A while back I set about interfacing an Arduino to my existing Learjet 45 flight simulator. Through some searching and reading I determined this would indeed be possible.
The first panel I decided to interface was the Learjet Pressurization Panel which had not yet been replicated by members on the Hangar45.net community. I was on my own 🙂
I sourced the panel itself from Ron on Hangar 45 which included both the backer and the non-illuminated version of the face plate. Thanks Ron! From here I took an Arduino Nano and interfaced it via the Nokia 5110 LCD. This is not a perfect match to the Lear- but was better than nothing for sure.
I 3D printed a bezel for the LCD on my Solidoodle 2 3D printer an set about the assembly and coding. There is only 2 simple rotary encoders (sourced from eBay) in addition to the LCD and Arduino. The knobs I also printed on my Solidoodle2.
Through the build and coding process I learned a lot about Arduino and interfacing it with FSX. I used the fantastic program Link2FS in order to send and receive data from the flight simulator (FSX in my case)
You can find the build videos here:
And this is the entire Learjet 45 Home Cockpit Build playlist:
There are several other Arduino tutorials regarding interfacing flight simulator on my YouTube Chanel. If you get stuck- check out the other videos. If you still have troubles go ahead an post in my Forum here and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Here is the entire code so you can build your very own panel! Take it, share it, make it better.
Download the entire code, CAD files and libraries from the MKME GitHub HERE
Cheers!