L-1011 Trainer Installation: Switch (Digital) Input Modules

Interbus Input Module Preparation

Cables, Cables and more Cables. The next few weeks are going to be filled with lots of postings on the digital cabling process of the L-1011 Trainer at the museum. The digital cabling connects all of the hundreds of trainer switches and lights to the computers. Today, I started building out the first of many digital input modules for the simulator. As described in a few earlier postings, I will be using a PLC system based on Interbus for the switch input and for the annunciator and switch light output on the L-1011 trainer.

interbus 8-bit Switch Input

Each of the digital input (DI) modules has 32 inputs that are arranged in 8 channels + 1 GND signal per group. The image above shows the 8 digital input lines that will be coming from switches. Each cable represents a bit and together each connector represents one Byte of information on the Interbus. 

ARINC 429/575 Interface Development - Kickstarter

Commercial ARINC 429 interfaces tend to be be very expensive, therefore, myself and my team mates Javier and Himar in Spain are developing an ARINC 429 interface (it will also do ARINC 575 words) for the consumer market as a Kickstarter project. Our proposal is to develop a low-cost way of connecting ARINC 429 devices such as the ones you saw in many of my postings throughout this year. We are lovingly calling it the "ARINC42911" interface and it connects to x-plane and FSX via Ethernet. Please visit our project link on Kickstarter and support us! The site has a short video that shows the features of the interface and how it will enable you to use real world avionics in your home simulator setup.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1753938984/flight-simulator-interface-to-real-avionics-instru