With the foundation built and Main Instrument Panel (MIP) mounted work can begin with the interfacing of the Simulator switches and korry annunciators.

With the previous Flight Deck Solution build the TEKWorx InterfaceIT boards were used. The TEKWorx boards are designed with group wiring – 8 positive connectors assigned to one common ground. This solution was originally designed to work with FDS annunciators and unfortunately they are not an efficient way to interface Airbus OEM equipment which are designed with common anode wiring.

The Arduino interface board is an affordable solution which allows for common anode wiring. With the Output Amplifier shield it can drive the incandescent bulbs inside the korries. Interfacing can be difficult and tedious as the hardware is not officially supported and you must use 3rd party software such as MobiFlight or Arduino737; these programs utilise FSUIPC offsets which can be limiting. Each assigned output must be individually typed in the setup section of the avionics program (ProSimA320), a complicating process which may make troubleshooting difficult.

A plug and play alternative and attractive option is the Phidgets LED board. Reasonably priced for 64 outputs, the board is designed with individual ground and voltage supply for each output. Designed with common anode setup, each ground wire can be wired to a 5+VDC supply. If you observe the LEDs to be too bright for your liking the voltage can be adjusted in the avionics software.

Assigning the LEDs is a simple process with ProSimA320 – each LED lights up and with simple elimination the output is designated. The native support allows for a quick and painless setup.

Inputs (registering the button presses and switches) of each panel will be wired to a Leo Bodnar joystick board to complete the interfacing.