Landing Gear Help

[ahmed123]

O.k, so my plan is to build an a320 flight sim and so far I've obtained the flight stick. Next, I'm going to build the landing gear, but, I really suck at this so I was wondering if my idea would work. So I would have a lever and two leaf switches. Whenever you moved the lever up (to bring up wheels) it would hit a leaf switch, telling the computer to move it up. Then, when you move it down, it does the same thing except the wheels go down. My set of questions are: How do I wire this to work? And here is a question that I would just like to know in general After I have build the landing gear (or any component), how would I build it so that it would connect to the computer. Like how do I make it VIA USB. And, How do I program the Landing gear.

Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate your time!

[Buddym]

Hi ahmed123,

I built my own landing gear lever assembly and love it. I have alos built my own interface boards, although already had both the OpenCocpits boards and Leo Bdnar's excellent card. the tutorial for building the landing gear assemble is here on this site, and has some good photographs. I will see if I can find a link to it.

EDIT: here is the link to the tutorial:
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php/160-Building-a-Landing-Gear-Switch-and-Lever-Assembly-by-Buddy-Mooneyhan-(BuddyM)


Depending which interface card you use proramming the gear up/down functions can be quite easy. Leo's card shows up in Windows as a second joystick interface and you can program the functions directly in FS.

Buddy

[ahmed123]

Cool thanks, but, after I wire all of the landing gear together, i'm left with bare wires and this brings me back to my original question. How do you connect it VIA USB

[AK Mongo]

Connect the wires to the input card of your choice. Buddy mentioned a couple in his post. One wire to positive, one to ground. Plug the card into your USB port.

Problem solved.

Reid

[dc8flightdeck]

Another good card for beginners to wire switches is the KE-108. http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/products/ke_usb108.html

It connects to your USB port and lets you connect 108 switch imputs. Use their easy software to assign either a Flightsim keyboard command or a joystick command to the input that you wire your switch to.

[Buddym]

Yupp, all good cards. They are the piece in the middle that you use to get from the wires on the leaf switches to the USB connector on the PC. Go find Leo Bodnar on google and you will find links to his great cards.

If you are in a cash-pinch, go to yard-sales and thrift stores and find an old USB joystick, take it apart and wire the switches in place of the original switches in the joystick. For at least the first attempt at getting some stuff working I don't think you can do better than Leo's cards. They are SO easy to use, have great support, easy spring-loaded connections, and no software to install or configure.

The OpenCockpits cards are great because the Mastercard and a USB expansion card get you lots of inputs AND outputs (for lighting up LEDs and such). They are a little more complex to get going because they require software to be installed and configured. The trade off is the flexibility they offer.

If you are handy with electronics like to buld all of your parts, the MJoy project is super cheap to build and offers some great performance. Like Leo's cards there is no software to install, it shows up in Windows as a USB joystick with lots of inputs, including axis for use with pots for analog controls like throttles, etc.

Again, in my humble opinion, even if you decide to go with something like the Opencockpits cards later, you can't go wrong starting out with Leo's cards, they just work and are a great product.

[ahmed123]

Well I have the time, so I was thinking I hook up the bear wires to the buttons on the joystick because the card seems a bit expensive. Then I could just plug in the joystick and set the button on the joystick to the one that raises or lowers the landing gear.

what do you think?

[dc8flightdeck]

That depends on your soldering skills.

[birdyguy]

Also, Claus Hansen has a tutorial with pictures on his website of a Boeing type Gear lever that he built himself. His site addy is here: http://www.737sim.dk/index.html
Very informative site.

All the best

Ed

[Buddym]

I tell ya, the card only seems expensive until you run out of buttons on the joystick. Plus, the ease of connecting it to your switches can't be beat. But, connecting to the joystick will work, no dount about it. If you are building an A320, how far do you plan to go? There's a TON of inputs and outputs required just on the GLARE section. I mean a TON.

Buddy

[ahmed123]

So let me get this straight, if I buy this card, I can just solder on some switches and buttons? But is there a need to program them all?

[tankist80]

yes of course. otherwise how will the sim know what it supposed to do upon sensing the input.

[Buddym]

Well, the Windows OS knows about the card, it sees it as a joystick. Inside the F/S application you must configure the individual switches to trigger some action, like raising or lowering the landing gear. It's more of what I would refer to as configuration, rather than programming. You don't actually have to write any code, or play with any software like SIOC. No other software program or driver is required, just F/S. If you currently use a USB joystick the new card is configured EXACTLY like you existing joystick, it just shows up in F/S as an additional controller.

In F/S when you go into SETTINGS you will see the Controls panel. In the Conrols panel you click on Assignments, then you select a function from the Assignment list and click on Change Assignment. At this point you press the desired button on your joystick or new controller card and F/S assigns this button to perform the function. That's all there is to it.

[Burkhard]

Hi guys,
i make also my Landing Gear Lever self.
It´s not so hard.
Look Homepage by Landing Gear Lever your found pictures and drawing

www.Homecockpit-737NG.blogspot.com
Burkhard