LED Annunciators and Indicators for Flight Simulators - PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION UPDATE

[@billnelson3732]

Have you had any luck changing the Value (0-255) of an LED in the PWM Pins (2-18 or so)? I've added a Number Value of 20 to brighten them up, Test works perfectly, and even after reuploading them, the lights still don't brighten in the sim when Mobiflight is running, yet Test will be brighter... so strange. Cool video, thanks! Lots of useful info.

[@larryp1938]

How in the world do you use FSUIPC to program the arduino? I’ve never heard of this.

[@joshuamarius]

This is actually one of the fastest ways to get an Arduino up and running with a Flight Simulator :) The setup is as Follows: Arduino Mobiflight FSUIPC Flight Simulator The star of the show here is MobiFlight. It gives you the option of how you would like to interact with the Simulator; whether it be an Offset (FSUIPC), a Variable or a Dataref (X-Plane). 1) When you connect the Arduino to MobiFlight, it will Flash/program the Arduino with new Firmware so it is able to work with MobiFlight 2) Install FSUIPC; what this application does is monitor and store actions/variables of the Simulator in a memory block, known as offsets. 3) The simulator enables, disables or changes it's variables, and FSUIPC adjusts the value of the offsets accordingly. MobiFlight picks up the value of these Offsets, for example 0 or 1 (Gear up, gear down), and then sends the programmed action to the Arduino (Output configs Tab in MobiFlight) 4) Actions sent from your pushbuttons, switches etc., wired to the Arduino, are picked up in the Input configs Tab in MobiFlight, and the according action is sent to the simulator, which can change the simulator variable, and then FSUIPC adjusts the value of the Offset.

[@larryp1938]

@@joshuamarius okay gotcha thanks. But I will most likely be using X-Plane. I don’t believe but don’t know for sure if either mobiflight or FSUIPC are available there. I will have to look and see. Thanks again.

[@joshuamarius]

There was something developed for X-Plane called XPUIPC: www.schiratti.com/xpuipc.html However, with MobiFlight all you have to do is select the Dataref option and Copy the Dataref. A tool such as DataRefTool can help you find them: datareftool.com/

[@chriscrawford1555]

A relay seems like huge overkill here. Why not a transistor? Maybe a mosfet if you're trying to light a whole string of LEDs. A lot cheaper, simpler, smaller, faster, quieter. Or am I missing something?

[@joshuamarius]

Thanks for the comment. There are some other modules that can be used for this. I will be creating a new video with updated information.