FSBUS

[Guest fmw@fmw.dk]

HelloI am starting to build the FScom, and have one question.The switsch S1, to switsch in Flaschmode, is 2 switsch in one, if i read the drawing, it seems that if the one is on, the other is off, is that correct??Best regardsFinnDenmark

[Guest Glenn Weston]

Hi Finn, it sounds like you understand how it works, the term for this type of switch when asking for one at an electronics store is Double pole/Double throw switch, you can do it a little cheaper by using 6 pins sticking up out of the board & jumper links, exactly the same sort of arrangement that you would see on a computer mother board or peripheral card where you can pull or move jumper links for different options. Cheers Glenn.

[Guest]

hello im a beginner in FSBus although i etched my FSbus but i dont really understand how it works, i didnt use them as of now... so here are some questions:-how can i assign key commands to FSkeys? is it easy to assign?-how can i assign LEDs to lit up whenever i push this buttons?-how to assign 7segments LEDs to output the freqs and navs-last but not the least, fscom has only 4 bus can i make an extension by the etching a board with 32 bus by connecting the 4 bus in parallel?ThnxRyan

[Guest Glenn Weston]

Ryan, your questions require very long answers, have you read some of the english docco's, they have been roughly translated, also try using some of the translators available to you on the web, use google & search on "Translation" or "Translator".FSbus router is just that "A Router".I will give a little example & hope this helps to understand it.Lets look at the Nose gear position in in the sim & make it light a LED when locked.I class this as an output from the sim, so this has nothing to do with the FSkey Board, for now we will just use the "G" key on your standard keyboard to raise & lower the Gear.You will need to download the FSUIPC SDK available from Peter Dowson's site & reference the FSUIPC for Programmers.doc file, in there you will find a list of what they call offsets (Hexadecimal addresses) where values for events happening in flightsim can be obtained.The address for the Nose wheel postion is at Address 0BECNow start flightsim, make sure the latest FSUIPC is installed & then run the FSbus Router, The flightsim Icon in the router should not have a red cross on it meaning that it is connected to the sim.Now go to the FSread TAB & go to the bottom of the list & create a new entry, give it a name, lets call it NoseWheel.Now in the Address put in the value H0BEC the H just means it is a HEX address value.In the data type column select Int(2).Now click the in the "A" column so you have a green dot there, this means it will now interrogate that address in FSUIPC & read the value there.Now bring FS down into a small window so you can view both FS & the router at the same time keeping Value column visible.Fly along in the plane & raise & lower the gear with the G key.The value should change as the wheel moves position.Now the Idea is to route this event to an output board like FSLED.So now you have to assign a LED on your LED board for this event.Select the Digital out TABNow create a new entry & lets call it NoseLight.click in the "A" column to make it active.At this point you must know what CID your LED board has been assigned.Lets say it is CID 1So put a 1 in the CID column.Now you need to know which LED you want to light up, you can identify your LED RID & SID with the DO test in the router.Lets assign LED RID 0 SID 0Put a 0 in the RID & SID columns.Now you have to go back to the FS Read TAB & click in the route column & you will be presented with a list of output names, you should see on the list "NoseLight" which we just finished defining.Put a tick in the box.Now when you put the gear up & down the LED should on & off.phew........I hope that makes some sense.As you can see this is why it is called a router, you take an event & route it somewhere to activate something, it maybe a value from the sim to a light or display on a panel or it may be a switch to set a value in the sim.Does that make sense.Cheers Glenn.

[Guest]

As said above is a Double Pole/Double Throw (DPDT) meaning that it's really only a jumper: it can connect the pins referred to as S1 or those as S2.

[Guest]

wow! lol that was quite a good explaination... thnx glenn now im beginning to understand FSbus... ill try it here... will give u updates... thnx again...Ryan

[Guest Glenn Weston]

I'm Glad that helped a bit Ryan, It's hard to put in words sometimes & keep it clear.I have also found you can route to multiple objects too, in the above example you could define a second light for the nose gear that would behave exactly the same way as the first, this is good for a dual cockpit situation which I am planning on, a tandem fighter type pit, so for me everything will be doubled up, I have tested displaying the Com1 radio data on two displays & that seems to work fine, by the way when working with the display module you need to extract the data from FSUIPC in the form of BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) it's a selection that you make in the Data type Column.When it comes to connecting multiple controllers up to 32, it is as described a Bus just the same way you connect multiple SCSI drives on a SCSI Bus controller, each has a unique ID & you just run a ribbon cable with connectors along it to all your controllers from any of the 4 connectors on the FScomIII board, the 4 connectors there are all paralleled so you could use just one of them or even all 4, they are there for convenience I guess, you could have 4 ribbon cables for example with 8 devices hanging off each cable.Glenn.

[Guest Glenn Weston]

One other thought I had on FSbus is, I see no reason why you could not run a second FSComIII board on a second PC, via WideFS or even a second copy running on the Main Sim PC utilising the other Com port, you would have to install the router to a different directory however or they would be reading the same .ini file, by doing this you would take the amount of controllers from 32 to 64, I have not tried this so I cannot confirm it, If anyone has 2 FScomIII boards they may like to try that little experiment to see what gives.Cheers Glenn.

[Guest]

hey Glenn,where did u learn all this stuff about FSBus? FSbus manual? i cant read german :( thnxRyan

[Guest Glenn Weston]

I have siffed through some of the non english forums using web translators, stuffed around with what I have built so far, & searched through the forums here at AVSIM put it all together & you end up getting an idea of how it works, there are still many things that I have yet to try & would not have a clue about, the system is very clever in it's design & powerful to say the least.I would like to put some examples together such as the one I did above as I learn more about it myself, I think the examples with some little explanantion along the way is the best way to get people to understand it.Glenn.