_andreas_

Same issue here using a 3 monitor setup with prepar3d v2. It's an old FSX bug that I hope LM will fix. I haven't yet reported the issue to them though, but we should.

Hello people! As previously discussed in http://forum.avsim.net/topic/403290-reading-door-annunciators-via-sdk/ there are a few things that are missing in the SDK (SP1C). I managed to work around most of them using ugly LUA hacks. Since then I've stumbled across a bunch of new issues in the SDK. Some of them are just related to inconsistencies in how switches and knobs work, for example some momentary-on switches will return automatically while others will not, so you have to do that manually by sending multiple events. Also, FSX will crash because of an error in PMDG_737NGX.DLL when sending events while a flight is loading. This is easily fixed by check the sim status. Although such things does give a bit of impression that the SDK haven't been thorougly tested, it's no big deal once you've located and fixed these issues. A bigger issue is the annunciators. I would have thought that "what you see in the VC is what you get in the SDK data struct", i.e. if the annunciator is lit, the returned value is 1. That does not always seem to be the case. For example when cutting the power completely (no engines, apu, ground power nor battery), the annunciator values in the SDK seem to still be set to what they would display if we have had power. Not impossible to fix but it requires quite a bit of programming logic that I would expect the SDK to take care of for us. One thing I've not managed to work around is the thing that happens when you shutdown the engines. Some annunciators will start to get out of sync in the SDK vs what's displayed in the VC. For example, the f/of pitot, r elev pitot, r alpha vane, aux pitot and equip cooling annunciators will always be set to 1 in the NGX data struct, even though they're really off. Starting up the engines and turning the corresponding switches on/off makes no difference, the reported annunciator values are stuck although the VC shows the correct ones. Only by ending the flight and loading it again will get you back in sync (simply reseting the flight will completely mess upp the SDK but that seems to be an old known bug). Also, the Window overheat test button will activate all four ICE_annunOVERHEAT annunciators in the SDK whereas the VC will only activate number 2 and 4. And so on... basically it makes you not being able trust the annunciators which is not a good thing. Am I the only one with these issues? Andreas

Also the auto fail/off sched descent/altn/manual annunciators. I couldn't find any Lvars for those though, perhaps they aren't implemented at all? What I ended up doing is a small Lua script for FSUIPC that monitors the Lvars for the doors (NGXFwdLeftCabinDoor, NGXAftLeftCabinDoor, NGXOverwingLeftEmerExit and so on...). When a door is opened or closed, I write the annunciator statuses using ipc.writeUD() to a writable offset that originally stores some value that isn't used for the NGX. I can then read and process this value using simconnect from my main program just as I already read other values. Not very pretty but it works.

I've located the LVARs for the annunciators I'm looking for so I can now successfully get the missing data. I guess that's how FS2Crew does it as well. I was kind of expecting to be able to access this data directly via the SDK so it's definitely on my wish list for a future update.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I can probably work around this issue somehow but I thought that the point of having an SDK was to enable easy access to this data rather than having to find various workarounds. So far I've found a total of 16 overhead annunciators that are nowhere to be found as SDK variables (nor as standard SimConnect variables). This seems like too big of a number to be just a small oversight in the SDK so I'm wondering if I'm missing something obvious here. I also wonder if I'm going to get similar surprises when I start to implement all the buttons and switches... /Andreas

Hello! I'm writing software for my simulator using the 737NGX SDK and everything works well so far, but I just got stuck when trying to read the overhead door annunciator statuses. Unlike all other annunciators so far, I simply can not find them in the SDK. The events for the doors are listed under "Custom shortcut special events" (e.g. EVT_DOOR_CARGO_FWD, EVT_DOOR_EQUIPMENT_HATCH, EVT_DOOR_AIRSTAIR and so on), but I'm unable to locate their values anywhere in the PMDG_NGX_Data struct. Any clues? /Andreas

Do you know if it's just the EXEC button that doesn't light up when it should? If it's not just that button, the data broadcasting from the NGX is likely not enabled. In that case, edit the file <FSXROOT>\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\737NGX_Options.ini and add the following two lines at the bottom: [sDK] EnableDataBroadcast=1

You're in luck because PMDG actually do provide exactly that feature :biggrin: The trick is to define a new 2d panel in panel.cfg and specify the gauge CDU_Screen (rather than the default "CDU" , which contains both the display and the buttons). It would be something like this: [Window02] background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=385,600 window_size=0.13,0.535 position=8 visible=1 ident=958 zorder=99 gauge00=PMDG_737NGX!CDU_Screen,0,0,390,625,L #0 You can then use shift+2 to toggle this window. You may need to adjust the size (390,625 in the example) to fit your setup.

