Saitek multi/radio panel full support

[Clement P 0]

Hi!

 

First of all, let me wish you all the best for this new year. And let me thank you a lot for this incredible piece of software that is LINDA. It helps me a lot when installing my saitek setup.

 

 

As you must have understood, I'm using Saitek hardware to fly mostly on Aerosoft Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 (I sometime fly with standard FSX planes and use SPAD in this case, so it's not the matter of this topic).

 

I want to totally get rid of SPAD when flying the Airbus so that there is no conflicts between SPAD and my assignments in LINDA. But it's currently not possible because of the lack of support of the radio panel with LINDA. And it's even worth when talking about the Saitek Multi-Panel. Using SPAD, I cannot use this panel with the Airbus (as the auto-pilot is not using any default FSX features) and I cannot do anything neither with LINDA because of the conception of the panel (more on this later).

 

So is there any plan to support the radio panel in LINDA (to get the frequency displayed on the screens and the same set of features that SPAD offers).

 

 

Concerning the problem with the multi-panel it's that there is an encoder that select the type of display (ALT/VS/SPD/HDG/CRS) and only one encoder to increase/decrease value. Each mode change the display on the screen.

 

For your information, I've started digging a little on this (I'm a software developper but a total noob in LUA scripting) and managed to display the right information when switching the mode with the left encoder and even managed to increase/decrease auto-pilot values (HDG, SPD, ...) with the right encoder according to the mode selected.

But everything I made was quick and dirty and even not in the right place (I write some code specific to the airbus in the common file).

 

So do you have any plan to make a clean support of this multi-panel in LINDA? Otherwise, do you have any recommandation or advise to help me implement it properly for the Aerosoft Airbus in a first time and why not for every supported aircraft (make a specific module per aircraft, implement it in the common.lua like the MCP combo in a generic way, how to organize the code, ...).

 

 

Once again, thanks a lot, and thank you for your future help (I hope  ^_^). Oh and forgive me for my english that is far from perfect but I'm a french guy.

 

Regards

 

Clément

[ScotFlieger 280]

Hi Clément

 

Thank you for your question and excellent english. A number of users have been asking about support of Saitek panels within LINDA. Limited support for the Switch Panel (with gear selector) and Instrument Panel is provided but only a simple joystick devices with buttons.

 

I have been investigating the SPAD source code and algorithms now publicly available and the changes that would be needed to LINDA. The main problems will be access to the Saitek Multi Panel and Radio Panels (ideally on loan), permission to use the SPAD code and, of course, time to develop and test the software. I have passed on a request for permission to use the SPAD logic as a basis and am awaiting a reply.  If there are any users who could help with the loan of equipment, I may be able to find time between running my business.

 

Any help would be appreciated in sourcing the panels and testing to enable us to support LINDA users.

[Clement P 0]

Hi Scotflieger!

 

Thank you for you answer!

 

I've been working a little on it today and I near to something working for the radio panel part.

 

The selector (1 & 2) is working, as the right knob. You can select a frequency (COM1, NAV1, whatever) and increase/decrese it. The larger knob controls MHz, the smaller one, KHz. The swap button is also working.

When the selector is placed on "XPDR", then it displays the Baro Ref on the left screen and the squawk on the second one. The larger knob increase/decrease the baro ref, the smaller one increase/decrease the selected number of the squawk code.The swap button allow to change the position of the cursor in the squawk code.

 

I'm still having troubles with the ADF frequencies as for the DME position. I'm currently working on displaying the DME of NAV1 in left screen and NAV2 in right screen and using the swap button to toggle the display between distance, speed and time to station. Work is in progress in this part.

 

And my biggest concern for the moment is finding a way to initialize the first display according to the selector position. My problem is that I can easily switch mode by moving the selectors which are bound to specific function with linda (each position of the selector triggers a button in LINDA). But I'm not able to initialize the display with the current position of the selector. If the selector is on "NAV2" at initialization, I'm not able to know it (at least, I don't know how to get this information). So I hard coded the initialization with COM1 on both selector.

 

Maybe you could help me on this part.

 

Don't hesitate to contact me in private message if you want me email address so I could send you my code

[ScotFlieger 280]

HI Clément

 

Glad to see that you are making progress. Are you working in LAU code or a separate IDE?

[Clement P 0]

I'm working with SublimeText 3 to write the LUA code. And I make an extensive use of the LUA console of Linda and the button "Reload LUA Engine"  ^_^

[ScotFlieger 280]

Hi Cooly

 

You will find the SPAD source code here. The code is fairly easy to read and follow and may be of use to you.

 

I have in mind a similar GUI to that used in LINDA for the MCP panels.

[Clement P 0]

I will take a look at the SPAD source code, maybe would I be able to take some idea.

 

For the radio stack part, I think that everything is good. Everything is working fine, COM, NAV, ADF, DME (with display of distance and of speed or time to station), QNH, Squawk.

I think that the code I produced is really not perfect as I'm a newbie in LUA, some algorithm should be rewritten and above all there is a looooooot of refactoring to do.

But for my first day in LUA, I'm more than happy  :rolleyes:

 

The only thing I can't figure out is the initialization of the radio stack. I'm stuck at reading the starting postion of the left selector  :mad:

 

 

For the GUI part, I also thought about it, but for the moment it's far from my abilities in LUA 

[ScotFlieger 280]

Hi Clément

Just to let you know I have received permission to adapt the SPAD code for LINDA.

I have moved this thread to the Development sub-forum as it is a better place.

Andrew

[Clement P 0]

Nice!

 

Do you plan to setup a github or any other source control. It would maybe be usefull of we want to develop at many developers (or at least the two of us  ^_^).

 

Otherwise, do you want me to send you what I did with the radio panel. I rewrite some algorithm and factorize a lot of code. I think that I am close to something nice and working. Except for this damned initialization (maybe you could help me on this point).

[ScotFlieger 280]

Hi Clément

 

I am of the old school using manual configuration control. LINDA comprises 3 main parts: the Delphi Pascal XE6 GUI and process handling, the core LUA code, and the aircraft modules. I am currently able to manage and support the first two, while Günter Steiner is the specialist for the latter and LUA.

 

I am considering adding the Saitek Multi Panel, Radio Panel and Switch Panel to the GUI interface; I did a similar exercise to add the VRInsight Airbus FCU.  There is an existing module handling the Saitek Switch Panel and outputting to the 3 Gear lights. However, it treats the panel as any other joystick.

 

It would be useful if you could map your Saitek panel buttons to the joystick page line numbers. This would make the design of the GUI easier and I could do so without having my hands on the actual panel.

 

I will PM you with my email so you can send me your code and I can see if I can advise on the initialisation.

[Clement P 0]

OK so the GUI is out of my range cause I never put my hands on Delphi (although it was the same for LUA 2 days ago  ).

 

I treated also the Radio Panel as any other joystick.

I wrote some functions to switch display mode (COM1, COM2, ...), to increase or decrease a value (according to the selecting mode) and I just mapped these functions to the radio panel buttons like any other joystick in Linda.

I also wrote a function to refresh the display on a regular basis (so that when anything change in the simulator, it has an effect on the radio panel display) and some utilities functions (to get/set the frequencies, to change the baro ref unit, to change the cursor position of the squawk code).

 

So there are utilities and refresh function in the common.lua file, and a specific module "Saitek Panel" with a section "Radio Panel" for the assignable function.

 

Am I doing right? You should be able to tell more easily when I send you my code