Modifying the FDS dimmer board for genuine Airbus potentiometer compatibility

There was initially some difficulty adapting the FDS dimmer board for use with genuine Airbus pots. The Airbus pots were higher rated and connecting directly to the board would limit the range of the backlight – when the pot was at its minimum the backlight on panels would still be on.

FDS-IBL-Dimmer Board

The original solution substituted the Airbus genuine parts with pots compatible with the board. This was a working solution, but required disassembly and replacing the pot mechanism.

After discussing with David (electronic wiz) we now have a compatible solution which can work with existing genuine Airbus pots .

Simply replace the C1 capacitor (68 nF) with a 6.8 nF capacitor on the FDS dimmer board, connect the original pot and all should be working as intended.

C1 replaced with 6.8 nF compatible capacitor

** November 2020 – Backlighting is now natively interfaced with an Arduino and an N-Drive Shield

3 thoughts on “Modifying the FDS dimmer board for genuine Airbus potentiometer compatibility

  1. Pingback: FDS Dimming boards  | Soarbywire

  2. Hi Ben,

    I’m just curious if you can help me with a question, I have two different backlit panels, some most are 12v and 5 of them are 5v, can I run those panels on the same circuit being controlled by a Pot and board of 12v? Is it as simple as using resistors to decrease the current to this lower voltage panels?

    Thanks

    Like

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