Jahanzeb

Cheers. il look into it. thanks

Hi everyone. first of all, i looked through all the pages and topics, and couldnt find the answer to my problem. i apologize if this topic has been dealt with. so i finally started building my 737 cockpit, starting with the overhead panel. since i cant get my hands on any I/O cards like BU036X, i had to resort of joystick hacking. After taking a cheap joystick apart, i realized how hard it was to solder those minute connections on the board. took me 2 days to get about 10 switches on that thing. after a successful solder, i check the connection with a multimeter before sealing the solder with silicon using a silicon gun. upon connecting the controller to the pc, i had no problem. tested the joystick with connecting toggle switches, and it worked fine. so i pulled out the cable, and started connecting the rest of the switches, with ever-growing excitement. when i was done, i plugged in the joystick, and to my disappointment, it said, USB device unrecognized. no idea what happened. my best guess was that the hear from the iron destroyed the IC or micro controller. or maybe it was the hot silicon. in either case, i looked into online solutions and found USB keyboard hacking. did more research, and it sounded like a good idea. something that might work, I had two options. to go with an old keyboard, which does not have matrix, but individual keys. the other option was, more easily available, modern USB keyboard. so i decided to go with the latter. I quickly opened up the keyboard, to discover two transparent sheets of plastic, with copper wire running through them. as per hacking guide, i took upon the painful and arduous journey to resolve the matrix. A few days later, after i had all the keys, i connected two toggle switches to the PCB with the keys "A" and "B" respectively. opened up FSX, loaded PMDG 737, went to FSUIPC, keys, created a MACRO for the Taxi Lights and Logo Lights. programmed FSUIPC for no repeats and there i had it. both switches turning on and off together and independently as intended. excited, i starting the physical construction for the overhead panel. took me a few weeks to wire everything, finding and putting in switches, even mounting the overhead panel. wiring the darn thing turned out to be pretty complex. thankfully, i kept it organized from the beginning. Next came the programming of every single switch. creating MACROS all the way. upon testing the switches one by one, they all seemed to work as intended. but thats when i hit a rock. when i turn on 3 switches on the same circuit, the switches wont turn out. scratching my head, i opened word, and tried the same combination of switches with a keyboard and realized that the keys "KCD" cannot be pressed together. apparently i need a better keyboard for that. some "N" type keyboard. even that doesnt allow more than 12 keys to be pressed down at once. ive been researching this for a few days now. and have come back with a blank. here are a few solutions i can think of: 1. using relays and capacitors for momentary key presses. (im no engineer. so no idea how to read schematics or go about it) 2. maybe use an older keyboard? the ones that did not have matrix. i dont know how many key presses they allow. 3. go back to using a joystick/controller and be careful with the soldering. 4. maybe FSUIPC has a solution? the advance user guide is french to me. 5. off the shelf I/O cards. something that is not delivered in my country. so kinda pointless. 6 maybe a keyboard emulator software that allows momentary key press Any help would be appreciated. ive spent a zillion hours on this thing. i dont want to give up. Especially when i'm so close. Joystick hack Work in progress

Hi, I've started building the 737-900 NG overhead panel. i printed out the exact overhead panel picture, scaled it to the actual overhead panel size, attached all the switches. stripped a keyboard. found the matrix combination. used FSUIPC to interface with the PMDG 737 OP. its alot of work (and fun) and i should be done with it in a few weeks. so I wanted to ask you how you're building the MCP and EFIS sections. Oh and the FMC. I was thinking of using the keys of the old keyboard for FMC keys. but they are kinda big. It would make a larger than required FMC . How do you use MCP switches? like altitude or speed? im sure you need a pot for that no? if so, how can that be used from a stripped keyboard. P.S i dont know how to use offsets in FSUIPC. i just create macros and assign a single keyboard key

update. its not because of corrupt coding in the downloaded SIDS/STARS. tested at other airports. it always happens when i select a SID or STAR, choose a runway, and then instead of hitting execute, i hit legs, and click on STEP, to see where the route is taking me. when i go back to the DEP/ARR page after pressing erase, i get the program pin error. so logically the next test should be, that i hit execute after selecting a SID or STAR, check the LEGS, if unsatisfied, change the SID/STAR. will update

I've gotten a program pin error several times.so here's what i did to get the problem in the first place. i was at VNKT (Khatmandu, Nepal) planning my flight. Unfortunately I didnt have charts for that airport, so i couldnt decide which SID to select. So i selected a SID on the active runway 20, and set the ND to plan mode. after every SID i presses LEGS on the FMC to see where the SID was taking me. (unprofessional I know, just couldnt find a chart) If the SID wasnt right, without activating it, i went back to DEP/ARR page, and selected another SID. After 5 or 6 times of repeating the process, the FMC said, "program pin error". I pressed CLR to get rid of the error msg, The FMC displayed the SIDS and runways, but when i selected them, nothing happened.When i restarted FSX, everything was fine, and i was able to take off from a selected SID.same thing happened at another airport. so here's something in common between the 2 airports. i downloads SIDS/STARS from simroutes.com for these two. Maybe the sid/star was buggy. just a thought.

