Intercom System Setup

A lot thoughts for a lot of cockpit builders is going into the Intercom System. There are some very good and very real easy to use replicas available. Seems the best out there is the one from Ruscool.

Most of the time I am flying alone in my flightdeck, therefore I don’t need those more expensive solutions. I tested and figured the following solution for me. It’s working, its simple and its cheap – although its not 100 percent real.

First I have to explain my setup a little. I have one PC running vpilot and handles the communication to the VATSIM ATC. On this machine there are 2 headsets connected. Each one has a separate USB Soundcard, where the 2 3.5mm connections are connected. In the windows system config the configuration is made that the loopback device from the captains mic is the first officer headset and vice versa. So everytime the captain speaks the first officer will hear him. Not perfect, but it’s working. If you want stop transmitting to the intercom, you can disable the mic input via a switch on the Plantronics GameCom 388 Headset. Sounds simple? It is 🙂 As I sayed not perfect, but its working and sounds quite real.

Configuration of Captains Mic
Configuration of First Officer Mic

Hardware issue on PFD machine

After a 2 month brake I started all the PCs for a system check and update sequence today. After half an hour the PFD pc went dark. I rebooted the machine and as soon as the windows logo appears it shuts down again. I thought of an HDD first, but it happened on different times. My next guess was one of the USB connected devices. So I unplugged all 8 devices and rebooted, same effect. I took the HDD drive out and installed it on a same spare machine, there all was working. So I decided to switch the machines. During unplugging the graphic card I noticed that the CPU cooler was not fully in place.

So this was my issue as well. The machine overheated and shut down itself. After inspecting the cooler I noticed that the clips on the cooler were broken and therefore the cooler was not tight on the CPU anymore.

Destroyed cooler clips

I continued with the replacement of the graphic card and USB PCI card and started the machine. All was working again.

So I ordered on eBay some spare parts for the cooler clips to have a backup PC ready again in a few weeks.

VACC Austria Realops event. Rotation LOWW-EDDM-LOWW

On June 9th the Realops Event took place in Vienna. Therefore you could book Real Time slots from this day schedule from the Vienna airport. Outbound and Inbound. The event was hosted for the 10th anniversary of VACC Austria. Happy Birthday, again!
I flew a rotation for austrian virtual from LOWW to EDDM as OS117L and back to Vienna as OS118C

Weather Radar updgraded

During the release of ProSimv2 I also noticed the possibility of a weather radar test.

My switch from the radar was not working correctly, so I thought it is defect. Therefore I have disassembled the whole module and tested all switches. I found a failure in the cabling which I made many years ago.

I took the opportunity to correct this and install 2 new potentiometers for the Gain control. I only connected one side, the left side, as current ProSim only supports one weather radar. There is information

Continue reading “Weather Radar updgraded”

Captains Side – Master Caution, Fire Warning & Six Pack

I got my hands on a 2nd hand Master Caution and Fire Warning button as well as a six pack for the captains side from Opencockpits.

For those to get installed the whole captains side panel had to be replaced. It was replaced as reworked with some additional details and painted in black instead of grey.

Placement after drilling

Then it was painted in black.

Now it was time to make the connections, but sadly the LEDs from the sixpack wont show up… I checked and double checked it. No mistake. As the modules are from Opencockpits the V+ is 5V. Pokeys is only delivering 3.3V. 🙁 So I tested it with 5V directly and it was working. Now I needed a plan for a Pokeys connection.
My plan was to buy an eight relay module which are working with Pokeys – I already have one relay in place with my strobe card.

After connecting and powering on, the result looks very good and I am happy with it.

Building a 737-800 Homecockpit [OE-LNJ]