tigert

>Thank's for your help>>I still use FS9 in my cockpit.>>How do you remove the bezel ?>You just delete the bitmap in the archive or modify it ?>What soft do you use to decapsulate and recapsulate the .cabYou don't really need to "remove" it. If the GPS is in a separate window, as the case often is with a small add-on LCD screen, you just place the bezel "outside" the window by putting top left coordinates as negative, and bottom right so that they also go past the window edge.This way the only thing that shows in the screen is the LCD part.This is easy to do with FS Panel Studio, for example, or doable also with Notepad with some trial and error.See the simforums post for how I did it (gah, it's almost 3 years since..)- T

>I want to use real switches for the fuel pumps, but all i>find is a toggle fuel pump. I want more than a toggle, i want>a definite on and off. Thanks in advanceUh, what? How?It's impossible to give any answer when you don't explain any background of your setup - what hardware etc..?//T

Also on the gauge computer pull all scenery quality sliders to minimum of course.. :) I guess you did this already though..//T

Please link to the page, not the picture, as it is not working like this.//T

Sweet :)I bet you run out of zoom range to get a sensible field of view though :)//Tuomas

>I would like to view the instrument panel on one screen and>the flight scenery in a separate monitor/screen. I have both>a laptop and a desktop. How would I go about doing this?>Any help would be appreciated,> Jeff Your videocard very likely has two outputs. Put two monitors there, enable them in windows ("(x) Extend my desktop to this monitor") and undock your panel to the other screen.//T

Laminating the paper makes it appear a bit darker too, as the surface becomes glossy. Glossiness might be a problem for you depending on your case of course, but it has worked nicely on our Cessna sim's switch panel. Plus it's very easy to prototype stuff like this. Another idea is to use FrontDesign (schaeffer-ag.de / frontpanelexpress.com) software as your panel drawing tool, because it can print the designs in correct size. Do a paper proto with lamination first, then once you get it right (and if you feel like it..) order it in engraved aluminum :)//Tuomas

>I have a question for those of you who have made plastic>panels using paper sandwiched between two sheets of plastic. >How do you glue the sheets of plastic together with out>ruining the paper?>>I printed out a gear panel on paper, using my laser printer. >I sandwiched it between two sheets of plastic and used super>glue. Where ever the glue touched the paper the ink ran. It>looks horrible. Is there a secret?>>JohnDon't glue - just drill holes through the panel and screw it in place. The screws keep it aligned then.//Tuomas

A wise man once said: First choose your software you need to run. Then choose your operating system based on that.I am very much a linux advocate myself, working on the platform for living, and doing most of my freetime computing on it also (SIOC compiler runs fine on WINE! :))But I think it's just less trouble using WinXP for FS2004 and the associated software for simulator things, as that is the platform stuff is designed for, and tested on. Of course, if you enjoy debugging and want to work on improving WINE project, that's another thing then. :) It's important and great work too and with a good purpose. But for just building a simulator based on FS2004, I would use WinXP to avoid extra hassle.//Tuomas

>Me again>>Again from experience: The performance drop of your (or my)>computer is more significant if your graphic card has to>handle 2 outputs. Running my TH2GO on one output alone, even>then, the frame rate in FS2004 drops significantly. In my case>from 35 to 25 which is "just" acceptable. That's why I did not>even think of attaching another screen the 2nd>graphic-card-output.You need to set the video mode to "stretched" dualhead, so that it looks as one wide monitor to Windows. Then the frames shouldnt drop - apart from the fact that a twice as wide visual also shows twice as much stuff in there, which of course will affect performance.>If you consider a 3-Monitor setup, then you should go with>TH2GO. I doubt you get a good performance with a DH2GO + the>2nd graphic-card output. But finally it's your decision or it>has to be tested.I agree. If you want 3 outputs, use triplehead2go as you can then use the other output for a panel for example.The thing with wide display is that with 3 you can "wrap them around" yourself. One wide screen:---------------- (") < youwhereas with three screens you can do this: _________ / / / (") Which, when you look at the field-of-view, shows quite a bit of a difference in that. Of course the lower picture is a bit exxagerated too, but you get the idea. But the peripheral vision likes the three screen "half hexagon" a lot better. The triplehead2go visual just about stretches with full zoom out to ~130 degrees of field of view - try it with FS by placing your plane on some corner of an apron, nose facing in and check with top-down view the viewing angle on both sides, then see if you can zoom out enough to see items that far to the side. IF it is not enough, then you need wideview and true multi-screen view.//Tuomas

