IOCards User Manual (Annex I)

IOCARDS
MANUAL
Author: Carlos Torres

http://www.telefonica.net/web/ec-cts /
IOCARDS PROJECT
MANUAL
ANNEX I. IOCARDS Assembly and settings
INDEX
ANNEX I. – IOCARDS ASSEMBLY AND

SETTING.
I CHAPTER I. - Introduction to the IOCARDS cards.
I CHAPTER II. - Master Card Description and Assembly
I CHAPTER III. - External Source Feeding
I CHAPTER IV. – Master Card Testing and Setting
I CHAPTER V. - Display Card Description and assembly
ANNEX II. - CONFIGURATION AND/OR

PROGRAMMING IOCARDS.
I CHAPTER VI. - Programs. Configuration. Handling.
I CHAPTER VII. - Programming, examples.
ANNEX III. - Iocards Project Diagrams

and Outlines.
ANNEX IV. - FSUIPC Offset by Peter

Dowson
ANNEX V. - FSUIPC Offset by Project

Magenta
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IOCARDS
Annex I
IOCARDS
IOCARDS ASSEMBLY AND SETTINGS
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INTRODUCTION.
The IOCards is a system designed by Manuel Vélez
(www.opencockpits.com) mainly focused to build simulated
cockpits for flight simulation and completed with a
specific software for control and configuration.
This development, that has been carried out in Spain, let

us to build a simulated flightdeck as real as we want,
making true our dream of flying a plane without going out
from home with an incredible reality and fidelity.
The IOCards is a NON COMMERCIAL design, that means the

designer gives to all interested people the recquired
information in order to build the different cards. The
system is designed in a way that it can communicate with
the already available interfaces as fsuipc, widefs, etc.
All the gerber files to build the cards and related

software are available at the designer's web page.
This manual is focused on the assembly and settings of the

IOCards, to solve the doubts that people with basic
electronic and/or computer knowledge could have.
In the next page, the general design of the project

IOCARDS is explained, for a better understanding and
knowledge of the limits and capacities of the system.
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MASTER CARD.
The master card is the heart of the project.
This card is connected to the PC parallel port that

controls the system, with a standard 25 pins parallel
cable.
Each pc usually has a parallel port. If you had a pc with

more than one parallel port (old teams), you would
configure the ports addresses appropriately ($0378,
$0278, etc).
In the designer's web page, a gerber file for building the

master card is available.
MASTER CARD DEVELOPMENT.

The first thing that we will build is a circuit that connects
the PC with the rest of circuits.
Basically it will extend the 8 basic outputs that we have

in the parallel port and to create a communication BUS to
connect other circuits.
the 8 outputs will be used this way: 6 outputs for

addresses (64 different outputs), 1 for data (output
enabled/disabled) and 1 for control.
This way we will have 64 outputs now instead of the initial

8.
The BUS (we call BUS the cable that will interconnect the
different circuits), will carry the parallel port i/o and the
power source. 11 outputs will be used to manage the 7
segments displays circuits.
In addition, we will use 8 addresses for inputs, so we will

have 45 left outputs (64-11-8=45) that we will use for
other purpouses.
The master card also has an expansion circuit to increase

the 9 inputs in the parallel up to 72 inputs.
By using 8 outputs from the Bus, we will connect these

outputs to the 9 inputs in the parallel port.
Although we will really only be able to know the state of

9 lines at the same time, the trick is that the controller
software will go activating each output in a repetitive way,
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it will take the information, disable the output and

continue with the following output in a never ending loop.
This way the controller will have the information of
9*8=72 inputs.
BUILDING THE MASTER CARD

Initially, the card was tested in a laboratory, then in a
cabled prototype card and finally in a handly made one
sided printed circuit board (PCB).
At the moment it has been able to build it in an industrial

two sided PCB.
Once we have the different components and the board, we

can start the assembly.
Components needed to build the master card:
MASTER CARD
QUANTITY IT INDEXES DESCRIPTION

