TRYING TO USE GARMIN 196 WITH FSX WITH GPSOUT

[mark brown]

CAN ANYONE HELP? I HAVE DOWNLOADED GPSOUT AND WHEN I BRING FSX UP IT SHOWS THAT FSUIPC IS THERE AS AN ADD-ON. I HAVE GONE TO MY GARMIN AND PUT IT IN SIMULATOR MODE, AND CHANGED THE INPUT TO AVIATION IN. I AM USING A LAPTOP THAT DOES NOT HAVE A SERIAL PORT SO I BOUGHT THE RADIOSHACK (SERIAL TO USB PORT)COVERSION CABLE. ATTACHED IS THE FSUIPC.INI FILE

[General]

History=IBP17OUMO20XMKSIDF9U4

TCASid=Flight

TCASrange=40

AxisCalibration=No

DirectAxesToCalibs=No

ShowMultilineWindow=Yes

SuppressSingleline=No

SuppressMultilineFS=No

AxisIntercepts=No

WeatherReadFactor=2

WeatherRewriteDelay=10

ProcessGlobalWeather=No

SimConnectStallTime=1

[WideServer]

WideFSenabled=Yes

[GPSout]

Port=COM1

Speed=9600

Interval=1500

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

Sentences=AV400

[Monitor]

Display=6

Ive done everything i can think of but cant seem to get it to work.

Anyone got any suggestions. Thanks

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

CAN ANYONE HELP? I HAVE DOWNLOADED GPSOUT AND WHEN I BRING FSX UP IT SHOWS THAT FSUIPC IS THERE AS AN ADD-ON.

Please turn off your keyboard's "Caps Lock".

Don't use my GPSout module with FSX. Delete that DLL from the FSX Modules folder. For FSX the GPSout functions are included in FSUIPC4.

ATTACHED IS THE FSUIPC.INI FILE

Okayso you did discover GPSout in the FSUIPC4 options.

[GPSout]

Port=COM1

Speed=9600

Interval=1500

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

Sentences=AV400

...

Ive done everything i can think of but cant seem to get it to work.

You have the COM port set to the default, COM1. It is very unlikely (impossible, I would say) that your USB to Serial adapter is set to use COM1 -- both COM1 and COM2 are normally fxed for motherboard ports. You need to find out what COM port the device is emulating. Look in the Windows device manager -- Control Panel -System-Device Manager. Or try each listed COM port in turn.

And check that the speed (9600) is correct for your device.

Regards

Pete

[mark brown]

I WENT TO THE DEVICE MANAGER AND IT INDICATED THE COM IT WAS USING WAS COM 17. I CALLED GARMIN TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT SPEED TO USE AND THE GUY ON SUPPORT WAS TRYING TO TELL ME IT USES NMEA AT 4800 SPEED. SO I CHANGED THE COM TO COM17 AND THE SETTING FOR THE DATA FORMAT TO NMEA AT 4800. THIS STILL DIDNT WORK SO I CHANGED THE DATA FORMAT BACK TO AVIATION IN. THEN I CHAGED THE SPEED IN FSUIPC.INI TO SPEED =9600, THEN TRIED 4800. STILL NO LUCK. IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE THAT IS USING THE GARMIN 196 WITH FSX THAT CAN TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT CONFIGURATION YOU ARE USING THAT IS WORKING. IM BEATING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL.

THANKS

MARK BROWN

[JSkorna]

Is the beating you head against the wall the reason you still have your CAPS LOCK on, even after Pete asked you to turn it off?

Pete, wouldn't he need to use the USB port code just as in FS9? It's been a long time for me.

[Pete Dowson]

Pete, wouldn't he need to use the USB port code just as in FS9? It's been a long time for me.

Only for a genuine USB device. When using a USB serial port adapter the driver supplied for that emulates a COM port exactly. COM17 should be fine, though that does seem rather a high number. I would expect something more like COM6, 7 or 8.

The problem is more likely to be the settings in the device which need sorting out. Unfortunately I can't help there as I have no GPS which accepts positional input (despite having three Garmin GPSs!).

Regards

Pete

[mark brown]

So assuming that the correct com is indeed com17 and that the actual problem is in the device settings, are you saying that the following settings in fsuipc.ini is correct?

[General]

History=SJXWLW2UJA2XN64VQSM7Y

TCASid=Flight

TCASrange=40

AxisCalibration=No

DirectAxesToCalibs=No

ShowMultilineWindow=Yes

SuppressSingleline=No

SuppressMultilineFS=No

AxisIntercepts=No

WeatherReadFactor=2

WeatherRewriteDelay=10

ProcessGlobalWeather=No

SimConnectStallTime=1

LogWrites=Yes

LogReads=Yes

LogExtras=Yes

[WideServer]

WideFSenabled=Yes

[GPSout]

Port=COM17

Speed=9600

Interval=1500

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

Sentences=AV400

[Monitor]

Display=6

If these settings are correct then I will continue to try and find out more info on the gps to see if there is another setting to change.

Back to my original question. If anyone out there has a garmin 196, 296 or 396 working with fsx could you please tell me exactly what your settings are so i can try them and see if i can get this thing working. Thanks in advance

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

So assuming that the correct com is indeed com17 and that the actual problem is in the device settings, are you saying that the following settings in fsuipc.ini is correct?

...

