Airbus Fcu

[sxa1376]

Hello Pete again this is George and i want your help with some buttons assignements in FSUIPC. As i told you before (in a previous topic) i am building the A320 cockpit and i am using the Project Magenta software. I am have trouble with some buttons assignements of the FCU. I have proggramed all switches and buttons of both EFFIS and they are working great but i am having problem with the main FCU. The main FCU has four push-pull rotary encoders which they work for the speed control the heading the altitude and the vertical speed indicator. For example for the heading when i push the rotary encoder it is activated the LNAV mode and when it is pulled it is activated the selected mode ( which means rotate the rotary encoder clockwise the heading increases and when rotated anticlockwise the heading decreases). The same logics is applied for the other three push-pull rotary encoers. Now for the heading control i am using two buttons and one switch instead of using a push pull rotary encoder. i have assign each of the two buttons as push and pull and the swicth which it has left and right positions as heading increasing and deacreasing. I have also for each posistion of the switch (left and right) assign the "repeat while holding" and the result is i have a FCU workingbut with slow increaments and decreaments. What i must do for these values to inrease and decrease fast while holding the swicth left or right? I have seen inside the FSUIPC that you offer fast increase or decrease for the heading in autopilot but this has'nt work for me beacause i am using specific software (Project Magenta). I will waiting for your reply. Continue the great work. Many thanks.

[Pete Dowson]

I have also for each posistion of the switch (left and right) assign the "repeat while holding" and the result is i have a FCU workingbut with slow increaments and decreaments. What i must do for these values to inrease and decrease fast while holding the swicth left or right?

The FSUIPC button repeat option already operates a "fast" mode if the button is held for longer than a certain time. It starts off slow to allow single increments easily.You can adjust both the delay and the repeat rate. Please check the FSUIPC Advanced User's guide, search for the "ButtonRepeat" parameter.

Unfortunately, however, I suspect fast increments won't be easily recognised by PM as it looks for changes in a bit and will miss them if they are too fast. In other words, there's an upper limit, which is dictated by PM's speed and the WideFS link to it.

I have seen inside the FSUIPC that you offer fast increase or decrease for the heading

Ah, if you want inc/dec in 10's like that you'd need to either write a program to do it, or a Lua plug-in. It's not a simply assignment matter because if you are currently at, say, 5 degrees the 10's increment should put you at 10, not 15 -- if you didn't care about the 10's alignment then I suppose you could program the button to send 10 increments to PM, though that will still get some missed i suspect.

A plug-in in Lua could work well though. Instead of using the incs and decs you'd read the actual bug value, add or subtract whatever, and write it back, using the correct PM offsets. This is what the FSUIPC controls do for the default A/P commands.

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hello Pete again i contact with the Pm support and they have send me the values for the FCU.

"You should write theactual values to these:

5406

2

MCP/FCU IAS Set (Write)

5408

2

MCP/FCU Heading Set (Write)

540A

2

MCP/FCU Altitude Set (Write)

540C

2

MCP/FCU V/S Set (Write) FCU - FPA in 100s, i.e. 0.9 = 90, -1.4 = -140

540E

2

MCP/FCU Mach Set (Write) (72 = 0.72 mach)"

Ok i understand that inside the FSUIPC i must put to "Buttons+Switches" section to the right section for the "MCP/FCU Heading Set (Write)" for example the "x5408" to "Offset" tab but what i must put to "Parameter" tab and to " Control sent when button pressed"?

Please advise. :?

[Pete Dowson]

Ok i understand that inside the FSUIPC i must put to "Buttons+Switches" section to the right section for the "MCP/FCU Heading Set (Write)" for example the "x5408" to "Offset" tab but what i must put to "Parameter" tab and to " Control sent when button pressed"?

The "offset" edit box won't appear in any case unless you select an Offset control. All those values you list are marked "2", meaning they are WORDs (2 bytes or 16 bits). So you use one of these FSUIPC controls depending on what you want to do:

Offset word set to write a value

Offset uword increment and offset uword decrement to inc/dec an unsigned value

Offset sword increment and offset sword decrement to inc/dec a signed value

Offset word cyclic increment and offset word cyclic decrement to inc/dec a value cyclically (i.e. returns to 0 after max or vice versa)

The offset is x followed by the offset value you've been given, and the parameter, for Offset word set, is the value you want, but for the incs/decs is composed of two values -- best explained in the FSUIPC user guide. See the boxed section entitled "Offset Increment/Decrement controls" in the Buttons chapter.

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hi Pete i read the FCUIPC users guide in the page 33 but i think i must use 1 step per time because for the heading for example i need for increment one increment each time while i keep the button pushed but fast. I saw in your example that you use the value 16383 as a limit. This value i think is for axis but as you understant i want to make button assignement with no limit. So the combination of the two values you give in the example (256/16383) i dont know how they can work for me. I need to put in the parameter (one change of value each time/no limit) with repeats while holding. In the FCUIPC config section in the buttons i have put " Buttons repeat=1,0" because i want one repeat with no delay at all. If you tell me what values i must put to parameter section for heading increase and deacrease and how you get these values i think for the other buttons i can configure by myself. Pc

[Pete Dowson]

Hi Pete i read the FCUIPC users guide in the page 33 but i think i must use 1 step per time because for the heading for example i need for increment one increment each time while i keep the button pushed but fast. I saw in your example that you use the value 16383 as a limit. This value i think is for axis but as you understant i want to make button assignement with no limit.

For heading you want a cyclic update with a limit of 360.

