In this video, I show you how to wire and configure a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) toggle switch to a BBI-64 circuit board for your flight simulator. This is a fast and easy way to add realistic toggle switches to your home cockpit for landing gear, lights, fuel selectors, and more.
Whether you're building a new sim panel or upgrading an existing one, this step-by-step guide covers everything from wiring to testing in Windows and configuring in your flight simulator.
**🔍 What You'll Learn:**
**1. Understanding the SPDT Switch**
- The three terminals: Common (C), Normally Open (NO), and Normally Closed (NC)
- How each terminal functions in a circuit
**2. Wiring the Switch to the BBI-64**
- Connecting the Common terminal to ground
- Connecting NO and NC to separate input pins
- Testing with Windows joy.cpl
**3. Configuring in Your Flight Simulator**
- X-Plane 12 button mapping
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) configuration
- Assigning switch positions to specific functions
**4. Functional Testing**
- Verifying both switch positions work correctly
- Testing in a real flight scenario
**📖 Full Written Guide (Pilot Savvy Wiki):**
https://pilotsavvy.com/KB/index.php/Single_Pole_Double_Throw(SPDT)_Switch_to_a_BBI-64_circuit_board
#FlightSimulator #BBI64 #SPDTSwitch #SimBuild #HomeCockpit #FlightSimDIY #PilotSavvy #XPlane12 #MSFS #TechTuesday
Whether you're building a new sim panel or upgrading an existing one, this step-by-step guide covers everything from wiring to testing in Windows and configuring in your flight simulator.
**🔍 What You'll Learn:**
**1. Understanding the SPDT Switch**
- The three terminals: Common (C), Normally Open (NO), and Normally Closed (NC)
- How each terminal functions in a circuit
**2. Wiring the Switch to the BBI-64**
- Connecting the Common terminal to ground
- Connecting NO and NC to separate input pins
- Testing with Windows joy.cpl
**3. Configuring in Your Flight Simulator**
- X-Plane 12 button mapping
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) configuration
- Assigning switch positions to specific functions
**4. Functional Testing**
- Verifying both switch positions work correctly
- Testing in a real flight scenario
**📖 Full Written Guide (Pilot Savvy Wiki):**
https://pilotsavvy.com/KB/index.php/Single_Pole_Double_Throw(SPDT)_Switch_to_a_BBI-64_circuit_board
#FlightSimulator #BBI64 #SPDTSwitch #SimBuild #HomeCockpit #FlightSimDIY #PilotSavvy #XPlane12 #MSFS #TechTuesday
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00hello and thank you for tuning in to pilot savvy video in this episode we're
00:07going to build on last week's video where we talked about the momentary
00:12push button switch it's a simple one wire in one wire out well two wires
00:21connected and we connected it to the BBI BBI 64 circuit board this week we're
00:32going to add to that this is a Singapore single throw Singapore double throw
00:38switch so we have one in one out and we're going to discuss how to wire this
00:46as compared to the one the simpler one last week my name is Chris let's get
00:53started
01:00so let's switch as I mentioned it's the Singapore double throw and I think you
01:07should be able to see that that should be in focus this is the one this is the type
01:12switch that I use in the engine start the engine start on the diamond D850
01:23now gonna go through step by step there I want to make this more of a kind of a
01:30don't we don't need the simulator on this one you can actually refer to the first
01:35one that I did on the push button switch and and I've done a lot of others where
01:41I've demonstrated we have demonstrated the process for connecting switches to the
01:51simulator so in this one we're going to look at the what this does how this
01:56switch does what it does and it's going to be I'm going to follow it up with a lot
02:02of other videos and referring to this same wiki this that's mainly referring to
02:10the the Singapore double throw there's a sort of sizes so let's go we're gonna do
02:19like how we normally would do we go to pilotsavvy.com and you click on the
02:25database I'm sorry the knowledge base button that takes you to the that takes
02:33you to this page the knowledge base page and you want to go down and click on the
02:39do-it-yourself bill select and build and upgrades do-it-yourself sim and it takes you
02:50where we want to go there's a checklist where you can go down and do all these
03:09things just referencing you can use any Singapore double throw switch I didn't
03:12want to focus on just this one because this is what holds true here holds true
03:20for any Singapore double throw what makes it a Singapore double throw you have
