[simpits-tech] Who is using a Centipede shield to drive their LED's ?

[Cris Harrison]

On 11/23/2013 12:36 PM, Matt Bailey wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:24:40 -0800 (PST)
> geneb <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 21 Nov 2013, Matt Bailey wrote:
>>
>>> I used a couple of these stacked on an Uno to read all the analog
>>> radios (including the old-style dial ADF tuner) in a 737 cockpit.
>>> Works a treat. :)
Ok I must be missing something but how did you interface the old-style 
ADF tuner 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phoenixcomm/11035935653/in/set-72157634078960474
that is the collins radio in the uper left?? I have the pin-out and I 
got the switch (bands) ok but the dial is connected to a sychro 
transmitter in there.  Any help would be cool..
Cris H.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/phoenixcomm/11035935653/in/set-72157634078960474> 

>> I haven't tried them for inputs yet.  I take it they do a good job?
> They're perfect. I just set all the channels to "high" which enables
> the built-in pull-up resistors, so all I have to do circuit-wise is
> connect my switches or other inputs to ground...no diode matrices or
> pull-up/down resistors in my circuits (of course, you could always
> disable any or all of the pull-up resistors if you needed to use
> pull-down resistors in your own circuits). The library they have
> written just gets copied into the folder with the rest of your Arduino
> IDE stuff and handles reading/writing the addresses of each register on
> the board(s) (via the address of the board itself, which can be set
> with a jumper to allow stacking two of them on top of an Uno). Their
> code abstracts all this out to calls that mimic the digitalRead() and
> digitalWrite() functions of the stock Arduino library....the board
> basically "looks" like an Arduino with 64 (or 128) I/O pins. :)
>
>
>> Right now the only thing I'm using the Centipede for is to drive my
>> 16 channel high-power boards.  I've got five built out of the eight
>> I'll eventually need.  Because of how the driver boards work, the
>> Centipede only sees a light load - only enough to bias the TIP-125
>> into switching on.  There's no problem at all in using a whole
>> Centipede for outputs, just as long as you're using a driver board.
>> I would NOT use my driver board to drive relays or motors however.
>> There's no back-EMF protection in the circuit so you'll likely blow a
>> driver transistor the first few times it's used that way.  That being
>> said, there's no reason why you can't create a tiny little board to
>> handle those cases where you need to do that kind of switching.
> Cool! Actually I have not looked at your board layout yet, as my laptop
> doesn't have a 7Zip extractor installed apparently, so I wasn't sure on
> the magnetic protection. That's not hard to handle though, I will
> probably use your board as a starting point and tweak it for what
> mechanical loads I have. I for sure will be driving the Sabreliner's
> stall shakers, and probably some surplus autopilot servos for, well,
> the autopilot (connected directly to the pitch/roll pushrods). I may
> possibly be controlling hydraulic pumps and actuators in the control
> loading system as well.
>
> I guess the next thing I will need to work on is a massive PWM board. I
> plan on interfacing all the D'Arsonval-based gauges in the cockpit, and
> I need 2 PWM outputs for each air core instrument I end up doing. Then
> there is the synchro issue....if I figure out how to directly control
> synchros with the Arduino, I will probably need a lot more PWM channels!
>
> Matt
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