>I think anything lower than 6ms would be great nowaday. I see>some monitor even mention 2ms. I wonder if someday the LCD can>run as CRT speed.A 100Hz screen refresh rate means a frame every 10ms, right? Most lcd's have the display refresh rate at around 60Hz, which gives you a new frame every 16ms, and even then your FS computer needs to be very fast to get that nice framerates. I think any modern TFT is fine.>Your 940 should have very good contrast. The bright brightness>is very suitable to external view.Brightness is good, but what I have noticed is that contrast ratio is important too - if you have a pitch black night scenery, how dark is it? Most monitors have some ambient light so your night looks kinda hazy gray. Part of this might be FS's fault too of course. Could be adjusted with gamma control in the display driver somewhat for the display signal's benefit, but if the monitor can not display true black, it is hard to correct. Then again, how much is much, and what is enough, is another question. But a thing to consider. Make your room totally dark and set the screens to display a solid black image full screen - can you see the monitor screens easily? Does it make a big difference if you change the black image to Flight Simulator in some remote Alaskan airport (PAWR or something) at night, on winter?(just thinking aloud here :))//Tuomas

>I took a P-51 Mustang on a low level in mountainous terrain. >I was almost like my days in the RF-4. I could see around me>and more important, see where I was going when I made a 90>through a pass or valley. When I team this up with the T-38>cockpit...Lookout!Aahhh.. the RF-4. Havent flown it myself, but it's such a graceful looking beauty.http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0811148/L/ (yeah, borrow your camera to a friend while you fly, and he takes this kind of dream shots just casually... gah :-)) //Tuomas

I think it's quite hard to explain these like this - perhaps you could find someone at the local airport to take you for a small test flight? Preferably an instructor, so you could fly yourself?//T

>Tuomas>>I also have a PSOne screen running from my video card. How>did you isolate the screen in GNS to fit the PSOne?>I made a custom panel.cfg:--------------[ Window02 ]Background_color=2,2,2 size_mm=320,240window_size_ratio=1.000 position=1visible=1ident=GNS530gauge00=RealityXP_FL530XP!GNS530, -93,-32,499,367--------------(It's mandatory that your WindowNN -sections are in a complete sequence, so 02 needs to be your-last-existing-number-plus-one.The trick is the negative coordinates for the gauge - it puts just the screen visible on the window, as topleft is top-left off screen and bottomright is off screen past the bottom right edge.And Window02 needs to be in square brackets, the forum code messes it up.Sim in windowed mode, right click GPS window -> Undock -> Move to PSOne screen. Save flight and it remembers the position.//Tuomas

The IOCards guys have their On737 software on www.opencockpits.com - I don't know how far it is, but perhaps someone has more experience with it and can comment?Also reality-xp.com has their pretty nice Jetline4 and -2 glass cockpit software for FS2004 that might be an option. I would guess that using their GNS530 as a "FMC" would work pretty nicely.//T