03:26three connectors this just happened to be the one that screws on and this has a
03:31a lot more than power than what we need but it works so you notice this says 15
03:40amps it can handle 15 amps and up to 250 volts AC so it can have some high
03:49voltage all we need is about five volts for the flight sim and USB but it can
03:55handle it you know this that's just a max Singapore double throw what makes it what
04:01makes it a Singapore double throw but you have the neutral position don't know
04:07see can you see that I believe you can so you have off in the center and off to the
04:18left you have our own and then this is on also so what does that mean I hear you
04:24asking a wire here and a wire here so that's where the electricity is going to flow to
04:32these wires so it's going to flow here from here to here and it's going to go
04:44where do we have it attached to on the other end now let's say now instead of
04:51instead of it flowing this direction you want to switch it and you no longer want
04:57it to it so let's put the switch in that right position here we go so we had it
05:02here right bam you have the two wires here and you want it to flow the other way now
05:07you want to power whatever's attached to this so no problem disconnect there and
05:14you connect here how do you do that go click from from that position where these
05:21words was attached you go from where these two wires was attached and you go click
05:30click that was a double click there's one neutral and then here so now that red wire
05:36stays on the ground and then now it's powered here so this one here that was
05:44attached it's gone I mean it's it's it's out of the mix now and you have it uh you
05:52have it where it's flowing through this now so let's get this out of the way
06:01so I have this connected to a for my engine switch the engine on off switch the engine
06:14engine master for on off I mentioned on the previous video the one last week that I didn't have I
06:24only
06:24have one BBI 64 and I didn't want to disconnect that as you can imagine it had you know it's
06:32got
06:3264 pins up to 64 pins um don't have that that many switches where I needed that but I didn't
06:39want to
06:39start moving that around it's so tedious so what I got instead it behaves in much the same way as
06:46I
06:47have a BU 0 8 3 6 X don't know if you can see it here this can do some
06:55of the same things and some
06:56more also so when I get into the potentiometers you know we'll get into the part of the checklist where
07:02test it okay move this slide this fan to where you have a um you know a fan on or
07:09fan off uh that's
07:11where all that comes in handy the potential I'm going to set uh connections uh on this side it's just
07:17like this side ain't here so um b1 all the way to see all the way so you got let's
07:30see I want to make
07:31sure you can see this so on this one here b1 all the uh goes down on this side all
07:38the way down to b8
07:39then it picks up on the other side where it's um b9 I don't know if you can see that
07:47b9
07:50and all the way to b32 on this end goes up that way b32 so what I've done is
08:01I've attached the two wires so they're color coded I guess it's supposed to be purple I don't know
08:08purple and blue or black and blue I don't know it's uh two separate wires one here one one is
08:15let
08:16me get this out of the way one here and one here I just kind of screwed them on um
08:21the one I use I
08:24don't use I'm just using a dupont uh for this illustration uh rather than the crimp I'm gonna do
08:33some um a video on how to crimp the dupont and others and because you're gonna know you know
08:40not gonna help to do know how to wire the switches when uh you don't know how to do any
08:45crimping you can
08:46buy stuff ready-made but this allows you to fully customize your wires so this like the like the bb
09:00b64 it has it's actually a little better let me get something I can point with I'm gonna use a
09:08piece
09:08of wire this green wire because it gets to the small one easy so one is plugged into b b10
09:16and
09:16one is plugged plugged into b11 and there's a ground each one you notice has a ground in between
09:24now the thing about a circuit board most circuit board including this one and the bbi um the bbi
09:3164 you have a ground that's your ground one you can put the ground anywhere in this case here
09:40i have i have these set to pin numbers and then i have over here is the ground i purposely
09:48moved
09:49it away from that so that it can um minimize any confusion this is connected to the ground
09:57i'm assuming i gotta line up right it's not exact but i think this is the ground ground wire
10:03of uh for b17 but i have this wire it's grounding that so you can actually do it on the
