The Home Cockpit Support Forum

Wanted to share some thoughts on backlit panels that all of us want but cant afford... My best idea so far, will be awesome if it works.... Tell me what you thinkWhen I did my military service, the nametags everyone wore on the uniform was made out of a dual layer plastic plate with different colors in the layers. The tag was put into a 2 axis milling machine that was conntected to a computer. This milling machine could take plates up to 30*40 cm and could write text in different fonts, draw images etc by milling through the first color layer so the underlying layer became visible. Ok, heres the idea: Take a clear, see-through plastic plate (6mm plexi?). Sand the backside…

Hi Gent'sI'm in planning phase of my A321 cockpit, just ordered A320 panels (main + glareshield) from Peter Cos.What should i go for regarding electronic (epic/fsbus.....others), my ambitions is to build a full scale flightdeck with as much as possible, and i don't want to start all over again if i failed on the initial phase.This might be a very open quistion, but lets split solutions into 2 ways, the "easy" one buying hardware as complete as it's possible, the hard way building from scratch.I know to read schematic and soldering, and through my work as aircraft technician i'll be able to obtain real data how things works.Also if you have any usefull link pls help me get…

Here's my idea. I want to build a pseudo-cockpit, I just don't want a dedicated, Airbus-style, permanent cockpit. My idea is to get a three-tiered shelf (built by yours truly) to house, one monitor on top (for overhead panel), one monitor in middle (with fresnal lense to house outside view), and one monitor on bottom (to handle gauges and panel). I've got two good computers, enough monitors, and one other shady computer. My plan was to fill the great computer up with three cards, running the three monitors, use the second computer to run accessories like ActiveSky, RC, acars, and such. I'm worried about the interference of running three monitors in close contact like…

okay, can anyone help me with the gerber format file versions of the fsbus pcbs.One of the manufacturers that I have approached are unable to make any sense of the drill files. I've tried loading the drill files into a gerber viewer, and the drill specifications seem to be waaaay to big, and mirrored compared to the gbr file.Can anyone help? Firstly to decifer what the drill sizes are supposed to be, and secondly, why the drl file appears to be the other way round to the gbr file.The viewer I'm using is GC-Prevue.ThanksChris

I have an extra laptop. I thought it might work ok if I used it in conjunction with my 20" monitor. Has anyone else configured something like this? I was thinking of using the laptop as the Panel and the monitor for the outside view. What application should I use? I am assuming that WideView is the answer but I would like to hear from others.This would just be the begining of the learning process in creating my first home simulator.Thanks,Chris

Hello Fellow Pilots,Does anyone else seem to be having "altitude callouts" problem with FSCARPET??I found this program to be an excellent add-on but i seem to be having a problem with the altitude callouts ending after "2500"Here it is.As i am approaching the captain says"2 min to landing".then the callouts begin at "2500" and then "1000".But my problem stops after it calls "2500" and then calls out "10".skipping everything in between.If your familiar with the program i noticed when i checked what "phase" it was on, the "LANDING" was checked off.It seems to "skip" the entire altitude countdown and then proceeds as normal once i retract my flaps after landing.I have downlo…

Hi!I just wanted to show you a picture of our almost finished Airbus A320 MCDU. This part is totally CNC milled and will be soon available together with buttons and circuit board.For more details check our website: www.a320flightdeck.comregards,steve ---------------------------------------------------------------------Do you know the A320 Flightdeck Project? Visit www.a320flightdeck.com

When I read Kevin Darling's post on using rotary encoders, I was amazed by how simple it was. My next thought was, I wonder if you could use the same approach with a Hagstrom KE72 keyboard encoder. Since I have both the KE72 and some of the cheap Panasonic rotaries, I had to try and IT WORKS!Simply connect the centre pin of the rotary to ground on the KE72 and the other two pins to two inputs, input xx and input yy. Then load the KE72 with a configuration file containing these two lines:(note: I've used curly brackets in this post since the square brackets that the KE72 configuration uses won't work in these forums)INXX:{SHIFT}INYY:{a} where the character assign…

I'm thinking about using Project Magenta, but have some questions. I am thinking about going the 737 NG route:1. How 'true to life' is their software? Is it at the level of 744 PS 1.3 in terms of systems functionality and accuracy? This is a huge issue for me, as I'm looking for more of a procedural home cockpit rather than something that just looks "neat."2. How 'constrained' is PM software by the limitations of MSFS?3. Does anyone offer an "all in one" kit that is relatively simple and painless to put together?

Greetings,Many of us want to have rotary switches for our avionics, but don't want to spend a lot of money on external decoders. Here's the solution I figured out, which my wife calls the "Darling Decoder". Buy a bunch of rotary encoders (e.g. Panasonic @ $1.35 in quantities of 10 at DigiKey... the type with two phases, and are off in the detent position).Take apart a cheap keyboard. Map out the rows/columns, as usual.Now here's the trick: Look for columns which have the SHIFT or CTRL keys... my keyboard had four. Wire the common pin of an encoder to such a column, the phase-B output to the SHIFT or CTRL, and the phase-A output to another character on that column.Ther…

I have been working on yoke link having two steel wire connected together with both yoke, for captain and first officer side. Unfortunately it did not get a pretty good results, I might as well want to try another methods but I couldn't pop up any of idea on yoke links... but if you can share your advices or experience please post your ideas. Thanks and I'd be appreciated.

