FSUIPC - Use with homebrew interface and software

[Haito]

Hello Pete,

I have been watching this forum for years but now that I am close to actually embarking on the big cockpit route I need to clarify something before I purchase the FSUIPC bundle. You mention in a few posts that hardware developers pay a fee to interface to FSUIPC - As I am going down the 'build my own' 128 I/O plus 16 analogue ports PIC-based USB interface with C# interface software rather than shelling out for EPIC etc. the question is...Will FSUIPC accept my software talking to it, or do I too need to pay an extra fee?

Also Pete, what happens if I put the controller on a PCI card and map it to a fixed memory location? ie. Is it possible to give the controller board the ability to decode a fixed address such that it can communicate with FSUIPC directly, or does FSUIPC not occupy a fixed memory location to write offsets to? Wishful thinking perhaps?

Andrew

Kiwi in Glos.

[Pete Dowson]

You mention in a few posts that hardware developers pay a fee to interface to FSUIPC

That's for commercial developers who are using FSUIPC effectively as part of their product in order to save developing their own interfaces. Seems only fair.

Will FSUIPC accept my software talking to it

Yes. And in any case, if you register FSUIPC as a user (i.e. pay for your copy, with all the user facilities that provides, then it has always provided full access to all programs, commercial or otherwise.

Also Pete, what happens if I put the controller on a PCI card and map it to a fixed memory location? ie. Is it possible to give the controller board the ability to decode a fixed address such that it can communicate with FSUIPC directly, or does FSUIPC not occupy a fixed memory location to write offsets to? Wishful thinking perhaps?

In PCs running Windows there's no such thing as "fixed addresses" for programs. Each process runs in its own virtual memory with virtual addresses, translated by tables to access real memory. And even the virtual addresses aren't fixed, they vary according to what is loaded / unloaded already for the same process. The sort of environment where you could almost do what you seem to be suggesting was last seen in MSDOS days

And FSUIPC does not handle any hardware directly. You have to have a program running which interfaces between your hardware, however it might be connected to the PC, and FSUIPC.

Regards

Pete