Hi all - I'm flying the Textron C172 steam gauge version, which has two GPS 430s(?) and no "traditional" radio stack.  I'm using TrackIR, which is great, but when it comes to trying to grab the GPS knobs... not so much.  Between the sensitivity of mouse position over controls and the slightest move of my head causing "shake" in the view, it takes me minutes to dial in a frequency.

I know the ALT+click a screen trick to get a popout to a new window, but unfortunately this only seems to pop out the display portion of the GPS, and not the entire panel.  I'd really like to see the knobs/buttons on the unit in a "fixed" window as well (same goes for the xponder, that one's much easier, but still the same general issue).

(In FSX, for example, I could show the whole radio stack in a separate panel overlayed on my virtual cockpit view... looking for something like that)

Does anyone know of a way to do this?  Thanks,

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by jackdleach
added note about fsx method

I have asked that as well but seemingly it is how it is, no pop-up window for entire instruments in FS2020

I determined that F9 works to toggle TrackIR on/off while in the sim, so that's a huge help... I can quickly toggle that off, jump into a panel view to do my gps work then F9 to toggle trackIR on again.  Not perfect, but makes it usable until realsimgear's gps units get support.

25 minutes ago, jackdleach said:

I determined that F9 works to toggle TrackIR on/off while in the sim, so that's a huge help... I can quickly toggle that off, jump into a panel view to do my gps work then F9 to toggle trackIR on again.  Not perfect, but makes it usable until realsimgear's gps units get support.

Yes, it is easy to zoom the gauge with Ctrl + 2. 

But the mouse pointers and knob operation leave a lot to be desired.  I am still flying with FSX SE for my MLB baseball season (Chicago White Sox) and Indycar racing season and use RXP GNS v2 GPS.  The difference in knob tuning between the FSX/P3D RXP and the default MSFS GNS is profound.  I can tune the RXP GNS in a fraction of the time of MSFS.  The RXP legacy mouse cursors are much more visible and much easier to position and keep positioned than those MSFS skeleton cursors, and with the RXP you can also use right and left mouse buttons to tune the knobs, and can use individual mouse clicks for precise tuning.

54 minutes ago, fppilot said:

...with the RXP you can also use right and left mouse buttons to tune the knobs, and can use individual mouse clicks for precise tuning.

I was looking for keyboard shortcuts for tuning, but didn't find anything.  Maybe there's some plugin out there that would help with it - I was never deep enough into simming to know a lot about various available plugins, but perhaps spad.next can do something of the sort?  

I've been a developer on the Windows stack for some 15 years or more, and wonder how easy/difficult it would be to write a little plugin for something like this, but I have no idea what the API involves (and, for something this new, I'd hate to spend hours writing a half-baked solution just to have the FS2020 devs come up with something in the meantime - 3rd party devs and providers must be in a tough spot until things settle in fully).

Probably I'll just wait for the realsimgear version of the 430 to be compatible.

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by jackdleach

What's this alt+click, never heard of that.  Just tried it in the 172 and nothing happened. It might be easier for you to just use the mouse wheel, rather than trying to click your way around, just a thought.

HI Andy - I think it needs to be the right ALT key specifically, but if you hold the key and hover the mouse over a panel display, you should see the cursor change to a magnifying glass with a plus in the middle of it.  Click the display in that cursor mode and the display will open to a new window.  Handy, I suppose (except it's only the display and not the control of the panel...)

It only seems to work for digital output screens though (such as GPS, trying to open a transponder display to a dedicated window doesn't seem to work).

I've not played with it much, just came across it the other day while trying to figure out this issue I started the topic on.

I wasn't aware the mouse wheel should work... presumably that's a "hover over the control and use the wheel to spin it"?  I'll give it a shot next time I have the sim fired up, thanks.

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by jackdleach

Yes, try it that way see if it helps.

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by andyjohnston.net

16 minutes ago, jackdleach said:

I think it needs to be the right ALT key specifically

Wow. That's awkward for a right handed person....

2 hours ago, jackdleach said:

I determined that F9 works to toggle TrackIR on/off while in the sim, so that's a huge help... I can quickly toggle that off, jump into a panel view to do my gps work then F9 to toggle trackIR on again.  Not perfect, but makes it usable until realsimgear's gps units get support.

That's how I do it to, but I have mine set to F12 to center TrackIR and Shift-F12 to pause it. The only problem is when you pause it, the screen will wait a few seconds and then reset the view and then you can move the view  around with the view controls/mouse. As you said, not perfect but usable.

3 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Wow. That's awkward for a right handed person....

But easy peasy for a left handed Cub fan. See you in the world series.

8 minutes ago, Phantoms said:

The only problem is when you pause it, the screen will wait a few seconds and then reset the view....

Hmm, I didn't notice any lag at all in the views.  I'm using the default F9 (which I was pleasantly surprised to note worked while in the sim, and didn't seem to override any prior keys), and there's no delay at all.  Not sure what differences might be contributing to that.

11 minutes ago, Twenty6 said:

See you in the world series.

We have a pair of games to end the regular season....  Sox are HOT right now!  Incredible line up.  BTW, I am an alumnus of Indiana Univ. and Cubs have post IU stars Schwarber and Plegley.

22 minutes ago, jackdleach said:

Hmm, I didn't notice any lag at all in the views.  I'm using the default F9 (which I was pleasantly surprised to note worked while in the sim, and didn't seem to override any prior keys), and there's no delay at all.  Not sure what differences might be contributing to that.

I just of changed it to Shift-F12 in the past, but that's my pause key. Anyway, in this video you can see I start with TrackIR on and then pause it while looking at the AP. After about 5 seconds it pops up to straight ahead (the view is reset) and then I can use MSFS view controls to move view around before enabling TrackIR again. I would rather that the view just start from where I paused TrackIR and not reset at all.

 

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by Phantoms
Forgot video link