Reality XP GNS530XP with REALSIMGEAR GNS530

[Toke 0]

I'm new to this forum and this is my first time posting.  Can't seem to find the answer anywhere online.

I am using a REALSIMGEAR GNS530 external unit. I can get the Reality XP GNS530XP to display on this other (RealSimGear) screen/unit, however the standard Xplane 530 is still showing within the Xplane (3D) cockpit display.  It seems like it would be convenient to have the Reality XP version showing both on the external unit AND in the Xplane cockpit.

Is it possible to display the Reality XP GNS530 within the Xplane cockpit GPS display (in addition to displaying it on the external REALSIMGEAR GNS530)?

Thank you,

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

There are plenty of topics about configuring the RXP GNS V2 in the 3D cockpit, starting with the pinned tutorial (also included in the RXP GNS User's Manual):

 

You might want to review ALL the other pinned topics as well!

[Toke 0]

Thank you for the reply!

I’m brand new to flight simulation in general, so I appreciate your patience.  Direct email may be more appropriate if this isn’t helpful to the more experienced customers in this forum.

The setup process worked great and placed the RXP GNS530 right on top of the Xplane 530 (in the C172 cockpit) as expected.  That seems to be what that tutorial shows how to do manually.  I’m assuming all of the proper dimensions were generated as part of that setup process.

To use the RXP530 on the RealSimGear screen, I then used the Popout option and dragged the RXP GNS530 down to the other (RealSimGear) screen (and reran the RealSimGear Plugin installer).  That worked well, but left the standard Xplane GPS now showing in the cockpit view.

Is there a way to have the RXP showing in the other popped-out (RealSimGear) screen but have it also still showing in the Xplane cockpit view? I guess that would be like having both popout and popin options.  I couldn’t glean that from the tutorial.

Also, even with using RXP in the other screen, the CDI button isn’t working properly.  When pushed, it does show the source changing in the GPS displays, but what is actually sent to the CDI doesn’t change.  For example, if the CDI is using GPS, when I push the CDI button, the source indicated (on the 530) properly changes to VLOC (in both the RXP on the RealSimGear screen and the Xplane 530 in the cockpit view) , but GPS is still being fed to the actual CDI.  I can switch it manually using the alternate indicator/button on top of the CDI itself, but that’s not preferred.

Thank you!

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

What the tutorial shows is that:

- The GNS plugin can be configured to display/render the GNS device with or without a bezel

- It can also be configured to render on the 3D cockpit at the same time it is rendering in a popup window

- It can also be configured to render at multiple locations in the 3D cockpit at the same time. This is implicit given the naming/configuration scheme which tells it renders into any location you're defining in a dedicated section in the ini file.

- The user's manual p14 footnotes also confirm this:
     Please note you can only configure one window per gauge, but you can configure multiple panels per gauge.

Having said this, the X-Plane SDK doesn't makes it easy for end-users because there is no facility included to do so. Therefore, our plugin offers the mean to manually configure all of this in the .ini file, and it takes care to render wherever you're telling it to render to.

This also means there is not "automatic" or "easy" way to configure the GNS into the 3D cockpit, although after trying a few times you'll most likely find out it is not that hard either. You might want to start looking into the "Official Panel Configuration" pinned topic for many different ready-to-use configuration files shared by other customers. This might help you get the gist of it faster.

Now regarding the RealSimGear hardware, from a GNS configuration perspective, these are nothing else than another monitor connected to your computer onto which you'll display the popup window. This doesn't change the fact that a popup window won't magically duplicate itself onto the 3D cockpit though, and for this one, you'd still have to configure the .ini file to do so.

As for the CDI button, I don't know what you are referring to as "the alternate indicator/button". If this is something specific to RealSimGear you might want to contact them about this. However, the GNS CDI mode is designed to sync with the simulator equivalent NAV/GPS switch and it can be configured in different ways. Some aircraft might be "enforcing and managing" the CDI mode on their own and I'd suggest you review the CDI mode setting description in the RXP GNS User's Manual to learn about this configuration option (and all the others, there are many).

 

[Toke 0]

Hello.

What I meant by the “alternate indicator/button” is the CDI source indicator located right above the actual CDI (in the standard Xplane C172 cockpit).  This displays the source being fed to the CDI and also can be selected (with a mouse click) to change the source.  However, updating the RXP CDI mode setting from the default to the bi-directional (GPS-SIM) sync mode resolved that issue, which is great!  When I now select the CDI button on the RXP GNS530, it does toggle the CDI source indicator between Nav and GPS.

The issue now is that when GPS is selected on the RXP GNS, that signal isn’t actually fed to the CDI.  VLOC works fine, however when GPS is then selected, the CDI needles just stay locked in the position they were in with VLOC.  So, I can do ILS approaches, but can’t get any deflection when GPS is selected, (so therefore can’t do GPS approaches).  I did try disabling the RXP GNS plugin, and verified that GPS does then feed into the CDI fine with the standard Xplane GNS.

