tigert

>Hi everyone, I know this has been asked before, but I thought>I'd throw it out in case anyone's come across an answer...>>Has anyone ever found a wa to connect a regular VGA card's>output to a stand-alone LCD scren, such as a pulled one from a>laptop? Dead laptops, or just the screens for them, are dirt>cheap, and would be perfect for built-in screens if someone>could just figure out a way to drive them.>>RichardLaptops have the screen interface circuit on the motherboard usually, which means you need a display control module from somewhere to make it do anything. Those cost lots though which makes the whole idea a no-go usually.Tuomas

If all 737 builders from here flock to another site it doesnt make anything better imho, you just disappear and so we would lose all the 737 folks telling what they are doing, and you still would come back to check whats going on here. Doesnt sound like an improvement to me.Would it gain anything at all? This forum is not that busy, and most of the issues and ideas are not type specific anyway. I'd hate to see all the different jetliner folks disappear to their own forums even though I am not building an airliner cockpit myself. The synergy here is what sets the avsim forum apart from the others. I'd say 95% of the stuff is applicaple to all kinds of cockpits and sim hardware, it'd suck if some of that would move to yet another forum nobody knows about.Having a 737 specific resource page sounds more like a good idea. Someone can maintain it and all you 737 dudes can put a link on your signature text. That would point all new 737-interested folks to the resources and would be a good thing. But the discussion benefits most if everyone stays on the same place.Tuomas

>indeed it happens all the time>>however, changing something in FS9 wouldn't do much since the>problem is in FS8 ;)>>but what I thought is that maybe this has something to do with>having both fs9 and fs8 on 1 pc .. ? allthough then more>people should have had this problem ..>>when I'm back home i'll try and take a screenshot of this ..>dunno what it 'll look like cuz you know ... what you get on a>screenshot is not always what you see on your screen (e.g. try>taking a screenshot of an avi movie playing in WMP ... )I have both installed too, works OK. Do you run it at 16 bit? Has it never worked? Since when did it break? Sounds much like a driver problem. The newest drivers rarely mean the best, I still think the NVidia Detonator 29.4something works better than the latest for my GeForce 3..And I think FS2002.cfg also has the panel as texture option, check it out.Tuomas

>I'm running Windows XP Pro myself and I'm pretty sure most>people are too?>>Regards,>BRAD HELLER.XP or Win2000 are more stable than the win9x variants.The only windows computer here runs Windows2000. It's pretty good so far, but I guess XP might be the way to go these days, and it is likely you get it with the PC. I'd go with XP Pro I guess, if I was to choose a windows to install today. It's less braindead in the "woo, my usb device just works without drivers and rebooting" -sense as well, so it might cause you a bit less gray hair after your OSX Panther enjoyment ;-)I was sorta thinking about X-Plane and USB once, one could do a mac-based cockpit as well, but the sorry fact is that FS200X has just much more of all that "community" stuff going on. Not that X-plane doesnt, but for example most airports in Finland can be found as freeware add-on scenery already, we are doing a whole-country wide replacement coastline/lake/road/railroad/powerline/landclass scenery.. it rules for VFR flying really. And there's stuff like Vatsim and such. Sadly stuff just happens first (or solely) on x86/Windows platform.Welcome to the bunch. Search the archives and ask the questions - and plan well. Good luck! :)Oh, and get your machine firewalled well, and get virus protection. And dont surf the web with IE at all. My windows machine is just for flight simming and it has been safe from all that crap because I do email and surfing on the linux box. IE is just like a piece of cheese, full of holes. IF I have to browse the web with the windows machine, I use Mozilla Firebird rather than IE whenever I can.Tuomas

On FS9.cfg there is a setting in the graphics section that is something like "PANEL_AS_TEXTURE=1", try changin that to 0, it has solved speed issues wiht some video cards. Maybe it could help with this too.No other ideas. Maybe try different drivers etc? Has this happened all the time? Since you installed/changed something?Tuomas

>I just posted a message regarding the "Boeing Analog Cockpit>Group", and would like to send the same message here.I have to agree on this thread too :)>What we ARE missing, though...is a good directory of projects.>I know that the 'webring' is out there...but it only has 30>projects...and we all KNOW there are more out there. Of>course, not all of those are even 'alive' (ahem, ahem...).>Maybe a directory that breaks down into 'Boeings' -> '707',>'777' etc... would be a good way to keep track. If anyone has>any ideas...let's get that running.I think Mike is keeping a pretty good one at www.mikesflightdeck.com -> Links. He has a huge amount of stuff on his site as well, so it serves well as a all-round index of everything under the homecockpit sun.The most important value in this forum is the photos and ideas everyone is posting - many times you get good inspiration from others work, rarely that is exactly the same aircraft type.Tuomas