DIODE-1, DIODE-2, DIODOS-3,
Group of 9 Diodes 1N4148 (72 Diodes in
8 DIODE-4, DIODE-5, DIODE-
total)
6, DIODOS-7, DIODE-8
1 J0 Threaded terminal for feeding
4 J1,J2,J3,J4 Connector 40 pin type BT224
1 P1 CONNECTOR DB25 Male Connector DB25 Male
1 P2 Connector DB9 Male
9 R1,R2,R3,R4,R5,R6,R7,R8,R9 Resistances 6K8 0.33W or 0,25W
1 U1 74HC154N
8 U2,U3,U4,U5,U6,U7,U8,U9 74H259
1 U10 74LS541
NOTe: It’s a good habit installing the IC on their

corresponding sockets, just in case we have to change
them if someone breaks.
Card diagram is as follows:
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Following is the picture of the industrially made card, in

the same position as the previous picture. You can see the
different components in their locations.
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The first thing to consider is to locate the proper side of

the card in order to weld the components.
The second thing is that there are components that don't

have a defined position on the card (like the resistances),
but others (the IC, the diodes and the 40 pin connectors)
have an specific position that can’t be changed. In the
previous picture, regarding the IC, it has been drawn with
a little circle in the #1 pin end, as well as the positive (+)
and negative (-) for the connector J0.
For the 40 pins connectors, the lateral guide hole in the

plastic piece must be in the same position as the name in
the picture (j1, j2, j3 and j4).
Now we can start weldind the components. Don’t use a

very powerful welder (30 watts is ok). We don’t want to
burn the IC’s. We should also use a quality tin for welding
(with soul of resin is better).
The welding must be clean, made in one step, not applying

too much tin that could cause shortcuts.
The order for welding is not important, but taking into

account that while welding both hands are busy, we
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should start welding the less heigh components

(resistances and diodes).
Resistances don't have any special position, as said

previously, but diodes have polarity. Each diode has a mark
or black line in the cathode. In the following picture you
can see the correct position of the diodes on the board
and their diagram representation (black line on the diode
corresponds with the arrow vertex on the diagram):
Once the resistances and diodes are welded, we can

proceed with the IC’s sockets. The sockets have a
semicircular notch that indicate #1 pin end.
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In the picture above, you can see the sockets already

welded in their proper position.
We continue welding the 40 pin connectors and the J0

connector, keeping in mind that the positive pin (+) is the
one on the left.
The last step will be welding the DB9 and DB25

connectors and carefully install the IC’s on their
corresponding sockets.
The appearance of the finished Master card is as follows:
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS.
The master card provides control for 45 outputs, 72
inputs and 64 displays. Up to four master cards can be
connected to one parallel port, via an expansion card.
Connector J0 (2 pin) connects the card with the external

power source (5 Vcc), being the positive pin the one closer
to the DB9 connector.
Connector P1 (DB25) connects the card with the parallel

port, with a standard parallel cable.
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Connector J1 (40 pin) is the expansion bus; auxiliary cards

(as the display card) are connected to this bus.
Connector J2 (40 pin) provides 38 exits, numbered from 11

to 48; #1 pin is +5 Vcc and #2 pin is GND.
Connector P2 (DB9) provides 7 outputs, from 49 to 55; #1

pin is +5 Vcc and #2 pin is GND.
Connector J3 provides 36 inputs from 000 to 035, in four

groups of 9 inputs each plus a tenth pin that is the
ground (gnd) for each group.
From #1 pin to #9 is the first group, with #10 pin for gnd.
From #11 pin to #19 is the second group, with the #20 pin
for gnd.
From #21 pin to #29 is the third group, with the #30 pin
for gnd.
From #31 pin to #39 is the fourth group, with the #40 pin
for gnd.
Connector J4 provides 36 inputs from 036 to 071, in four

groups of 9 inputs each one plus a tenth pin that is the
ground (gnd) for each group.
Take into account that the pin order in the physichal

connector doesn't correspond with the logical input
number; for example, the first group in the J3 connector
would be:
Pin 1 input 001; Pin 6 input 007

Pin 5 input 008; Pin 10 gnd of the group
This is well shown in the following picture:
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EXTERNAL POWER SOURCES.

