12-Digit LED Display module for FDS 777 Panels

[LawnDart 19]

I've been working for several weeks on a circuit card designed to carry 12 miniature 7-seg displays for use in the Radio Panel in FlightDeck Solutions 777 panels.The card fits perfectly in the cutouts provided by FDS, with no blocking of the upper "A" segment or the decimal point, and the displays rest far enough into the window so as not to create a significant parallax problem when viewing the display.The layout is extremely tight if you factor in mounting, cabling and surrounding hardware such as switches and other controls.Why 12 digits? Well, the real 777 RMP can display 6 digits per window, so a 6x6 layout works well in this case.The card is only compatible with EPIC systems, however I do have another design that will interface to most any other display driver.My question to the group is: What is the interest in something like this in the general community? I'm about to do a production run of these cards, and the response here will determine how many I will run.

[Guest PoRrEkE]

That's what I have said before I think ...This hobby is in a desperate need of cheep PCB manufacturers. (say 1 or 2 per contintent) Manufacturers that have the FSbus prints ready in their machines to produce instantly. And accepting other designs + have 1 website where designs are stored & shown to the public. This way folks could know which PCB's have already been made and maybe recicle the idea and the PCB.

[Guest mbessler]

>That's what I have said before I think ...>>This hobby is in a desperate need of cheep PCB manufacturers. >(say 1 or 2 per contintent) Manufacturers that have the FSbus>prints ready in their machines to produce instantly. And>accepting other designs + have 1 website where designs are>stored & shown to the public. This way folks could know which>PCB's have already been made and maybe recicle the idea and>the PCB.The problem is that it is expensive to have just one PCB made, but if you order >=10 costs come down. So it would be necessary that one person (eg per continent), a 'representative', orders a bigger amount (eg. 20-50 pieces) of commonly used PCBs from a boardhouse and then people just order the boards from their 'representative' and pay him.The problem is that if people don't buy all PCBs, the 'representative' will not be happy as he used his money to buy the boards, but can't sell all. Now he'd be left with a bunch of board he doesn't have use for.That risk is something that most people don't wanna take.In addition you have to do all this 'management stuff' like taking orders, sending out the board, collecting the money, making sure everybody pays,...The next problem I see is that there are just too many types of seven segment displays around. Many have different pinouts, the spacing between displays may vary, then you'd need to make them at least in two, three, four, and five displays variants. Next you need to decide on the connection/pinout that goes to the display driver. FSBus probably uses something different than OpenCockpits,...I've thought about this display pcb thingy a while ago. Unless you standardize (ie. just one kind of each 2,3,4, and 5 displays per PCB) the boards you offer, and also decide on a specific pinout or display type it won't go anywhere. And what if not enough people buy ....Manuel

[Guest Ceawlin BSX029]

What could help here is people who can make their own, using easily-made/obtained equipment. Granted, the boards won't be professional quality, but for me they'll do nicely. Once I've finished making my own cnc router, bubble etch tank and developer unit, I should in theory be on track for making lots of my own custom boards for my sim. If it goes well, I'm seriously considering charging only for cost of materials and postage, and making a few boards for everyone else who requires them... Obviously I'll need to think about this a bit, as I could well be swamped with requests for large numbers of boards from you guys! Not to mention the amount of time required to actually make these things.....Seriously guys, what do you think? Bearing in mind I'm based in the UK, so the US might have a few days delay getting them...