Fullscreen or window mode doesn't matter. I use Nvidia surround mode for the main display and the CDU is connected to a cheap video card. It works great, no FPS impact. More about the panel setup here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/380505-hardware-cdu-compatible-with-the-ngx-tips-wanted/page__st__25#entry2441447

For the OpenCockpits FMC and the NGX, there is also my driver that is currently in beta testing, see the last few posts in http://forum.avsim.net/topic/380505-hardware-cdu-compatible-with-the-ngx-tips-wanted/ for more information. It's completely standalone and it does not require any configuration and it does not require SIOC. I'll be happy to provide it to anyone who wants to beta test it.

For what it's worth, when the new version of the NGX SDK is out so that one can read out the CDU text, I will update my driver for the OpenCockpits FMCv3 so that it can be completely networked on another computer (USB and VGA). This may help if you can't connect another display to your main FSX machine for whatever reason.

The nice people at OpenCockpits were positive about the driver. As it has currently only been tested by two people I would like some more beta testers. If you have FSX SP2 or acceleration, the NGX SP1C, and the new FMC, and you want to help out trying the driver, please contact me by sending a PM.

I have a similar setup (Nvidia Surround) and I connect the CDU monitor to a cheap auxiliary graphics card. This works well granted that you have a slot left on your motherboard. I'm still waiting for the NGX SDK to be extended so that the currently displayed CDU data can be read. According to Ryan in http://forum.avsim.n...__hl__engravity this will be in the next release of the SDK, although this was last mentioned several months ago. This would make it possible to write a working dirver for the Engravity CDU and it would also be pretty simple to write a driver for e.g. the OpenCockpits CDU (or iPad/whatever) so that it could be completely networked on any other computer. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'll take the opportunity to also praise the cpflight hardware, I have the USB model of the EFIS and MCP and they are really great. I had a few issues with their driver but since cpflight are kind enough to document the communication protocol I wrote my own driver (for the NGX). I don't know if it has changed lately but their driver had to be started manually by fiddling in the FSX menus every flight, which really annoyed me, and it kept getting out of sync with the NGX from time to time.

I'm happy to say that my driver is now fully working. Basically it's a tiny program that talks to the OpenCockpits FMC v2 via USB directly on one side and the NGX on the other side. It's completely standalone and does not require SIOC or anything like that at all. It has a minimal CPU and memory footprint and does not require any configuration. It requires some more testing and I'll ask the OpenCockpits people if they have any issues with me publishing it.

That's one of the many, many bad things about SIOC in my opinion (i.e. sometimes hogging the CPU even when basically doing nothing). I think it's a shame that so many simulator hardware manufacturers produce such bad software for their otherwise fine products. I've rewritten several of them already and the opencockpits CDU is probably next in line but it's not a high priority right now though. I'll publish it when it's finished if there's any interest.

All I did to get it to work was to... wait for it.... turn the brightness knob! :) I think it simply takes the power from the power cable directly so there's no software magic involved. Of course this is for the backlight only, I don't think there is a way to change the screen brighness if that's what you mean.

I have no experience with the SimQuads throttles but for what it's worth I use the throttletek g-737 throttle (http://www.throttletek.com/) with the NGX with great success. I did some minor physical modifications like adding a parking brake annunciator and stabilizing the levers a little for example. But as stated, it does not have a trim wheel. The device can supposedly be configured entirely by using FSUIPC but the manual doesn't explain how to access the NGX-specific controls and I had limited success using FSUIPC mouse macros for some things. I guess you could do it by playing with the right LVARS but that seemed too complicated so I wrote a small standalone software that used the NGX SDK instead. This way it's also possible read the state of all the levers/switches upon start and sync to the NGX. (I think that FSUIPC can only react to changes rather than the initial position of e.g. a joystick button press?)

