Autopilot Question

[Flyboy1988]

a friend and i are thinking of building a small cockpit, even though we both know that it will end up happening, we'de like not to purchase EPIC (trying to keep it on a tight budget) mostly the only problem that we could think of is the digital displays, however there are other ways to set the radios (CDU is the one we are thinking of right know) but the other problem is the autopilot, i cam accross a autopilot that i think would work pretty good. all that it is, is a box with a CRS selector SPD selector HDG selector VS wheel and a ALT selector and then they have a bunch of buttons for nav hold and F/D and A/T and all that fun stuff, i like it because there are no digital displays, i like it for 2 reasons
1. The airplane that we are considering doing is this
style (Corporate jet, usually dont have the displays)
2. dont need to program it through epic.
I saw it on the Final Approach (It is the AP-3U, also i think they have a AP-7U) site and they have a few choices, however it is a little hard to find a price on that site, if any one knows how much this costs or if there are any other simlar products it would be much apprciated
Thanks a bunch
Flyboy

[Indo_FS]

Something like this ?

http://www.mcp747.com/MCPnewFront001.jpg

http://www.mcp747.com

It uses USB port or serial port.

http://www.mcp747.com/MCPback003.jpg

4 expansion ports on the back of the MCP using a DB25 cable.
Each Expansion Board can accept up to 72 switches and drive up to 64 single LED displays. Switches can be momentary push buttons, toggle, micro switches, or anything that makes electrical contact. All you need to do is physically connect the switch. Rotary encoders can also be connected. A rotary encoder can control, for example, a radio frequency, a QNH setting or a VOR OBS setting. Up to 16 rotary encoders can be used on the entire MCP expansion system.
The joystick port : Up to 4 potentiometers can be connected per port, giving you a total of 16 analog inputs.

747-MCP Package* US $499



But if you know electronic and some VB coding, I have a simple schematic that use parallel port with 80 input switches (programmable using VB) and 64 digit outputs or 256 logic outputs (to drive led, lamp, relay, etc).

email me : f_yunianto1@telkom.net

[Flyboy1988]

Thats close except the one i found didnt have the digital displays, but i hadnt seen that before, i think i'll consider it, couple questions though, do you know if you can put actual buttons in there or are they only the type that are that sort of flat surface, also do you know if the panel is available in any other colors?

any ways, i'll see if i can find a picture of the autopilot i had seem before

ok the URL for the image that i had of the autopilot wont work (its the type of website where the URL doesnt change, so i'll email it to you.)
Thanks
Fly Boy

[Blowhole]

Go flight just released one with all those features but it too has the digital displays. I suppose you could put black tape over the display windows. The Go Flight box is just under $300 and is USB powered and has software that will allow you to configure it to suit your needs.
http://www.ktone.org/images/FSD_ken.jpg
The Difference between God & a Pilot: God doesn't think he is a Pilot!:-wave

[Flyboy1988]

Its not necesarily that i dont want digital display, in fact i actualy want them, but i was thinking that the ones that had the digital displays were either extremely pricy or needed EPIC, and as a mentioned earlier, we are trying to see if we can manage to do this without buying EPIC, or see how long we'll last.

[Icarus747]

Check out the GoFlight GF-MCP. It's a USB autopilot panel with ALL functions.

We have the lowest prices on EARTH for GoFlight simulation hardware!
www.cyberwitt.com/pilotshop
http://www.cyberwitt.com/pilotshop/1040585965finish.gif

[tigert]

LAST EDITED ON Mar-31-03 AT 02:48PM (EST)[p]>Its not necesarily that i dont
>want digital display, in fact
>i actualy want them, but
>i was thinking that the
>ones that had the digital
>displays were either extremely pricy
>or needed EPIC, and as
>a mentioned earlier, we are
>trying to see if we
>can manage to do this
>without buying EPIC, or see
>how long we'll last.

If you can solder and have some electronics experience check out FSBUS - it is much like EPIC except that you solder it yourself and it goes to the serial port.

www.fsbus.de - it has the good advantage that you can start small and build new modules when you need them. The disadvantage is that you need to either etch the PCBoards yourself or have someone do them for you.

Doing such a MCP is very possible with it. With displays or without. And if you want to go without, the good thing is you can later add the DISPLAY modules to add them.

Tuomas