10:11flight sim i
10:12actually have somewhere i have a bus board a ground bus board where you can plug everything ground ground
10:20everything on that board that's separated from that's separate from the bbi um 64 ground so anyway
10:29the flow i put the switch in this if i put the switch in this position it's going to flow
10:37through
10:37this wire that blue wire and it's going to come out to the blue wire here this is going to
10:43power
10:43whatever uh the b10 what is is um connecting to or configure for and the same thing if i want
10:53that
10:54let's call that purple purplish click over here and then now the electricity is flowing to this one
11:06so let's see what the darker one comes out at b11 now you notice you notice there's a double click
11:14when
11:15you're in the aircraft you don't double click some you know if it double clicks is double clicking with
11:21the purpose but normally you just go i mean you get used to it you just this is the alternate
11:28to
11:28programming so that's why i started out here you don't have to do any programming you just uh plug
11:36it's plug and play so see how you can do it fast you almost miss that secondary click
11:43so here this is the one that's for the engine start so you go through the checklist uh and you
11:52get to
11:52the part that says uh uh engine engine master on click engine master is on okay engine master off shut
12:04down
12:06you see that sounded like one click engine master off and you're done so you have this plugged in here
12:15you know there's no programming and you plug the usb cable it can be in the usb cable uh just
12:23kind of
12:23use this yellow one so that i know it's a practice one and then i plug the other end so
12:28one in here this
12:29is that this is that d connector it's just you've seen many times already plug in here and
12:39you've probably heard that
12:43well-known audible usb tone so i plugged that in there and
12:52and you notice that we're not going down here this checklist is much the same as the uh
12:55the first one that so purposely you're not going through that step by step i'm actually showing
13:02you reality real world what you're going to go through
13:08and so we go over here
13:18and remember that joy that joy dot uh cpi so we're going to do it here joy
13:32and it's already up here that's my setup uh game controller
13:37and i go down here and notice that it recognizes the
13:45it still still on the up still on the screen the bu 036 uh x interface double click on that
13:58and now it brings up that all familiar button
14:03controller so we have this wired
14:07and we're going to go through right now 11 is illuminated just recognizing the this direction
14:17here this one is button 11 now i'm gonna
14:24put it neutral neutral you notice there's nothing there because why there's no electricity flowing
14:30from the ground now i'm going to put it up remember it came up on 11 down here
14:35now we're going to click it up one and you notice that 10 so it's recognizing this one is 10
14:43and we're going to go click click and 11. so that's
14:49behaving the exact same way that your bbi 64 is the only reason we're using the bu
14:54uh 0836x is because i don't have a spare bbi 64 and i don't want to
15:03mess things up um i'm a if it ain't broke don't fix it kind of person
15:11so just to um and once you do this then you move on to the next part it's just uh
15:17going into the flight
15:18the x-plane flight simulator started up go to settings and then in settings
15:24you want to go to your joystick uh tab and uh look for the bbi 64 if you're using that
15:33or you
15:33can actually use this too if you wanted to and with the number of switches i have i could actually
15:39use this one here uh the this is the you know you see how it shows up here bbi i'm
15:45starting to
15:45bu 0836x i would look for that and then you just go a matter of going through like i've shown
15:52on
15:53other videos and just programming the button for whatever switch you want in this case it would be
15:58the engine if you uh find this interesting and useful go ahead and give me a thumbs up
16:05you have some pointers recommendations feel free to uh go ahead and leave a comment
16:11and uh so what we've done just to recap we uh we have a kind of generic wiki on singapore
16:22double throw
16:23and uh switch and we went over the process on how to connect the singapore double throw
16:31to a uh circuit board and uh to get the wonders to recognize it and uh wonders recognizes
16:40if you want to be notified of uh uh new videos that come out go ahead and subscribe so and
16:48again my
16:48name is chris i'd like to thank you for tuning in and you have a good day bye