Hey guys, Over the past few weeks I have been busy making some serious progress. First, I have added my powered USB hubs, shielded USB cables and USB isolators. I decided to go with a professional grade powered USB hub in an effort to eliminate as many headaches as possible down the road. I opted for the StarTech seven port hubs. I needed four of them which gives me 28 powered USB ports up in the Avionics Bay. These powered hubs require an external "power" source and preferably one not connected to the aircraft powered systems. The easiest thing to do in this case was to add a third 12v 30 amp power supply. I have it installed under the floor in the Avionics Bay. As of this moment, only the four USB hubs are powered by the third power supply. Think of this third power supply as supplemental computer power for the 20 plus Arduinos and the things that they have to supply power to like LEDs, servos, etc... Without this 12v power supply, we would be asking for the Client computers to supply all the power from the onboard USB ports. I have found in the past that it's just a matter of time before USBs on computers fail, especially when asking them to provide VOLTAGE. The last pieces to this part of the puzzle was adding USB isolators. In this case, I opted to use USB isolators made by CableMAX. These little guys are about $55 a piece, but provide protection against voltage spikes, EMI and noise for both the computers and the devices at the other end, the Arduinos. At this point, I have all the Arduinos flashed with their respective Jet45 HEX files and assigned to their com ports. Everything is checking out so far and working fine. Still just getting started with the testing process! Next? Building up the remaining computer. I saved the best for last, the i9 Windows 11 machine. Here is a photo of the i9 machine prior to it being built up. For the most part, the build up of the i9 machine went well with the exception of the CPU back plate that came with the CPU cooler was the wrong size. This worked out well anyway because it was the perfect opportunity to upgrade the CPU back plate with a metal version and replace the front spring loaded CPU holder. Maciej suggested this upgrade because he has found that the original composite CPU cooler backer can end up bending under stress and heat. Here are the replacement parts. The new back plate is larger and stronger! Take a good look at the new CPU front plate because as nice as it is, you will never see it under the CPU cooler head. Here is the i9 machine built up with Windows 11 and P3D v5 installed. To recap, here is what's inside: You might notice that a couple of these components are not cutting edge stuff (as of NOV 2025), but that's okay. This setup will allow me to meet two goals: This computer will easily run P3D v5 and either meets or exceeds P3D v5's hardware recommendations. The weakest area in the setup is the GPU but this will work fine now and get us up and testing Jet45. In the future I will upgrade the GPU with whatever makes sense at that time. I will also have to upgrade the current 750 watt PSU to something a little more powerful. The sim computers are now physically built up and ready to move forward with the next steps in the process. To recap here are some basic specs on the three sim computers: Again, not cutting edge stuff and if money was no object, these computers would be set up with the best money could buy. But this will work and should work very well, especially running P3d v5. In the near future, we will be moving over to MSFS2020/2024 once Just Flight releases the Lear45 "Professional" model they are working on. A pleasant side effect from the process of rebuilding all three of my sim computers, I had most of the components to build a forth "Work Bench" computer. All I had to pick up was a 2nd Gen i7 CPU and a couple sticks of RAM. Total cost? $40 This computer is an i7 running Windows 7 Pro. It will be perfect for doing bench testing and other task related to development, research and testing without disrupting the three main sim computers. I was not planning on this forth computer but it has already proven nice to have on hand. A couple photos of how the sim room is currently set up. Next up? Continuing to configuring the computers and adding all the necessary support programs like FSUIPC, Wide Client, SimConnect, Active Sky, REX scenery programs and a couple airport scenery addons. Last but not least, migrating the FSX Lear45 model into P3D v5. So still lots of work to do but moving in the right direction! Another update shortly.Project45 Flagship L45-002 Sim!
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#31 · November 1, 2025, 5:52 pm
2017-10-10