I'm new to this so I'm not sure if this has already been asked by someone - has anyone got a real GPS unit plugged into any flight simulator program?I thought I had seen somewhere that you could buy flightsim-compatible GPS units, but I can't seem to find them anywhere now.Cheers,wish2bflying

>I'm new to this so I'm not sure if this has already been>asked by someone - has anyone got a real GPS unit plugged into>any flight simulator program?>>I thought I had seen somewhere that you could buy>flightsim-compatible GPS units, but I can't seem to find them>anywhere now.>You can use Pete Dowson's "GPSOut.dll" with Garmin aviation GPS units - I have a GPSMap 196 hooked into the club simulator - a great way to learn the unit. Much better to tweak it in the simulator than in the air where I should be looking for other traffic rather than the LCD screen :)http://tigert.gimp.org/tigert-albums/homec...t/aav.sized.jpghttp://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_5143.sized.jpghttp://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_3719.sized.jpgHere's what you need in the gpsout.ini:------[GPSout]Sentences=AV400Interval=1000Port=COM1Speed=9600------Then you need to set the Garmin "Interface" protocol to "Aviation IN" and set the unit also to "Simulator" mode. Hook up the serial cable to the com port and start FS and it should work. Naturally it wont drive your autopilot or anything, but the sim updates the GPS position, altitude, heading and groundspeed, so it is pretty neat.Unfortunately it only works with the aviation gps units, since the non-aviation ones lack the AV400 protocol.//Tuomas

If you don't have a real GPS, but you have an older Palm Pilot with a serial rather than a USB cradle, you can use that instead of a GPS by getting the GPS master software.Richard

Richard,I have an old Palm IIIx that I no longer use since I upgraded to an iPAQ 2210. Tell me more please.John

Mate, that's awesome, thanks for the info and going to the trouble of posting the pics, that really helps.Cheers,wish2bflyingBrisbane, Australia

Here's a picture of GPS Master running on a Palm IIIxehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/76964.jpgIt's not very stable unfortunately, but I'm still fiddling trying to get it better, not bad for freeware anyway.You can get it here....http://oleg.belousov.com/palm/gps_master/runs, of course, over Peter Dowson's GPSout software.Richard

Hello,I'm using a Garmin GPS295 and I have connected it to my FS as you described before. I've tried it for months and for some strange reasons I didn't manage.Well it now works perfect.Just one question left: My GPS indicates, that I'm using battery power and not power from the COM-Port. There is about 10,5 V DC coming from the COM-Port. Could it be, that this is not enough for "GPS External Power" so that the GPS takes the necessary power from the batteries (according to the manual it needs about 12V)?How did you realise it? I have to change it, because the color-display soakes a lot aof battery....Thanks for your answer.

The com port has very little power to spare (few milliamperes) so i think that's just not enough for the whole gps unit with the processor and the screen...

Thank you,in this case I will build an extra cable for the power supply.Thank you,

Hello Claudio,one more question: do you think an USB-prort provides sufficient energy?THX,

Power USB ports/hubs are able to provide 500ma.Much more then a com port, but i doubt they are sufficient for a gps.Don't know for sure though...

>Power USB ports/hubs are able to provide 500ma.>Much more then a com port, but i doubt they are sufficient for>a gps.>Don't know for sure though...>My Garmin has a special cable which has actually two cables going to the Garmin connector that plugs into the GPS unit. There's one cable for COM-port with a 9 pin serial port connector, and then another cable with a +12V car cigarette lighter plug. The COM-cable does not provide you with *power* - it is just for connecting the unit to the computer.I'd get a real cable, it is not that expensive compared to a fried GPS.. :)Our simulator just has a car cigarette lighter socket on the panel - it is powered by the +12V from the AT power supply that powers FSBUS and simkits. Just do *not* use the lighter from it - it draws too much current and could burn the fuse on the AT psu..//Tuomas

Hi Joachim,Would you post some pictures of operating your 295 with MSFS? Does Pete Dowson's GPSOut.dll work perfectly with the 295? or to 195 only? Would you tell us what functions will be disable by using simulator mode?Thanks.Alkit

>Hi Joachim,>>Would you post some pictures of operating your 295 with MSFS?>Does Pete Dowson's GPSOut.dll work perfectly with the 295? or>to 195 only? Would you tell us what functions will be disable>by using simulator mode?Hi Alkit :)I can only speak for my 196 - basically FS tells the GPS where we are, what altitude and where we are moving and how fast.It does not integrate with the autopilot on FS - the communication is strictly one way (it's called GPS*OUT* after all :)) - but no portable GPS does that on real planes anyway.It does not load your flightplans if you create one from the simulator, but then again, at least I am practicing the GPS use, so I am using it to do the route planning.I think it works pretty much like a portable GPS does in a real plane.One thing I think that does not work is the "breadcrumbs" track log the GPS makes - it doesnt plot and store the flown route in simulator mode. But that's pretty much the only thing I know that doesnt work.It probably works with all Garmin aviation gps'es, I think I heard a GPS III Pilot works, my GPS196 does and now we know a 295 does. Basically Pete Dowson added the AV400 support after I mailed him a protocol doc I got from Garmin - it is not supported by Garmin, it just is on one of their technical manuals, Pete just formatted the GPSOut lines according to the doc, and it worked. We had to debug a bit to get heading output work correctly, but it does seem to work sweet now. If you find issues, let Pete know of course - it is a hack, but a really slick hack that rules :-)Non-garmin units may work - the protocol is also called "King" and something else, which indicates it might be something used by other brands too, but no idea. I dont have other GPS'es to test with. If someone uses gpsout with another GPS unit, let us know, it'd be interesting to know. It does not work with Garmin's "non-aviation" gps units like the street pilot or eTrex etc.. since those dont have the aviation protocol option.//Tuomas

God morning,thanks for your mails.Well, just to explain, why I'm connecting my GPSUnit to the FS: I am responsible within our team for developing a fully simulated A320-FMGC. One of the main tasks for such a unit is navigation. And navigation within the FMGC means calculation. But numbers are of course not such impressive ;-), so I need a kind of visualisation. Our ND is still under development, and therefor I need the GPS.That's the reason, why I cannot tell you very much about the functionality of the Simulator-mode. I just have a look for my position...;-))The Garmin GPSMAP295 works perfectly, exactly with the configuration described in one of the first mails to this thread. But power supply still causes me some troubles.Pictures? I will post them this weekend on our website. (They are to large for download; the webmaster would kill me ;-))www.a320flightdeck.com