I have been spending many hours on the Simworld overhead that I picked up in the Netherlands last month. There is still few things that I need to do. But the overall status is that the overhead is interfaced and ready to be mounted in the cockpit.

Then at some later point I can focus on the gauges and displays. I am waiting for items to arrive from eBay/China: stepper motors and interface boards for the digits. I am planning on interfacing both things with Arduino Mega boards.

The backside still is a bit of a mess. I decided not to rewire the entire overhead. So I am limited to using the existing wiring so there can not be much moving around interface boards.

I mounted 2 rows DIN-rails and when possible things have been mounted on to the DIN-rails. They seem like a good solution.

Interface

The Overhead is interfaced using:

• 4 Pokeys 56E boards for all switches.
  I use the ethernet version for better stability.
  The Audio Selector Panel (AFT overhead) is not interfaced because I have no use for it. If I choose to interface the ASP I will need an additional Pokeys.
• 3 Phidgets LED cards
  For all the annunciators.
• Pololu Maestro Servo card 12 channel
  Used for the gauges that are run by servos.
• Arudino Mega cards
  They are used for the stepper motors and digits. For interfacing with Porsim it needs a bit of work. But not as much as SIOC requires.
• Relay board
  Not really an interface board. But I use this to turn on/off the backlightning depending on the state of power source in the aircraft.

I have always liked the Pokeys cards. They are natively supported by Prosim and very easy to use. They come in an Ethernet version So you just plug it in to a network switch/router and it is automatically recognised by Prosim. The overhead is using 56E. I also have the 57E which is a newer version. But they do the same.

Too many USB-units can make your connections unstable. Even with the best power USB hubs too many USB connections will make your connections unstable. So when ever possible Ethernet connections is a much better way to go.

This is my first experience with the Phidgets LED cards. They are truly amazing! The forward voltage to the LEDs can be adjusted which eliminates the need for resistors. Phidgets is natively supported by Prosim so it is possible to adjust the brightness the the LEDs via Prosim by each colour.