Ordered 26/7, shipped 8/8, delivered by UPS 9/8. That's exactly how I tested it (I used a small touchscreen as CDU before). If any monitor works, the FMCv3 will work as well. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to use it very much but I will soon, hopefully. So far I have nothing negative to say about it though.

My opencockpits FMCv3 arrived today and I'm happy to say that it works very nice with the NGX using roarkr's software mentioned above. Thank you Roar! The hardware is very nice and the backlight looks good. Two things were required to make it work - the output (display) and the input (buttons). I use Nvidia surround with a cheap extra graphics card for some auxiliary displays, so I connected the FMC's VGA port to this card (the CDU screen is just a regular monitor). Windows reported it to have 1024x768 as native resolution but opencockpits says 800x600... I picked 800x600 and set the screen as an extended desktop screen in the Nvidia settings. In fsx.cfg I made sure that FSX will use 800x600 for this screen by specifying Mode=800x600x32 in the relevant DISPLAY.XXXXXXX section. Then I modified the NGX's panel.cfg to add a new panel containing just the bare CDU display: [Window02] background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=385,600 window_size=0.13,0.535 position=8 visible=1 ident=958 zorder=99 gauge00=PMDG_737NGX!CDU_Screen,0,0,390,625,L #0 In FSX this window can then be dragged to the CDU screen (I use fullscreen, but you can undock it if you use windowed mode). The sizes should of course be adjusted to match your setup. As for the input/buttons part (and the indicators), the FMC is technically a general USB HID device (although not a keyboard or a joystick device). I installed the latest SIOC from opencockpits which is the interface to the hardware. Then I installed the latest software from roarkr which is the interface to the NGX and SIOC. In SIOC I could see that the FMC showed up as card #0, and according to the documentation this means that sioc.ini should contain: MASTER = 13,13,1,0 I started roarkr's OCP4B7x7 Manager and clicked on the cockpit image, which in turn starts SIOC and OCP4GX. And everything worked! (For some reason it didn't work when starting OCP4NGX and SIOC manually, which I thought would be the same thing?) I've always liked the hardware that opencockpits produce but I really, really, really don't like SIOC in any way so some time in the future I'll likely write a small standalone software that talks directly to the USB device and the NGX SDK.

Nice! I have ordered one as well.

By the way, I remember reading in some other CDU thread here a few months ago that there may be plans to extend the SDK to be able to read out the currently shown CDU text. Or perhaps it was just wishes, but it would probably be useful if you can't add another monitor to your main FSX machine for some reason. You could then create a networked solution by running a tiny software on another computer that polls the output via simconnect and displays the text.

Not sure if this is any help but for my soon-to-be-replaced not-so-good-looking homebuilt CDU I've defined a new window in the NGX panel.cfg that only contains the virtual CDU without the frame and buttons (just the displayed text), like this: gauge00=PMDG_737NGX!CDU_Screen, 0,0,800,600 This panel can then be placed on any screen, e.g. a monitor on a hardware CDU. It works in windowed mode and fullscreen mode, no need to undock into a real Windows-style window. I'm using Nvidia Inspector to limit the FPS and I haven't noticed any bad behavior. You'd still need another graphics card in this case though.

Ah sorry, I see what you mean now. You're right. When flying airliners I only use the NGX anyway and hopefully I won't change my mind about that any time soon.

I'm not sure what you mean that the CDU can't be used with different aircrafts just because the CDU buttons can't be changed? As far as I know both the FDS and OpenCockpits CDU buttons are assignable directly via FSUIPC (where you can assign different actions for different aircrafts), and the FDS CDU appearantly even comes with it's own API to make it fully programmable. I'm not sure about the earlier version of the OpenCockpits CDU but the web page for the new one says "The keyboard is fully configurable", whatever that means (the manual is still spanish only ). I think I'll order one tonight or tomorrow. Nigge, you can make fun of me if I can't get it to work with the NGX....