Prototiping, Test Workbench

I can assure you that with the RealSimControl interface, all your switches, annunciators and displays will work as they should if you follow all our instructions, diagrams and make clean, carefully designed wiring.

But before assembling and wiring your cockpit panels, you would like to test your configuration. For this you may need some kind of work space, and it should be conveniently organized for your needs.

As example, here you can see my simple “workbench”, which is effectively used to test and debug all input/output features and quickly check all problematic situations that some users have encountered.

The basis of this workplace was a piece of rigid PVC wall panel. The master Mega2560 board is fixed on this panel and several breadboards of different sizes are surrounding the controller board. The master board connection to the computer can be easily changed from USB to Ethernet at any time (W5100 micro module is used). The main layout constantly includes several I/O devices used in RealSimControl , which are connected to the main board with neatly laid wires:

Any other device can be quickly added for testing using a large number of spare breadboard nodes, extension address bus ( the long power bars from a breadboards are used as 4 address lines) and ready to use serial interface for additional slave boards (servo, stepper drivers etc.).

This is a mobile table, which, if necessary, can be easily moved to other places, for this it is enough just to disconnect one or two cables (USB and additional power).

NEW: SimVim TEST Module

This is our new SimVim "generic" test panel, it help me to quickly test different configurations for all the available input/output types, more quickly react to user questions related to specific configuration options, resolve problems and make video guides.

It's made out of an old box for 5" floppy disks, PC case plastic front covers, and this is just a small example of how to make old things work, giving them a new life, when you need to make one sample very quickly, there are always many “useless, waste” stuff around which can be utilized.

See more info and photo here: SimVim Test Panel