Building A Home Cockpit For X-plane using Ardiuno To Create Instruments and Inputs

A Humble Beginning

I have been into flight simulation for a number of years now. It all started out for me with Microsoft Flight Simulator but it quickly changed to X-Plane. Originally I purchased X-Plane 10

Since the release of X-Plane 11 introduced so many great improvements like and updated GUI and great graphics I upgraded to the newer version.

Extending The Controls & Adding Realism

X-Plane can talk to physical instruments. You can build whole replica cockpits of your favorite aircraft. Saitek has many great modules for things like flight yokes, HOTAS, switch panels and much more:

Pretty much every part of the aircraft can be controlled using external devices. This has some advantages when you are flying online on one of the networks like VATSIM. They use live air traffic control and you need to be pretty prompt about things like radio frequency changes and autopilot settings. If you are doing an instrument approach it is handy to have an understanding of how to use your FMC Flight Management Computer

All of these things can be somewhat difficult to control with just a standard xbox controller, mouse, and keyboard. It takes some real agility to make it work. This increases the pilot's workload and that is not what any pilot wants. The air traffic controllers on VATSIM are pretty well trained and expect that you are going to follow their instructions pretty closely. So having good control is important.

High Cost Addressed By Using An Arduino

To create things like radio controls for switching between standby and active frequencies or even setting them in the first place is actually pretty easy to do on a system like an Arduino. And Arduino is a small computerised micro controller that is useful in creating all kinds of electronic gadgets. It also happens to be a much cheaper way to build our radio controls. A Saitek radio will run in the hundreds of dollars and Arduino and some parts can get you a physical device for under $40. That is a huge savings.

Existing Plug Ins & Code

If you have the interest in building controls to interface with your Arduino you can check out sites like SimVim they have a pre-built plugin and a configuration system that lets you access most of the functions and data premade. You just need to assemble the necessary hardware and run their configuration utility. I got some simple things running in minutes like the ability to hit a button and engage / disengage the breaks, lift / lower the gear and what not.

First Real Project

My first real planned project for this is to build a radio simulator and an autopilot control system. Using the Arduino, some buttons, a few rotary encoders, and a couple LCD displays and I will be able to have a radio an navigation system that I can use much more quickly and accurately than I can with the mouse.

How Many Of You Are Out There

Are you a flight sim buff too? Do you fly the virtual skies? If so what software and hardware do you use to control your aircraft.