[simpits-tech] Hackerizing a King ADF indicator?

[dabigboy at cox.net]

Hi fellows, I have a little poser for you. I just got my hands on a used King KI-255 00 ADF indicator for my sim (yes, I am old school, I will be doing ADF work with this sim). It's a very basic old model with the manually adjusted compass rose...the only moving, driven part on here is the ADF needle itself. It doesn't seem like it should be too difficult to drive, but I can't find so much as a pin-out on the interwebz. There is a Cannon 4-pin connector at the top which I assume is power for integrated lighting, and then there are 20 pins at the bottom of the back of the unit.....three rows: top row is 7 pins, next row is 6, last one is 7 again. Looks a bit like an oversized DIN connector.

My first thought is that it uses a series of air core movements to drive the needle with great precision throughout 360 degrees, but my experience with air core movements is still very early. Without dissecting the indicator (and possibly damaging it), I have no way to test this theory reliably and safely.

If nothing else, I will just gut this thing and use a geared stepper motor to drive the needle, but using the real instrument without modification would be oh so cool. :)

Matt