Has anyone tried this?

[Guest smjfreeman]

Hi,I have an idea to get a (inexpensive) touchscreen for my second monitor and use it for the CDU(s).I've worked out that one standard monitor is about the same aspect ratio at 2x CDUs side by side.Has anyone tried this in multi monitor configuration? Does the touch screen part work ok on the second monitor.I would love the engravity unit, but I'm still recovering from the Aerosoft MCP,EFIS,EICAS purchase. No regrets there, but I paid a premium because its so rare now.On another note, I replied to my own FPS thread a few days back, and it vanished. I can't remember whether I signed it or not. If not, fair play - but can someone clear that little mystery up for me? I don't mind, as long as I know.Kind regards,Mike FreemanDevon, UK(must get an autosig setup, sorry)

[mburkhard 23]

Mike,a friend of mine has his home cockpit running with two touch screen displays (and two others, and a mirrored visual system, and much more to be jealous about ;) ).This is working fine basically... BUT you have to be aware of the fact that a touchscreen becomes useless whenever a switch on the panel uses both left and right mouse keys. For a CDU it is fine, but for an MCP/FCP like the PMDG B744 and MD11 it is a nightmare. After all the touchscreen does not care whether you touch it with your left or right index finger...As you maybe have noticed using both mouse keys is a new trend in panel design which I think is a good one but touch screen users don't like it. My guess is this will not change unless touch screen displays get cheaper and more important are available to retailers. In most countries you still can't get them in stores. So as long as that does not change developers don't really have to consider that option. Touch screen flightsim users are still in a very small minority as long as these devices won't be available at a reasonable price in the store around the corner... But if you are aware of all this and plan to use your screen for CDUs only then by all means go ahead and buy one. For the time being the MD-11's CDU does not need the right mouse key and I expect it to remain like this.Regards,Markus

[Guest smjfreeman]

Hi,Thanks for your input.Today, I have avoided doing any real work, in favour of piddling around with my flight setup. Its one of the perks of being the boss, and I don't often take the day off.... and I've had a bad cough.... and er.Anyway - I have a fujitsu touchscreen LAPTOP. I installed ultravnc on both the laptop and the FS machine. This allows me to remote control the server. Ideal. AND I can specify I want to control the 2nd monitor.This now means that I have the laptop displaying mon number 2 on the FS machine. I can now touch the screen, and control the CDU, which I moved over to mon 2. Dancing bear... it works like a charm.You must ensure VNC is setup properly (set update window under mouse cursor) otherwise you get delay effects. And the original "realvnc" is not efficient enough NOT to mess around with FS performance.My only slight niggle is that I keep missing the LSK buttons and end up moving the window instead. Thats a pain when you're under pressure on approach, and I need to think of a way out of that.Ok, not the same as tactile switches - but great bang for your buck, and you can use the laptop as normal too. You can't lose really.Cheers,

[Guest smjfreeman]

Hi, just a quick update regarding my last point. This may help others with undocked panels etc.It was a real pain missing the buttons on the CDU and moving the window instead (VNC had to update the whole lot each move, slow), so I tried to find software to prevent window dragging.In the end, I got "tweakui" for MS. Its only 147k, and it opens up a lot of configurable options in the OS.In there, under the mouse options, yuou will have a drag sensitivity variable. It will probably be set quite low. I have set mine to 88, the highest, and I can now control the CDU without moving the window around. This variable is user specific, in case you have several XP accounts.After solving that, I then tried to make maximum use of screen space, and aspect ratio by turning the screen 90 degrees in software AND physically. The results were great, and the CDU is almost in aspect.Cheers