Master card needs an external power source (5 Vcc)
connected to the J0 connector. Remember the positive pin
in this connector is the one closer to the DB9 connector.
The best and most appropriate power source is the one

from an old and unused PC. Red cables provide a stable 5
Vcc voltage, yellow cables provide 12 Vcc and black
cables are GND.
If you have an old AT power source, check with a

multimetre (with the PC unplugged is safer) which of the
four cables in the main switch are short cut in the “On”
position. Then you can extract the source from the PC,
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install it in an external little box and install a switch

with the same connections as the one previously tested.
If you have an ATX power source, just look for the 20 pin
connector, cut the only green cable in it and any of the
black cables and install a switch between those two
cables. This switch will then turn on and off the source.
Don’t use higher voltages than 5 Vcc if you don’t want to

literally burn the components.
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Working with the master card.

card.
The recquired software is available at the designer Manuel
Vélez’s web site download area (www.opencockpits.com). We
will download the last available version, decompress it
and execute the setup.exe. This will install the three
programs included in the “Iocards project suite".
With the Master card finished, the power source ready and
the software installed, we can now test if the card works
properly.
First step is connect the card to the PC, by using a

standard parallel cable.
The first thing that we should make is to test the parallel

port mode. In some PC’s, this mode can interfere with the
normal master card operation, making that 4 inputs in each
group don’t work.
The parallel port mode is accessible and configurable by

the PC BIOS. Just pres <DEL> key while the PC is
starting. Then look for "on board parallel port". The port
address in hexadecimal is shown (the usual value is the
378h or $0378).
Besides the address, we can find three options: parallel

port mode, parallel port irq and parallel port dma.
The only thing that perhaps need to be changed is the

parallel port mode: ecp / epp+ecp / spp / epp / bidirectional.
These modes can be selected by pressing Pag.Up or Pag.Dn.
We will connect the feeding source to the connector J0.
We will start now the Computer, and also the master card
power source.
We are now ready to run the "controller.exe" program.

With these program, we will check the card operation
(inputs and outputs locations, displays values, etc.).
The first time that we run the controller, it asks us for the parallel
port address (the one that is assigned in the bios, usually 378h or
what is the same $0378).
We will start the program by clicking the Start button.
Below the label named “Inputs” we can see a white window.

Nothing must be shown in this window by now. If something
appear, this is a clue that some shortcircuit or bad
connection exist in the master card.
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Warning: It is important to observe that the gnd of each group of

inputs can’t be mixed with the gnd of the other groups, because they
would activate the inputs in an wrong way and they won’t let the
normal software operation.
Now, let’s check if the parallel port mode works fine: With
a little cable we will go shortcutting all the inputs.
Remember that inputs are grouped in four groups for each
connector (J3 and J4). We will shortcut for each group
each pin with the corresponding group GND pin. If the card
works fine, each time we shortcut an input, the
corresponding address will be shown in the “Inputs”
window.
If the parallel port mode is not valid, only five inputs in

each group have been detected. Then we will try with
another parallel port mode in the PC Bios.
If none of the modes present at the Bios are valid, there’s

another way to solve the problem: by making our own
compatibility cable. The diagram is available at
www.opencockpits.com and also in the Annex III on this
manual. Using this special cable, you’ll have to set
“fullcompatble=yes” in the “controller.ini” configuration
file. Then repeat the test and all the inputs will be
recognized.
In the case that, even with this cable, only five inputs are
detected in each group, you could contact the designer on
the forum dedicated to the Iocards.
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DISPLAYS
DISPLAYS CARD ASSEMBLY AND SETTINGS.
Displays card will manage all the 7-segment displays
needed to simulate radios, course indicators, etc.
This card is connected to the master card by the Bus. Up

to four displays cards can be connected to one master
card. This way, with one master card we can manage up to
64 7-segment displays.
Components needed to build the displays card:
Displays cards
QUANTITY IT INDEXES DESCRIPTION

1 J17 Male connector of 40 pin BT224
4 JP1,JP2,JP3,JP4 Jumpers
J1,J2,J3,J4,J5,J6,J7,J8,J9,J10,
16 Terminals 8 roads PCB
J11,J12,J13,J14,J15, J16.
112 Resistances .16 groups of 7 Resistances 470 Ohm 0,25 W
1 U1 74LS139B
1 U2 74HC154N
U3, U4, U5, U6, U7, U8, U9, U10
16 CD5411BCN
U11, U12, U13, U14, U15, U16
NOTe: It’s a good habit installing the IC on their

corresponding sockets, just in case we have to change
them if someone breaks.
The PCB for diplays card is shown in the picture below:
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Componenta location and position are drawn on it.
The diagram for the displays card is as follows:
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With this information, we are ready to start welding in the

same way we did with the master card.
You can see the sockets already welded in the following

picture. Remember this elements have a particular position
on the board (small circle notch in the #1 pin end):
Resistances must be welded in a vertical position, due to

the board design. Some resistances ready for welding:
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And here, already placed and welded.
Now we can weld the 8-pin connectors, just besides each