Uh, I rather would want to see your 707-related photos and thoughts here. We have enough quiet home cockpit forums and sites scattered around the net already. For example, I am not building a Boeing cockpit, but for my GA cockpit project your analog gauge stuff is going to be very interesting nevertheless. Same with airbuses, 777's and such - there are more common things and questions between all those projects than differences - so why not just stay here with everyone else?Just making your own forum "because you can" is not a good reason.Of course you are free to do what you want, but I rather read one forum with lots of good information than 10 forums where there is someone asking a FAQ question every 2 weeks. Exaggerated, I know, but you get the idea :)Tuomas

Heh, I thought of the same idea once. Another thing is the springs they use on those "wind proof" outdoor signs that swing back up when you poke them. Might be even stronger.Tuomas

By the way, on www.raytheonaircraft.com there's the "fire and rescue card" you can download - while it is a nice thing to print and laminate for your cockpit, it also contains a vector graphics drawing of the panel. It is pretty crude, but detailed enough to be useful. It is not in scale, but if you figure out some dimension (gauge hole or such) and scale up accordingly, you get a pretty good head-on picture of the panel. So here: http://www.raytheonaircraft.com/service_su...tions_crash.htmChecke these non-finished sketches below (all beech cockpits for the props seem to be the same layout btw):http://tigert.gimp.org/vatsim/cockpit-stuf...ayout-small.jpghttp://tigert.gimp.org/vatsim/cockpit-stuf...half-layout.pdfI dont remember if that is in scale or adapted to 17 inch monitor. I think it was in scale. The stuff is far from finished, but you get the idea how useful the rescue card can be :)http://tigert.gimp.org/vatsim/cockpit-stuff/kingair/ contains some other useful stuffHere's the throttle part of the thing, possibly in scale (close enough for a home cockpit anyway:http://tigert.gimp.org/vatsim/cockpit-stuf...ir-throttle.pdfAnd this could be useful too, although I dont know if it is completely accurate. Should be fun anyway:http://tigert.gimp.org/vatsim/cockpit-stuf...Air350Check.pdfThose things are basically my "oh, need to save this for later" -dump drawer of the desk, so bear with the garbage there :)Tuomas

>Hello>>I'm planning to build a simulator with multimonitor system.>Possibly use one or two comps together, but I need more than>two monitors.>My Question would be what kind of pci graphic card can I use>together>with agp card /at the moment I have ati rage fury maxx 64mb/>and I'm planning to buy a newer one.>If somebody have this kind of setup, please share it with us>/me/ here, and a method how to install them under Windows>me/xp/2000.Search the forum for "PCI" and you should find plenty of discussion on the topic.My setup is: * AGP: Geforce3 * PCI: Matrox Mystique * (PCI: Matrox Millenium)The Millenium was tested and also worked, but I dont currently need more than two screens, one for outside view and another for instruments. But two pci cards worked OK as well. Note that you will likely need to run FS2004 in windowed mode to make it possible to move panels to the other display. Some people got it working in fullscreen mode when they had a dualhead AGP card that was directx 9 compatible. I am not 100% sure how this stuff currently is, but I know for sure my setup is in windowed mode. Sucks, but I get more FPS that way too. So go figure.Matrox'es tend to work well, a friend had some old Ati's and I think he got one to work, but more than one was a bit tricky to get to boot. My matroxes worked ok though. See and experiment what works, if possible test the setup before buying.If you need several outside views, with one computer the only way to do this is with the Matrox Parhelia as far as I know, or some dualhead AGP monster cards. Otherwise it is a framerate killer, and for real "surround" view you need a network of computers + WideView (google).But search the old messages, I am merely repeating myself here ;-)Cheers,Tuomas

>1)How do I get the radio stack to display all numbers on first>start up ? Do I have to have the Router running in background?Yes, the FSBUS router needs to run in the background while you fly in FS.>2) ALso to get the numbers to display on each start, I keep>having to click on one of the radios CID's to get #'s showing.>Is there a way of setting it up so I can just start FS tuen>each radio on and the frequency be displayedIt should work that way once you have started the router, stuff should work. There's some stuff that might need "toggling" initially, try pressing the active/standby swap buttons if you have those in your radios and see if that helps.>3) My first digit on NAV1 is not ligting up...get 10.30>instead of 110.30 ?You got a short circuit or a bad solder connection somewhere, check the connections and PCB throughly..Tuomas

