tigert

I guess most people using IOCards use SIOC to write the logic..?/Tuomas

>cockpit collections used to make keyboard covers for fs 2000>(7 yrs ago). it would slip over keyboards as a rubber sleeve>and the buttons would be covered by the labeled commands. can>anyone tell me where to get one? or, tell me their new site>cuz old site cockpit collections has gone 404.Get a cheapo usb keyboard, some matt black spray and a dymo writer? :)//t

>Tuomas,>>I'm also considering this nice device in stead of the WideView>setup now (with 3 monitors), but am a little bit concerned>about the relativily *thick* edges (bezels) of my 3 CRT>monitors.>>In WideView I can zoom all the views, which gives the effect>that the "world continuous behind the monitor bezels", but as>far as I kniow this is not possible with the TripleHead2Go.Yeah. The triplehead2go is like the original Parhelia: it has a stretched view. Of course you CAN have 3 outside view windows in FS for this, but it will slow things down just as much as putting them all on one screen would.It's one wide view, and thus the monitor borders will effect the continuity. How much, depends on you. Our brains do compensate a lot, and I think it will work pretty fine if you decide it won't be a matter of life and death whether the taxiway line will be continuous or not. Also, I think you can adjust the CRT's picture to be a bit wider than the screen borders, that should help?//t

>- Is it better to have a high memory graphics card (e.g.>512MB) because of the high resolution (3840 x 1024 (triple>1280))?I would guess yeah. I don't remember how much RAM we have on ours, but yeah, the only difference to a normal setup is the big amount of pixels that also is super-wide.>- Is there any graphics cards that best 'fit' the>triplehead2go?The reviews said NVidia's cards were better. ATI cards had limitations on resolution due to the fact that ATI did not release specs and Matrox couldnt make it work so well in their cards. OR something, I am not sure, could be they managed to resolve the issue? We have a NVidia GeForce.>- Regarding the TFT's, how important is the refresh rate,>should it be < 16ms (BTW is refresh rate important for FS as>it is for other games);I am not sure - also depends on your flying style of course. Unless you do aerobatics, I don't think stuff moves around that fast :)16ms was "fast" a while ago anyway, now all displays seem to be like that..>- what is the view angle (without any special lenses)? does it>cover left forward, forward and right forward? It is a stretched forward view. You can simulate the same by putting the sim to windowed mode and resizing the outside view window to full screen width, but 1/3th of the height. Then zoom all the way out. That's what we do.It does distort a bit on the sides, but in practice it works just great. An awesome way to avoid running 3+ machines, and the sync issues related to WideView.//Tuomas

Uh, hi! :)Nice setup you have btw, it has provided me lots of inspiration.But please see the other threads about this in the forum, one is like five lines down :)//Tuomas

Are you sure the potentiometer is *linear*?//T

>i think its the reality XP set of gaugesRXP does not have a G1000 afaik, but that one looks like the Project Magenta G1000.//T

You can search the forum for another thread about the same subject a few weeks (I think) ago - basically, it works fine, and enables "matrox parhelia" -type 3-screen visual display but using the latest whizbang NVidia card.Our Cessna sim uses the triplehead2go and it was a drop-in replacement to the Parhelia. We had to upgrade our computer setup, and were anxious to do so, because we did not want to go into WideView for the complexity and cost of three computer systems instead of one beefy one. So we got one kick-butt machine with a fast GeForce and the triplehead2go. Like it has been said, the speed is fine as long as your machine can handle the resolution. A decent gaming machine has no problem, your setup looks pretty close to what we have, and fps are nice. OF course if we install a lot of add-on crap with 100% ai traffic, then it can slow down - but that happens with any computer.//Tuomas

I had some very weird issues when I had previously assigned some axis to throttles, and they had some sensitivity settings in FS9 and also in FSUIPC calibrations for the axis - you could check your fs9 cfg whether it has some "phantom" axis calibrations still there even though you removed them from FS joysticks dialog.//T

