Virtual Avionics MCP737-R and EFIS for X Plane experience exchange

[Lissyhexe 1]

 

Hello to all VA MCP and / or EFIs owners and interested persons,

 

since 10 days I own VA MCP and EFIS hardware bundle. There are some very good experiences and some problems, too.

I am interested to exchange experiences with other x plane VA hardware users. Maybe together we manage to solve

some problems what VA support is not able to do or they have no capacity to solve it in short time.

Here is a brief report:

I ordered hardware via internet at Brazil VA homepage. Fast reply and fast shipping within 4 days to Germany.

Good package and I got a desktop stand free. Total costs were around USD 1.000.- , including bundle, vat, tax and shipping.

Hardware looks great, and after installing VA Interface software first test with x737 was close to be perfect!

Small Problems are:

Disengage switch shows only one way function. You have to push it down and up again for wanted effect.

Vnav button and Lnav button are interchanged. You have to push Vnav to get Lnav working.

Bank angle button shows no effect (turning) of virtual button from simulated plane and no effect on bank angle.

EFIS works like a charm and in summarizing all experience with EADT x737, VA MCP and EFIS are impressing pieces

of hardware what I would buy again.

 

Different experience on using it with IXEG 737. Here is a copy of my report to VA support, 4 days ago:

MCP 737-R. V/s vertical sink and climb not working. Wheel not turning in simulator. Data goes to 7900 feet climb-sink.

Disengage same problem as with x737. Must be moved several times. Vnav and lnav interchanged like x737. Button lnav goes to vnav .

C/o, IAS, Mach don´t work on first touch. Several button press necessary.

EFIS with x737: wxp no function. STA, WPT, ARPT only one way.

You push. It works. But new push no reaction. You put it on, but can' t put it off.

Buttons POS and Terr no reaction.

Radio Baro no reaction.

FPV and MTRS button no action or reaction.

 

VA support did not answer until now.

I tried to find useable datafref to manipulate or adapt VA interface with Lua or Python but was not succesful.

Maybe there is a trick to find dataref and someone already found a way to repair malfunction.

It would be great to hear about your experiences with VA hardware and x plane.

Regards

Lissy

 

These are my systems and hardware components:

win7 ultimate, i7 4790K, 32gb ram, geforce gtx1070

x plane 10.51, saitek, radio (2x), multi-panel, switch-panel,

throttle (2x), rudder-pedal, CH-yoke, VirtualAvionics mcp, efis,

haversine airtrack, airfmc, radio contact4, multi crew experience

ixeg737, x737, challenger300, FF757, FF777

[amaurisj 5]

Hi Lissy, thank you for your feedback and for reporting.

 

We are planning to run full regression tests for IXEG and x737 late this week, so we will be able to address the issues you are reporting. At the launch of VA support for x-plane in march, we did a full test using the current version at the time for these add-ons, but now seems they got upgraded and we need to perform a full scrub.

 

We are committed to provide a solution, we will keep you posted on this. Could you please send an e-mail to support@virtualavionics.com.br about this thread ? I've tried to find your ticket on our system but was not able yet, probably I'm missing something on the search.

 

Rgds,

Amauri.

[Lissyhexe 1]

Hi Amauri, many thanks for answering.

 

Meanwhile I tried again to send ticket on different computers, but ticket seems to be not accepted by VA.

I always get following Ajax error:

Oops! Something went wrong...
•AJAX error thrown: SyntaxError: Ungültiges Zeichen

Don't worry though! We've logged this problem and will look into it soon!

 

I sent this message via email (no problems here) to Helton some days ago and he promised to pass it to your support.

Now I sent my message directly to support adress you gave us in your post.

 

General reflections on VA hardware:

Now I own MCP737-R and EFIS and first impressiones are great. Very good design and quality and if interface software fits with plane models like EADT x737 it works like a charm.

I thought problems in adapting IXEG737 could be solved by using Lua script. Lua and Python helped me with some other hardware, like saitek or VRinsight etc.

Now I have to accept that VA is not using datarefs like other companies who are offering hardware.

VA should adapt their intervace to x planes plugin system. This would give users a chance to write scripts for other planes and could solve many problems arising with new or upgrated models.

VA could have much more customers inside x plane world if interface would allow adapting datarefs with Lua etc.

I am sure that X plane family will grow more and more, if x plane 11 will be out next year.

Your hardware could play a big role in this growing market.

 

Kind regards

 

Lissy

[Lissyhexe 1]

Hello MCP737-R owners, good news for Challenger300 pilots.

 

Since there is no answer yet to VA interface repair for  IXEG 737 I used weekend for getting closer to VA datarefs. There is a lot of data and mapping, but very hard to understand, because I don´t know sourcecode-editor.

 

But I found a second plane to work well with MCP: Challenger 300 (Aerosoft)

After upgrading it to Challenger10.51 I tested plane and - surprise, surprise - it fits very good with MCP. FD, AP, Alt, VS even course and Lnav can be set by MCP. LCDs show right data, only backlighting doesn´t work.

 

BTW: Challenger looks better after upgrade and flight characteristics improved a lot. Especially at low speed and in landing configuration.

 

Regards

 

Lissy

[737727Nut 12]

Im ready to buy one but not until the VS works with the ixeg.  From what I understand the rest is working ok now?

Rob

[Lissyhexe 1]

Hi Rob,

 

MCP is working with IXEG, except VS and disengage switch. It goes down (disengage) but not up again.  EFIS is different and there are more problems with only a few switches working. To be honest, MCP from 737 classic (IXEG) is different from 737-NG (EADT X737). X737 works like a charm with MCP and EFIS and design is optically perfect, too.

I got pm from Amauri (VA Support) that there will be a solution in very short time, whatever this means. VA support reacts very fast and user friendly. I have a good feeling that people there are willing to solve problems in X plane very soon.

 

Regards

Lissy

[Lissyhexe 1]

Good news!

 

VA support solved problems with IXEG 737 and MCP and EFIS! Staying in contact with George (Dornier) and VAsupport they worked out a new version of VAinterface. EFIS runs perfect - a pleasure to use it with IXEG - only MCP still has one little issue when VNAV is engaged. Plane flies perfect in VNAV mode, but on VA-MCP there are some numbers where it should be dark. No big issue. Since I mostly fly in LNAV only, it doesn´t bother me. I have a good feeling, that VA team will fix this little problem, too.

 

When I first tested new VAinterface in some completely automated flights with LNAV and VNAV engaged I got IXEG-Gizmo alert after a while. Well, this is not new to me and experts say, it is a "stack overflow". Maybe with all my hardware (Saitek, CH, VA) and 2 Ipads (AirFMC and Airtrack) and completely automated flight mode it is too much for Gizmo. BTW: With EADT x737 I never had problems like this. But, to be honest, flying IXEG737 with VA-MCP and Efis is even more fun and frame rate stays high. Pity, that x737 is such a "frame eater".

 

Meanwhile I did several flights following flight plans with LNAV on and with all my ipads and gimmicks running and everything worked fine. Maybe you have to contact VAsupport for new Interface. I don´t think that new version has been published yet.

 

Regards

 

Lissy