MSG button

[SteveBurney 0]

I just purchased the GNS 530/430 yesterday, and so far I think it's great that I can use a 'real' gps in the flight sim and fly departures, arrivals, and RNAV approaches.  It's REALLY distracting and annoying, though, that the MSG keeps flashing.  Near airspace, inside airspace, inside and near airspace, every few seconds while flying an approach it cries out for attention.  The MSG light doesn't flash near as much on the real units (and then it usually wants me to change the heading on the OBS). 

Is there anyway to attenuate the function, have 1 acknowledgement last for the entire approach or disable it during approaches?  I have a feeling I know what the answer is, but I'm hoping something can be done about an annoying feature of what looks to be an otherwise great product.  Oh, and as long as I'm nit-picking, how about being able to use the CLR button to declutter the screen?

Thank you.

[WarpD 824]

It is triggered by the sim's logic at this time.  There is no way to change it's behavior currently.

The screen doesn't have much on it right now (we didn't add roads, cities, etc)... so I don't feel it's really cluttered... but, I hear you.  Adding in such a feature would require more code in the settings area of the GNS before we could go further.  I can add it to the list of desired enhancements.

[SteveBurney 0]

Thank you.  That’s what I thought, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

On another topic, I’m working on controlling it with buttons/encoders connected through an Arduino Mega and Mobiflight.  I’m stuck on the CDI button.  When I assign the FSX event number for TOGGLE_GPS_DRIVES_NAV1 (66375) to the GPS_CDI event in the keyboard section of GNS.INI then it continuously flips the setting on the unit without the button being pressed.  I’ve also tried adding a keystroke shortcut and having mobiflight call that keystroke, but that didn’t work at all.  The closest I came was to leave the keyboard control section for the cdi function blank in the ini file and program the hardware button to send the 66375 code.  The problem there was that each keypress caused it to flip twice so it went from gps right back to gps.  That was a single button press, not on press then again on release.  If I pressed the virtual button with the mouse, it went to vnav, then when I press the hardware button it did the same thing and landed back on vnav again.

Do you have a recommended method for connecting a hardware button to function as the CDI key?  (The other buttons I’ve programmed so far using the fsx control numbers work great, I’m just stumped by the CDI.)

[WarpD 824]

You should NOT be using default FS event values in the GNS.INI file.  That's a really, really bad idea.  The purpose of the GNS.INI entries is so that you can define CUSTOM event numbers to be used.  Do NOT use ANY default sim event values.  None.

[SteveBurney 0]

Ok, we’re getting closer, now I know what NOT to do.  How about entering the offset values?  Is that also a bad idea?  

What I really need, though, is to know what TO do.  Do you have a recommendation on how to connect a hardware button through Mobiflight (or any other means, for that matter)?  Would it work to assign custom event values?  I sure I’m not the first to try this, but so far I haven’t found anything to point me in the right direction.  I’d greatly appreciate any guidance you can provide.

[WarpD 824]

It appears that Mobiflight only understands FSUIPC.  The best process would be to utilize custom events that get transmitted to the sim via SimConnect.  It's a shame that they choose to not provide native sim API support.

I believe there are sources on the internet on how to use SimConnect with your Arduino, but it's a bit outside my scope of "have-a-clue" to be honest.  My Arduino is collecting dust somewhere.  I simply have no time to play with such nifty toys.

[SteveBurney 0]

Thank you for the help, Ed.  I'll try to figure out how to use custom events, and if that doesn't work I'll keep looking.  There has to be an answer somewhere.

[WarpD 824]

I will check to see if I can find more info on using FSUIPC for you, just in case.

[glennav8r 18]

I have used Mobiflight to control Mindstar events before so it can be done. FSUIPC will do it using custom controls also. I currently use the G1000 but from memory the 530 works the same way. In Mobiflight add a button and then assign an event to that button. Mobiflight requires the event in decimal and the GNS.ini will require it in hex. An example is event 72458 assigned in Mobiflight will trigger AFCS_FLC=0X00011B0A in Mindstar. (This is an Autopilot function which is not what your after - You will need to replace the AFCS_FLC bit with the appropriate 530 control.

Glenn. 

[SteveBurney 0]

Thank you, Ed & Glenn.  I’ll try adding the 66375 event in Mobiflight & 0x132c in the GNS.ini & see if that combination works.