Okay, I didnt find my thread about the GPS anymore, in any case - here's a completed panel for our C172 sim at the aviation club. Next job is to mount it in the radio stack.http://tigert.1g.fi/mik/vatsim/gps-audiopanel-works.jpgAnyway, The audiopanel is the same as you see in this older post. The GNS is new.* PSOne LCD for the display, wired via tv-out from the videocard.* Panels by www.frontpanelexpress.com / www.schaeffer-ag.de (they rule!)* PCBoards by myself, with the "gooteepc method" :)* Everything is wired to IOCards mastercard using 40-pin flatcables as "bus" and wires are taken from the flatcable connectors where needed.* GNS software is Reality-XP.com GNS530.* Code is simple key emulation mapping for the GNS and fsuipc stuff for the rest, using SIOC by opencockpits.* The rotaries are from Rafael, as many of us remember his excellent dual concentric stuff.Schweeet, I could say :) It's funny, if someone would have told me 4 years ago we'd do this kind of stuff, I would have laughed :) But one learns step by step it seems. Happy new year, everyone!I'll post some drool shots once the panel is installed on the sim.. One of our younger members of the club flew the sim to Odense, Denmark into Air Alpha, Inc for the avionics installation work, he'll fly it back again once we have it done.. EKOD - ESSB is ~4.5 hours leg, ESSB - EFHF is about 2. I love the dedication :) All this in VATSIM of course.By the way, how many else of you a re flying VATSIM with your home cockpits? I know Nico is, and "the baron58 guy" whose name I now forget :) Also I know the worldflight australia people are doing this. It would be nice to have a vatsim event for home cockpit hobbyists?//Tuomas

>My goodness! The great mike Powell..........you are one of>the Gods of flightsim ;)Hey, we are all here, the thing that separates men from the boys in this hobby is the number of times we have hit our head in the wall, in order to try out different things ;) That's called experience ;)Welcome to the club!//Tuomas

One thing that might happen is that you accidentally create an event loop - this could affect performance a lot. I mean, when A changes, change B. When B changes, change A..//T

>If you want to use a standard keyboard and connect toggle>(on/off) switches to it, you need a toggle to momentory>circuit inbetween. A simple solution can be found at>http://www.simprojects.nl/toggle_to_momentary.htm >>Rgds RolandBut if you intend to do that, it might be just easier to get one of the different interface boards instead. IOCards (www.opencockpits.com) or SimBoards (http://www.flightdecktechnology.com/products/SIM-boards) or Simkits (www.Simkits.com) IO board etc..//Tuomas

Does this work with windowed mode and undocked panels?//T

>That would be great indeed. But e.g. in the lcd software now>I just give a var as a number. Else they would have to make>it a text box. It's doable but they'd have to do changes to>everything .. not just sioc.Not really. What I do with my piece of perl script, I keep the key-emulator etc variables defined first, so I know which numbers they get.//T

>Well,>>I tried to simply cut and past the two codes together. Then>going through and remove any redudant Variables listed ( which>I thought I did correctly), but still getting comiling errors>for some reason.>Time for me to re-read the SIOC manual once more.>>PolmerThe problem is the *numbers* - if you have "var 001" twice, even though they are used for different things, they conflict, since the compiler is going to complain if you try to define two things as var 001.Ferdie, or other IOCards people, wouldn't it make a lot more sense that you could use the named variables *only* in this, and then just at compile-time assign the variables as numbers? So that the code could use:Var $LandingLightSwitch link iocard blah blah...and when you compile it, it would become 001. I don't think it would hurt anything (since the variable numbers are not needed for "normal" use - and if you need them, those are still available in the protocol level anyway. The compiler could produce the numbers for iocpconsole anyway.What do you think?//Tuomas

Guys, can you imagine how much work and energy goes into this one holy grail of simbuilding: backlighting, and how little it actually matters in practice. A simple floodlight setup will make it perfectly possible to see the lettering. Of course it's important for the "mood" but if one is interested in more realistic *flying* functionality, backlighting is not on the top of my list at least :)//T

I would think the people who made the board would be the best ones to answer - like Mike said, it's pretty impossible to say anything without understanding how the board works.Beginners have enough trouble with this "yea, for joystick its 100kOhm" -knowledge that is very specific to certain interface hardware (gameport in this case) that tends to form this kind of folklore without any connection to anything. :)//T

>Although it