Photon interface

[Guest Faro]

Hi,I am planning to interface my sim with the Photon from Integrated Flight systems. I think they are good and easy to use products but I would like to know if anybody has experience with the cards.It would be nice to share how to's on this.Thanks,Faro

[CageHound 1]

Hi,Interesting, but is a serial interface to the computer really the way to go? I would think using a board that offers USB connectivity is better?http://www.wspilots.com/banners/468x60WSPBanner01.gif

[Guest PoRrEkE]

I got them.And at the moment I am at the first stages of trying to wire up LCD's to the output boards instead of LED displays.To give you an idea why:1 photon output board has 64 outputs.If you wire up 7segments, you get 8 characters.If you take it to LCD's:You need 10 outputs standard.8 are for the data bus lines1 is for the line (read/write)1 is for the line (instruction/data)These 10 lines can go from 1 LCD to the next (serie).Then you need per LCD 1 line that is unique. (so you can set that line high and let e.g. LCD nr8 know that the data that is going to be send on the data bus lines is meant for him, not for the other LCD's)So count: ( 10 + ( n )) = 64n = 54, so you could wire upt 54 LCD's on 1 output board.No one would want that much. I think I will be very happy having 10 LCD's so that makes 10 + 10 = 20 lines from the 64 that I use.That leaves 44 lines on that card to wire up single leds.Now if you take 20 LCD's. 1 LCD can show a large number of characters depending on the size of the LCD. You got 2*8, 2*20, 2*40, 4*20, 4*40 etc etc.Mostly you will want to use 2*8 (for com, nav, glare hdg, etc)This means .. for NAV1 and NAV2 ( 2 LCD's type 2*8 ) I use 1 output card and 12 lines. Not ( 20 7segments = 3 output boards )Notice the difference ?All I need to do now is to write the software and probably forward the code to Scott. It's then up to him to incorporate my code into his own software so other people can use it.But first of all I need to test all this and figure out if it is possible and as simple as I think it is.

[Guest PoRrEkE]

it's parallel ;) (LPT)and he is working on USB version (last thing i heard)whatever, I use my laptop with LPT port for the interface and the interface software (via widefs) and it works super.what difference would it make now to use USB ... :/

[Guest Erups]

Philippe, what you're saying is using Photons to send digital commands to intelligent LCDs?How's that possible?In order to do this, you have to know the commands available to the LCD controller, and the Photon software should be able to translate data (in the manner decided by you) in the commands for the LCD...How's that possible?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

Most comon LCDs use a HD77480 chip to be controlled. This makes that the instruction set and the pin layout or whatever is almost every time exactly the same.Just google some on the subject and you will see how much info you can find on how to do this ;)http://home.iae.nl/users/pouweha/lcd/lcd.shtmltry this page e.g.

[Guest Erups]

Yes i know the type, i'm curious about how are gonna drive them!