First Home cockpit Attempt

[Guest blevenzon]

Hello everyone, first of all I blame everyone in here for getting me hooked on this hobby, so there I said it. Now, any help on this is ver very much appreciated, Im still doing research on home cockpit building, but meanwhile im trying things out, I have a basic stamp kit at home I was starring at the other day, I figured hey why not hook this up and try and interface it, I figured FSUIPC should do it. I was wondering if anyone can give an actual example of how to read O I dont know say even the flaps status or gear status, in VB, with FSUIPC_Read. Once again thank you so much everyone.

[Guest MikePowell]

Hello and welcome, Boris.There are a number of good sites to aid you in your research. The Getting Started page on my site has links to several.FSUIPC is a good way to communicate with FS versions prior to FSX. The FSUIPC documentation includes a basic "Hello World" style example program that should get you started.If you're working with FSX, I recommend using SimConnect rather than FSUIPC. SimConnect ships with the Deluxe version of FSX. It's on the FSX installation DVD and comes with SimConnect SDK. The SDK includes example programs. You can expand on these examples using the free MS VC++.NET express edition. You'll need to install the Windows Platform SDK (also free). You don't need to use managed code for SimConnect, though you can if want.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.comwww.mikesflightdeckbooks.com

[Guest blevenzon]

Thank you mike for your reply, I have already checked out your website, I stumbled on it about a week ago, I have purchased FSX a month ago, I was very dissapointed as it runs very poorly on my AMD Dual core CPU with NVIDIA 7800 OC, but thats a whole different topic. I want to do this for fs2004, I already downloaded the FSUIPC sdk with the FSinterigator, I just wanted to see a code example of how somwthing is read with FSUIPC_Read, the exaple included there Im not understanding it too well.

[Guest DaveC3]

Here is the way you read data via FSUIPC in VBFirst you need to have the FSUIPC.BAS in your modules.Then you need to initialize FSUIPC FSUIPC_InitializationCall FSUIPC_Read(&H580, 4, VarPtr(HDG), dwResult) 'Compass headingCall FSUIPC_Read(&H2A0, 2, VarPtr(magvar), dwResult) 'Magnet varienceCall FSUIPC_Read(&H574, 8, VarPtr(altit), dwResult) 'AltitudeCall FSUIPC_Read(&H2C8, 4, VarPtr(ROC), dwResult) 'Rate of ClimbCall FSUIPC_Read(&H2BC, 4, VarPtr(Airspeed), dwResult) 'AirspeedCall FSUIPC_Process(dwResult) You can write to the offsets like this.Call FSUIPC_Write(&H580, 4, VarPtr(HDG), dwResult)Call FSUIPC_Process(dwResult)When you close your program you should close the FSUIPCFSUIPC_CloseIt is not hard once you get the hang of it.Good LuckDave

[Guest blevenzon]

O awsome dave thank you so much, love this community. Well actually I was able to interface my Basic Stamp II to light different color LED's as I extend and retract the flaps. Very excited interesting stuff. Dave once again and everyone thank you for all your help

[rickalty]

As an aside, try taking a look at the PICAXE instead of the Basic Stamp.... FAR, FAR cheaper, the programming software is free, and there's a great user community for help.If you're in the States I'd recommend buying the chip on eBay (There's an active reseller always has them listed) rather than through their US distributor. (Whose service is, um, shall we say "sub-optimal") If you're in the UK or Oz, the manufacturer is the way to go.http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/Richard

[Guest blevenzon]

O thank you Richard, but you are right, BS2 is impractical somewhat its a bit too expensive I guess for this, you can only control a limited number of things from one basic stamp and frankly I dont like the way the stepper motors behave with it. But I didnt buy it for this I had it for a while its doing nothing now, so I decided why not give it a try make it useful, its a great way to learn and just get started.

[Guest blevenzon]

Richard, I just checked out PICAXE, and they are about $5.00 each for 18x Im I getting this correctly, why in the world would anyone buy a basic stamp? THANK YOU x 10000000000000000

[rickalty]

>Richard, I just checked out PICAXE, and they are about $5.00>each for 18x Im I getting this correctly, why in the world>would anyone buy a basic stamp? >I have no idea, except perhaps if it's something to do with the fact that the primary market for the BS-2 is the US educational market - perhaps American schools have some sort of "buy American" requirement? In the UK / Aussie schools, the Picaxe is virtually the only chip used for electronics projects, all the way up through "A" levels and even to the ONC/HNC college classes.Richard