Avionics Bending: Audio Panel Integration for the L-1011 Trainer

Tim Joransen and myself discussed how to do realistic audio panel integration for the simulator. So, to use a Virtual Air Traffic Control System (in our case VatSIM) we are currently thinking about using XSquawkbox.

To make the cockpit experience as realistic as possible from an audio perspective we need to have a number of discrete audio channels that can be fed into and received from the 4 audio panels in the cockpit. What and where are the four audio panels?

1. Captain's Audio Selector Panel on the aft center console
2. First Officer's Audio Selector Panel on the aft center console
3. Second Officer's Audio Selector Panel on the lower Flight Engineer's Console
4. Observer Audio Selector Panel to the left of the observer's seat

L-1011 Audio Selector Panel Locations - From Delta Pilot's Reference

Most audio panels made by Gables Engineering have a very similar pin configuration. And allow for a number of external components to be connected. For the L-1011 project, here are the external elements that connect to each audio selector panel:

• Headset (All Stations)
• Boom Microphone (part of the headset) (All Stations)
• Oxygen Mask Microphone  (All Stations)
• Hand Microphone (Captain, F/O and S/O only)
• Overhead Speaker (Captain and F/O only)
• Yoke R/T and INT Switch (Captain and F/O Only)

Here are the different audio channels that need to be fed to the Audio Select Panel to make the simulation as realistic as possible:

1. VHF COM 1 Audio (xsquawkbox)
2. VHF COM 2 Audio (xsquawkbox)
3. VHF COM 3 Audio (xsquawkbox)
4. HF COM 1 Audio (tbd)
5. HF COM 2 Audio (tbd)
6. VOR 1 Audio (xplane via plugin)
7. VOR 2 Audio (xplane via plugin)
8. ADF 1 Audio (xplane via plugin)
9. ADF 2 Audio (xplane via plugin)
10. Marker Beacon (xplane via plugin)
11. Ground Proximity Warning (xplane via plugin) 
12. Interphone (within the simulator)

The audio panel also routes the microphones for each of the audio stations to the respective channels. For the simulator here is the proposed mapping:

1. VHF COM 1 Microphone (to xsquawkbox)
2. VHF COM 2 Microphone (to xsquawkbox)
3. VHF COM 3 Microphone (to xsquawkbox)
4. HF COM 1 Audio (tbd)
5. HF COM 2 Audio (tbd)
6. Voice Recorder Output (tbd)
7. Interphone (within the simulator)

Of course there is still the Passenger Address (PA) system that would be, of course, part of the L-1011 however, for the purpose of building the simulator we will not worry too much about the PA system. We will not integrate the PA into the audio panel, however, the L-1011 has a Passenger Address panel on the overhead panel and we might consider connecting that. 

L-1011 Trainer Installation: S/O Console and Center Panel Power-Up - Continued

L-1011 F/O Audio Panel and SELCAL Panel Installation

The power up of our L-1011 panels continues. Jim and myself powered up a total of 4 additional panels and also installed the necessary cable bundles for the instruments. Today we powered up the F/O side audio panel, the SELCAL panel located on the aft center console (see below). Currently the Captain's side and the F/O side audio panels are different. The F/O panel is actually just a placeholder for now; it will be replaced with an audio panel identical to the Captain's next week.

L-1011 SELCAL and F/O Audio Panel

We further powered up the Cabin Pressurization module on the upper Second Officer console as well as the APU Control panel located on the lower S/O console (see below). 

L-1011 Pressure Control and APU Control Panels

The Lockheed L-1011 Cabin Pressure Control panel is a really neat instrument. It has two large windows with a tape behind them for adjustments. The window on the left hand side sets the Flight Altitude and the one on the right sets the barometric pressure (see below).

L-1011 Cabin Pressure Control Panel

Besides the panel light up, Jim started preparing the Pilot's and First Officer's side consoles for the installation of the audio connectors. The side console holds connectors for the headset an headset-boom microphone; a handheld microphone and the audio connectors for the oxygen masks.

Jim Blasco working on the F/O side audio connectors.

L-1011 Trainer Installation: 75% Panel Light-Up Milestone

L-1011 Panel Lighting

Today we celebrate reaching the 75% panel light-up milestone! Jim and myself also worked on installing more bus bars for the panel lighting. Currently we have a few more panels on the pilot's overhead panel to light up as well as a few panels on the Flight Engineers station. Most of the remaining 25% of panel lighting are the circuit breaker panels. Once this is complete, all the of the instrument lighting, panel lighting, flood lighting, instrument digital, instrument analog and flight control analog cabling is in place. Then we will get really deep into the phase where it's mostly software between the cabled components and the simulator platform.  

L-1011 Flight Engineer Station

Here are a few more pictures of the current state of the simulator panel lighting:

L-1011 Project - Panel Lighting

L-1011 Trainer Installation - Overhead Panel Lighting

L-1011 Project - Panel Lighting 

L-1011 Flight Engineer Console ... 2/3 Panel illumination complete. 

L-1011 Trainer Installation: Audio Panel and Dual ADF Head Power Up

This evening I ran the cabling for the first audio selector panel as well as the dual ADF panel. Both are located on the aft center console. The audio selector requires a lot of cables due to the fact that each of the audio channels has its own cable. The two remaining components that are not powered up yet on the aft console are the weather radar selector and the first officer's audio panel.

L-1011 Trainer Installation: Light Plate Power-Up - Continuation

L-1011 Center Console - Light Plate Power-Up

Today was a busy sim building day. Jim Blasco and myself mounted the 5VDC 120A power supply we talked about in the last posting into the simulator and cabled the supply to the circuit breaker boards. While this sounds like a pretty tribal task, it actually took us several hours to it it all into place.

Certain groups of light plates as well as in some cases single light plates have their own circuit breakers. For example, the aft center console light plates are split over to different circuit breakers located on the CB2 panel.

Below shows the first F/E station light plate that is now permanently cabled in; it is the light plate for the Electrical System panel.

L-1011 Electrical System Panel - Light Plate

L-1011 Trainer Installation: Initial Light Plate Power-Up

L-1011 Light Plate Power-Up

I finally got my hands on a nice and compact 5VDC 120A power supply for the instrument panel light plates. Almost every panel in the Lockheed L-1011 cockpit has a backlit light plate that illuminates the legend on the plate. The power for the Light plates is 5VDC. Due to the fact that there are so many of them and that they use incandescent bulbs we needed a supply that can output a lot of Amps for the 5V required. Today we tested the power supply with 4 panels on the overhead panel: We powers up the Captains Windshield Wiper panel, the Exterior Lights panel on the eyebrow and the Interior Light panel also located on the eyebrow. Some of the light plates need some of the bulbs replaced, but, that's to be expected when dealing with 40 year old flight hardware.

The plan is to have all over the overhead and center console light plates powered up over the coming weekend.