FSBUS AD question

[Guest raflyer]

Has anyone out there figured out how to use the FSBUS AD board? I have mine working fine and am trying to use a 100k pot for my flaps. The problem is hoe to set up the router to work properly. I wish I could read german! :) I can't seem to get the nack of what and how to adjust the variables, like divide, multiply,etc. What I want is at a certain pot reading, output a specific flap setting. Thanks,ROb

[Guest Glenn Weston]

Rob, I wish I could help you but I have not got that far yet, but I would also be interested to know. At this stage I have the ComIII board & LED board working & have just etched the 7 Segment display boards this weekend & going to pick up some components for it today.Have you had a look at the english translated documents here:http://mysite.freeserve.com/LittlebeckThey are OK but need some refinement & maybe some typical examples in English for each module would be a great help to people exploring this great piece of work.Good luck Glenn.

[Guest]

I may suggest you use simple switches for flap detents.You put a switch under every detent, so that when you release the lever "into" the detent, it pushes the switch.This way is a lot easier.Since i don't have an AD board (i have to convince myself to start building the adapter for the SMD version of the A/D chip, because i can only find SMD here) i can't help you with that, at least not specifically.What i know is this:in FS there is a range for the flaps which is 16383.On this range exist every flap setting, in this way:divide 16383 by the number of flap settings you have, this is the step of every setting.Ie you have 6 flaps setting?16383 / 6 = 2730 (decimal part is discarded)So you will have a flap setting every 2430 steps.Now you use a 100k pot, so 100 / 16383 * 2730 = 16.66ohmYou have a flap step every 16.66 ohm.That is aprox every 1/6th of pot complete range.That is if you have calibrated the pot range to represent the full range of FS.It sounds pretty boring and complex, and it is.Getting you flap lever working with a pot and FSBUS becomes a game of gearings...Hope to have clarified a bit

[Guest raflyer]

The problem I have is i'm using a 737 throttle quad and the flap detent spacing is not evenly spaced. There is no room for switches up at the flap lever itself. Another possibility is a 12 pos. rotary switch but they are hard to turn. Maybe I could modify it? I can get 8 out of 9 positions with the pot I have now. Thanks for the idea,Rob

[Guest LeoL]

I've seen digital pots around. These are binary controlled IC chips that output a variable resistance. By sending a different 8-bit byte on each detent of your throttle, the chip would set the output resistance accordingly. They do exist in the range of 100K at 256 step resolution, but even 64 would be more than enough for your needs.You could then set up a series of 9 separate dip switches for each detent with a different value. You could use a common ground method to activate one dip switch at a time perhaps. Or if you

[Guest]

If you want to try the switch solution there are many many arrangementes you can make:- set the switches internally at the throttle quadrant on a peace of wood parallel to the flap lever rotational plane- put a small amount of resin in the detent, and use a small peace of aluminum sheet (those used to keep things in the fridge) to make a switch, using the flap lever it self as the second pole- or just use descreet resistors instead of the pot, to get precisely what you want:: following the aluminum sheet thing i wrote above, instead of closing the contact as a switch (thus closing to negative or gorund in the case of FSBUS), you use the flap lever as common, and each detent you put a resistor with value calculated as needed (9 flaps detent for a 100k span, is approx 11,1kohm each)There are many alteratives for getting what you can't at the moment :)

[Guest andrewluck]

Glenn>>They are OK but need some refinement & maybe some typical examples in English for each module would be a great help to people exploring this great piece of work.Got to agree with you there (I did the translations). All I did was use SysTrans to translate the words from German and then try to sort them into the right order :-). Being an electronics engineer helped here but I have to admit to not actually having built any of these things yet. I really just wanted to get a handle on how they worked.Andrew Luck18 miles SW EGSH