squale

Say you got a Dell Axim x30 624mhz gps with a USB cradle. Is there a way I can use GPS out to feed into my PDA? or do you NEED to have a serial connection for this to work? I want to use something like PocketFMS on my PDA and feed gps data into it from FlightSim but unfortunately my PDA only connects via a USB cradle? Pete, do they make an adapter where I can plug a male USB cable into it and get a female 9-pin serial end out to plug into my computer's serial port? I think this way might work right?

yes it certainly is a GREAT idea, I just wish I could use my Garmin eTrex Legend with it :( Well maybe I will just have to wait until I get my PDA + GPS + AnywhereMap system going..

OKAY, I tested this in DEMO mode, using NMEA In/Out at 4800 speed. I set in the gpsout.ini file the following: [GPSout] Sentences=RMC,RMA,PGRMZ,GLL,VTG,GGA,GSA Interval=1000 Port=COM1 Speed=4800 I know that the gps is talking to the computer because through EasyGPS software I can load waypoints, routes, etc. Well anyhow, I opened up Flight Sim 2004, started flying and it didn't correspond to what I was seeing, my GPS in demo mode just slowly moves along at 20kt/hour and goes straight to the destination you choose. So the answer in short is NO I don't think FlightSimulator is sending the gps any info, and if it is the gps is not doing anything with it. What is the "RTCM In" mode used for on the eTrex Legend GPS by the way, I haven't tried that one.

well I can try it, but have never used this utility before so really don't know what I"m doing, but will give it a shot. I don't know like you said what mode to put it in whether I choose GPS Off, etc.

okay because looking at the Serial Data Format option on the eTrex Legend, you can choose between the following: -Garmin -Garmin DGPS -NMEA In/NMEA Out -Text Out -RTCM In -RTCM In/NMEA Out -RTCM In/Text Out -None I thought by choosing the "NMEA In/NMEA Out" option this meant I can also IMPORT NMEA data, but you are saying no huh?

Just wondering if this will work with my Garmin eTrex legend if I hook it up to FlightSim2004 through the serial cable that came with the eTrex? Thanks

thanks Pete I will have to go grab that. I will probably eventually register FSUIPC anyhow because I want to map a PTT button on my joystick for VATSIM as far as I know your program is the only one that will allow this to happen?

I need to use FSRealTime for MSFS2004 or a program similar to it.. the problem I have is I fly on VATSIM a lot and I have a saved flight I always load up and I always change the airport of this saved flight, but I CAN'T get this saved flight to use the current time, it always uses the time of the last SAVE so this is not acceptable. I need to always be on the REAL current time, so I was wondeirng if there was a program to do this.. I came accross FSRealTime and it's the only one I know of to do this.. unless some other program has a built in feature to set the time to current as well? Anyhow, I tried running FSRealTime and it says it's not accredited with FSUIPC and I can't find an access key.. so what do I do now?

I would like to point you in the direction of just what you are talking about doing, only this is for using the AnywhereMap software with a PDA.. I don't know if you can use a standalone Garmin/Lowrance, etc GPS to do this.. for the reasons already noted because I am not sure if you can provide a NMEA INPUT to the standalone units since they have their own built in GPS antennas... but anyhow, for PDA.. It appears that Flight1 has made this for Control Vision and it's all USB based... check out this thread: http://forum.controlvision.com/viewtopic.php?t=1015 So to answer the previous concern, YES there is obviously a way to output NMEA data from Flight Sim 2004 THROUGH the USB cable, and then into the device. In this case it comes through the usb cable out of the computer and into the PDA cradle. Then the AnywhereMap software running on the PDA gets the NMEA input and THINKS it is hooked up to a REAL GPS just like you would do in the plane. Now the biggest question all of this gives me is, how ACCURATE is the NMEA posistion data outputed from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004? Meaning, if you are actually flying for real say over Lake XYZ and you look at your gps you will see the REAL COORDINATES of this lake. Now you go home and fly over the same lake in Flight Simulator 2004.. will Flight Simulator 2004 output the SAME EXACT gps coordinates as you got in real life? If so, that's great, it just makes me wonder, how the heck did Microsoft get all the EXACT gps coordinates correct throughout the whole country as in their Flight Simulator software? this seems like it would be a HUGE task to do accurately and completely? And the second part of this question is, why did Microsoft include this feature to output NMEA data from Flight Simulator 2004? Was this software designed to serve this purpose and be hooked up to GPS systems for training purposes?