What Is The Best LED Output Board

[NeoMorph]

I'm now at the stage where I need to look for an output board for my annunciators... I've yet to count out how many LEDs I will need but I will probably have to do some fancy coding to get some of the annunciators working for the ATR 72-500.

So which board would you guys suggest. FDS sell a bunch of different boards which look good but there are others out there. The OpenCockpits IOCard is out though because I don't have a parallel port on any of my computers.

I really must tally up how many LEDs I am going to need.

[ETomlin]

The FDS boards are my favorite.

[jackpilot]

Ditto..FDS SYS cards.

[matta757]

Hey guys,

I was just looking at them... they look great. Is the software pretty easy to program? Too bad they don't make DC motor cards!

Matt

[andarlite]

The OpenCockpits IOCard is out though because I don't have a parallel port on any of my computers.

You don't need a parallel port ..... use the USB Expansion card .... it will allow you to connect up to 4 Master cards:

http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/expansion-card-p-37.html?cPath=21_30

Or if you aren't concern about inputs, use the USBOutputs card:

http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/usboutputs-p-122.html?cPath=21_44


Regards,
Henry

[jackpilot]

Hey guys,

I was just looking at them... they look great. Is the software pretty easy to program? Too bad they don't make DC motor cards!

Matt

Piece of cake to do.
There is a relay card too.

[saabpilot]

....my 10 cents....

FDS SYS Cards without doubts for B737 at least.
Works like a charm, supereasy to assign out and inputs.   

Bjorn

[XOrionFE]

FDS Syscard is by far the easiest I think and I have owned Open Cockpits cards in the past and I thought they were fantastic as well.   I think that if you want to have more flexibility in programming and in output voltages the Open Cockpits Outputs card is the way to go along with SIOC for programming language.   It is also a lot cheaper than a SYS Board from FDS.

That said, the FDS SYS Cards excel for ease of use for sure.   It is also nice that for using LEDs it already contains the resistors on board so you dont have to mess with them.

Scott

[jackpilot]

  That said, the FDS SYS Cards excel for ease of use for sure.   It is also nice that for using LEDs it already contains the resistors on board so you dont have to mess with them.

Scott

The no resistor factor is a huge plus  (in  reliablility also)  when you have to wire 100+ annunciators!

[NeoMorph]

You don't need a parallel port ..... use the USB Expansion card .... it will allow you to connect up to 4 Master cards:

http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/expansion-card-p-37.html?cPath=21_30

Or if you aren't concern about inputs, use the USBOutputs card:

http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/usboutputs-p-122.html?cPath=21_44

Hmmm... the more I look at the OpenCockpits system the more I like it... It even supports seven segment displays programmed by SIOC. The FDS boards seem to be easier but the OpenCockpits system seems more flexible... and it even supports DC motors... but some of the manuals are in spangliiish (when you use computers to translate from Spanish to English) so that's a bit of a problem... but hey, maybe I'll take up Spanish lessons as well heh.

Oh and cheap is good... I only get a disability pension you see.

A lot of this project is actually therapy for me... keeping my mind off of constant joint pain... So easy is actually what I don't want in one way, yet stress when I am confronted by a problem is just as bad. Catch 22.

My biggest problem is that John Russell says that some of the overhead annunciators aren't accessible from the Flight 1 ATR 72-500... Has to be a way of accessing them I would have thought. If not then buggeritbuggeritmilleniumhandandshrimp as Foul-ole-Ron would say. 

Edit: DAMNIT! I've got to go back to do a recount of LEDs on the ATR because I made a booboo... I forgot the damned Korry switches have 2 LEDs in each one.

[matta757]

Hey guys,

I was just looking at them... they look great. Is the software pretty easy to program? Too bad they don't make DC motor cards!

Matt

Piece of cake to do.
There is a relay card too.

Jack,

Pardon my ignorance, but what would the relay card be used for?

Matt

EDIT: just kidding, i found what you mean. FDS refers to using it for Engine Start switches, I am assuming they are talking about the ones the snap back into place?

[NeoMorph]

My guess is relay cards are used for things like high current motors like for a modded real throttle quadrant where the thing is going to suck juice like crazy.

One thing I never asked was servos... ie for gauges like a battery charge rate meter. I see OpenCockpits have a servo card for their system... I wonder how hard it would be to link that up too...