>Mike thanks for the push. Opening was not that bad and after>chasing the BB's a few times I was able to perform the>operation nicely. I now have a working ND range selector>(give or take a little EPIC programming..:)>And as a side note, if you shorten the spring just a little bit, you can make the switch less "hard" to turn, although it takes a bit of trial and error to get it right - shorten too much and it becomes sloppy. But handy if you wire those as rotary encoders with FSBUS for example, since the 12-position switches tend to have rather heavy duty notches.Tuomas

>Hi Guys,>Need some more help.Trying to get the Cowl flaps on the>Dreamfleet c177 to operate the steps between Open and>closed.Fsuipc states>1.0 open to 0.0 closed.How does one get the steps between>programmed.>Fsbus seems only to handle steps in whole numbers,ie like>0,1,2,3 and 4 like in magnetos and starter.Any help>appreciated.>Thanks>Les You should be able to define a value for a switch when it is "on" and "off". So if you have a rotary for example mounted sideways and locked to 5 steps or so, then dont wire it as a rotary, but rather 5 separate switches (wire just one ground for all of those, the ground can be shared within one row (RID))so:G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o <- fsbus key-card pins, "back" row away from the diodes1-2-3-4-5-o-o-o <- fsbus front row, closer to the diodesThis way you get essentially 5 *separate* switches, make them all "up event" only and set each a value, the 1 = 0 and the 5 = 1 and see if you can define the in-betweeners have values of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 etc..I dont remember offhand if FSBUS2 still has the "multiply" and "divide" things, but the idea is to have separate switches, only one of them is "on" at once, so you just define each switch be "cowl flaps NN degrees" and one of them is active at once.This same works for flaps too, so you can define the steps exactly.Tuomas

Just a note that if you can find some PCI Matrox videocards (I use a Millenium and a Mystique myself, stuff from 1996 etc) - they work great as "gauge holders" when hooked to the main FS machine. There is virtually no framerate hit since those are just 2D panels, so then you can use your favorite panel editor, whether it is Notepad or CfgEdit or FS Panel Studio :).. Create a full screen 1024x768 or 1280x1024 black background panel that you move to the Matrox monitor. JetLines work great there and you can combine your favorite "steam" gauges next to them. One can even replace the (usually) low resolution bitmaps with better ones and if one has some XML skills, making your own gauges is possible too.So this way you only need one computer if you dont need several outside views. Or even, put an AGP Parhelia + 2-3 PCI Milleniums or such and you have quite nice setup without the networked-pc-farm hell.As long as it's just one 3D view (or parhelia with 3) it'll work fine from my experience. Some folks had more than two PCI cards added and they claimed it worked fine.Tuomas

>thanks for all the info. I signed on to their site and the>pics look like what you all are describing. suppose i could>spend the same amount of money buying 3 monitors and a matrox.>they want almost $1800 I only wish I could find someone that>has one. by the way BUGEYE TECH is a sub of BOEING AIRCRAFT>and they use a similiar system for jet training and I am sure >BIG BIG bucks>ThanksYea, nothing wrong with the system itself. It's just nothing "magic" but very simple construction and idea that works. As long as you keep your head in one place. For a two-person cockpit I would guess each pilot would needs his/her own or something, those dont work at all if a friend wants to see the scenery too.Eek! Who the heck added all those insane smileys to the message compose page? :-PTuomas

>Yeah... well... Get FSBUS...It

By the way, "WhatTheFont" is a very useful site for stuff like this:http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/Basically, find an image with big enough characters of the font you are looking for, crop it so it just shows the letters and make the tool find the font for you. Finds also similar ones. Though it recommends commercial ones, and as we noticed, good fonts are not cheap :-/Also many applications ship "cloned" fonts that have similar names and look roughly the same to avoid royalty payments. So if you need to find "Gill Sans" I remember seeing "Gilligans" or such in Corel Draw years ago etc.. :-)Tuomas

Well it pretty much looks like 3 monitors behind fresnels. Not that it is a bad idea, such a setup probably works well. If it is reasonably priced it might be a good idea, but it doesnt look like rocket science, its pretty simple. They use such fresnel "racks" in the military simulators, so the technology itself is not too bad. Just needs your head to be at the same spot.Tuomas

>Anybody using this BUGEYE unit yet and would like some>comments before I buy>ThanksLooks like it is basically 3 fresnel lenses in an angle and monitors behind. Doesnt look too hard to do, how much does it cost?I dont know this thing personally, but one thing is certain - you need to keep your head at a certain location to see it all, and it only works for one person - for dual cockpit you need one for each person because it is critical for the viewing angle.Tuomas

