Here is a short video of my electrical panel in action. Notice the following steps in the video, and the synchronous operation of the synoptic displays in the background.1. External ground power is available, so it is activated2. After a few moments the buses receive power and the panel comes alive3. The APU generator is closed, the Master Battery is activated and the left bus tie is closed4. The engine page is selected and the left and right engines are started in sequence.5. Once the left engine is running, external power is disconnected and the left engine crossbleeds to both buses. The fault annunciations also extinguish for the left engine.6. Once the right engine is in operation, the bus ties open, and the engines each supply power to their respective buses. The APU generator is still green since the APU is running, but the engine driven generators have taken priority.The panel is now completely dark, as it should be for normal flight.Click here to view the QuickTime video (15 Mb)http://www.t-b-x.com/prather/promfd/elecPanelEngine.MOVNote: In this video, the APU was already running, but the APU generator bus was left open so that a dark start could be demonstrated.Roberthttp://777Simulator.comhttp://HSBRegistry.comPhotos of the panel:http://www.t-b-x.com/prather/777project/ne...05/P1010010.JPGhttp://www.t-b-x.com/prather/777project/ne.../elecPanel5.JPG

WHOO, D-D-D-DAYUM! very impressive, I ll give you 10. How long did it take you to make it work? Looking forward more from you my brother.

Dddrrooooooll!Fantastic work as usual :)

Now that is what I call IMPRESIVE !!Mr Boeing himself would be proud, as I hope you are too.Simon Webbaka The Porcupinewww.desktopflying.co.ukVery slowely putting together a generic twin desktop unit.

Wow, that is serious work, are you a kind of electronic engeneer to make such amazing pieces of hardware ?!!

This is amazing!!!!!Keep it up!www.alkit.net

>Wow, that is serious work, are you a kind of electronic>engeneer to make such amazing pieces of hardware ?!!As of May 7 2005, I am!!The wiring is pretty much fundamental. The logic is all handled by the computer science side :-)Robert

>WHOO, D-D-D-DAYUM! very impressive, I ll give you 10. How>long did it take you to make it work? Looking forward more>from you my brother.>Many thanks to everyone for your very kind comments!It was actually surprisingly easy to get the switches and annunciators working. All the synoptic logic was already done, so I basically just had to go into the code and say: If batteryOn Then electricalPanel.OutputState(3) = TrueAll the switches are scanned asynchronously (instead of changes being made immediately when the switch is pressed), to give that realistic momentary time delay.Roberthttp://777Simulator.comhttp://HSBRegistry.comhttp://PVRidaz.com

>>Wow, that is serious work, are you a kind of electronic>>engeneer to make such amazing pieces of hardware ?!!>>As of May 7 2005, I am!!Congrats!!!!May i ask the argument of your degree thesis (it you call it so)?Also: do you really use one card per each panel?It seems a bit expensive to me :(

Nice! You've come along way since your CDU wiring days!

>Congrats!!!!>May i ask the argument of your degree thesis (it you call it>so)?>Also: do you really use one card per each panel?>It seems a bit expensive to me :(I am just undergrad, so no thesis of sorts :-)I am using different interface solutions for each panel, so some panels will use 16 input Phidgets and some will use 8 input Go Flight RMKs. Works out pretty well. The electrical panel has exactly 16 inputs, so it fills all inputs on 1 card. If needed, I can daisy chain the panels to make use of unused I/O. The modularity is worth it though, since I can isolate problems, and remove individual modules to swap hardware.Robert

Hi Robert,congrats to your masterpiece of panel and logic!!! :-beerchug just what i am dreaming of having in my sim one day.....Best from ViennaHans G. SchuetzProject777---------------------------------------http://www.project777.com[email protected](LOWW - Vienna)

>It was actually surprisingly easy to get the switches and>annunciators working. All the synoptic logic was already done,>so I basically just had to go into the code and say:>> If batteryOn Then electricalPanel.OutputState(3) = TrueSo, basically you are saying that phidget interface work directly to your synoptic program?

>Nice! You've come along way since your CDU wiring days!It's not so bad when I'm working with quality parts.. lol! Please direct all future criticisms to the popular plastic CDU manufacturer for a VERY cumbersome and inefficient design :-( Honestly, I spent way more time on that freakin CDU than this entire electrical panel :-(.I agree though... I've learned a lot about wiring over the years!Did you get your analog instruments mounted yet? They looked pretty slick when I saw them in early stages.Robert

>So, basically you are saying that phidget interface work>directly to your synoptic program? > Precisely! I simply added the Phidget.msi file to my compiler references, and the coding was pretty simple. I wanted to use Alan Dyer's excellent FS2Phidget software, but SO many variables just aren't available in MSFS :-(I am impressed with Phidgets because you can read/write to any switch/annunciator with 1 line of code.http://www.t-b-x.com/prather/promfd/phidg2.JPGhttp://www.t-b-x.com/prather/promfd/phidg1.JPGRobert