Electronics
Hello Cockpit starter kit
Your first build: one button that toggles X-Plane 12's landing lights, and an LED that shows them as the simulator reports them. The same wiring on every supported board.
Starter kit
Everything you need for your first switch. The Hello Cockpit Recipe in the CockpitConnect Blueprint library shows the same list next to its wiring.
| Qty | Part | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 × | Supported ESP32 board | An ESP32, ESP32-S3 or ESP32-C3 development board, or an Arduino Nano ESP32 |
| 1 × | Push button | A momentary (normally open) tactile button |
| 1 × | LED | Any colour, 3 mm or 5 mm |
| 1 × | 220 Ω resistor | In series with the LED |
| 1 × | Mini breadboard | |
| 6 × | Jumper wires | Female-to-male, from the board's header pins to the breadboard |
| 1 × | USB data cable | A charge-only cable cannot flash the board |
Wiring
Two wires to the board and a shared ground. The pins are the same on every supported board; an Arduino Nano ESP32 prints its own labels next to them.
| Pin | Arduino Nano ESP32 | Part | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPIO 4 | A3 | Push button | One contact to the pin, the other to GND (internal pull-up) |
| GPIO 5 | D2 | LED | Pin → 220 Ω resistor → LED anode (long leg); cathode to GND |
The LED is driven by the simulator, not by the button: it shows the landing lights as X-Plane 12 reports them. If it stays dark after a press, X-Plane 12 did not switch them.
From box to button press
- Flash the board from your browser and give it your WiFi (2.4 GHz).
- Start the Bridge on a computer on the same network; it finds the board by itself.
- Claim the board in CockpitConnect.
- Start X-Plane 12 and load any aircraft — on the ground is fine.
- Add the Hello Cockpit Recipe from the Blueprint library to your board and deploy it.
- Press the button: X-Plane 12 toggles the landing lights, and the LED lights up once X-Plane 12 reports them on.
More on each part: Buttons , LEDs & Lighting and ESP32 .