Two months down the trail.

I kind of lost interest in my project in the first months of 2016. So in January, February and March not much has happened. These “low periodes” comes every now and then. But now I am getting into the basement again and the project has picked up speed again.

I think I has a “milestone” called “fully functional and ready to show the world” or in short “Version 1.0” A version that looks like a cockpit, with all switches working. The milestone has been long overdue. Never mind. It is a hobby – not work that pays a salary; so I will take it in small steps. Okay enough about why everything (once again) is delayed. 🙂

So. Most parts of the overhead has been rewired. Especially the AFT overhead where all switches and annunciators now are fully functional. On the FWD overhead I relocated my interface boards which led to a rewiring of most parts of the panels. That is a task that takes forever. But things are slowly finishing.

The last couple of days I have realized that 3 OpenCockpits MasterCards not is enough for the entire. The AFT overhead holds a minimum of 45 annunciators which requires 1 1/2 Mastercard. The FWD overhead needs 2 1/2 mastercard. A total of 4. But as I only have three at this point I have been laying cables back and forth between the different sections and using 20 outputs on a mastercard in the MIP. Like yesterday I spend an entire evening preparing cables to go back and forth between sections. But hopefully I can close the overhead later this week and say “Fully functional”

My “beloved” ATC sound setup is also getting to an end. I found some old  PC speakers that I disassembled. Using the amplifier from the speakers gives a crisp sound in my speakers. So now I get ATC from VATSIM in speakers and 2 headsets. Regarding inputs I have a relay board that sorts the 4 inputs: 2 headsets and 2 hand held microphones. I altered/rewired the hand hels microphones so the PTT button activates the relays.

In the rewiring I accidentally connected the microphone the the wrong way. I was not aware that they have to be wired a certain way like a LED. When turned the wrong way almost no sound was coming through. After switching the wires the other way around I had a loud and clear sound.