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Guest Cris B

FS9 Engravity CDU and GoFlight Interfaces (Where?)

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Nameless-(Please comply with forum guidelines post in this forum. We REQUIRE that users sign their names.)If you have purchased such an interface from us, your purchase continues to be supported. Simply advise technical support if you need assistance with it as always.It is unfortunate that we had to take these items off the market. Lefteris Kalamaras, the author of the utilities, left PMDG some time ago- he is the sole author and owner of the devices. Five attempts to arrange for a license agreement to allow their continued sale went unresolved. As such, PMDG had no recourse but to remove them from sale as we did not have clear license to sell the items.I have made a longer post a bit lower in this thread discussing some of the things we are planning in order to support hardware users more fully in the future- in case you are interested!


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oops sorry, its good to know that support will be available. thanks,jim


thank you,Jim

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Guest Guest_ian@737ng.co.uk_*

i was reading this thread with great interest because i have several friends unable to 'hook up' with the removal of the interfaces from the PMDG website.first i have to say that in the absence of an explaination, we all have to come up with our best guess. i am pleased that at last we have been told the reasons for the removal. let's hope that an acceptable compromise can be found and that backward interfacing for the products will soon be available again allowing those who have the hardware to connect to the 737NG.secondly, i was also reading the post from James and the reply from Robert. i think Robert may have read the post in a different way to me. it was my understanding, reading the post that is was suggestive and not dictatorial. however, we're all different and perhaps i read it incorrectly.but i do agree with some of the points he made.so, i'll take a shot at it. and for the record, these are suggestions and not direct or intended directions :(noboby is a greater advocate of the PMDG 737 than me. i have built a full size 100% operational cockpit around it. more and more people are now assembling part and full cockpits based around the availability of hardware and software. one of the most popular is the 737.based on my experience (and just because i think so, doesn't mean it's right), right now for it's systems, hardware integration (if you have it) and performance is the PMDG737-6/7/8/900 series. i have tried the 'competitors', but for me nothing comes close. some perform better, but you can't integrate hardware properly,some are so tied up in security, it's a nightmare just installing and some look great, but fly like a kite :(for me to advance, i have some choices. 1. i either wait until the 737NGX is available. the talk on the street is mid to late 2009. and then migrate to FSX.2. migrate now, use somebody else's visual model and integrate sim-avionics or Flightdeck Software instrumentation and systems which do allow hardware connectivity (but neither of these systems is quite upto the level of control i have right now) or 3. wait it out to FS11 (i can't, i'll get bored and take up something else)so, here's my wishlist:A. an SDK like Level D have with the 767B. hardware integration made easy (ok, you have to develop it, so you have to charge for it). let's not go thru this again.C. perhaps a standard version (for the mass market) and a 'builders' version (for the more 'advanced' market) where greater flexibility on instrumentation and system interfacing thru hardware is available. i do appreciatte that the second option would be less of a volume, but i'm sure they could be 'constructive' with the pricing. in fact i did have an exchange once with robert about this, but nothing came of it.look, the PMDG737 is one hell of a product, so adding the 'qualities' they have perfected in the QOS and the MD-11, the NGX could be a market leader again.let's hope so.best regards from the welsh borders ... ian

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Hallo Ian,Like you I am building a cockpit, although not as elaborate. When I started my project some two years ago, I wanted to build it around the PMDG 737NG. I bought the Engravity CDU and the CPFlight MCP + EFIS and their MIP interface board. Initially all went well, however it was not a stable situation. Running FS with a dual monitor output (Matrox Triplehead2G for the outside view, and PFD + ND) worked, but there was no support for a truly integrated EICAS and the overhead functions. So I bit the bullet and purchased Project Magenta. It was quite a high expenditure but now I was able to distribute functions over multiple computers. See my current configuration at: http://home.planet.nl/~pvrijald/flightsim/configuration.htm. I know that PM has problems but in my opinion it is currently the only mature solution.In addition to your wish list, I would like to add that it should be able to run on multiple computers, especially if it has to run on FSX. Best regards,--pim

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Guest Bud

This may be a little simplistic but I have a number of Go Flight units which I use through FSUIPC. I don't have the MCP but, as I understood it, the functions of this unit can also be programmed using this excellent utility.Bud