hey simmers. ive been flying the MD11 for years, but since recently, i have a strange problem with my taxi lights and landing lights. when i turn them on, they dont fall right ahead of the aircraft, but way further on, on the taxiway/runway. I've started having this problem ever since i installed REX. I know that if i probably reinstall the aircraft, the problem would be fixed. but I just wanted to know if there's another way to deal with this, for example changing some values in the aircraft.cfg file? i have alot of liveries installed, so i dont want to uninstall all of them and then reinstall them. help anyone?

absolutely mind blowing textures and VC. cant wait for the in flight video and start up sounds. which type of engines will the ngx have?

hi everyone. im considering upgrading my desktop pc, since currently im runnnig flight sim on my mac book pro through hdmi to my 24 inch LED at 1920 by 1080.i have a choice between 5770, 550ti and 460 since i want to upgrade the cpu to atleast an i5. furthermore, i'l be running the following addons in fsxtraffic xREXPMDGand i might buy a few airport addons.in my experience, traffic x realllyyyy slows down my laptop. im able to get 20 fps if i turn down eveything except global resolution and aircraft cockpit.so basically i want to know which i5 would be the best for me, since im not going for a very high end machine, and which card would be the best. im thinking gtx 460 gives the most bang for the buck. im really confused abt the cpu, since that really boosts up fps in fsx since its cpu intensive.. but wil a 460 be an overkill? or can i get eveything to high on a 550ti with an i5

hi everyone. I finally decided to take that bold step, and build an overhead panel for my LDS 767-300. first step was to get the switches to work. the best way to do that is by purchasing BU0836X. unfortunately, they wont deliver the product to my country, so im forced to look for alternatives. I stripped down a joystick, and soldered two wired across the board with a toggle switch. tested it, and it seemed to work in windows.next i started FSX and FSUIPC. in the buttons tab, i set the toggle switch to landing lights on, when the switch is pressed, and off, when the switch is released. to my surprise, it was working fine with all FSX default aircrafts. but as soon as i switched to LDS 767, it didnt work.. didnt work with PMDG 747 or MD 11. works with all other planes, including wilco planes. next, i decided to set key assignments, from the level D tab in the alt menu. for some reason, it didnt read my joystick button at all. with FSUIPC, the button is recognized immediately.not trying to give up hope, i googled my problem. i came across a software called FSCONV. I read the entire manual that came with the software, which basically said that, that software creates offsets and connects to FSUIPC once FSX is loaded. i still didnt manage to control the taxi light with the button. i dont really know what offsets are, but i think i need offsets for complex aircrafts like the ones stated.project magenta offers a few offsets, but i dont know if they can be used for general purposes.I need help. ANY advice would do. I dont want to give up.

im still confused.. 747-8 is not a twin engine, so how can it be ETOPS when it doesnt fit the description? and most of all, WHY does it need a RAT anyway.. its got 4 engines.. its got the windmill effect. if all 4 engines fail, the engines can still act as a windmill to generate enough hydraulic power, to power up main flight controls, just like the 747-400. no?

i bought a throttle quadrant and yoke from saitek and want to use it with my 747. i can get everything to work without a problem using fsuipc. however, i cant get the fuel cut valves to correspond with my saitek throttle quadrant buttons. can anyone help? i know its possible through fsuipc, but i couldnt find the solution.. and creating a mouse macro was a failure.

thats what i thought too until i did the research on the new 747-8F.. it seems to have a ram air turbine as stated in the following article. isnt that against the ETOPS rule? article 1http://www.aviationw...light020410.xmlparagraph 8article 2http://www.flightglo...g-Leap-Forward/forum discussionhttp://(www).airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/267619/ (without the brackets in the begining)oh cool.. i do have the LDS 767.. totally forgot abt the ram air turbine. will check it out. thanks for the info. sounds interesting

anyway, i found this article.. really interesting on the main differenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-8

of course i know that.. i was talking abt the pmdg plane. when its raining, i feel like there's no glass in front of it. but im gonna stop complaining abt it, since the aircraft hardly lacks anything.. and the thousands of lines of coding are spectular

i upgraded from a 747-400.. there were suppose to be alot of changes between the 747-400 and 747-400x.. i already said in the previous message that the 747-8i is visually stunning.. maybe im not the only one who needs glasses