A Jameson Dog project · Open source

737-800 Annunciator Panels

The 737-800 panels a Rowsfire B107 overhead and WinCtrl MCP/EFIS leave out, each on an inexpensive ESP32 touchscreen, driven by MobiFlight.

The combined master caution layout with the A/P, A/T and FMC lights below FIRE WARN and MASTER CAUTION. It plays autopilot and autothrottle disconnects flashing red, an airspeed error flashing amber, an FMC alert, then a caution. — Six of the ten panels

The doors panel: the twelve door lamps laid out as the doors are on the airframe, with GRD PWR below. It plays a turnaround: ground power on, the entry, cargo and service doors opening one by one, then closing for pushback. — Six of the ten panels

We built these for one cockpit: the PMDG 737-800 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, flown with a Rowsfire B107 overhead and WinCtrl’s MCP and EFIS panels. Between them those cover most of the flight deck, but not all of it. The doors panel, the IRS unit, electrical metering, air conditioning, flight controls and the master caution on the glareshield were still missing, so each of those is here, on a small touchscreen that plugs into the sim PC over USB.

They work just as well next to other hardware. But that combination is the gap they were made to fill.

Each board shows one panel, and which one is a setting in MobiFlight Connector, so a board can become a different panel without reinstalling anything. Ready-made profiles connect every lamp and button to the aircraft.

One firmware, ten panels, no wiring.

The ten panels

Doors

The twelve door lamps and GRD PWR, each lamp where its door is on the airframe. Tap a lamp to open or close that door.
IRS mode select unit

GPS, ILS, GLS and the lamps for both IRUs.
AC & DC metering

The two-line dot-matrix window and its lamps.
Air conditioning

Zone temperatures, bleed, packs and pressurisation.
Flight controls

Flight control and standby hydraulic lamps.
IRS display unit

Both segmented displays, the two knobs and the keypad. The keypad and knobs work.
Master caution, captain’s side

FIRE WARN, MASTER CAUTION and the six-pack, which recalls when pressed.
Master caution, first officer’s side

The same, mirrored, with the other six-pack.
Master caution, both six-packs

Both six-packs on one screen, with a recall for each.
Master caution with AFDS

The combined layout, plus the A/P, A/T and FMC P/RST lights.

Try it without the sim

The start-up screen: a pale blue top view of a 737-800 beside the title 737 Annunciator Panels and the panel the board is set up as, Door Annunciator, with the firmware version and build date, a PRESS FOR DEMO MODE button, and a CREDITS button beside the short credits. — The start-up screen, naming the panel the board is set up as

Tap DEMO on the start-up screen and the board plays a scene on each of the ten panels in turn, with no sim and no MobiFlight. Hold a finger on the screen for three seconds to stop it.

Like the real panels

Lit lamps glow and unlit legends stay faintly readable, as they do on the aircraft. FIRE WARN and MASTER CAUTION go in when pressed, and a six-pack goes in as a whole, the way the real assembly does.

Touch is not something the real panels have. It is there because tapping a door lamp is quicker than going through the CDU or the EFB.

What you need

A Caturda C3248W535, 3.5″ — the one to buy. About €29. Its brighter, higher-contrast screen makes lit lamps stand out the way real annunciators do, and its touch answers a light tap. It is also sold as the Guition or JCZN JC3248W535EN; take the capacitive version.
Or an LCDWIKI E32R32P, 3.2″. About €18. Every panel runs on it, but its touch wants a firm press. Worth using if you already have one.
On the sim PC — Windows, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the PMDG 737-800, FSUIPC7 and MobiFlight Connector 11.2 or newer.

Nothing to solder or wire.

The doors panel on each board side by side, to scale. The two are the same size; the 3.5-inch board on the right is visibly sharper. — The same panel on the 3.2″ board (left) and the 3.5″ (right), to scale

Getting it

Setup takes about half an hour, start to finish, and the firmware installs straight from the browser.

Install the firmware — in Chrome or Edge, with the board plugged in.
Setup guide — from download to the first lit lamp.
Latest release — the downloads.
Source code — on GitHub.

Free and open source, under the MIT licence.

Worth knowing before you rely on it

The ready-made profiles are for one aircraft, the PMDG 737-800 in MSFS 2024. Another aircraft needs profiles of its own.
It needs Windows, because MobiFlight Connector does.
Each profile is tied to one board’s serial number, so the ones in the download do nothing on your boards, without any error. Making a set for yours is one command, shown in the setup guide.
The 3.2″ board needs MobiFlight Connector started through a small launcher, which comes with the release.

Questions and problems go to the project’s GitHub issues.

GitHub Handbook Firmware installer Impressum woof@jamie.dog

Boeing and 737 are trademarks of The Boeing Company. PMDG, MobiFlight, FSUIPC, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Rowsfire and WinCtrl belong to their owners. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. The 737 silhouette on the start-up screen is adapted from “Boeing 737-800 silhouette” by Peter James Lowden, CC BY-SA 4.0.