Using an Arduino with FMGS is a relatively inexpensive way to setup the inputs and outputs of your flight deck. An Arduino Mega 2560 R3 board can be purchased for AUD 20.00 or less  – one board has a total of 54 input or outputs which can be configured to your setup. With the Output Amplifier board, one can now also have the necessary current to drive the incandescent bulbs in genuine Airbus korry switches and panels.

Arduino Mega 2560 R3 Interface Board

To use your Flight Simulator with an Arduino you will require MobiFlight; this is an amazing software and acts as a bridge connecting FSX/Prepar3D  with your hardware. It requires FSUIPC as it uses ‘offsets’ to function.

I suggest you go to the website, and walk through the tutorials to understand first how MobiFlight works. In this specific tutorial we will be looking at how to find a particular offset which FMGS uses and incorporating it into the MobiFlight software.

Looking up an Offset

Each korry output has an assigned offset value. The offsets for FMGS are published here ; the most recent offset values can usually be found in your A320FMGS installation directory – ‘EN – Offsets.pdf’.

To find the offset value, you will need to first determine which korry you would like to light up. In our example, we will be planning to link up the ADIRU1 FAULT light with MobiFlight and FMGS. Connect the pins and ground to the Arduino board and take note of the pin it is connected to.  Open MobiFlight (MFConnector), make sure you have the ‘Output’ tab open, select active, write in a description – ‘ADIRU1 FAULT’ and click edit.

Click to the display tab, and select the module (the Arduino board), Use type of Pin, and for Display settings the pin output*

*Before the pins can be used they must be configured. Go to Extras found in the main menu -> Settings -> MobiFlight Modules and add your pins as an output. 

Next, refer to to the published Offset lists.

The offset for ‘ADIRU1 FAULT’ is 73A1 and has a Byte of 1. The Read bits for the offset is 4

Type in or select these values in the FSUIPC tab on the ConfigWizard. Note, offsets must have the prefix 0x.

For the box ‘Mask value with’, click the … option. Deselect all the boxes except for 4.

Select Ok. Save your configured output file and you’re done! Start your Flight Simulator and click the Run button. Whenever FMGS triggers the offset, your outputs will now light up as intended.

ADIRS panel IR1 FAULT light configured with MobiFlight; when FMGS triggers IR1 fault the panel will output appropriately