[GPSout]

Port=COM17

Speed=9600

Interval=1500

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

Sentences=AV400

Assuming it is COM17 and the speed of 9600 is correct and it uses Aviation 400 format input, then, yes, those parameters are correct, as you can see for yourself. The others have little bearing on it in any case.

Back to my original question. If anyone out there has a garmin 196, 296 or 396 working with fsx could you please tell me exactly what your settings are so i can try them and see if i can get this thing working. Thanks in advance

I'm pretty sure at least one of those models has cropped up in success stories here in this Forum before. Try doing a search on "Garmin" or the numbers. There's a huge collection of stories in this forum (over 100 pages it says here) so browsing manually isn't feasible, but the Search works pretty well. Don't forget to select the Forum correctly or it'll be too wide.

Regards

Pete

[mark brown]

Pete,

I found this forum that was dated 12/25/2003 regarding a gentleman who got his 196 working with fs2004.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=16610&hilit=garmin

Should the gpsout.ini file, and connections, be the same for fsx. The only differences I noticed in his .ini file and the one that was generated in fsuipc4 was an additional sentece of

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

and the interval was set to 1000 instead of 1500.

Also, does it make any difference if you load fsx before turning on the garmin 196 or is there a sequence that needs to be done.

Thanks

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

Should the gpsout.ini file, and connections, be the same for fsx.

You mean the [GPSout] part of FSUIPC4.INI ...for the same device, connected to the same COM port, yes, because only the COM port, speed and Sentences really have any bearing.

The only differences I noticed in his .ini file and the one that was generated in fsuipc4 was an additional sentece of

PosTo6Decimal=Yes

and the interval was set to 1000 instead of 1500.

The 6 decimal place accuracy was a later facility. I don't think it affects the AV400 format, but you could try setting it to "No" just in case.

The interval is not relevant really. 1000 means updates at one second intervals, 1500 is one and a half seconds. You can have it faster or slower, but some devices cannot cope with it too fast.

Also, does it make any difference if you load fsx before turning on the garmin 196 or is there a sequence that needs to be done.

That shouldn't matter at all.

The most likely problem is that COM17 identification. It really seems very high. Are there entries in the Windows Device Manager for COM3 through to COM16?

See if it changes if you unplug the USB cable and re-plug it into a different USB port -- it should do!

Regards

Pete

[Andydigital]

Some of these serial to usb adapters have a nasty habit of creating a new com port every time they are plugged in, maybe this is why he is seeing such high numbers. This info isn't from personal experience its just something i've picked up from various other forums over the last 12 months or so regarding problems with this type of device.

[mark brown]

I was told by someone on another forum that i have to register the fsuipc program when using in fsx, before the gpsout function will work. I dont mind doing that if i can get it working, but ive been trying to get it working to see if it was something worth registering. (Ive never used it or had even heard about it before). Do I need to register the copy in order for the gpsout function to work with fsx.

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

I was told by someone on another forum that i have to register the fsuipc program when using in fsx, before the gpsout function will work.

ErI don't understand something here. Surely you have been to the GPSout options page, where you set the parameters for GPSout to use? If you've simply been editing the FSUIPC4.INI file then that won't work. The GPSout section in that file is produced by setting the options in FSUIPC's menu in FSX. Do NOT edit the INI file.

Without paying for and registering FSUIPC4 you have no GPSout facility at all. Surely you've at least browsed the FSUIPC4 User Guide? Right near the beginning there's a section entitled What you get if you pay:. Best to go and read that now ...

Regards

Pete

[mark brown]

believe it or not i did print that file out and parused thru the whole thing but for some reason after reading over all the miles of commentary from multiple forums, and reading thru this

42 page document, my mind stuck on the opening sentence of when it says:

What you get if you dont pay: The ability to run all FSUIPC-dependent application programs. After reading that, and having not ever been exposed to gpsout I thought that included the gpsout program. Sorry about that. Having said that, I did pay to get it registered thursday around 2pm. Its now friday, at 7:30pm and have still not received a registration key. Looking forward to getting this up and running.

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

I did pay to get it registered thursday around 2pm. Its now friday, at 7:30pm and have still not received a registration key.

I'd go open your account and see if it's there already if I were you. SimMarket don't take that long -- it's pretty much all automated now -- and I'm not sure they actually send them out anyway these days. I think you have to go retrieve them.

Regards

Pete

P.S. Checking here it looks like they did it by 18:35Z on Thursday!

[mark brown]

Well, you will be happy to know that after i registered the copy OF FSUIPC and put in the speed of 9600, and used the AV400 selection, then went to my garmin 196 and set it up for simulator mode and changed the input to aviation in, it starting working.

Hooray!!!!!

Now, less there is any question in anyones mind, the first thing you need to do after downloading FSUIPC4 for FSX, is register it and get a registration key before you can start using the GPS out program for FSX. It will not work without a registration key.

:)

Mark Brown

[Pete Dowson]

Now, less there is any question in anyones mind, the first thing you need to do after downloading FSUIPC4 for FSX, is register it and get a registration key before you can start using the GPS out program for FSX.

That is very misleading. There is no "GPSout program" for FSX. There was one for FS9 and before. For FSX the GPSout facility is built into FSUIPC, just like the button assignments facility, WideServer, and many other user facilities. Exactly as carefully documented.

If you have put the FS9 GPSout.DLL package into your FSX Modules folder, please delete it. It is serving absolutely no function and could be misleading.

Regards

Pete