Hi I was looking through some of my things and I found this OOPic card which is a proggrammable input and output device easy to use rotaries and switches from what I recall but has to be proggrammed or something like that and it was also able to drive an LCD which I also bought, but my great electronic skills which really suck! never allowed me to work with it maybe someone could use it maybe a trade or someone might be interested in it! the website:http://www.oopic.com/home.htmRoberto

I looked at those a while ago, but went with a PICAXE instead.... great and really easy to use.http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/Richard

It took quite a bit of learning for me because I didn't have much experience with it but I did get quite far with the OOPic in my testing.There is a cable from the PC to the OOPic for PROGRAMMING the OOPic. But that cable does not allow for 2-way communication "live" with the PC to/from the program you have the OOPic running. So you have to build another interface -- in my case a serial RS232 interface. Something like this using a MAX203 chip:http://www.stanford.edu/~henrysu/projects/max203.htmlRequired some work and some learning though. But I believe you can also buy these interfaces already made.I wrote a small VB6 program to get data from FSUIPC and send it to the OOPic -- so it could talk back and forth via the RS-232 interface. Then you're connecting other hardware to the OOPic to do what you want to do. Over time, I was able to read from rotary encoders, rotary switches, potentiometers, toggle switches, momentary switches and output to either LED's or 7-segment displays. The OOPic "objects" allow it to run the code very quickly to get the results you want. The code I would write myself would really lag and thus turning the knob for an encoder to set airspeed on three separate 7-seg displays would lag way behind my turning. But once I figured out how to do it with the built in OOPic programming objects, it was instantaneous and worked very very well. I could use the knob to set the airspeed and then export that airspeed variable back to MSFS through FSUIPC.You don't have enough inputs and outputs with ONE OOPic to do anything near an entire cockpit. So I was using various other chips to do that work. One PCF8574 chip could control one seven segment display because it gave you 8 I/O lines. I could control that chip with the OOPic from one I/O line. There were MAX chips that did the same sort of thing but a different protocal for talking to them vs. talking to an I2C device.I found a lot of support on the net and a lot of people willing to do some hand holding to get me started and it really seemed there was no end to what COULD be accomplished.SteveKTYS

Here's a MAX chip that you can talk to serially from the OOPic that will give you more I/O lines to either read from switches or output to LED's:MAX7219http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/1339/ln/enTakes some getting used to in reading the data sheets for those chips. But it's neat stuff once you figure out how to communicate with it and start getting it to do what you want. Each chip is maybe $10.And the other one is an I2C device.....so connected to an I2C port on the OOPic, a different way of communicating:PCF8574http://www.semiconductors.com/pip/PCF8574P.htmlAgain, only a few dollars for each chip and there are 16 bit versions instead of just the 8 bit version. But in ordering them you really have to know what you're going to do with it. I bought chips that were DIP versions if I recall correctly -- because I knew I could plug them into a socket or a breadboard for testing and I could work with that. There are a lot of versions of these chips with different types of pins on them so you have to know what you can and cannot work with. Steve

Just in case if you are interested I have a complete Set with LCD display and rotaries and stuff in case you are interested please mail me at [email protected]

No, I'm trying really hard to stay at the desktop level. I've had quite a few of the real parts over time and sold them off. Had that 747 cockpit and sold it off. This hobby just sucks too much time out of your life and eats you up. I'm afraid to even start dabbling with it again even though I do have the Level-D 767 set up on my DINING ROOM TABLE with 3 monitors again. It's a sickness......avoid avoid avoid......hahaha.Steve

Oh yeah Mr. Steve Smith himself long time no see buddy!! Yeah you are right it is a sickness cockpit building I have put my stuff aside for a while working on other projects!Roberto

HahaYes.Back from the dead.lolA lot has changed in a couple years too. Amazing the stuff Flight Deck Solutions has available now. Since it's just about impossible to come up with a full set of the real panels made by Rockwell and others, seems like you might as well get everything from FDS. This hobby has come a long way in 10 years.Steve

>A lot has changed in a couple years too. Amazing the stuff Flight >Deck Solutions has available now. Since it's just about impossible >to come up with a full set of the real panels made by Rockwell and >others, seems like you might as well get everything from FDS. Not quite!>This hobby has come a long way in 10 years!Oh yeah definnatelly true!! It