Apparatus for connecting an avionics control panel and a training and simulation system

A device to connect a control panel of an avionics equipment with a training and simulation apparatus to process and display signals that correspond to output signals of the control panel. The device includes means coupled to a keyboard of the control panel for decoding signals from the control panel keyboard and means coupled to the means for decoding the keyboard signals to convert the keyboard signals into computer keyboard signals. The device additionally includes adaptor means to provide the computer keyboard signals to the computer.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a device for connecting an aviation 
training and simulating apparatus and a control panel of avionics 
equipment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a 
connecting device used in an avionics system by which signals from a 
control panel can be directly transmitted to a training and simulating 
apparatus without the need to add an interface card or to change the 
hardware of the avionics system. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
An aviation training and simulation apparatus is generally used to train 
aviators to operate an airplane in a simulation environment. 
Conventionally, there are two types of aviation training and simulation 
apparatus. One of them is to digitally process profiles and functions of a 
real control panel and displays a virtual control panel on the screen of a 
computer. An aviator being trained operates the control panel on the 
screen by means of a mouse or a touch-controlled screen to simulate the 
operations of an airplane. In such a case, the aviator only becomes 
familiar with operation procedures of the virtual control panel, but is 
far away from the real aviation environment. 
Therefore, to let the aviator feel as if he were there, the other 
conventional training and simulation apparatus is designed to provide the 
aviator with a realistic environment by providing a control panel 
identical with the one in the pilot cabin of an airplane so that the 
aviator can touch and operate the real panel. As shown in FIG. 1, a 
control panel 2 typically comprises a display 21 and a keyboard device 22 
to input signals. An output of the control panel is input to a training 
and simulation apparatus including a personal computer. The monitor screen 
of the personal computer is synchronous with the display of the training 
and simulation apparatus to monitor the control operations of the aviator. 
The above-described training and simulation apparatus must include an 
interface card 6 to connect control panel 2 to data/control bus of the 
computer. Since output signals of the control panel are input to computer 
through the bus, the interface card must be designed according to the 
control signals of the bus, resulting in complex design of interface card 
6 and an increase in the computer hardware cost. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to provide a new connecting device 
that reduces the inconvenience and complexity of an interface card. The 
design of the connecting device functions as an adaptor that can directly 
transfer an output from a simulated control panel to a personal computer 
and eliminates the trouble with interface card design to simplify software 
and hardware architecture of the training and simulation apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 2, it shows a basic schematic of the device to connect an 
avionics control panel 2 and a training and simulation apparatus 5 in 
accordance with the present invention. In accordance with the present 
invention, a connecting device 1 primarily connects through a keyboard 
signal processing circuit 11, a control panel keyboard converting 
interface circuit 12, a PC keyboard converting interface circuit 13 and a 
PC keyboard adaptor 3 the keyboard input side of the personal computer 
(not shown) of the training and simulation apparatus 5. Keyboard signal 
processing circuit 11 uses a matrix-array switch (shown in FIG. 5) to 
decode keyboard signals of control panel 2 and the converting interface 
circuit 12 interprets and converts the keyboard signals from the control 
panel 2 into computer-readable signals. Then, the PC keyboard converting 
interface cirucit 13 provides the converted signals to the personal 
computer of the training and simulation system 5 through the keyboard 
adaptor 3. Therefore, the principle of the present invention is to fetch 
control panel signals and input the signals into the personal computer 
through transferring the signals into computer keyboard signals. Thus, 
there only needs a PC keyboard adaptor to couple with a personal computer 
without having to additionally design an interface card or changing the 
hardware of the computer. 
FIG. 3 is a flow chart that shows how connecting device 1 reads and 
processes the output signals of the avionics control panel 2. At the 
beginning of every training, the system is reset (step 301), and then 
keyboard signal processing circuit 11 scans (step 302) and identifies 
(i.e., decodes, step 303) the keyboard signals of the control panel 2. The 
converting interface circuit 12 and the computer keyboard converting 
interface circuit 13 then converts the decoded keyboard signals into PC 
keyboard signals (step 304), then through PC keyboard adaptor 3 input the 
PC keyboard signals (step 305) into the personal computer of the training 
and simulation system 5. 
According to the principle of the present invention, because the avionics 
control panel 2 and the personal computer 5 communicate by keyboard 
signals, the apparatus of the present invention may easily be practiced in 
a conventional training and simulation system without realistic avionics 
control panel for training, shown as the reference number 2' in FIG. 4 
which is like the first type of aviation training and simulation apparatus 
mentioned in the Background of The Invention. As shown in FIG. 4, to 
practice this type of training in a conventional aviation training and 
simulation system, it only needs to add a keyboard 4 adapted to the 
keyboard adaptor 3 of the present invention to input the signals from 
connecting device into a personal computer in a training and simulation 
apparatus. 
In view of the above, since the connecting device of the present invention 
converts signals from a control panel to a keyboard terminal of a 
computer, the aviation training and simulation apparatus simplifies both 
software and hardware designs, decreasing training costs, improving visual 
and touch effect, and a flexible training environment, meeting the 
patentability requirements. 
The above embodiment describes the principle and advantages of the present 
invention, and not to limit of the scope of the present invention, which 
is listed as follows.