Hi All,Was planning to get started on converting our 737-200 throttle quadrant for use with FS2002 when I came across this unit from Simware (vdbroeck). Looks like a nice piece of hardware that will be USB compatible soon. Anyone using this who can comment on the quality and functionality? Thanks.Cary Green

http://web.onetelnet.nl/~gsalden

Anyone, I have one gear that is about 7 inches wide in circular diameter, and I wanted to have another one for throttle quaduant. And I went through so many websites, making few phone call to any manufacturers that build different types of gears. Nevertheless, none of them have one that is 7 inch es wide in diameter. So however I decide I could just build one of those myself. I was thinking maybe I could just try to find any type of plastic that is similar or almost similar to the gear I am having and have it cut off in round shape by using circular saw and then, cut in teeth by using jigsaw. But I thought, it would not be possible because that gear would not be able to…

Dear all,I'm planning to make a boeing 737 type throttle quadrant. I will buy winman attack 2 as I need the ready use potentiometer. It's by far, the cheapes joystick I got.From the spec I got, It has 3 axis, without twist rudder. It's a USB joystick.Anybody having experience using this part of this joystick to build throttle??ThanksArif

You can use &l;square brackets&r; in the forum. The codes for them are& l ; (without the spaces) for the left bracket& r ; (without the spaces) for the right bracketThese codes are listed in the . A link to the reference is located to the left of the text box where you type your forum message.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#540000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us![link:ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin…

Before I re-invent the wheel, I thought I'd ask first... Since I am planning to interface my USB modules to FS using FSUIPC and get away from kb emul, I was wondering if there already exists an application where you can assign standard input devices (joystick / buttons) to various FS variables through some type of GUI?I'm about to get started programming my own interface around FSUIPC, but before I start I just want to make sure there isn't something that can do this already out there.FsCommunicator (www.flightsimulator.at) comes close, but it's Epic specific. Is there anything else?How are all you guys interfacing your hardware to FSUIPC? Are you all programming gurus? ;…

Hi allAnyone have any ideas on how to simulate reverse thrust mechanism on a seperate axis , eg 2 main axis for engines 1&2 forward power and 2 seperate axis for engine 1&2 reverse. I dont have EPIC but do have aerosoft MCP which adds 16? extra joystick axis.I was originally thinking of using a couple of microswitches wired to the Kboard card on F1 & F2 but dont want to use this method as it is too crude.Pete dowson said to use 2 wipers per throttle wired in series but i couldnt get this to work as 1 wiper would be down at 0 ohm which would cut the other wiper out totally.I probably did not understand what he was trying to explain to me! Anyone solved this or …

HiBeen hunting high/low on the internet, does anybody know a place where i can buy real size poster of cockpit layout ofAirbus 321 or 330.ThanksFlemming Jansen

I'm a newbie wrt FS2002 and I'm trying to find info on how to interface my software/hardware with it. I would like to read values such as gauges and stuff and send this info to my hardware.I know you can communicate with X-Plane easily through UDP packets, but does FS2002 have something similar where you set it up as a host and connect to it through an IP address and port no. to read various values?Yes, I do know about FSUIPC, but I would like to do something specific for my hardware.-Leo

Hi guys well a bit of a side topic here... Good Robert Prather apart from innovatin on the sim communitty and having that amazing sim has made a small forum on Simulator history and a page on it you can check that on http://www.777Project.cjb.net, but most importantly if you have your story on how yo started simming it will be nice if you could share it with us in this forum:http://pub37.ezboard.com/bthe777projectTake care.Roberto Soriano

My PFC rudder pedals.Any one interested please look at:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2405820740for any questions don't hesitate to contact me.Thank you!

I'd like to read USB mouse data (a cheap optical) on a second machine and pass that to FS machine for use as any old rotary type controller in FS.Could make home built rudder pedals a lot easier to make if it can be used that way!

Hi,I bought a new computer yesterday. Problem:My old AETI Yoke is gameport but the new computer will not support gameport at all!! Not even if I install a soundcard with a gameport. How are the options to convert the gameport to USB? How good is the suff u cna buy.? Is there any chance I can use all buttons of my yoke?Or should I get rid of the mobo?Any reports are appreciated.Alex

hello guys if any 1 knows how can this thing be use i mean the wiring of it in any way posible please letme know i see that has a few swiches and must have pots in it so if u have any idea on what to do with it let me know thanks in advancetony AH006_TWR AH006 i cant see the taxi way TWR_AH006 yup that must be the rag u left on ur windshield AH006_TWR oops