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Thankyou for your reply, and I am pleased to see that you are considering better support in your future products for Cockpit builders.I am sorry that you took my post as demanding, it wasnt meant that way, purely and observation from the many forums around the net on FS, that each and every time people are dissapointed with not being able to interface to PMDG software, with their hardware, whether they are full cockpit builders or just want to make a joystick work a bit better with your products.Anyhow, based on your post regarding future products supporting this better, you did mention that it wouldnt be something that you would support for your "Older" products, so yor 747 and even the recently released MD11 will still be desktop simulations. I understand that in the future products you will be giving a better interface and understand that maybe to go back to older products is time consuming when the time is better spent on the new stuff, however is there any consideration given to maybe releasing the "Sacred" FSPUIC offsets for the 747/MD11 or even the old FS9 version of the 737 so users of these old products can interface to them? This obvioulsy wouldnt be time consuming in sense of developing a interface, just a case of publishing them. I understand before that there was concerns about realsing these due to hardware people taking advantage of your business, but based on project Magenta, Level D and many other commercial software developers all not suffering from releasing their FSPUIC offsets, is it really a realistic concern? Again not wishing to demand anything, or tell you how to run your business, but your worry to profits, is surely gone by the actual increased profits you would make by selling more software as more people purchase it because of its benefits to cockpit builders. IPODS sell better because of the support for them than that of other MP3 players, perhaps the same could apply to your 747.Anyhow, look forward to using future PMDG products again, as Im far too good at flying this 767 now!RegardsJamesP.S for those that showed an interest in the hardware support for level D here are the links to the open cockpit stuff.http://www.lekseecon.nl/ this is the great Lekseecon that allows you to interface to every part of the Level D 767.http://www.opencockpits.com/index.php?newlang=englishhttp://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/module...gplay-c-22.html there plug and play modules...337 euros for a FMC!!!!

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With over 1000 views of this post I think it says something about harware support desires for PMDG software

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With over 1000 views of this post I think it says something about harware support desires for PMDG software
I'm not sure how you can draw that conclusion, I'm guessing a lot of people were just curious as to what the thread was about. Home cockpit builders are a very small niche in an already niche market.

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Guest DVA3188

Hi,I had this problem for about 1 month now and found that Lefteris Kalamaras is selling the compatibility software for GoFlight and CPFlight hardware on another site.PM me for the link and I will respond!!Best regards, Patrick

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I'm not sure how you can draw that conclusion, I'm guessing a lot of people were just curious as to what the thread was about. Home cockpit builders are a very small niche in an already niche market.
True. However, the cockpit builder also spends big bucks on their decks. How much would you have to charge for a full interface to recover your costs and make a reasonable profit? $1K, $5K, $10K? A SDK wouldn't do it since it can be copied and distributed. You'd need a DLL that was specific to the PMDG user license or something along that line that would convert from your proprietary offsets to something "standard" that could be interfaced to for the switches and lights. Something tied to the serial number of the hardware unit (CDU, MCP, etc) would let you recover your costs their also.Anyway, I've got over $50K into my sim and still not done. And there are several more like me. Granted, it's a niche, a small niche. However, if the price is set accordingly, it's doable.Thoughts?Cheers,Jon

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Jim Driscoll, MSI Raider GE76 12UHS-607 17.3" Gaming Laptop Computer - Blue Intel Core i9 12th Gen 12900HK 1.8GHz Processor; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16GB GDDR6; 64GB DDR5-4800 RAM; Dual M2 2TB Solid State Drives.Driving a Sony KD-50X75, and KDL-48R470B @ 4k 3724x2094,MSFS 2020, 30 FPS on Ultra Settings.

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Those 1000 views have now grown to over 1300 views, I do hope those are not people that have these hardware devices and are now having second thoughts about purchasing the aircraft from PMDG. Now have 4 of the GoFlight products and I love them and as soon as I can get these up and working with the MD-11 I will probably be buying more to futher enhance my feel of flying with this wonderful aircraft.I do have a question though, I have a throttle from GoFlight (GF-TQ6) the throttles work with no problem but the Spoilers and Flaps do not, Does anyone else have this problem?I Have a Toggle panel (GF-T8) that lights up but does not work with any of the Toggles when selected, Does anyone else have this problem?I also have a GF-45 and a GF-P8 and both of these work great with no problems. Yes they are all programmed correct, and they all do what they are supposed to do in all the other aircraft, just not the MD-11. I ask this because it seems that we are discussing the same issue and if this is not then let me know and I will start another post.Ryan Gann

