This project has been quite the journey. Initally I spent a good couple of months working on streamlining this process so my fellow pilots could quickly get one of these fun LiveSectional maps up and running at their home, flight club, local airport, office, or all of the above. 

In this post you’ll find a detailed shopping list, step by step directions as well as detailed videos walking you through each step of the process.  If you end up building one of these I’d love a picture of your finished project to add to our gallery. Also I need to send out a huge thank you to Mark Harris who really dove into the code and did a complete rewrite that helped us bring all these new features in to version 4. Its collaboration like this that really makes the projects a reality.

Click the image to go to a shopping list of all the components.

Itemized list of components (buy all at Amazon by clicking the Amazon image above).

Steps

  1. Equipment Test
    • Get your pi on your WiFi.
    • Wire up components and test them.
  2. Getting the Map On the Board and Board Preparation
  3. Wiring Everything Up
  4. Configure the settings
  5. Enjoy 
  6. Please help defray the costs of this web site –  paypal.me/WilliamBrysonIII
  7. Get stuck?  Head to the Forum

Step 1: Equipment Test

During this process I had to switch out LED brands after sending one back and trying a replacement of the first brand.  The reason we start with this on the how-to is just to be sure you have all working components before you start gluing things.

So lets get your Pi set up first, this way we can test out those LED’s, and your wiring setup.  

First thing you’ll want to do is download the preconfigured image.  This is the operating system and live sectional scripts for the Pi.

Full Pre-configured V4 Live Sectional  Pi Image File (1 GB Download)

Next install https://etcher.io Software to copy the image file you just downloaded to your blank MicroSD card.

This image below shows the basic steps.  Select the file LiveSectionalV4_Final.img.zip that you downloaded, plug your MicroSD card into your computer using a card reader or MicroSD to SD card adapter. Select that as your drive, and then click the flash. This will set the microSD card up for you. When that finishes take the MicroSD card out of your computer and plug it into the Pi.

Basic Configuration

Visit the Software Page for a detailed discussion of setting up the settings and airports. This is optional, but it makes sense to test everything on the bench before mounting to the map. V4 provides an ‘Run LED Test’ under the Utilities menu to check that everything is working.

For reference going forward

This pinout diagram is also available online at http://pinout.xyz.

Raspberry Pi Pinout

Wiring up your Lights for a test

  • LED’s
  • Light Sensor
  • Refresh Button
  • Reboot / Shutdown Button
  • On Button
  • Rotary Switch if desired
Wiring diagram for basic setup with light sensor and buttons.

The image above shows the wiring guide for a basic set up. This includes the light sensor that will dim your LED’s if the ambient room lighting decreases. This allows you to have the LiveSectional in your living room and if you turn off the lights to watch a movie the board will dim as well. Version 4 also includes a timer function to turn off the map at night if desired.

It also includes three buttons, one to turn on the raspberry pi if it has been shutdown, a second button to reboot / shutdown the raspberry pi, and the third button to do a manual request for new weather from the FAA.

Light Sensor

To check the Ambient Light Sensor click the blue “Turn On Map” menu item and use your hand to cover the light sensor. You should see your LED’s all dim. Remove your hand and they should brighten up.

Refresh Button

Press and hold the Refresh pushbutton (if installed) and you should also see the the lights do a transitional wipe while they refresh.

Reboot / Shutdown Button

Reboot function

Press the reboot/shutdown button for three seconds and then release. Your Pi should reboot.

Upon reboot go back to your browser that has the graphical user interface (GUI) running and click the ‘Turn On Map’ menu item again.

Shutdown function

This time hold the reboot/shutdown button for six seconds and release. You should see the system completely shutdown. A single red light may remain on on your raspberry pi.

On Button

With the system turned off yet still plugged into power. Press the On button for one second and your system should boot up.

Go back to your browser with the GUI and click the “Turn Off Map” menu item. To turn off the system.

Rotary Switch

Here’s a schematic of how to wire a Rotary Switch to the board. This will allow the user to select which weather product to display on the map, METAR, TAF, MOS or Heat Map. The Rotary Switch can have up to 12 positions, and the configuration software allows the builder to designate what function is assigned to each position. Be sure to use a Rotary Switch that is ‘Non-Shorting’, that is to say that when positions are switched you break the current connection before you make the new connection.

Step 2: Getting the Map On the Board and Board Preparation

The Sectional

You’ll need to get a hold of a sectional of the area you want to display.  I had to splice two sectionals (which I downloaded from the FAA database) together using Photoshop.  It was a little tricky as I had to rotate one of them to line up correctly since I am printing on a flat map. I then printed the map out on a large format (poster type) printer that uses a roll of paper.  You can bring the file to your local FedEx or similar shop to have them print it for you. 

