Admittedly, the prebuilt autopilot is appealing in price, but two things detract me thus far: (1) the rather thick profile of the faceplate (rather trivial, but I was hoping for something a bit skinnier) and (2) in spite of the dollars spent, the different in price would be an acceptable 'tuition' in learning how to make these things.
I have indeed been looking at PoKeys, with a focus on their LED extension board, and wondering about the significant differences between PoKeys' 56U and Leo Bodnar's BBI-32. PoKeys claims their 56U supports digital outputs (autopilot numerical LED displays?), whereas the BBI-32 doesn't seem to have that capability, but I could be wrong. Either way, I wish these two blokes described features and properties of their respective products more adequately in common English. I guess I'm just old...
For most of my panels' (overhead console and gear retract/autobrake) functions, two circuit boards are used: Saitek's Switch Panel (for switches and gear indicator) and a Dell keyboard (for all else, with keyboard terminals mapped and then wired into a "matrix board" in lieu of the keys, using several 1x8 PCB-mount female sockets). Here's a pic...
It will support 104 switches and it's essentially used exactly like a keyboard, but with switches (toggle, rotary, pushbutton, etc.) instead of keys. FS2004 recognizes everything a'la keyboard, and other features are configurable with FSUIPC. To that end, I might be able to use the remaining keyboard keys for much (if not all) of the autopilot, thereby negating the 56U and BBI-32 altogether, but then the basic issue remains: getting digital LED readouts on my autopilot panel corresponding to those on the FS screen. I might just have to abandon the LED digital display idea altogether, just having functional knobs/buttons/switches, along with black rectangles for what would otherwise be the displays and just rely on on-screen data. In the end that might be best, but for the now I'm just looking and keeping all options on the table.
In the end, regardless of what the autopilot hooks up to, the LED extension board will be the one to get, so I can get illumination to the momentary and locking illuminated push-button switches on the console. Feel free to reply if you have any ideas, comments, etc., I'm glad you replied...seems like a slow place here lately.
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