>Tuomas:> I send two encoders to Manuel Velez (the designer of>IOCards) for test them with the encoder card. They are the CTS>290 series and Bourns PEC11 series. They are small encoders.>Manuel say that he will worked in the microchip program for>adapt this encoders. I am waiting his answer. I post his>answer here as soon as possible.Awesome.I had some very small Panasonic encoders too without detents and I think it somewhat worked. The problem seems to be that the waveform output is a bit different, or that the number of pulses per turn is just too big.But lets hope for the best. The panel-mounted encoder problem is very real for general aviation plane builders. I have the Sandell EHSI from RealityXP for example that will need knobs, (and very small pushbuttons!!) in addition to the "normal" knobs for altimeter QNH setting and VOR /ADF.It's been a bit slow here lately due to very nice summer and a lot of nice flying weather fortunately.. Oh by the way, if you want to look at some GA pics, check this:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1088836/L/That's the newest plane available to our aviation club, and it's pretty slick and cute.. the pic is from a short local flight to a nearby airport, taken from another plane piloted by a friend. I'm at the left seat of the Diamond there.More pics here: http://tigert.1g.fi/kuvat/MIK/FDA-Air-to-Air/ (photos again by my friend, flying and taking pics does not quite work at the same time.. ;-P)Thanks for the efforts folks, I really enjoy the community spirit here :)//Tuomas

Well, get the new PC, the triplehead2go (it rocks!! - highly recommended!) and two PCI videocards and see if it works. IF it does, great, if not, you lose the price of the PCI cards, which is peanuts nowadays.If you can avoid wideview, the better. With all due respect to the great work of the developers, while it is a good setup, the "more variables to the equation" can mean some gray hair too.//Tuomas

>Heureka. Thank you very much.>>I had a very hard time to find suppliers in Switzerland, but>found some and called them up. The drawback is they ship but>only large quantities, like 45 or more is the minimum.>>Your product is very attractive, also in terms of costs. I>drop you an e-mail.>>At least for now the problem is solved. Thanks again,>Raphael.Yeah. Rafael's encoder construction is very reasonably priced and well done. Very clever idea.Now, speaking of encoders, does anyone know of IOCARDS compatible (ie, the same kind of encoders electronically) SMALL encoders that I could use for a GA instrument panel knobs.I have a TFT monitor for gauges, and a plywood panel in front of it, with round holes for all the basic gauges (no g1000 glass cockpit for me at this time).The problem is to find SMALL enough encoders that can be fit in the panel without pushing the TFT too much behind. Suggestions are welcome :) I can of course put a "side panel" below the radio stack with all the important knobs, which will *work* just fine, but it would still be nicer to have the knobs next to the respective gauges instead.//Tuomas

>So widely used (modern car radios, dvds, amplifiers etc) yet>so hard to find as a part...>>Buying from the US would be my last option. Not only the>postage will be at least twice the price of the products but I>would also have to worry about custom clearance and taxes paid>here which in some cases could reach 100% of the value (the>value the customs officer THINKS is right!).>So a purchase of about 20USD could easily end up like 100USD!>>If bought from within Europe, customs are already included in>the price, and the only thing to worry about is the postage.Well, the USD is weak now. Also, with Mouser they put the invoice there which pretty much does it with the "how much is this worth?" -question. The sucky part is you end up paying tax and VAT for the shipping too.Usually the customs is very small percentage, the VAT is the bigger part. For Finland for example, it's 22%. But considering that $100 is 80 euros, it's quite closely just that. So you just pay a bit more for postage.Mouser is quite a bit cheaper than Conrad or ELFA anyway.//Tuomas

>However, the problem then would be where to put the driver>board, which I assume will need to be very close to the>display.The monitor I have even has a metal case under the plastic one, which still encloses everything.Get a monitor that has a very thin frame to begin with, and you don't even need to disassemble it..//T

>So for the mastercard I organized 2-bit gray code encoders,>for the time being CTS-288. They work well. But I'd like to>build again a dual concentric, but without using gears or>other crazy ideas. I like very much the solution from Raphael.>But in the report he is not telling us which type / brand of>encoder he used. Anyway, time will find out. I found some>datasheet and I am pretty much sure that this is a Bourns>ECW1J-B24-BC0006 or similar.>>I almost understood the gray code. But what about the>pulses/rev.? For IOCards, does it need to be 6 pulses/rev?>What if according a datasheet there are 24 pulses/rev.?Yeah, the encoders are bourns.The -006 is the correct one. This means, only one step of the code happens between one "click" of the knob. The -024 (24 pulses) does the whole 00 -> 01 -> 11 -> 10 ... -cycle (4 changes) during the one click. This becomes too fast for iocards.There is this interesting one too: http://tigert.com/aviation/vatsim/cockpit-...low-encoder.jpgIt has a hole in the middle; one just needs to glue a 5mm outer diameter pipe into the hole after "roughening" the inside of the encoder hole to prevent the glue breaking free and slipping later on.//T

