HI everyone.

After looking at the P3D SDK web site, my brain has almost shut down...  Where to start... it is very complicated for me, a beginner to modifying bits n bobs.. so having looked at several  youTube videos, in particular those found at Almost Aviation, I am inspired.... but cannot find the answers to my questions below and not being accustomed to DIY gauge building, I thought it best to ask after searching all week end and not really getting anywhere.

I am making my first button box (for the GPS,) so the plan is buttons and rotary will be recreated with actual hardware along with the display.  I have undocked the GPS and dragged it on to the 5 1/2" monitor, I can resize it by dragging sides to almost have the display only showing, but cannot get the Windows border (title bar) to hide.

1) How and what do I need to edit within the GPS cab file to remove the buttons and bezel; and then recompile it. (if indeed this is the way forward)

2) How do I get the undocked GPS display resized on the 5 1/2" HDMI monitor and have it fully display in that location every time I open P3D regardless of which aircraft is used.

Many thanks..

Rog

21 minutes ago, Ace9 said:

1) How and what do I need to edit within the GPS cab file to remove the buttons and bezel; and then recompile it. (if indeed this is the way forward)

I don't think you need to go to all that trouble, you can just tweak the panel.cfg file to crop the edges off the panel. Look here for a discussion of this. (It should work for the standard GPS as well as the RXP one.) If you buy the Reality-XP GNS530 V2 it now has an option for a screen-only display.

P.S. You shouldn't have window title bars in full-screen mode (ALT+ENTER).

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the mega quick reply... I have not used Full Screen mode for many years and had forgotten about it, 🙂 

I shall take your advice and get the RXP gps and report back if I encounter problems, BTW you make fantastic videos, very inspirational, thanks.

Rog

I am looking for clarification please.

My A2A Piper Cherokee has add on GPS systems available to be purchased and installed in the VC in the configurator to upgrade. (I don't need them to install in the VC though)

Upgrade choices 1 & 2 are Reality XP 430 and 530 - Choices 3, 4, 5 & 6 are Flight1 430, 530,  650, 750.

Looking at Flight1 website  under the heading "GNS Series Gauge Configuration Utility"  I read the following "In addition, it will automatically scan Flight Simulator for any aircraft that are configured for Reality-XP GNS series gauges and provide you with a way to automatically replace the Reality-XP GNS GNS gauges with our Flight1 Software GNS series gauges." 

I am stuck, are these the same GPS gauges, has Flight1 taken over the Reality XP 430 & 530 ?? If so Should I buy the gauge direct from Flight1 or Reality XP... 

39 minutes ago, Ace9 said:

I am looking for clarification please.

My A2A Piper Cherokee has add on GPS systems available to be purchased and installed in the VC in the configurator to upgrade. (I don't need them to install in the VC though)

Upgrade choices 1 & 2 are Reality XP 430 and 530 - Choices 3, 4, 5 & 6 are Flight1 430, 530,  650, 750.

Looking at Flight1 website  under the heading "GNS Series Gauge Configuration Utility"  I read the following "In addition, it will automatically scan Flight Simulator for any aircraft that are configured for Reality-XP GNS series gauges and provide you with a way to automatically replace the Reality-XP GNS GNS gauges with our Flight1 Software GNS series gauges." 

I am stuck, are these the same GPS gauges, has Flight1 taken over the Reality XP 430 & 530 ?? If so Should I buy the gauge direct from Flight1 or Reality XP... 

No, the Flight1 and RXP products are different, although they likely simulate the device to the same level of detail. The Flight1 GNS530 was released before RXP came out with its V2 products, so it seems likely the Flight1 option is to replace older installations of the RXP products. At the time a lot of people considered these as 'abandoned' products, although really that just meant they weren't being updated. The V2 products are compatible with P3Dv4, which the old ones aren't.

I would in any case caution against the Flight1 products, particularly if you are going to build a control panel. When they released the GNS530 I'm pretty sure they said it couldn't be controlled in any way other than with a mouse. They may have rectified this in later versions but I wouldn't count on it. RXP also does the GTN 650 and 750 but it may be that A2A doesn't support it in the VC.

So my advice is buy from RXP. The V2 GNS530/430 is a current product and works well. It can be automated in two different ways (keyboard shortcuts or intercepting regular GPS commands, some of which are re-purposed).

Thanks Mark, you are a star....

Buying from RXP as suggested, now this snippet from Flight1 product web site make absolute sense "Product Note: The product does not include keyboard/joystick support for buttons/knobs. Crossfill/TCAD features will be available as a plug-in (for an additional cost) in the future. "

Had a good nose through the manuals and found this : -  Game On....

The RealityXP.GNS.ini file may be configured like this:
[GNS_530_1.NO_BEZEL] 
; show screen only gauge if true.
nobezel = true

Now I just have to figure out the co-ordinates in the link above....

Many thanks for your time I appreciate your help Mark.

Rog

27 minutes ago, Ace9 said:

Now I just have to figure out the co-ordinates in the link above....

You shouldn't have to figure out any numbers, just drag the panel where you want it, then save the flight and it will remember where it was. P3Dv4 seems much better than FSX at this kind of stuff.

(P.S. Thanks for the encouragement :)

Hello.

I finally figured out how to do this in FSX-Steam, (not tried this in any version of P3D, yet.) 

Whilst the Reality XP GPS is very good, its too real for me at the moment, I like to use Plan G to create flight plans and it only exports to the RXP750 format. Whilst Skyvector and LittleNav, equally good flight planning software can export flight plans to the RXP500 - I am yet to discover how to import all my VPRs etc.. So at the end of the day, I still need the default GPS... Best of both worlds now... 😉

If you want to know how to remove the button bezel surround I posted the solution at FS Developer, click the link below.

Remove The Button Bezel Surround from the FSX default GPS.

Cheers, hope this helps someone out..

Rog