Seeing The Forest Through The Trees

[Radial9 69]

I’m heading down the proverbial rabbit hole. Today I took delivery of a GoFlight MCP Pro and an EFIS unit. These will sit alongside my existing (2) 166’s, GF-46, GF-T8-2, and (2) GF-P8’s.

I’m upgrading to a new premium Jetline Systems rig over the next month or two. I have the chance now to add or delete options. I will most likely purchase a new Yoko yoke with it, once they are released.

I will install and configure a Warthog HOTAS and throttle I already have . I desire the ability to sit down and fly either a WWII taildragger fighter or a Boeing 777, as the mood strikes me. I’m in the process now of rearranging my physical flight deck to accommodate all this hardware.

I’m trying to wrap my head around, at least the beginning of, the near-term learning path to begin to configure and use this hardware. I know it will take immense effort and patience, but I’m going to go for it. If I can learn to play golf, I can do this!

The first order of business is to get the eight GoFlight modules to utilize the USB ports of the new system. I think I understand the issues of USB power management and believe with patience I can get them all powered and up and running. At least until Bill Gatus Of Borg (you will be assimilated) pushes out another Windows update and I have to redo them…. Again.

My thinking is I should start with seriously advancing my knowledge of FSUIPC first. I can do that.

I’m of the understanding that LINDA is NOT intended nor should be used for GoFlight modules. It can, and should be, used to program buttons (along with FSUIPC) on my WH HOTAS and Throttle. I should use FSUIPC for the axis on all control hardware and LINDA for the buttons.

For the GoFlight modules I’m going to need to use PollyPot’s GIT. I have spent some time on their forum and reading the GIT manual and have come to realize I should start by using existing written profiles supplied by users and over time come to understand and begin to configure my own preferences for the GoFlight modules.

And learning a bit of LUA might not hurt either.

I don’t know if I have my head wrapped around what overlaps what nor what tool works best for what application, but I believe if I start down the road “more will be revealed”. As the saying goes, I have the rest of my nearly “retired” life to learn, between rounds of course.

If your still with me, I thank you! Am I heading down the rabbit hole in the right direction? Anyone care to share what should be learned first, or where my focus should start? Would really appreciate a reality check here. I’m willing to put in the time and do the reading (RTFM) and hair pulling. I just don’t want to spin my wheels and waste time and effort.

Thanks for any advice. I quite realize this is going to take years, not months…

Cheers,

Bob

Edited December 26, 2018 by Radial9

[hs118 707]

Bob,

Welcome to the forest! Yes, FSUIPC and Lua will likely become your friends. 

Might also I suggest LINDA? It is an overlay to FSUIPC that is a little more user friendly when doing Lua and has a lot of extra functionality. For example, you can discover, query, and manipulate LVars (program variables inside the aircraft addons). I use it strictly for this discovery process now that I am comfortable with direct Lua programming. 

Check out the LINDA forum here at AVSIM. There are a lot of helpful and knowledgeable folks here to help.

Good hunting!

 

PS. here is a little mnemonic I devised for troubleshooting purposes. In my case "Bodnar" are the USB controllers in my 'pit. "HID" is the human interface device drivers in Windows.

                                  Hardware              |            Software

Switch -> Bodnar -> USB -> Computer -> HID -> FSUIPC -> LINDA -> FSX

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by Henry Street

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Radial9 said:

I quite realize this is going to take years, not months…

Patience is definitely a virtue in the world of flight simulation ... fortunately there is usually so much depth in flight simulation that you can almost always find and enjoy a flight, maybe just not the one you originally planned.

With that out of the way, using GIT to program you GoFlight gear will really depend on your aircraft(s) of choice.  For PMDG it's actually more simple since access to "detective" is restricted and most of the bespokes are already available thanks to Steve.  Some aircraft will be considerably more complex to get GIT and the GF modules to work well, it really varies by aircraft vendor.  The great part about GIT is that it really exposes all the events happening and gives some great insight into how the aircraft is really working with the simulator engine, animations, etc. etc.

I've done a couple of video tutorials on GIT, LUA isn't required but if you feel better using it, then it's integrated into GIT.  Most time consuming aspects of GIT is using "detective" and coming up with Bespokes and making them work correctly regardless of your current "actual" switch state ... finding the vars and knowing what to trigger or use as a trigger.  The more complicated aircraft I've run into are Captain Sim and then MJC Q400, fortunately a lot of work has already been done for  you on the MJC Q400.

The biggest issues I've had with many USB devices connected (in my case about 47) and not just GoFlight, is power and power cycling.  Some motherboards will do better with USB devices than others, but in my case I've had to add two additional USB 2.0/3.0 PCIe cards to my PC in order to avoid power cycles or worse yet my Yoko Yoke going into slow motion mode and/or my MFG crosswinds rudders just disconnecting ... P3D/XP11 does NOT respond well to intermittent USB power/connectivity issues (read major stutters and strange aircraft behavior).  I would highly recommend you let the Jetline folks know you'd like a couple extract USB 2.0 PCIe cards in your system build.

Cheers, Rob.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Guest

[Radial9 69]

Rob... Thank you for taking a few moments out of your time to respond. It is appreciated.

I have one existing 5 port USB2.0 card that is going into the new rig. I will talk with them about another. My believe is I only have 3 PCI slots on the new MB. I'm hoping for a sound card but it might make sense to get another 5 port USB 2.0.

As a rookie and given no detective tool for PMDG, should I just jump right in and start with becoming familiar with the 737NGX or use another user supplied AC config file that DOES allow the use and learning of the Detective Tool. Or both??

Thanks again!

Bob

[JesC 88]

Have you talked to Jetline yet and told them about what you plan to configure. Based on my experience I think they would be very helpful with getting things up and running and optimized for your needs. One of the big advantages to working with them. Just a thought.

Jesse