Recreating Cockpit Panels with Arduino

Enthusiasts of flight simulator software often go to great lengths to increase the realism of their cockpit installations, and an interesting example of this has been demonstrated by Emil Granberg. 

They've built up a Boeing-style fuel-pump panel that looks like an original, and connected the appropriate switches to an Arduino Leonardo.

The reason for using a Leonardo is that it can emulate a USB keyboard - thus by programming the board to send out certain keystrokes when a switch on the panel changes, you can simulate real control. 

A quick demonstration of this is shown in the video below.

Doing so is much simpler than you would normally imagine, so visit Emil's instructable page for all the details.