Building an inexpensive FCU for Airbus A320

[No Longer Active]

Hi All.

Recently I have been following some tutorials on flying the Wilco Airbus A320 and has flown (quite badly) some of the tutorial flights. I am just using a stick and pedals and was wondering if its possible to build an in-expensive FCU / EFIS unit for a more hands free experience. I am certainly not looking to build anything such as a replica or anything with displays, just some plexi with some rotary encoders and switches maybe. I am not building an airbus cockpit so I really don't need or want to spend much at all. I would like to achieve some sort of generic panel to use instead of mouse clicking. I know that I can create mouse macros within FSUIPC to assign functions to buttons, but I have not done this before so was curious if anyone has done anything similar?

Kind regards.

Alex

[Avro748]

Wilco? Wilco? WILCO?!

I'm sure your flying skills are better than Wilco's addon developer skills.

If you want to make a simple switchbox, there's a great set of beginner tutorials that can be adapted to your needs here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTHg-X6eA-4

If you are a true beginner, watch the video entitled "All About Switches" as well.

Mount your panel in front of a monitor, and use Notepad (or FS Panel Studio) to place the instruments.

If you're from Europe, use one of Bodnar's boards instead of the one he mentions.

[al3xfoster]

Hi Alex

When I started out with building bits for simming I built a little panel for controlling the parts of the airbus.

A little video:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chicofrostie/5126706392/

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1216/5126988272_9d7aa6e39e.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/chicofrostie/5126988272/)
Prototype Desktop Sim - Pic3 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/chicofrostie/5126988272/) by chicofrostie (https://www.flickr.com/people/chicofrostie/), on Flickr

[No Longer Active]

Hi All.

Well I have designed my FCU and Captain's EFIS and I am going about it this way...for ease and cheap cost.

Panel being printed as a decal and then being applied to the top layer of a 3 layer assembly.

Buttons and encoders being mounted to the 2nd layer and and 3 layer provides depth.

I am using just cheap square black push buttons. Nice and simple and easy to make.

Panels are being laser cut as we speak.

More to come

(By the way Alex your panel looks fab... :) )

9196

[OmniAtlas]

Have you tried jeehell'a FMGS?

[No Longer Active]

Hi Omni Atlas

I have not tried it, however I am fully aware of it, but not sure exactly how it works or what it does. It comes across as a complex topic due to the ever ongoing discussion / posts on the matter that I see on Mycockpit every day. I have the Wilco Airbus Series as a graphical add-on, and rather for fun, followed the tutorial and got quite into it. I am not 100% how I would use Jeehell or where to begin, hence being very unfamiliar with it.

I know with Wilco I can create mouse macros to hook up switches and rotaries to a DIY fcu but again not sure how you go about building hardware for Jeehell Platform, maybe you could elaborate in simple terms what it is all about and what it does, and rather more importantly how I would use it.

Many thanks in advance.

Thanks you.

Alex

[OmniAtlas]

Hi Alex,

FMGS is built specifically for cockpit builders -- the problem with using wilco is that its a real drag on your resources because it has to render unnecessary parts of the aircraft (such as a 3d cockpit). Jeehell FMGS is primarily concerned with simulating the systems of the airbus, and it does so very very well (and free!).

There are also other advantages of using FMGS -- including being able to use the software over a network (so you're not dependent only on one computer), hardware support (including open cockpit, skalarki, etc), evolving software which is updated very frequently (a few times a month!).

Check it out on the website http://fmgs.co.nr/

You have nothing to lose, and there is a great community right on this forum (check out the jeehell section) if you have any questions :)

[No Longer Active]

Thanks for your informative reply.

I will definitely give it a look and read the manual. I was wondering though how DIY hardware is linked to the system as I am building my own fcu, I assume the offsets are available and scripting will provide the comms from software to hardware?

Again thanks for the reply!

----------------------------------------------------

EDIT: I have just read some of the manual and I think I am getting the hang of the idea, really surprised to see it as a complete system, unlike many other addons. It almost comes across as a flight sim system within FS which is truly quite amazing really, especially this being free, I cant understand why cockpit builders are not building the A320. Its quite remarkable really!

[Avro748]

Removing the vc is very important, I did some hex editing to remove it from the HS748.

[OmniAtlas]

Thanks for your informative reply.

I will definitely give it a look and read the manual. I was wondering though how DIY hardware is linked to the system as I am building my own fcu, I assume the offsets are available and scripting will provide the comms from software to hardware?

Again thanks for the reply!

----------------------------------------------------

EDIT: I have just read some of the manual and I think I am getting the hang of the idea, really surprised to see it as a complete system, unlike many other addons. It almost comes across as a flight sim system within FS which is truly quite amazing really, especially this being free, I cant understand why cockpit builders are not building the A320. Its quite remarkable really!

Well, I am surprised too, but I switched from my 737 build since I discovered JL FMGS, and probably others may have too :)

If you check out the last few pages of the user guide JL has published several pages of FSUIPC offsets you can use with your hardware.

Have fun, and let us know if you have any further questions.

[No Longer Active]

92349235

Here's some progress on the FCU. The panels are not assembled yet but I have put some buttons in the panels to test for accuracy and also the buttons are now painted black. Lots more to do still. Will keep you posted.

Thanks.

Alex

[al3xfoster]

Looking good!

[No Longer Active]

Thanks....

Just waiting on some more parts, such as encoders, knobs and buttons through the post and will populate it as and when. The whole FCU and EFIS is looking to cost around £70 plug and play, I sacrificed back lighting and digit displays to keep the cost right down, but it will certainly do the job in terms of controlling all the FCU functions which is the whole idea of me making this panel for wilco!

[OmniAtlas]

Hi, very nice Alex, have you considered using Jehell's FMGS?

Regards,

Ben

[No Longer Active]

Hi Ben,

Yes, I have considered using FMGS but at the moment I don't have enough PC's and monitors to be able to run it as a pit, hence flying wilco on a single screen and building an FCU to accompany this. I think that after my summer holiday I will have a look into building more of an actual pit, maybe something 'single-seater' and go from there.

I have the A320 MIP drawn up along with the stand, so after my fcu and efis is built I will crack on with CNC'ing my MIP and getting the basics down, and maybe purchase some old second hand screen or computers.

Here's a recent pic of my FCU...

9237

Cheap, but does the job.

Cheers, Alex

[No Longer Active]

I am on a roll :)

The EFIS and both together, just need waiting on the other bits to populate both panels.

9238 9239

[turbovela]

AlexJ,

I was wondering where you found the buttons for the FCU and EFIS panels, or did you make them yourself?

Jose

[No Longer Active]

Hi. Just cheapo square push buttons with stickers on them.....

Simple and effective....

[hkreso]

WOW. Looks amazing. I plan also to build like AlexJ, but in "back office" will be Arduino, like http://svglobe.com/

[turbovela]

Alexj,

Are you going to be buying push/pull rotary encoders for the FCU? if not how will you be doing the Man/Sel mode for the HDG, SPD, ALT and VS? do you plane to use the same pushbutton for both Man/Sel mode? If that is the case, how will you perform that task? thanks

Jose

P.S. if you could share the link to where you bought the pushbuttons from I would really appreciate it. I found some similar buttons, but they have a red LED and I would love to get the same buttons as you with the green LED. Thanks