Any advice on why VLOC is working, but not GPS, and how to resolve this, would be appreciated.  Being able to feed the GPS to the CDI, and not being able to do GPS approaches would obviously be very restrictive.

It’s great to hear that there is the ability to “render on the 3D cockpit at the same time it is rendering in a popup window”. I did review the tutorial, the “Official Panel Configuration" pinned topic, and the Reality XP User Manual. I’m still not sure how specifically that is done though.  In my C172 folder, there are 2 RealityXP files: RealityXP.GNS.ini, and RealityXP.GNS.  These are pasted below and the differences are highlighted.  What specifically should be updated to show the RXP GNS in both the popup and on top of the Xplane GNS in the 3D cockpit?  Would that be replacing the drawto = WINDOW, PANELS with drawto = WINDOW, Garmin_530_screen and then adding a [GNS_530_1.Garmin_530_screen] section?

Thank you!

 

RealityXP.GNS.ini

[GNS]

; comma separated list of gauges

gauges = GNS_530_1

 

[GNS_530_1]

; comma separated list of render targets.

drawto = WINDOW, PANELS

; is the master device if true.

MasterDevice = true

; connects to: 'PFC_STACK','PFC_430','PFC_530' or any '#PID' (#D002 for PFC_430)

; no value connects to first found, 'OFF' disables connection.

HardwareDevice =

; hardware selector number or -1 to disable.

HardwareIdx = -1

 

[GNS_530_1.WINDOW]

; display window if true.

visible = true

; show screen only gauge if true.

nobezel = false

; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS

frame.type = WINDOW

; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height)

frame.rect = 99995,434,645,470

; screen only border size (pixels).

border.size = 0

; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA).

border.rgba = #000000

; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override)

usemouse = true

; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true.

popleft = false

; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1).

popright = false

; VR mode position and dimension (left,top,width,height) (requires XP11.20)

vrmode.rect = 0,178.5,245,178.5

; display as popout window if true (requires XP11.1).

undocked = false

; display mouse tooltips if true.

tooltips = false

; freeze display position if true.

locked = false

; auto hide in external view if true.

autohide = false

 

[GNS_530_1.PANELS]

; display window if true.

visible = false

; show screen only gauge if true.

nobezel = true

; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS

frame.type = PANELS

; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height)

frame.rect = 0,0,0,0

; screen only border size (pixels).

border.size = 0

; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA).

border.rgba = #000000

; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override)

usemouse = true

; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true.

popleft = false

; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1).

popright = true

 

RealityXP.GNS

[GNS]

; comma separated list of gauges

gauges = GNS_530_1

 

[GNS_530_1]

; comma separated list of render targets.

drawto = WINDOW, PANELS

; is the master device if true.

MasterDevice = true

; connects to: 'PFC_STACK','PFC_430','PFC_530' or any '#PID' (#D002 for PFC_430)

; no value connects to first found, 'OFF' disables connection.

HardwareDevice =

; hardware selector number or -1 to disable.

HardwareIdx = -1

UseSimGpsCmds = true

AutoCdiSrc = true

 

[GNS_530_1.WINDOW]

; display window if true.

visible = true

; show screen only gauge if true.

nobezel = true

; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS

frame.type = WINDOW

; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height)

frame.rect = 4218,482,631,484

; screen only border size (pixels).

border.size = 0

; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA).

border.rgba = #000000

; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override)

usemouse = true

; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true.

popleft = false

; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1).

popright = false

; VR mode position and dimension (left,top,width,height) (requires XP11.20)

vrmode.rect = 0,178.5,245,178.5

; display as popout window if true (requires XP11.1).

undocked = true

; display mouse tooltips if true.

tooltips = true

; freeze display position if true.

locked = false

; auto hide in external view if true.

autohide = false

 

[GNS_530_1.PANELS]

; display window if true.

visible = false

; show screen only gauge if true.

nobezel = true

; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS

frame.type = PANELS

; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height)

frame.rect = 0,0,0,0

; screen only border size (pixels).

border.size = 0

; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA).

border.rgba = #000000

; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override)

usemouse = true

; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true.

popleft = false

; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1).

popright = true

 

 

 

[Toke 0]

So, I just tried experimenting with the RXP settings, and I believe the GPS to CDI issue is resolved for me.  Selecting the 'Connect GPS to VOR1 indicator' option seemed to do the trick.  So now just curious about the proper ini settings for duplicating the popout window in the 3D cockpit.  Thanks!

[RXP 2,338]

I'm sorry for the delay. I'm glad you've sorted out the CDI question!!

As for the 3D panel, it seems complex at first but once you start getting into it, trying out the tutorial yourself on the B58, then changing a few settings and looking at the outcome in the panel, you'll quickly grasp the gist of it I'm sure. You might want to also review the Official Panel Mod topic for other aircraft you'd already have and see how it was done for these. This can be a very good starting point indeed.