10 Encoders Board

The 10 Encoders Universal program that's supplied with this board allows the user to configure and connect up to ten encoders which interact with Flight Simulator software, and a user-friendly configuration program allows each encoder to then be individually configured using either FSUIPC Offsets, FS Controls or Key presses.

As shown in the screenshot below, there's an option to select which type of encoder will be connected. This is important as they operate differently via the PC board. The default setting is CTS288.

There's also the ability to test the function of each encoder within the configuration program itself (without the PC board actually being connected) to make sure that all functions will work as expected.

Once the encoders have been configured, this will be shown on a separate screen:

This product isn't actually available through our official website yet, although please feel free to contact us for more details.

Conditional 64 Outputs Board

Over the past few weeks we've made some fairly significant changes to our 64 Outputs Board software which greatly improve its versatility. Below is a basic overview of what these alterations are, although more detailed posts regarding some of the aspects detailed here will likely follow in the next few weeks.

Also, the details on our website haven't been able to keep up with us, and these will be updated in the coming days. The PCBs themselves are the same (as indeed will be the price!), but the programming of the processor chips and the software interface behind them have been altered.

Anyway, on to the improvements ... 

Upgrade 1: Configurable Warning System now available

We have now added a Warning function to four outputs on our 64 Outputs Board. This allows users the ability to add a large number of conditions that can be used to trigger various warning lights. (Master Warning, Master Caution etc.)

We have allowed these special Warning outputs to use outputs 7 and 8 on banks 7 and 8.

The system works by having up to two specific conditions that must be true (ie. Battery Master, and Avionics Master etc.) (or they can be left blank) followed by any one of up to another 25 conditions being true.

One (or any) of these four warnings can also have a physical switch connected to the Ruscool 64 Outputs Board, which will act as a Reset button for the particular Warning light when it is activated. This means that if the Warning light is triggered, it can be turned off (reset) by pressing the button, and the Warning light will turn on again if another condition re-triggers the warning. If the warning condition resets itself, or an action by the pilot corrects the fault, the warning lamp will go out without the need to press the reset button.

The example below will light the Warning output if the Battery Switch and Avionics Switch are 'On' and any of the other conditions are true.

Upgrade 2: Configurable Switches added

Another new feature is that users now have the ability to connect to three inputs for use as custom switches or pushbuttons as well.

As shown in the example below, the first switch is set as 'momentary', which means that it will operate as a pushbutton toggle action.  

You can use these switches to control any FSUIPC offset or FS Control (event). They are labelled as 5, 6 and 7 because the first 4 switches are dedicated to the Warning resets and switch 8 is dedicated as a lamp test switch (more of which is explained below).

Upgrade 3: New Lamp Test options

There are now two options for how the lamp test can be operated.

Method 1: The lamp test can be triggered by the user through the assigning of an offset which will then be used to trigger the lamp test. When this offset is changed, the outputs that have been 'flagged' will be lit. 


This can either be a valid FSUIPC offset, or any unused (reserved) offset that you are using
either from a Ruscool 64 Input board, another input controller or from within Flight Simulator. The offset type must be a single byte that sends either "1" or "0".

Method 2: A physical switch can be connected to the Ruscool 64 Outputs board and the lamp test can be controlled that way. Switch 8 on the 64 Outputs board is dedicated to this function.

You can also specify whether the lamp test is only triggered if the battery bus has voltage or whether it's always triggered regardless of the battery status.

Eg. Offset Trigger

Eg. Switch Trigger

64 Input Board - Update

We're also in the final stages of testing an update to the 64 Input Board in which the user can now specify whether individual inputs should be switches or momentary pushbuttons. This remedies a reported issue where switches were occasionally being misread and stored as momentary pushbuttons. 

Previous to this latest update, our software would automatically determine the input action as either momentary or static. This, however, meant that sometimes a switch could be rendered inactive if the system happened to misinterpret the function as a momentary action. The physical manifestation of this would be the affected switch appearing to become 'stuck' and non-operational until the software had been restarted. 

In order to resolve this, the user can now individually define the required action of each input in the configuration program itself (as indicated by the red section of the screenshot below) ...

You might also notice that the Bytes column is no longer used in order to streamline the user interface. 

This update will be made available in the Software section on our website shortly.

Note: We try to provide various ways and means of keeping our customers informed about such updates via Twitter (also tracking on our homepage), MailChimp, our Support Forum and, of course, this blog.

64 Outputs Board: Lamp Test Function

Due to a customer's suggestion, we are now incorporating a lamp test function into our 64 Output programs. This update is now in the final stages of development and will be made available through our website once fully tested. 

This addition allows the user to flag a selection of outputs that they wish to have included as part of a lamp test. For example, all outputs confined to a particular panel (say, the annunciators) can be flagged for a lamp test. The user then assigns an offset which will be used to trigger the lamp test, so that when this offset is changed the outputs that have been 'flagged' will then be lit. This offset can be changed via either Flight Sim, a Ruscool 64 Input Board, or any other means available (as long as the offset changes, the lamp test will be triggered). 

Another slight modification to our 64OUTS is that the Bytes column has been replaced with a Calculation column instead, which means that the On/Off or Range values can now be set to the 'calculated' data as opposed the 'raw' data. This information is more useful as it reflects what is actually seen in Flight Sim. 

Below is a screenshot highlighting the changes ...

Custom Annunciator Software

Subsequent to the annunciator panel that we recently designed for the Bell 206, we are currently working on an Annunciator Panel Program and Annunciator Controller Board that can be fully customised to control various annunciator lights. 

The reason for writing this software is because we’ve previously found it necessary to write (sometimes complex) work-arounds for various CAUTION / WARNING indicators because the actions themselves are not normally part of the operations within MSFS or FSUIPC. These calculations have been hard-coded into the various units that we've built for customers, but this means they cannot then be readily altered.

By providing this software as a stand-alone feature (in conjunction with our new Annunciator Controller Board) however, we're hoping it will allow cockpit builders a wider scope as to which annunciators they want to action and how they go about making this happen. Previously, all of this had to be done during the manufacturing/software writing process and required that we learn and understand the detailed operations of each aircraft type we worked on. Whilst we enjoy learning about this of course, simmers with specific knowledge about the actual aircraft they're building, will undoubtedly have a much more intimate knowledge of what they require.

Below is a quick sample of the configuration program showing how you can have multiple conditions to control each light (click on the image to get a readable view!). You can have a combination of conditions grouped together and there is also an ‘OR’ section so that you can set up a wide range of separate conditions to be implemented. By using the 'between' or 'equals' parameters, it is possible to set up most conditions you will need. The example shown here will turn ON the ROTOR LOW RPM annunciator when the Rotor RPM is between 0 and 90%, OR when the engine is not running. This means that the annunciator will only be OFF if the engine is running and the Rotor RPM is above 91% which is what we need of course.

Each annunciator can be named according to its function, and prior to any conditions being set up all of these fields will be empty.

This program operates with our Annunciator Controller Board, which has ribbon cable connections to our B206 Annunciator Panel, but is also easily connected to your own customised annunciator panel. When the program is run, you can see the annunciators being lit on the screen as well on the panel itself, but normally you would minimise this when flying your aircraft.

Note: For illustration purposes only, the above screenshot shows our 

annunciator software running alongside the default FS2004 Bell 206