>Hi Brad,>Not a problem,yes they are a bit pricey but have you tried the>Alps equiv to the Knitter.They could be bought from a place in>Finland and i think they were only $7-8 NZ.Dont forget there>maybe other places that stock the Bournes.www.elfa.se -> part ALPS: SRBM1L ELFA: 35-884-64 This does the "redec" thing internally so you get separated output from the thing.Tuomas

>As I turn the rotary (in any direction) I get a output>flicking between each key it occupies (2 of them). I'm>supposed to get a '1' in one direction and a "-1" in the>oposite. At the moment I'm getting both in the same direction>and at a erratic rate.What I looked into REDEC once when it was announced, it is supposed to separate those, so I'd think the problem currently must be in your REDEC circuit. The pulses from redec should AFAIK be already separated by direction.Tuomas

>I've done quite a bit of homework on this subject, but I cant>quite get a conclusive idea of what I should pursue.>>I have a XP2800 processor, and 512MB DDR RAM. What I ideally>want is 3 monitors -- one center, one center-left and one>center-right. I'd also like to run a smaller monitor for main>instruments. >>Isn't this possible with FS9's ability to simply undock a>window and drag it to the appropriate monitor? I hear from>some that usually this hits framerate too much.>>I also hear from some that have a Matrox Parhelia that this is>quite possible. But I don't hear much from those who have>tried it with non-Parhelia cards.>Generally with several "views" it is too much for any processor. People usually run WideView and use several networked PC's, one for each screen.As far as I understand Parhelia does it by stretching *one view* accross the monitors, so it is basically "one window". So there's just one geometry and scene to render, whereas with the different "views", FS needs to recreate the whole scene N times because you can zoom/pan/whatever each view independently.Someone might know better though, but this is my understanding of the matter.Tuomas

>Hi guys,>>Thanks again for your very much appreciated information but>I've gone over my REDec circuit once more and still I can't>find any wiring problems.>>I'm getting it to respond within FSBUS but everytime I turn>the rotary it gives me positive and negative responses in the>same direction. I hope you can understand what I'm saying.>>I'm connecting it to pins next to each other like you>suggested George and follwed your advice to the letter but>can't get it to work. I'm pulling my hair out!!!!!!!!! :(What does the "key test" show? I havent used the redec stuff myself, so I dont know :(Tuomas

>1. The normal, big, crude 12 position rotary SWITCH.>This one requires additional wiring and I say it's crude>because the feeling is totaly unrealistic. Occupies 4Bits in>FSBUS key card. Cost about 2Euro each.This is not necessarily unrealistic. Depends on what you use it for. For radios, it is not too bad at all. One can make it lighter to turn by shortening the spring inside, but reassembling it again after finding the two ball bearings and the spring from your carpet takes a while to get used to :)But the thing is, anything that outputs 123412341234 when turned "up" and 432143214321 when turned down can be used. Needs to be a multiple of 4 (12 = 4x3) It does not need to be a 12-position rotary. If you can find, lets say, a 24-position high quality switch with a nice feeling, it can be used as well. I agree the downside with this is that you need LOTS of soldering, but it is very reliable, works fine and does the job.>2. The BCD rotary encoder. Much like the 1 above but working>with a different mechanism giving a unique decimal value to 4>(or more) pins according to the position selected. Also>called as Absolute rotary encoder. Occupies 4 Bits in FSBUS>key card. Cost about 10Euro+ each.These usually have nice "analog" numbers too, so making a vintage-looking radio, ADF or transponder with these is an interesting possibility.>3. The Knitter like Switches. Those are mechanical rotaries>that close two a contact between two (2) pins when turned on>one direction and another contact between two (2) different>pins when turned the other way. Some have reported that it>works well, others that are loosing 'pulses' when turned a bit>faster than normal.>Occupies 4Bits in FSBUS. Should occupy only 2Bits (see>below). Cost about 5Euro+ each.And seemingly impossible to find in small quantities!Tuomas

>I've changed my thinking a bit on my 737NG sim. I've decided>to build the co-pilots side as a -300-400 series. This way I>can fly both types, glass cockpit and or gauge cockpit. I got>a set of -400 panels installed. Check it out my site,>http://www.geocities.com/raflyer/currentse...l?1070601729543>>Am I crazy or is this a cool idea?I think it is pretty good idea indeed. Makes it possible to fly quite a lot of GA types with the "steam" gauges as well.Tuomas