How to build a FMC (Flight Management Computer) ?

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This part is an extremely important item in a modern airliner. I use the software from Enrico Schiratti on a client PC in my LAN. Untill the latest build (377) it was necessary to buy a keyboard encoder (Hagstrom electronics) to interface this to the PC. The problem was that the special keys like MENU - ARR/DEP - FIX - INIT/REF - CLB etc etc used CTRL-F1 to CTRL-F12. With regular keyboard hacking this was not possible to achieve. After build 377 it is possible to assign other keyboardbuttons to these functions (arrow keys or the keys 0-9 on the numpad). So the only other thing you need is a small 5,6 inch display.

Click on the pictures for a detailed picture.

This is what the endresult should be.

Many many parts from Flight deck solutions, so lets start building.

All the wires connected. I got grey hair to get everything right. A good tip is to glue the switches to the acryl first before soldering. I used a matrix that was used in the keyboard that I hacked.

Here is what is left of the keyboard.

FMC is almost assembled.

My 5,6 inch LCD display arrived. Because I could not use the on-off switch and the remote control could not sent through the FMC panel I opened this device.

I soldered 2 wires as extensions to the on-off switch so I can use a little button somewhere on the panel to switch the LCD on. I also removed the plastic caps that were mounted on the PCB mounted switches and protruded a bit outside the LCD to save space (You can see 2 of them lying on the table on the picture).

Now we have to find a solution to fasten it to the center pedestal. This is the easiest way. I attached some aluminium to the plexibackers. You can easyly screw the alu from behind to some plywood for example.

I decided to have it a little higher then the rest of the pedestal and to give it some more strength. So I made a rectangle of black aluminium around it. This alu takes care that you do not see the ugly sideviews from the 1 cm thick plexi layers.

Here you see the details how the black alu is fixed to the plexi panels.

This is how it looks from the front with the black alu attached.

The CDU software runs on an old PPro200mhz with an S3 4 MB VGA card. I use a Trust Televiewer to convert the VGA signal to s-video/cinch to feed the 5,6 inch TFT screen.

A very good alternative would be to use the screen of a used PS1. See here or here for a good tutorial about this.

I upgraded to the Elite version of the CDU from Flightdecksolution . It is a big leap forwards. Backlit buttons and a good 3D appearance.

A new plexi panel was made by my CNC machine to hold it in place.

I used some aluminium to connect the CDU to the plexipanel.