The Backing Board

Stop by your hardware / lumber store and get a piece of ¾” particle board big enough for your map to fit on it with some room around the edge for your frame to nail to.

Also pick up a can of 3M Spray Glue, and a pack of ⅜” grommets (optional).

I used masking or blue painters tape to hold down half of the map while I rolled back the other half to apply the glue.  You need to spay this on both the map back and on the board, then let it sit open for about a minute then lay down that half of the map onto the board.  I used a piece of PVC pipe to roll out the air bubbles from the middle to the edges. Then tape down the edges of the side you’ve just glued down and repeat the process on the other half of the map.  I let this sit overnight to get good and dry.

Next use a leather hole punch that has a smaller diameter than the grommets flange you plan to use. Punch out a circle around each airport you plan on using in the project.  This will make a clean cut and allow you to peel out the little circles of the map exposing the wood below. You can use a knife point or a finishing nail, tweezers ,etc to get the edge to start to peel. Then just just grab it with your fingers and they come up pretty easily.

Now you can take punch or nail and make a dent in the center of each one to help the drill bit stay centered.  Follow that up by drilling holes all the way through the board using a drill bit. I used one just smaller than ⅜” so that the flange of the grommet would overlap the hole, but I found one that allowed the grommet to fit snugly in the hole.

Finally install the grommets.  I spray painted the brass ones I found at the hardware store with silver spray paint.  I thought that looked better. After they dry, push them into the holes. I had to use a piece of cardboard and a wood block and a hammer to punch them into place. The piece of cardboard helped protect the painted finish.

Use the 1×2 pine boards with some wood glue to frame in the back of the board.  This creates space for the LED’s, the PI, and the Breadboard to be glued to the back of the board and the framing will rest against the wall instead of on the lights and the pi.  The picture below of the back of my board shows this.

You will need to cut a notch in one edge for the power cord to pass through to an outlet, unless you can wire an outlet in the wall behind where your map will be hung.

The LED’s

LED

The LED’s come coated in a rubber material that makes them waterproof.  I wasn’t concerned about liquid and was more concerned about having a smaller diameter that would allow me to use a single sized hole in the wood.  I used a utility knife to slit down the edge and peel the rubber off the LED. This made them a smaller diameter which was just a bit smaller than the inset portion of the grommet.

I found I could get the blade in-between the rubber coating and the plastic shell at the base of the LED. Then I rotated the blade so the sharp edge was facing away from the plastic and it allowed me to slide the blade up to the nose of the LED slicing the rubber sleeve open. Then I just pulled it off and discarded it.

The LED’s have three wires, a hot, a ground, and a data wire.  The LED’s I have linked above make it pretty clear with the color of the wires.

The string of LED’s also have a beginning and and end.  You want to start on the end that has the female connector on it.  The first light is light when working with the software will be referred to light 0. So the string of 50 is actually lights 0 – 49.

Each light can be cut off the string and wired back together, so you have a couple of options.  You could cut all the lights apart, glue them in the holes and (solder) wire them all back together. If doing this I’d recommend encasing the solder portions with heat shrink. The other option (which I did) is to keep them in the string and then just skip over lights as needed to make the gap between holes.  

I ended up needing two strings of lights to get all of the holes covered since I had to skip so many making the span across the back of the board.  You can see this in the picture below. The lights that aren’t in use are not lit up and are just layed out on the back of the board. The ones in use are hot glued into the holes.

I laid the board on a table and then pushed the LED’s into the hole until they wouldn’t go any further pushing up against the table under the board.  Then I used a hot glue gun to secure them into place.

Buttons

To get the buttons through the side of the framing I used a drill bit that was close to the diameter of the button housing, After drilling the hole through I used a utility knife to try to square up the hole a bit. I then passed the wire through the old to the back side of the board and then pushed the button into the roughed out space. I then used the hot glue to back fill the back side of the hole to secure things in place.

You can also do a similar method and have them on the face of the board coming through a portion of the sectional that you could have labeled as part of your sectional that you printed.

Light Sensor

Light Sensor

You can notch out a groove in the back of your trim where it touches the wall. Make this wide enough and just deep enough to accommodate the light sensor to be placed vertically with just the sensor portion of the board peaking above the top of the trim.

Attach the Raspberry Pi and BreadBoard

Now that all the components are in place its time to mount the raspberry pi and the breadboard to the back of your board. I hot glued the case of the pi to the back of the board and did the same with the bread board. Make sure you place these where all of the wiring can reach the appropriate connections on each.

Follow the wiring guide once again to wire everything up.

Basic Wiring Guide
Continue to Setting up the Software