group of resistances:
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Last step is to weld the 40 pin and the jumper connectors:
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Now we will set each IC in their sockets, and we will define

the number of the display card (up to four can be used
with one master card) by installing one jumper.
The displays card is now ready to use.
We will use a standard 40 pin ide cable (the same as used

for the hard drives inside our PC) to connect the different
displays cards to the master card, taking into account the
polarity (#1 pin is marked in this cable).
Let’s identify the displays connectrs on board:
If we have more than one display card, the one configured

as the first card (jumper JP1 closed) will manage displays
from 00 to 15; the one configured as the second card
(jumper JP2 closed) will manage displays from 16 to 31,
and so on until 63.
In the following picture you can see the location in the

case of the first card (JP1 closed).
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And finally, let’s identify, for each connector, the pins

and displays segments correspondence:
Note: DISPLAYS MUST BE COMMON CATHODE TYPE.
7-segments displays have all the same segments

configuration, but not allways the same segments-pins
correspondence. We are going to explain the Kingbright
SC-52:
Segments are defined by letters from A to G plus the

decimal point (DP). Pins are numbered from 1 to 10. The
correspondence between segments and pins is different
for each manufacturer, and can be found in the technical
information from the display manufacturer.
D ISPLAY CONNECTOR.
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On our display card, each pin in the display connector has

the corresponde (shown above) with the display segments.
Pin 1 will manage segment E, pin 2 segment D, etc.
We have finished the assembly of both master and displays

cards and are now ready to be configured and used for
our purpouses.
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IOCARDS

Author: Carlos Torres

ANNEX I. – IOCARDS ASSEMBLY AND

I CHAPTER II. - Master Card Description and Assembly

I CHAPTER III. - External Source Feeding

I CHAPTER IV. – Master Card Testing and Setting

I CHAPTER V. - Display Card Description and assembly

ANNEX II. - CONFIGURATION AND/OR

I CHAPTER VII. - Programming, examples.

ANNEX III. - Iocards Project Diagrams

ANNEX IV. - FSUIPC Offset by Peter

ANNEX V. - FSUIPC Offset by Project

This development, that has been carried out in Spain, let

The IOCards is a NON COMMERCIAL design, that means the

All the gerber files to build the cards and related

This manual is focused on the assembly and settings of the

In the next page, the general design of the project

This card is connected to the PC parallel port that

Each pc usually has a parallel port. If you had a pc with

In the designer's web page, a gerber file for building the

MASTER CARD DEVELOPMENT.

Basically it will extend the 8 basic outputs that we have

the 8 outputs will be used this way: 6 outputs for

This way we will have 64 outputs now instead of the initial

In addition, we will use 8 addresses for inputs, so we will

The master card also has an expansion circuit to increase

By using 8 outputs from the Bus, we will connect these

Although we will really only be able to know the state of

it will take the information, disable the output and

BUILDING THE MASTER CARD

At the moment it has been able to build it in an industrial

Once we have the different components and the board, we

Components needed to build the master card:

QUANTITY IT INDEXES DESCRIPTION

NOTe: It’s a good habit installing the IC on their

Card diagram is as follows:

Following is the picture of the industrially made card, in

The first thing to consider is to locate the proper side of

The second thing is that there are components that don't

For the 40 pins connectors, the lateral guide hole in the

Now we can start weldind the components. Don’t use a

The welding must be clean, made in one step, not applying

The order for welding is not important, but taking into

should start welding the less heigh components

Resistances don't have any special position, as said

Once the resistances and diodes are welded, we can

In the picture above, you can see the sockets already

We continue welding the 40 pin connectors and the J0

The last step will be welding the DB9 and DB25

The appearance of the finished Master card is as follows:

Connector J0 (2 pin) connects the card with the external

Connector P1 (DB25) connects the card with the parallel

Connector J1 (40 pin) is the expansion bus; auxiliary cards

Connector J2 (40 pin) provides 38 exits, numbered from 11

Connector P2 (DB9) provides 7 outputs, from 49 to 55; #1

Connector J3 provides 36 inputs from 000 to 035, in four

Connector J4 provides 36 inputs from 036 to 071, in four

Take into account that the pin order in the physichal

Pin 1 input 001; Pin 6 input 007

This is well shown in the following picture:

EXTERNAL POWER SOURCES.

The best and most appropriate power source is the one

If you have an old AT power source, check with a

install it in an external little box and install a switch