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Guest Bud
Those 1000 views have now grown to over 1300 views, I do hope those are not people that have these hardware devices and are now having second thoughts about purchasing the aircraft from PMDG. Now have 4 of the GoFlight products and I love them and as soon as I can get these up and working with the MD-11 I will probably be buying more to futher enhance my feel of flying with this wonderful aircraft.I do have a question though, I have a throttle from GoFlight (GF-TQ6) the throttles work with no problem but the Spoilers and Flaps do not, Does anyone else have this problem?I Have a Toggle panel (GF-T8) that lights up but does not work with any of the Toggles when selected, Does anyone else have this problem?I also have a GF-45 and a GF-P8 and both of these work great with no problems. Yes they are all programmed correct, and they all do what they are supposed to do in all the other aircraft, just not the MD-11. I ask this because it seems that we are discussing the same issue and if this is not then let me know and I will start another post.Ryan Gann
Hello RyanYour question re. the GF-TQ6. At the moment, I don't think the spoiler lever will work. The flaps, however, can be programmed. You need to do this via FSUIPC, it works perfectly. I've also been able to program a small wheel for the flap selector. A great deal can be done through FSUIPC - I've built my own flight guidance h/ware, lights panel, switch panels etc and all function well with the MD 11 through Pete Dowson's program. You quite rightly highlight the numbers concerned with the use of hardware. I was very surprised to see an earlier response from PMDG that "guessed" that this was just out of interest. We are not talking just about folks who go to the lengths of building home cockpits, we are also talking about people who wish to enhance their experience by using what is now quite a wide range of hardware. It is something of an old-fashioned view to call this a 'niche' interest.Bud

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True. However, the cockpit builder also spends big bucks on their decks. How much would you have to charge for a full interface to recover your costs and make a reasonable profit? $1K, $5K, $10K? A SDK wouldn't do it since it can be copied and distributed. You'd need a DLL that was specific to the PMDG user license or something along that line that would convert from your proprietary offsets to something "standard" that could be interfaced to for the switches and lights. Something tied to the serial number of the hardware unit (CDU, MCP, etc) would let you recover your costs their also.Anyway, I've got over $50K into my sim and still not done. And there are several more like me. Granted, it's a niche, a small niche. However, if the price is set accordingly, it's doable.Thoughts?Cheers,Jon
Jon of Virgin? Its James we did vegas together if it is....Anyhow Jon, I take your points, and understand the issue of copying sdk etc, but in todays market, piracy is almost impossible to stop so not really the main driving force, if something is worth buying and marketed at the right price people will pay for it. Linking it driectly to the cdu/mcp is again just going to limit the development of the hardware and software as already seen with the engravity CDU where that is linked to the serial of the CDU, like I have already said, LevelD release an SDK with their software and suffer none of the problems that you mention.However I have no issue with PMDG doing something they charge for, if they set the price right, link it in someway to having a registered version of their software bit like FSPUIC does, then it will limit some piracy and most will be happy to pay for the fucntionality.I find Ryans comment that people are just curious as to why the forum topic as in excess of 1400 views somewhat niaive, because very few other posts have such a high view based on curriosity. And even if it is curiosity then surely it shows that those that still might not have the hardware, are interested in doing so, and perhaps their curiosity was because they thought the post was going to show a way that they could justify the cost of purchasing the hardware becuase they were going to be able to use the hardware with more than one sim, and not have to purchase multiple drivers for each and every switch they built.Im glad to see that the 737 will soon have some support, but based on that then surely it makes sense to think about making the other products have this also, even if not in the same vain as what the 737 will support, after all if the 737 does have it, surely the sales of the older products is going to dwindle once people can buy a more modern product that also features hardware support. relasing some form of addon for the 747/md11 would re invent them again and bring in some more cash for PMDG, unless maybe they feel they are rich enough already?Anyhow, Happy new year to you all and lets hope for a more exciting FS year.RegardsJames

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I currently have the FS9 version of LevelD 767, and I too have the GoFlight MCP and Engravity CDU. They work well with this sim.Recently, I was considering the new PMDG 747 for FSX, but the fact that these two hardware device are no longer supported, forces me to abandon my desire from this really cool implementation of the 747. So unless PMDG changes their support policy, or adds the freeware driver, I will continue with LevelD as I await their much anticipated 757.However, I would still like to have the 747...................By the way, I met Rob at the Reno air races last Sept.......very friendly......really enjoyed hearing his perspective about his company and how he got into this business, and seeing his racer compete......so go number 8 in 2009!Bill


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