RXP GTN 750 pre purchase query

[brucewtb 250]

I still have P3d4.5 on my system and the only reason is my RealAir Turbine Duke and its F1 GTN 750 which is not supported in P3D 5.3. I am considering purchasing the RXP GTN 750 for P3d 5.3 use (and thus be able to delete 4.5) but only if it can replace the F1 GTN 750 in my Turbine Duke P3D 5.3 install with a minimum of fuss.  My initial scan of these fora was not encouraging but maybe I am being too pessimistic. I don't usually buy stuff for P3D these days so this would be an exception that would (in effect) release space on one of my SSDs for other use. Opinions/assistance appreciated.

Bruce

[Rogen 1,095]

Hi @brucewtb

Ah yes there is really nothing quite like RealAir aircraft, all of them are great to fly and very detailed both in looks and functionality.

Pity about Sean's & Robert's breakup and then the passing of Sean's spouse sealed the end to further flightsim development.

Do you have more than just the Duke Turbine ?

Anyway...

The RXP installer creates a menu item in the P3D menu for adding units as a popup or embeding in place of an existing F1 unit.

So really it's no effort to install, just be sure to choose the no bezel option.

You can also manually add if you're comfortable with editing panel.cfg.

The only thing is the dials & buttons of the F1 bezel don't work although there is a gauge script that provides the function of mapping.

Cheers

[Rogen 1,095]

And for reference I've detailed the nuances here.

• The "Turbine Duke V2 P3D 4 Config" app will overwrite the panel config GTN entries replacing the rxp with the F1 entries each time a save (in the app) is performed.

• Therefore I've added additional commented entries to the panel.cfg so I can easily copy/paste manually if I choose to modify the config via the  "Turbine Duke V2 P3D 4 Config" app (see panel.cfg spolier for the snips).

• Besides choosing the VC no bezel option, be sure matching GTNs are chosen for the popup and VC as it's easy to accidently select a 725 and then wonder why the popup and VC are acting independantly.

• With the GTNs installed , popup the GTN, with the cursor positioned on the top edge of the popup's bezel, hold down Shift and Right Click the mouse, this will open the GTN config window where various options can be set.

• If using the F1 bezel mapping gauge be sure to set the option of "Advanced Settings/Use simulator GPS Commands" as enabled.

• To install the mapping gauge (gauge in spoiler), extract the "RASDuke.CAB" to a folder of the same name within the same location, (it's in the Panel folder), then rename the CAB file to something like "RASDuke.CAB.orig". 7Zip is a good archive tool for CAB extraction.

• Copy/Paste the F1VC.xml spolier text into a text file named "F1VC.xml" (Notepad++ is ideal for this), be sure windows file extention visiblity is enabled, else the file name may end up named "F1VC.xml.txt" with the .txt not shown by Windows. I've added additional commenting to the F1VC script to better describe it's operation and note the F1 bezel buttons buttons will require double clicking to work but the knobs will be just fine.

• Copy the new "F1VC.xml" gauge file into the previously extracted "RASDuke" folder.

• Add the following line to the panel.cfg under [VCockpit01] being sure to add to the end of the [VCockpit01] gauges list.

gauge27=RASDuke!F1VC,           0,    0, 1, 1   // Bridges the controls from the F1 GTN750 to the RXP GTN750.

I then recab the RASDuke folder using the p3D SDK tools, but it's not neccesary to do so really.

There are other ways to install and configure for using the F1VC.xml, this is simply the method I use to keep everything neat.

Cheers

F1VC.xml

Spoiler

<Gauge Name="F1VC" Version="2.05">

<!-- Reality XP GTN Buttons Bridge -->
<!-- Bridges Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch with f1 3D bezel -->
<!-- Credits: Reality XP, Sean Moloney and Ryan Butterworth, Bert Pieké -->

<Comment>
These 4 numbers configure how to connect the virtual cockpit GTN model (type+unit) to the RXP GTN unit number.
    They are set in a specific order, respectively to the following 3D models: 652, 651, 752, 751.
   
    Use 0 to map the corresponding device to the RXP GTN #1, use 8 to map to the RXP GTN #2. It reads like this:
           
    code = 8080
    3D model   |  652  |  651  |  752  |  751  |
    map to RXP |   8   |   0   |   8   |   0   |
               |(unit2)|(unit1)|(unit2)|(unit1)|

    Other Examples:
    
    3D panel using 651 and 652: 8 0 8 0
    3D panel using 751 and 752: 8 0 8 0
    3D panel using 751 and 651: 8 8 0 0
    
7) Example with the MilViz DHC3:

this aircraft panel.cfg virtual cockpit sections are:
    
    [Vcockpit20]
    ...
    gauge00=F1GTN!GTN750VC,  0,0,677,794,UNIT1
    
    [Vcockpit21]
    ...
    gauge00=F1GTN!GTN650VC,  0,0,677,297,UNIT1

The virtual cockpit uses the 751 and the 651 (type+unit). Therefore, the code must tell to map the 751 to RXP unit1,
and the 651 to RXP unit2. Using the column view above, this gives:
    
    code = 8800
    3D model   |  652  |  651  |  752  |  751  |
    map to RXP |   8   |   8   |   0   |   0   |
               |(unit2)|(unit2)|(unit1)|(unit1)|
               
Change the panel.cfg virtual cockpit sections to:
 
    [Vcockpit20]
    ...
    gauge00=rxpGTN!GTN_750_1,  0,0,677,794,NO_BEZEL
    gauge01=rxpGTN!f1vc,0,0,1,1