So the combination of the two values you give in the example (256/16383) i dont know how they can work for me.

the example was not for heading. I pointed you there so you could understand the FORMAT (i.e. increment/limit)! That's all. I never thought you'd just think to copy values from an example!

I need to put in the parameter (one change of value each time/no limit) with repeats while holding. In the FCUIPC config section in the buttons i have put " Buttons repeat=1,0" because i want one repeat with no delay at all.

A button repeat rate of 1 will be very slow -- that's 1 per second! Why do you want it so slow?

The delay is how long you hold the button down bfore it starts repeating. with a repeat rate of 1 per second it won't matter, but if you have something more sensible then having the repeats start immediately will stop you being able to make an increase or decrease of just 1.

you seem not to have read the description of the ButtonRepeat parameter.

If you tell me what values i must put to parameter section for heading increase and deacrease and how you get these values

What is the limit on the heading? 360 isn't it? Or are you using some unit other than degrees? ;-)

What increment do you want? 1 or 5 or 10 or what?

You must choose the values you want. That's the point.

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hello Pete i did as you told me and everything works perfect. For example for heading i have put the "Offset word cyclic increment and offset word cyclic decrement" with parameter for increment "1/360" and for decrement "1/360" and to FSUIPC config sections to buttons repeats the value "10,10" and the result is a perfect working FCU with low cost. For the other buttons i have used the "Offset sword increment and offset sword decrement " with the appropriate limits. Trully without you the flight simulator it would be "a just another game". Now i have e real Garmin GPS type"296" and i want to connect it to fs if it is possible on a client pc or to the pc running the fs. I have tried to connect it first to a client pc and i have used the "MixW freeware virtual port simulator" beacause my GPS is USB and i have edit both the cofigs of FSUIPC and widefs client but unfortunately this hasn't work at all. My fs pc is win7 ultimate x64 and the client running the GPS is winxp x86. Should i try to run it on fs pc? Should i try to set up the "Eterlogic one" software? If i try this software as i see i must run the x64 edition. Correct? Or what else i must try to do?

[Pete Dowson]

Hello Pete i did as you told me and everything works perfect.

Good. Well done.

Now i have e real Garmin GPS type"296" and i want to connect it to fs if it is possible on a client pc or to the pc running the fs. I have tried to connect it first to a client pc and i have used the "MixW freeware virtual port simulator" beacause my GPS is USB and i have edit both the cofigs of FSUIPC and widefs client but unfortunately this hasn't work at all.

Other folks with the Garmins have contacted Garmin about this and been told it cannot be done with the USB connection -- the Garmin will not accept the Aviation input that way. Apparently you have to purchase an expensive serial connector from them. There has been recent threads on this. Do a search on "296".

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hi Pete i have used the settings you are giving inside the "WideFS User Guide" and inside the "FSUIPC4 User Guide" and i have set up correctly the Garmin GPS 296 on a wide client pc. The settings i have put in the FSUIPC config section are these :

[GPSout]

GPSoutEnabled=Yes

Port=WideFS

Speed=4800

Interval=2000

PosTo6Decimal=No

Sentences=AV400

In the wide client config section i have put :

[GPSout]

Port=COM1

Speed=4800

And everything are working perfect. The secret is not use the usb connection for the GPS with the "Virtual Serial Port Program" but to use the GPS connected to pc directly with the com cable. For the wideclient pc i am using windows xp sp3 x86. Now i am trying to do the same with the FS9 but i have some issues. Inside the FS9 FSUIPC module there is not any "Autosave and GPS out" generall tab so i have copy the settings of the "GPS out" shown above from FCUIPC4 config section to FSUIPC config section but this didn't work. Do i miss something?

[Pete Dowson]

Now i am trying to do the same with the FS9 but i have some issues. Inside the FS9 FSUIPC module there is not any "Autosave and GPS out" generall tab so i have copy the settings of the "GPS out" shown above from FCUIPC4 config section to FSUIPC config section but this didn't work. Do i miss something?

Yes, you miss installing "GPSout.DLL", and editing its own configuration file. Before FSUIPC4, WideServer, AutoSave and GPSout were all separate modules, all installed into the FS modules folder. Take a look at the usual download website.

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hi Pete i had so much work to do with my bussines so i didn't been able to work with FS for some days. Now in the previous post i forgot to mencion that i had allready put the GPSout.dll and the GPSout config inside the modules folder of FS9 but nothing happens. I had also put to the FSUIPC config file these lines:

• 
  GPSoutEnabled=Yes
  Port=WideFS
  Speed=4800
  Interval=2000
  PosTo6Decimal=Yes
  Sentences=AV400

and as you can understand nothing happens. Please advise.

[Pete Dowson]

Hi Pete i had so much work to do with my bussines so i didn't been able to work with FS for some days. Now in the previous post i forgot to mencion that i had allready put the GPSout.dll and the GPSout config inside the modules folder of FS9 but nothing happens. I had also put to the FSUIPC config file these lines:

Oh dear. On FS9 FSUIPC and GPSOut are completely separate things. You need those parameters in the GPSout.INI file. Please do read the little text document which comes in the GPSout ZIP! And actually, if you look back I already told you this, viz:

Yes, you miss installing "GPSout.DLL", and editing its own configuration file. Before FSUIPC4, WideServer, AutoSave and GPSout were all separate modules, all installed into the FS modules folder

Regards

Pete

[sxa1376]

Hello Pete i have did as you told me and everything works perfect. Thanks.