If some of you don't want to go with the PCB version of the radio stack, you can start building it yourself with this DIY version. First i wanted to go with a 19 inch screen to simulate the radios, but it is surely better to make a more realistic looking radio, that's why i decided to build it myself using 7 segment displays, an arduino mega 2560 and a software called Mobiflight (respect to the author for this great software). Mobiflight is a free, easy to use software that allows you to extract and send data from FSX, Prepar3D ore X-Plane to your Arduino board. It offers a lot of options without the need to know arduino programming. There are some preset options but you can input the fsuipc offset and the sofware uploads the code to your card. For more info and tutorials on how to use Mobiflight, please visit the website. |
- Max7219 8-Digit 7 Segment Displays - $ 19.8 (12 Pcs)
- Volume Control Knob 6mm - $ 7.24 (10Pcs)
- Red Cap Rectangle SPST Push Button - $ 8.46 (15 Pcs)
- Black Plastic Knob - $ 3.42 (35 Pcs)
- 2P5T Rotary Switch - $ 2.72 (3 Pcs)
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- Green Square Cap SPST Switch - $ 3.17 (10 Pcs)
- Insert Tone Core Brass Knob - $ 3.15 (10 Pcs)
- Rotary Encoder EC12 - $ 5.05 (20Pcs)
- Threaded Knurled Knobs - $ 0.86 (10 Pcs)
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The first thing we need are the 7 segment displays. Mobiflight supports Max7219 8-Digit 7 segment displays which are very cheap, and you can connect them in series. The only problem is that between two displays there is a space. What i did was cuting the sides with a knife, glued them together with CA Glue and soldered the connections on the back. Since the radio has 5 digits for each COM and NAV, i needed 20 digits in total, 2 spaces between Active and Standby and one space of two digits between COM and NAV, which makes it 24 digits in total. That means i had to connect three Max7219 displays together to get 24 digits. |
The next challenge was to recreate the NM and KT letters on the DME. There are two ways to do this, based on the method I'm using (using Max7219 modules). The first method would be the easiest which is to print the letters KT and NM on a transparent sheet and use red leds behind them to light them. The second method is using 14 segment displays. It is a bit more complicated but since I already had those displays I wanted to try it out.
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Here you can download a more detailed explanation.
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