Help on mechanism for flaps switch!

[No Longer Active]

Hi All,

What is the best way to achieve the Cessna 172 flaps switch mechanism.

I'm looking at building a simple 4 position flaps switch, using a rotary switch, simply by adding a lever to the switch and selecting whatever position is required (i.e UP, 10, 20, FULL).

What rotary switch would be good for this mechanism? I am looking at this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-Pole-4-Position-Rotary-Switch-Non-Shorting-2pcs_W0QQitemZ250383771643QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET?hash=

If you look at the picture, there are an excessive amount of pins, how would you put this into perspective with the LeoBodnar board?

Would this work or not? If not, what other type is there available for this sort of thing.

Cheers!

Alex

[Jackpilot]

The flaps lever on a 172 has a gate, so each position is well physically defined.

You would be better off with a slider pot vertically mounted which axis you can calibrate with FSUIPC according to the position of the lever at each notch of the gate.

[KenK]

The potentiometer is a good idea. It is simple and would work great.

If you still want to use the switch here is one way to do it.

The switch has plenty of contacts and appears to have 30 degree detents (You should check this). The flap lever will then have 4 stops 30 degrees apart. These would be ready made detents.

You only need 1 of the 4 switch sections so you can ignore all the rest of the contacts on the switch.

Buy three 5K -1/2 W resistors from Radio Shack.

Hook 1 switch wiper to one of the analog inputs of the Bu0836 card.
Connect the resistor junctions to the switch poles as shown.
Connect the resistors to the +5v and gnd terminals of the Bu0836 card.

This will provide 4 voltage steps to the Bu0836 card analog input.
You can then set FSUIPC to activate one increment of flaps with each voltage step.

See picture attached

Regards Ken K

[renegade]

Hi Guys,

I did one with a potentiometer which you can calibrated later on with FSUIPC on the steps you want. I added also 4 leds of different color to clearly indicate the flaps position.

Renegade
www.aileszelles.be

[Buddym]

For physical detents I use a simple setup with a panel drilled with holes for each position of flaps/brakes/etc. Then I pivot a lever at the back and use an acorn nut aligned with the holes to hold it in place.


BuddyM

[ddimm]

You can also try using a radio shack toggle switch and hack and old joystick with leds already wired in. I used this for my C-172 sim project and calibrated the flap positions with FSUIPC. Most of the old Cessnas that I have flown just have a toggle switch for the flaps anyway.

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14964&highlight=flap+switch