin of the knob goes where, you would directly connect your wire from each pin to the connector pins for the inputs on the SC-MB. Easy right?

Well, what if you have more hardware and not enough pins on the SC-MB? In that case, you would use the Sismo daughter boards that connect directly to the SC-MB and now, you would connect your hardware to the daughter boards pins, and you can use more then one daughter board at a time. If you think about it, that makes sense right, when you take into account all the knobs, buttons, switches and so on that are involved with a cockpit.

Okay, let me make the main point here, since you chose the indirect route, you must pretend your Sismo IRS Display Unit (ISDU) module is from a different company. You would plug your ribbon cable 40 pin, 20 pin, & 10 pin connectors into the ISDU as normal, but the other ends would need a way to connect to the SC-MB 40 pin connector pins. In other words, you would get 40 pin connectors with ribbon cables for the SC-MB, and then you cut each wire corresponding to the correct pins on the SC-MB and solder them to each wire corresponding to correct pins of the ISDU connectors.

Or, you can use Sismo's General Interface Card (GIC) V4 as the somewhat go between for SC-MB and the ISDU. Seen here:

https://sismo-soluciones.com/en/index.php?controller=attachment&id_attachment=67

Instead of soldering wires, you buy enough of the needed 40 pin connector/ribbon cables. The SC-MB has six 40 pin connectors, so get six 40 pin connector ribbon cables with 40 pin connectors on both ends or if you can buy them long enough, just buy three long ones and cut them in half too get six. You might not use all them, but you can in the future for other modules/hardware.

Anyway, what you would do is connect the 40 pin connectors to SC-MB, read the pin out locations from the SC-MB manual and connect the individual ribbon wires to the green screw-in connectors on the GIC V4, then you use the provided 40 pin, 20 pin and 10 pin connectors you got with the ISDU, and then plug them into the corresponding GIC V4 black connectors. The other ends will be plugged into the ISDU locations as normal.

I did not look at the I/O software side of this, but you will basically tell the I/O software what each pin is doing/assign it. You must read the manual for the SC-MB and the I/O software side, which you did not mention yet. You mentioned FDS hardware and likely, you know how to assign things with their I/O software, so it should not be too difficult.

The only other thing is which Avionics Software are you using? Project Magenta, Pro Sim, Sim Avionics or something else? You likely know this as well, but you will need too setup the Avionics Software to communicate with/to the SC-MB.

Respectively, I edited this post after PM's with Tony.

Kind Regards,

John

If you need further help PM me...

[MistyBlue]

Thanks all for the responses.  I retracted my comments about my experience with Sismo.  But I do feel a little more timely help up front could have been provided to explain the options based on my requirement.  Maybe I could have researched better, maybe I didn't communicate well enough, or maybe it was lost in translation.  Sismo also stated there were some bank holidays in there, so maybe that was part of it.  Doesn't really matter at this point.

What does matter is Sismo did provide a helpful reply today confirming what John says in his very detailed and helpful reply (thanks John!).  I need a Sismo GIC daughter card to provide the remaining connectors to make this IRS truly plug and play.  I could also follow John's suggestions if I don't want to go that route, but I think I'm just going to keep things simple and save some time by just going with the GIC card.

For what it's worth, I am using ProSim and a kind user on another forum provided me with the Sismo/Prosim setup doc I was looking for and couldn't find.  So things are falling into place.

And if anyone needs it, here's a very helpful diagram that Sismo provided showing how their various modules connect to the SimCard MB Ethernet.  Wish I had seen this from the beginning. 

Hope my experience helps others in a similar situation.

[blueskydriver]

Awesome! I am very happy things got sorted out for you and I am always glad to help a fellow builder 

John

[Joe Lavery]

John,
helping builders is one thing, but the in depth help you often provide to fellow builders I applaud you for.

The post above is a case in point, you are indeed  a shining light on this forum.

Best regards
Joe

[blueskydriver]

Thanks Joe, I appreciate that!

Although, I cannot take all the credit, because over the many years I was helped by the old timers like Maurice, Jack, Bob, Trevor, Scott, Rob, Mike Leavy, Warren, Sam, and many others on here, as well as by newer members that have taught me a thing or two. So, in return for their help, I try to pay-it-forward to other folks that need help...

John

[MistyBlue]

Just a follow-up on this topic.  I received the GIC card and plugged it in.  Had to test various ports on the GIC until I figured out what went where as the diagram I posted doesn't show specifically where to plug in.  No biggie.  Figured it out and documented it on my site (in my sig).

The provided Sismo ProSim scripts worked but they needed some massaging to get the displays to output what ProSim was showing.  I was able to get it pretty close now but did introduce a refresh flicker on the TK/GS setting due to how I had to re-write their scripts to perform properly.

Maybe the ProSim integrated drivers in ProSim 2.0 fix that.  We'll see.

[navymustang]

I am so curious about your scripts. A long time Sismo guy here and I use the compiled scripts that Sismo supplies for free. How did you "de-compile" the scripts so that you could edit them?

[MistyBlue]

I am so curious about your scripts. A long time Sismo guy here and I use the compiled scripts that Sismo supplies for free. How did you "de-compile" the scripts so that you could edit them?

I was having so much trouble figuring out why I couldn't get the displays to work that I asked them for a copy of the AFT overhead scripts to troubleshoot.  Not sure why they don't make them public but it was immensely helpful for me.

[navymustang]

Interesting - I was told they would only sell them. Not important anymore since Prosim v2 no longer requires them.

[MistyBlue]

Interesting indeed.  I'm concerned that the scripts weren't right in the first place (did you nfotice the IRS displays don't output data correctly on anything other than PPos?).  So I hope someone does a Quality Control check on them before importing them to v2.0.  I sent my updated scripts back to Sismo letting them know what I changed but never heard back.

[navymustang]

There not importing them - Prosim has direct control of the hardware totally eliminating the scripts.

[MistyBlue]

Sorry, meant to say when they integrate the scripts into 2.0 will they fix the display issues that are prevalent in the current scripts?  Guess we'll see.

[navymustang]

Just ran my sim and I get wind data on my IRS panel with Sismo equipment

[MistyBlue]

The data comes through fine.  It just wasn't being formatted properly for me.  Compare what ProSim virtual overhead shows to what you see on the IRS display.  Do they match for every IRS selector setting?  ProSim outputs raw, unformated data.  The Sismo scripts then need to take that data and format it properly.

For example, on the TK/GS setting I might see 293.2 on the ProSim virtual overhead, but the hardware display is showing 2932 (no decimal), and the GS shows 004 on the virtual overhead but 4 on the IRS GS display (no leading zeros).

If yours works, awesome!  Mine didn't so I had to tweak the scripts to match what ProSim was showing on-screen to what I was seeing on the hardware.

[navymustang]

I stand corrected !!!

never ran the panel software and you are right - the Sismo panel does not match the Prosim virtual panel. Thanks for pointing that out. Let's see what happens on Monday :
Thanks again

[fsaviator]

So I'm watching this thread with interest...  I THINK my IRS panel is a Sismo one.  I haven't unpacked either overhead and I never got around to interfacing it.  I'm hesitant to open the box as I'll get sucked into this and other things will fall by the wayside.
Please keep posting your findings though as I'll eventually get to it.

[Sam Llorca]

I like Sismo Overhead system, three wires to hook up, two power ones and one Ethernet wire, I have an unused platinum F/O, seating on my warehouse shelf that is about two years old,   if anyone is interested send me a pm please.