Sim Innovations Forums

Hello everybody,

after building an remote controlled version of my favorite helicopter, the Eurocopter EC135 (now AirbusHelicopter AH135) "Christoph Europa 1", a german rescue helicopter from the "ADAC Luftrettung" located in Aachen/Merzbrück (EDKA), I am now on the way to build a 1:1 replica of its cockpit for home use.

Okay ... its not realy 1:1 ... but everywere I can, I try to get as close as possible to the original one.

Here is the actual state - a minimal set ready for take of: 2 seats on a wooden base plate, controls for the pilot...


and a Beamer for everyting else...


Now its time to get some Instruments in front of me and that's the point AirManager comes in the game ... maybe.

Actually I am doing some research with this, to find out, if this could be the solution for my project, too...

There is someone working on the EC135 instruments. I'm not sure about the development, but I get some questions sometimes, so there's definitely something going on.

Yes, it's really going on, but obviously to slow. ^^ I sent you both some work in progress. Not an easy project with all the redundacies and dependencies. But I mess with it.

Thank you both for your Feedback!

I had the chance to see the instruments buid from tecmate.
Real good work, but - at the moment - a number to to high for me.
And there are a few things I am not so happy with (tecmate, I will send you an email )

Otherwise I have written my own version of the VEMD, optimised to run on one screen, with a cover with two 5" holes, to simulate the 2 screens of the real one.
My version is optimised to run with the "Rotorsim EC135", because it use many of the "rotorsim"-Datarefs.
I will show you a short Video of the actual state, later.

Every kind of feedback is welcome I cannot know everything

Btw, if you want me to rewrite the code, just for having a rotorsim-dependent version, let me know. I'll see what I can do.
My aspiration is, to develope an in-depth and independent solution, that anyone can have its EC cockpit and theoretical be able to fly different aircrafts (if s/o wants to) and even more I want to keep the possibility to adapt the code for FSX usage (maybe other users can help then).

Here is a short Video showing my VEMD optimised for the Rotorsim EC135, not complete yet, but on a good way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGk9S300d1c

This screens perfectly match within the CAD-3D Model of my Cockpit design:



But I think I prefer the analogue one:

Nice video. There's a function to store data in Air Manager, so you can store things like engine hours, overspeeds, etc... But maybe you already found out about that.

Thank you for the info, this is planed for a later version of the instruments.
In the first step I want to show all the the values comming from X-Plane.
The one and only (Rotorsim) EC135 for X-Plane has its own logic, so I just need to show what I get.
Later it should give a complete independent version of the instruments, with its own logic and - hopefully - with the whole system deept of the EC135.

But today I will show you what a present the "Saint Nicholas" brought me from Sain Smart:



Yes, ... its a Display, ...



But thats only the half truth... there is another cool thing in the Package, too:



And if you put the display into the back of this 3D-printed frame from microHelis.de:



Then you get this amazing looking piece of master work:



Which represents the ultimate replica of an Eurocopter VEMD, found in the EC135 of course (and even in some other machines like the EC120, EC130, AS350...)


With the display adapter, which is also included in the package you can easy use this screen as a additional display on your PC (HDMI, VGA) or use it directly on a RaspberryPi. And running the AirManager with the instrument from my last post it looks like this:



The buttons in this prototype are build with microswitches, but there is another Version planed using a plastic foil keyboard (membrane keys) like it is in the original one. The Button-Section is replaceable and so you can choice between a non function (optic only) version, the microswitch option and the original layout.

Now we are waiting for the IO-Functions of AirManager, to build a complete All-In-One version with a RasperyPi2, which only need a network cable pluged in to work.

"Saint Nicholas" was good to you this year...very cool.

Fantastic work; I'd like to build my ec135 home cockpit and your software could be a big help!

Luigi