I have interfaced a few panels from real aircrafts over the last half year. When it comes to annunciators the lightbulbs use 28 volt which is not a standard voltage in our simulator builds.

My cockpit is set up on CP flight for most plug’n’play parts (And a CP flight MIP board for switches). All annunciators uses phidgets LED64-cards. It deliveres the correct voltage to LEDs. But does not deliver 28v. All inputs are controlled by Pokeys cards (Pokeys 56E or Pokeys57E).

Pokeys cards as stand alone are not great for outputs as the board not is able to handle more current that what it takes to light up a few annunciators.

For my Fire Panel I controlled the 28v outputs using a relay board. I choose the relay board because of the high current required by the solenoid and light bulbs. For the Main Instrument Panel the the power load is not going to be as heavy. So I have found a solution that works with my current setup: The PoExtBusOC16.

The PoExtBusOC16 card is an extension output card for Pokeys cards. It supplies 16 outputs and can handle voltage up to 40v and a power draw of up to 0.4 amp per port. The board is Common Anode. That means the 16 ports individually supplies a GND connection where as the + side is shared. It connects to the whits connector on the Pokeys card – not taking up any input/output pins on the board.

A neat feature about the PoExtBus is it is natively supported by Prosim. So interfacing / assigning ports is as easy as with everything else in Prosim, just go through the wizard and done. No scripting no writing down what port is used.

The PoExtBusOC16 card cost €14 which I think makes it a great competitor for interfacing in simulators.

Full disclosure: the PoExtBusOC16 board was gifted to me by PoScope about 8 years ago. I have not used until now because now Prosim supports the extension board and I finally have a use. All other Pokeys products in my cockpit have been paid for by my self.

And this is what real annunciators look like when lit.