AIM Sparrow

Eight switched outputs for the rest of your cockpit.

Not every cockpit signal is a logic-level button press. Ejections seat actuators, 28v Magnetically held switches, cockpit fans, audio buzzers, etc all need a real relay closing a circuit. Sparrow gives you eight of them on one small board.

Sparrow is a daughter board for the AIM Sidewinder and AIM Phoenix. It does not need its own Ethernet drop, its own PoE budget, or its own piece of cockpit real estate beyond where it physically mounts. You wire one short I²C cable to a host's peripheral channel and a 12 V supply for the coils, and the board is ready to switch.

What you can switch with it

• DC loads up to 5 A at 30 V: cockpit fans, solenoid locks, audio buzzers, warning lamps, stick shakers, vibration motors
• AC loads up to 10 A at 250 V: line-voltage lighting, cockpit climate gear, anything mains-powered that belongs in a sim cab
• Each channel is an isolated SPDT relay with normally-open, normally-closed, and common contacts broken out, so you can wire either polarity of switching logic.

How it connects

• Logic cable (one 4-pin JST PH connector): I²C and 3.3 V logic supply from a Sidewinder or Phoenix peripheral channel. Plug it into any free I²C channel on your host board.
• Coil power cable (one 2-pin JST PH connector): 12 V input for the relay coils. Comes from the host's 12 V breakout, or a dedicated supply, your choice.
• Outputs: one screw terminal block per channel for normally-open, normally-closed, and common. Bring your own wire gauge to match your load.

Built to survive cockpit wiring

• Reverse-polarity protection on the 12 V input. Hook the power up backwards and the board sits idle, nothing fries.
• Transient voltage suppression on the 12 V rail and on the I²C cable, sized for inductive kickback from the very loads Sparrow is built to drive.
• Per-channel status LED shows you which relay is energized at a glance. No DMM required to debug your wiring.
• Logic and load sides are physically isolated through the relay coils. Whatever voltage you put on the contacts cannot reach your I²C bus or the host board.

Stacks neatly on your AIM Network

One Sidewinder handles two Sparrows on its two I²C peripheral channels. One Phoenix handles up to eight. If you need more than that on a single host, you can stack multiple Sparrows on the same channel using the on-board address jumpers.

The AIM Cockpit Manager spots a connected Sparrow automatically. You name it, assign each relay to whatever cockpit function it switches, and you are done. No firmware to flash. No drivers to install.

Specs at a glance

What's in the box

• One AIM Sparrow relay board

12 V supply for the relay coils is not included; most users power Sparrow from their host's 12 V breakout or an existing cockpit 12 V rail.