Using Arduino to create the display part of a pseudo Flight Control Unit for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
Inspired by Spad.Next Serial Interface v1 Simple Autopilot by Les O'Reilly. Using Adafruit Feather with 3.5" Touch Wing. Display is 'passive' with exception of touch to change radio and course. Button inputs are separate using a Leo Bodnar BBI-32.
Current version is using the SPAD.next Serial V2 pattern, using the INPUT and OUTPUT types instead of DATA and SUBSCRIBE. Mapping between displayed values and the variables are done in SPAD.next.
Display is based on the B612 font (https://github.com/polarsys/b612), converted for use with Adafruit GFX using fontconvert.
The recommended hardware is the following:
- Adafruit 3.5" Touch Wing (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-3-5-tft-featherwing)
- Adafruit Feather M4 Express (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-m4-express-atsamd51)
- 6 NeoPixels in one string, connected to pin 14
It is possible to use the Feather M0 Express, but given the rather compute heavy display updates the M4 is recommended.
The following libraries are required:
- CmdMessenger (https://github.com/thijse/Arduino-CmdMessenger)
- Adafruit NeoPixel
- Adafruit GFX
- Adafruit HX8357
- Adafruit STMPE610
The interface to Mcrosoft FlightSimulator goes via SPAD.Next; the device must be set up as a Serial device.