>Does Matrox still make the triple head card? You still need>a good video card with this adapter. It seems that iit may be>better to just buy the Matrox video card? No it might not be better.The reason is simple, and Matrox realized it too: NVidia is way way ahead, and catching up is too hard. So they were smart instead of trying to run behind. The Parhelia was nice, but today it is way way outdated in terms of performance.With the triplehead2go you CAN have any latest, blazingly fast and neat whizbang wideocard from NVidia*. So you can upgrade your setup without having to stay married to an obsolete triplehead card. Way good idea from Matrox.(ATI has compatibility issues because they did not share specs with Matrox for video modes, according to reviews)//Tuomas

>I saw this setup (3rd pic down) >>http://forum.ch-hangar.com/index.php?showtopic=3398>>and was wondering if anyone here had this type setup OR has>any reccomendations to achieve this effect? Not the desk>arrangement, the 3 monitors in the flightsim deal.http://www.matrox.com/mga/offhome/th2go/home.cfm//Tuomas

Try google :-)http://www.google.com/search?&q=where%20is%20fs9.cfg//Tuomas

Make sure you have up to date drivers for BOTH your videocard (and remove the old ones completely before installing new ones) AND your *motherboard*.Motherboard chipset drivers are a big thing in this equation.Also you could try disabling / removing the sound card and of course updating its drivers -- buggy or misconfigured sound driver can also cause this kind of stuff.//Tuomas

>Tuomas, are you able to have a FWD LEFT / FWD / FWD RIGHT>setup with one triplehead2go or does it just expand your FWD>view across the 3 monitors?>>GaryIt's like Parhelia - it stretches it. But it's good enough for a 135 degrees approx field of view (we have 3 45 deg collimator units) - one has to zoom out fully, and it's just enough. Sure, it distorts the perspective on the far edges a bit, but in practice it does not hurt that badly. The experience is very good anyway, and the wide view gives a lot of sense for motion, the distortion is a lot smaller problem than what it gains.For our budget and for the mainteinance workload, this was a clear winner, since it can be done using one PC and one FS installation. Perhaps 3 "real" perspective views would be even better, but the extra work, hardware cost and added complexity ruled that approach out of the game for us. I dont even notice the distortion when actually flying in the sim, it's working very nicely.A simulator is always a combination of each part, and this works very nicely. Perfection is extremely hard to achieve, but a balanced setup can work very nicely, even with some issues one chooses to live with. The brain is extremely adaptive when everything is in balance.//Tuomas

Triplehead2go RULES. It's everything Parhelia was, but lets you use a kick a55 Nvidia videocard. Very very wise move from matrox to focus on this kind of stuff.We have it on our Cessna sim that ran parhelia before - we upgraded the machine and installed a Geforce monster + Triplehead2Go and it rocks.There are reports ATI didnt give out enough specs to Matrox, thus on ati cards you will have only 800x600x3, while on NVidias you can run 1024x768 x 3 or 1280x1024 x 3 at 75 Hz if I remember correctly.We are very happy with it.//Tuomas

>Hi all...currently my sim uses 2 graphics cards to drive 2>monitors - 1 for the outside view and one for the instrument>panel. >>When I undock the panel to display on second monitor I get a>frame rate hit.Did you try in "window" mode or full screen? (alt+enter) Sometimes windowed mode is faster - the tradeoff is the window titlebars, but if it is a dedicated sim machine, monitor controls can be easily used to put the window border off screen if needed.What gauges do you have on your undocked panel?//t

>BTW, I've beat the heck out of the panel/mechanism, I've got>about 50 short flights, it hasn't failed in any way... I'm>HAPPY :)We have discovered a cheapo potentiometer on elevator axis does last betwen 300 and 500 flying hours in a sim :) Good reasons to keep a airplane logbook for a sim too.. we can do pre-emptive mainteinance.We'll soon break the first 1000 hours on our C172 sim.. :)//Tuomas

>Gentlemen ,>>How can I move the gauges to multimonitors using Feelthere>panels ?>>I do a click with the right button of the mouse on the gauge ,>I undock it but don't get to move it to the next monitor. How>is possible that ?Windowed mode: Alt+Enter.//Tuomas

Ooh! Moto-Tec is back! Awesome! :-) This stuff dates back to a loooong time ago. He was one of the big inspirations for me, along with Kev's cockpit tutorial, to get me started in this stuff :)Too bad many of the cockpit pics are very low resolution, he had built some amazing ones.//Tuomas