    [Vcockpit21]
    ...
    gauge00=rxpGTN!GTN_650_2,  0,0,677,297,NO_BEZEL
    
Change f1vc.xml line 17 to:

            <!-- map F1 model to RXP GTN unit -->
            <!-- use: 8 0 8 0 for 652=unit2, 651=unit1, 752=unit2, 751=unit1 -->
            <!-- use: 8 8 0 0 for 652=unit2, 651=unit2, 752=unit1, 751=unit1 -->
      8 8 0 0
</Comment>

<Element>
    <Select>
        <Value>
            (L:F1GTNMOUSE,bool) 0 !=
            if{
            (L:F1GTNMOUSE,bool) 0x0001FA01 - sp0
            l0 28 / int sp1 l0 28 % sp0
            <!-- map F1 model to RXP GTN unit -->
            <!-- use: 8 0 8 0 for 652=unit2, 651=unit1, 752=unit2, 751=unit1 -->
            <!-- use: 8 8 0 0 for 652=unit2, 651=unit2, 752=unit1, 751=unit1 -->
            8 8 0 0
            4 l1 case 4 2 l0 1 &amp; ? + sp1
            l0 0 == l0 1   == or if{ l1 (>K:GPS_MENU_BUTTON) }
            l0 2 == l0 3   == or if{ l1 (>K:GPS_DIRECTTO_BUTTON) }
            l0 4 == l0 10  == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_BUTTON2) }
            l0 6 == l0 11  == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_BUTTON3) }
            l0 8 == l0 9   == or if{ l1 (>K:GPS_BUTTON1) }
            l0 12 == l0 18 == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_GROUP_KNOB_DEC) }
            l0 14 == l0 19 == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_GROUP_KNOB_INC) }
            l0 20 == l0 26 == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_PAGE_KNOB_DEC) }
            l0 22 == l0 27 == or if{ l1 8 &amp; (>K:GPS_PAGE_KNOB_INC) }
            l0 24 == l0 25 == or if{ l1 (>K:GPS_CURSOR_BUTTON) }
            l0 16 == l0 17 == or if{ l1 (>K:GPS_CURSOR_BUTTON) }
            0 (>L:F1GTNMOUSE,bool)
            }
        </Value>
    </Select>
</Element>
</Gauge>

Panel.cfg snips

Spoiler

//[Window Titles]
//Window00=Main Panel
//Window02=Blank
//window01=Flight1 Garmin GTN750 U1 - DO NOT MODIFY
//window01=Reality XP GTN Unit 1 (managed)

 

[VCockpit01]

gauge19=rxpGTN!GTN_750_1, 2,563,390,460,NO_BEZEL

//gauge25=F1GTN!GTN750VC, 2,563,390,460,UNIT1
//gauge26=rxpGTN!GTN_725_1, 2,563,390,460,NO_BEZEL
gauge27=RASDuke!F1VC,           0,    0, 1, 1   // Bridges the controls from the F1 GTN750 to the RXP GTN750.

[brucewtb 250]

Thank you both for all of this - very helpful.  I assume where you refer to  "Turbine Duke V2 P3D 4 Config" app  the same would apply to the P3D5 configs as I am only changing the GTNs in P3D5 (planning to delete P3D4 when it is all done).  Back in the day I did a lot of panel editing in FSX for the early generation RXP garmins it has been a while but this should all be OK.  Just don't want to spend too much time as I am mostly a MSFS2020 simmer these days. But I like the turbine Duke as it provides an education on how turbine powered aircraft function.  The doco that came with the original FSX install is very informative.

Bruce

[brucewtb 250]

Well I have managed to install the RXP GTN 750s in place of the F1 GTN 750s in the RealAir Duke.  This all seems to work and the only additional step was to enable the "Use Simulator GPS Commands" setting (although it took some poking around to find this).   Now, while the buttons on the bezel work in the popup, they don't on the VC GTN -  however this is how it was with F1 GTN 750 so it doesn't bother me. I haven't used any of the Panel.cfg edits posted above (and elsewhere on this forum) which I find a bit cryptic so I am wondering what I am missing out on?

Anyhow I plan to use this install as a test bed to help me decide which way to jump with a GTN 750 in MSFS 2020 - the one that uses the Garmin Trainer (and all the advantages that go with this but a dated nav database)  or the one that uses the MSFS (or navigraph) nav data but lacks some features you get with the Garmin trainer.

Bruce

[Rogen 1,095]

On 1/23/2023 at 9:51 AM, brucewtb said:

I haven't used any of the Panel.cfg edits posted above (and elsewhere on this forum) which I find a bit cryptic so I am wondering what I am missing out on?

Working buttons and knob in the VC

Cheers

[Bert Pieke 7,586]

On 1/22/2023 at 2:51 PM, brucewtb said:

Anyhow I plan to use this install as a test bed to help me decide which way to jump with a GTN 750 in MSFS 2020 - the one that uses the Garmin Trainer (and all the advantages that go with this but a dated nav database)  or the one that uses the MSFS (or navigraph) nav data but lacks some features you get with the Garmin trainer.

Once you have used the actual GTN750, I cannot see going back to the PMS version, however well designed it may be.. unless it is for "casual use" eg just displaying the current flight plan on the map. 😉

[brucewtb 250]

On 1/26/2023 at 9:47 AM, Rogen said:

Working buttons and knob in the VC

Cheers

Thanks Rogen if that all it is then I am good to go with the RXP GTN it will work for me just as the F1 GTN 750 did.

Bruce