I have had the good fortune to locate a real Civa Carousel IV CDU and MSU. I would like to build a "real" functioning Civa to interface with FS9 and FSX (i.e. connect the real hardware to FS). I was looking at Flightdecktechnology USB boards and software. These boards allow people to connect pushbuttons, potentiometers, relays, rotary encoders, 7-segment display readouts, LEDs, etc. to FS. I was wondering if anyone with more electronic/software experience than I have could tell me if the Civa software from Simufly would allow such connections, and if you would have some feedback to give me on how to best achieve what I set out to do. This is a hobby for me. I have limited electronics experience but I have successfully built throttles and a landing gear lever using USB boards from Simkits and Desktop Aviator. My main concern, as I'm thinking about this project, is that while some of the functions of the Civa can be mapped to keyboard strokes, not all functions, especially those of the MSU, are mappable. Or are they? Maybe there's a way to make them all mappable? Also, for example, would anyone have some thoughts on how to interface LEDs to FS so that when the alignment green light on the MSU lights up, for example, the LED on the "real" MSU unit would also light up. Thanks for taking the time to read this and offer your thoughts on the subject. Gianluca

You could connect the buttons and rotary encoders to I/O cards, such as FlightDeckTechnology, Epic, or Opencockpits. I can't speak for FDT or Epic, as I don't have any experience with them. However, I own and use some Opencockpit cards.OPC uses a programing language called SOIC which is can simulate just about any flight sim function. You will have to work through FSUPIC or LevelD. I looked up the Civa Carouseland it is an INS. I don't think FS9 or DSX simulates INS functions. So, you would have to use the GPS functions within MSFS.The LEDs can be connected to output cards to get them to turn on. However, since MSFS has no INS, you won't have an alignment function. This can be faked with the use of a timing loop to turn on the LED.I hope this helps,

Thanks John. You may have hit the nail on the head. At the same time you may have confirmed what I was afraid of. Namely that if the functions of the CIVA are not shared by FS9 (i.e. they are proper only to Civa) then there's no way to interface the hardware to carry on functions of the CIVA unless one finds some shortcuts like the "timing loop" for the alignment LED that you mentioned.Can you discuss if keyboards emulators can play a role? Maybe I'm confused as to what a keyboard emulator actually does. I thought that this might be a way to assign a keyboard stroke to all FS *and* CIVA functions. Then that keyboard stroke/combination can be interfaced with a USB board such as those Flightdecktechnology sells. Am I correct in my understanding? Gianluca

I don't know the CIVA Carousel directly but generally speaking almost any hardware can be interfaced with an I/O board.Maybe that is the easiest "side of the matter", the difficult side is to interface hardware that has to simulate systems that are not supported by FS.My ATR72 autopilot module has some functions that are not standard for FS so I had to develop a specific software to simulate its logic.So if you are able to develop a program, I can suggest you to go through this way even if it may be not easy to find all the necessary info to implement a correct "logic".And, of course, this software should be able to "talk" also with the I/O board.Regards,Roberto