Twin GA continued - new pedestal

[Guest gasebah]

Hi guys,I hope the twin GA fans are still here. I finalized the pedestal. A few cosmetics remain to be made (exchange the ugly plastic plates with evenly cut metal plates) but for the moment I am quite satisfied. Unfortunately it is impossible to make a decent pic of the monitor screen.The main cockpit is on the agenda for the weekend.Alex

[Guest Mark McG]

Alex,I like the throttle housing. Is this a purchased or hand built part?What functions are you using the CH yoke parts for?Mark

[Guest gasebah]

Mark,I'd call myself a happy camper if I would have that kind of craftsmanship. No, it is a purchased one. The throttle quad is from Flight-Link (www.flight-link.com). I think it is absolutely fabulous though pretty pricy. It usually only works with the Elite flight decks. But the guys at flight link were nice enough to build myself a USB adaptor block that makes it fully compatible with FS2002 (for some extra bucks of course). The throttles have a unique reverse thrust mechanic. You pull them back to idle. Than you have to pull the handles to unklock the reverse thrust. Before they are blocked, but after that you can move them another 2 inches down for rev thrust. With a little additional machanical changes you can make the feathering work the same way. I love it. Going to them from the 3 levers on the CH Yoke made a world of difference. If you ever go on buying one get this one (like the AETI yoke). It is not more expensive than the PFC stuff.The CH Yoke buttons aren't even all assigned yet. One of the levers works for the Cowl flaps. Six of the buttons alone I am using to control the Garmins by FSAvionics. The POV is used as POV. Then u have the engine starters and fuel cutoff. Most of the rest is assigned to GoFlight units anyway, but these are in the main cockpit that I will finalize next weekend. I am still thinking about the final button assignment ;-).Alex

[PeterR 9]

Yep, we're still here, Alex ;-)This looks fantastic. I see you rotated the monitor 90-degrees for the pedestal display. I was wondering about that when I saw your other post with the screenshot of the long panel.As for taking pictures with a nice bright display, try this:1. Take a photo using a tripod with lighting set ideal for everything except the screen.2. Without moving the camera, turn off all the lights and take another photo with the display on. This photo will result in only the display appearing and the rest too dark to see or at least see well.3. In Photoshop or PaintShop Pro, composite the CRT image from step 2 onto the overall image from step 1.Voila! Bright, colorful CRT display with ideal lighting for the rest of the cockpit.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#540000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/join.htm]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

[Guest gasebah]

Hi Peter!Oh Lord, now I will need a tripod and I don't even have a camera. Whatever I will try, because believe me in real life this looks better than it appears in the picture as you cannot see nice grinding (is that how you call it in English, I mean the surface) of the leather.I started to rotate the 2nd monitor as soon as Nvidia drivers supported those features. Most stuff in a real cockpit is stacked vertically not horizontally. It is tough to do it with a display that is wider than it is high.We covered the main cockpit with leather today too. IMHO it looks awsome. I also happened to get a full leather seat from an old sportscar the other day. We cut metal plates for the pedestal to replace the ugly looking stuff you see on these pics. This will be a very nice Twin GA cockpit I believe although it will be far from resembling something that really exists. Cheers,Alex

[PeterR 9]

as you cannot see nice grinding (is that how you call it in English, I mean the surface) of the leather.That's the "grain" of the leather.I started to rotate the 2nd monitor as soon as Nvidia drivers supported those features.Cool. I didn't know they supported that. I thought you rotated the panel gauges.This will be a very nice Twin GA cockpit I believe although it will be far from resembling something that really exists.Well, it doesn't cost as much as the real thing either. I think it's great!Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator

[Guest jason2112]

Hi Alex!Can you give me some more information regarding the rotation of the monitor? I would like to do this as well, but I haven't seen an option for this in my nVidia drivers. What version would I need to use this feature?Thanks in advance!Bye,VOlker :]

[Guest gasebah]

Hi Volker,that is fairly simple. You will need a driver 40.xx for that. Just go to your extended features. There should be a section called panning. The rest is self explanatory. However I am not sure anymore if it is there by default or if you need the hidden features reg key to show it. I guess the reg key can be downloaded at www.guru3d.com, or send me a mail if needed so I can mail it to ya.Alex

[Guest jason2112]

Thanks for the answer, Alex! But unfortunately my old 15" monitor doesn't like to lie on it's side :( The colors get all messed up in some parts of the screen. I'm really thinking about getting a cheap TFT as secondary display. But that's an expensive toy if I use it for FS2002 only. On the other hand, I have used the old 15" for some debugging while keeping my code in sight on the main display, and that was really great. Maybe that's a way how I could justify the TFT towards my girlfriend and parents ;->>>Bye,VOlker :]

[Guest gasebah]

Volker,when you lie the monitor on it's side sometimes you have to demagnetize or degauss it. The magnet field of he monitor gets strechted differently when it is lying on the side, that is where the messed up colours come from. There is nothing wrong with that. Most monitors will have an automatic degauss function that you can activate. If not borrow an "Entmagentisierungsdrossel" (no way I'd know the English word for that but you are German anyway) at your local TV dealer.Alex

[Guest jason2112]

Danke :) But this monitor is more than 10 years old (came with my first PC) and the picture is awful, so I won't invest too much work into it. I'm not planning to build a home cockpit, I was just looking for some way to use the space on the second screen more economically.But at the moment all I really display on that second monitor is the FSGarmin530. Using FSUIPC's key control features and HazardScript I have programmed all important navigational functions that can not be handled by the Garmin to buttons on my Saitek X45 joystick. Not like real GA flying, but I spend too much money and time with the sim anyway ...Maybe when I finally earn some real money (hopefully next year) I will delve further into this topic - I have a long wish list ;) Yoke, rudder peddals, and maybe some GoFlight components. They look so sexy! Bye,VOlker :]