Displays for small gauges

Questions about deployment and use of Air Manager Instruments

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Keith Baxter
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Displays for small gauges

#1 Post by Keith Baxter »

Hi,

Looking for ideas for small instrument screens. The instruments are the chronometer, RMI and standby attitude for the 737.

It looks like the bezels I have would suite a 2.5" x 2.5" square screen. (68mm x 68mm)

I found this one. But how will I get it to work in AM?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002 ... hweb201603_

Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

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jph
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Re: Displays for small gauges

#2 Post by jph »

Good morning brother :D
I would say it is a definite no-no. Unfortunately. It is a very rare driver IC with no info available (of use)

I would recommend that you consider a screen that is driven by HDMI.
Such as https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... hweb201603_

NOTE ! ----------------- I am NOT necessarily recommending that specific item, it is simply what I found on a rapid search. ! Forget the Pi references - UNLESS the display has a specific Pi connector. As you can see in this one, it doesnt. But, it also supports touch - a limited version... but you can ignore that really at is more a POS touch.

Now, of course you would need to drive them via HDMI (and set windoze up for the display res. )
EACH module would be seen by windoze as an individual screen which my or may not be appropriate depending on the GPU(s) and PC(s) you have.
Now, there is another option as there are many many of these types that can be driven directly from the Raspberry Pi... You would need Air Player V4 for EACH Raspberry Pi board (V4 Pi recommended - (that is the version of the Pi as it has dual HDMI outputs) .. you could almost certainly run two displays of such resolution from each Pi.. - (presuming a Pi V4 with dual HDMI outputs). So you would have the cost of the screen(s) + the cost of the Raspberry Pi V4 license(s) - plus the cost of Raspberry Pi V4 boards....
:?

It would certainly seem possible though.

Joe. :)
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

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Keith Baxter
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Re: Displays for small gauges

#3 Post by Keith Baxter »

Joe,

Thank you for the input. But HDMI is out if it is going to be driven by the PC GPU's. I only have one and need to purchase another
Reason.
2 x sim displays
6x lcds 176mmx167mm for all the DU's

2 x RPI licences for the two FMC's

I will need another GPU or 4 x RPI licences to run the 2 chronometers and the standby attitude and RMI. If I go that route,

I need to run via an arduino using tft if possable.

Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

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Re: Displays for small gauges

#4 Post by jph »

I need to run via an arduino using tft if possable.
Can you elaborate please brother ?
What size and resolution ? also, what controller IC is on the display (most important)

Driving a TFT display from an Arduino is typically fairly - well - REALLY slow. (if using SPI etc) .. if you CAN use parallel and the display AND Arduino supports it, AND the speed of the Arduino is suitable = then that can make a huge difference. Over SPI it all can 'tend' to be the same as on most displays using SPI as the speed of the hardware SPI - at the display end - is usually (on the datasheet) limited to 10MHz... but you can usually increase this up to four fold with something like an ESP32.

As I mentioned before, a single RP4 with a single AP license can almost certainly - EACH - drive two HDMI displays of those types of resolution as the RP4 has two HDMI outputs on board.
It is often a hard choice between a PC and a couple or more RP units. A PC with a suitable GPU (4 outputs including on board) can be less than 200 dollars complete.
Of course, the other way is to use a monitor panel behind the instrument facia to locate the graphics of the displays... usually the reason not to go this route is physical limits in placing those displays.

Also note that in every case of the above - unless using a PI or PC directly, then it would almost certainly be Message Port....

Joe.
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

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Keith Baxter
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Re: Displays for small gauges

#5 Post by Keith Baxter »

Joe,

RPi4 with AM only has one hdmi output enabled, :(
I have been down that route with Ralph and Corjan when RPI 4 was first made comparable with AM.

Let me stew on it a bit.

Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

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Re: Displays for small gauges

#6 Post by jph »

Keith Baxter wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 10:44 am Joe,

RPi4 with AM only has one hdmi output enabled, :(
I have been down that route with Ralph and Corjan when RPI 4 was first made comparable with AM.

Let me stew on it a bit.

Keith
Ah ! apologies brother / I wasn't aware of that.. I am, at this moment, trying to explore access to RPi .. will report back If I can get more info or boards to test.
However, it may be worth asking again regarding the RP4 with dual HDMI used only with low res displays ? maybe something has changed ? - using both HDMI outputs with - say 1080p would be a nightmare - but for the use you require ??? it would appear to be possible - IF it was supported.
I will certainly follow this thread.
Joe. 8-)
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

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Re: Displays for small gauges

#7 Post by Keith Baxter »

Hi,

This is what has been brewing for over a year now. I bought this from Sam in late 2019 and I need to get it done before my appointment with the pyre. :mrgreen:

Not that I am sick or anything. The wife has warned me to get my sim stuff off the dining-room table and out of her spare room so there is space for the grand children to do sleep overs.

I will put up some images of the build as is progresses.

https://www.cockpitsimparts.co.uk/home/ ... frame.html

Keith
Last edited by Keith Baxter on Tue May 18, 2021 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

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Re: Displays for small gauges

#8 Post by jph »

Hey ! :D

You are only 2 years older than me :o :) - or will be in June :lol:

I ain't planning a pyre yet... :roll: :mrgreen:
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

JackZ
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Re: Displays for small gauges

#9 Post by JackZ »

There are some TFT that can be directly interfaced with an Arduino Mega.
But I am afraid that you will be quite limited for some gages you intend to you use it with.

For the 737 Chronos, that can be without (too much) problems, provided you use message Port and a well known library such as Adafruit GFX or Ug82 libraries. Here the goal is simply to display some text that will change very sec or so, so the limited power of the Arduino is not an issue.

But for a more sophisticated thing like a RMI and the most complicated Stby attitude you might encounter the problem of lack of raw power of the cards, along with limited memory.
The graphic primitives available with the libraries above are limited and I am not sure that they will allow you to create a full instrument like these. Be sure to study the libraries and what they can do before trying such an endeavor with an Arduino.

For these two my best bet would be to rely on either another RPI or a cheap Small form factor PC with the possibility to have at least 2HDMI ports and enough power to run 2 instruments via Airplayer.

For my A320 sim, I use an Arduino with AM only for what this kind of board is able to do, namely drive 4 Oleds screens for the chrono, and three servos for the brake indicator.
For the Stby instruments this will be a small and cheap (old laptop) networked PC

Jacques
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

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Keith Baxter
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Re: Displays for small gauges

#10 Post by Keith Baxter »

Jacques

Yes we are on the same page.

I think you will get the gist.

I posted a short clip on the discord in general chat.I point you there simply because my youtube acc is so cluttered with clutter and the forum does not allow for small video clip uploads.



Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

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