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5.3 PC and interface cards

When using a PC as a central unit for controlling a flight simulator cockpit the main advantages are the use of well- established (familiar) programming environments and computing power. The weak point is the limited standard availability of (digital) I/O. In general it is not enough to control all the various cockpit elements, so additional (special) interfacing boards and/or devices have to be used.

5.3.1 Normal versus industrial PC's

When considering a PC as the central control unit for the flight simulator cockpit, there is the option of using an industrial PC configuration. In general industrial PC's are at the high end of the market, so relatively expensive. The "pro" is that some brands of industrial PC's offer easy access to low level I/O. In general industrial PC's are mounted in a rack, allowing the storage of multiple PC's and/or expansion boards.

5.3.2 Digital interface cards for PC's

Digital PC interface cards can be used to drive lights, switches, gauges, displays, keyboards, etc. Some examples are:

• PCDA (Innovation West) this unit plugs into an 8 bit ISA bus and can be used with older PC's.
• USB- 120A (MicroDAQ) a range of USB connected interface units including the (USB Data Acquisition - 120 Channel Digital I/O Unit).
• Sealevel (Sealevel Systems) a range of digital interface boards using ISA, PCI or USB.
• K8000, K8061, K8055 (Velleman) interface cards.
• IO-Warrior (Code Mercenaries) is a USB based interface card that has 32 generic I/O pins that can be used for either input or output. Getting control of it from your software can be done by means of a library using for instance Visual Basic. For more sophisticated I/O the IO- Warrior supports offers "special mode functions". It then takes direct control of a couple I/O pins needed to perform the specific function. In the current version support is available for IIC devices and LCD modules.

A search on Internet will give you much more information, the site of BBD SOFT is a nice starting point.

5.3.3 Analog interface cards for PC's

As described in section 6, one option to construct a gauge is to convert a potmeter to a gauge. In order to drive potmeters one needs analog output, which is less common (certainly in variants with more than 5 channels) than analog input. Much more information can be found Internet, the site of BBD SOFT is a nice starting point.

5.3.4 Other interface cards for PC's

Besides digital or analog I/O there is an increasing availability of RS232 / USB driven interface cards for LCD displays, servo motors and stepper motors. Examples of these cards will be discussed in section 6.