After 18 months of relentless effort, fourteen painstaking revisions, and a significant investment, the moment my patrons and I have been waiting for has finally arrived. The v14 737 DIY MCP is built and fully functional! This project has been a labour of love and dedication, and I called it the ultimate DIY kit because I wanted it to be simple to build while maintaining the actual aircraft unit's real dimensions and size. The combined dual bank angle and heading encoder working perfectly is the cherry on top, making it as user-friendly as possible.
The Journey to Success
Words can't fully express the immense relief and joy I'm feeling right now. This journey has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows, challenges and victories, and countless hours of dedication. But seeing the end product in action makes it all worthwhile. I've been testing the MCP all week, ensuring it runs non-stop, looking for faults, and flying around the UK using it. There's something incredibly satisfying about pressing a switch or rotating a knob and watching the aircraft gracefully rotate to the new heading or altitude.
Key Features of the v14 737 DIY MCP:
Dedicated PCB Design: Built on a single SMD 4-layer PCB with an onboard Raspberry Pico (Arduino), featuring multiplexers, shift registers, LEDs for backlighting, and all Korry switches.
DIY-Friendly: Some through-hole soldering is required for 7-digit displays and encoders, allowing you to choose your colour. White displays are included as standard.
Dual-Color Korry Switches: They are integrated into the PCB with pre-made white and frosted acrylic casings, allowing clear visibility of green status captions during the day and illuminated text descriptions at night.
Versatile Packages: Options available to suit various budgets.
Innovative Combined Bank Angle and Heading Encoder: A significant milestone in design, 3D printable for easy integration.
Stunning Visuals: Assembled parts create a visually striking unit with pre-programmed Mobiflight options, mimicking the functionality of the MCP for different sims.
Enhanced Finish: Thick tint film has been replaced with 3mm tinted acrylic for a long-lasting, perfect look.
Seamless Integration: Fits into the 737SS MCP orifice or any original-sized MCP space. (this is smaller than the original DIY MCP, matching the dimensions of the real unit)
Simple Power Solution: Powered by a single USB cable for the PCB, with a separate 12V pin header for backlighting.
You can save money on this build by sourcing parts and printing components. I highly recommend starting with the faceplates, PCB, and Korry buttons at a minimum.
Availability and Preorder Information
Given the high demand, I'm trying to be as fair as possible. We have a limited number of boards and kits ready to go so that the preorder will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once this batch is sold out, any remaining orders will go into a waiting queue for the following order. Rest assured, they will be dispatched according to the order of sale.
A Special Thanks
One important note is that this MCP does not have a magnetically held A/T switch; it is a standard manual one. A special thanks to Conrad Tulk for suggesting a momentary toggle switch for the AT arm switch. This way, it never goes out of sync with the sim, and a quick press brings it back on. The status light then becomes the focal point of the switch status, not the switch position. It's such a simple yet brilliant idea. Thank you, Conrad!
This project has been an incredible journey, and I’m thrilled to share it with you all. Here’s to many more flights and innovations to come! ✈️ Drop by and say hello if you have read this far! Kind regards, Karl
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