Capture MCP Cpflight commands thru COM port

[bagarie]

Hi Peter,

I have a question for you.

I use from many time my Cpflight MCP. It use COM port to communicate to FS9.

It's possible capture the commands the MCP send to FS thru the COM port, and via VSPE, redirect to FSUIPC, and use it like a normal joystick? (like Vrinsight devices?)

Many thanks

Arnaldo

[Pete Dowson]

I use from many time my Cpflight MCP. It use COM port to communicate to FS9.

It's possible capture the commands the MCP send to FS thru the COM port, and via VSPE, redirect to FSUIPC, and use it like a normal joystick? (like Vrinsight devices?)

Yes. You'd need to write a Lua program to read and write the two ports -- FSUIPC will only do this automatically for VRI devices. And the Lua program could filter off the commands you wish to deal with yourself and send the appropriate commands to FSUIPC. If by "like a normal joustick" you mean to send button presses, then you'd need to use the Virtual Button facilities at offset 3340 and following.

Regards

Pete

[bagarie]

Hi Peter ,

thanks for reply.

So in this case I don't need to use VSPE? I can intercept the commands sent by COM port used by CPflight MCP, directly thru a Lua script?

I hope have explain me correctly.

Regards

Arnaldo

[Pete Dowson]

So in this case I don't need to use VSPE? I can intercept the commands sent by COM port used by CPflight MCP, directly thru a Lua script?

VSPE is only needed when you want some or most functions to be dealt with by another piece of software, like a driver specifically for it. If you want to take complete control, do all of the display outputs as well as the button and knob inputs, then you are effectively replacing that driver with your own program. In this case you can certainly do quite a lot with the COM library provided for Lua plug-ins.

One of the problems might be that you don't know how to interpret the commands arriving from the device, nor how to drive the displays. In this case then VSPE might come in handy just so you can run it with a known aircraft with a driver supporting it, and just log what it sends and receives, whilst passing them through, from one port to the other and back. You can then figure out what it is doing.

An alternative to using VSPE for this, and one I prefer, is using a Serial Port monitor program, like those from AGG (www.aggsoft.com). You can get their serial port monitor on a trial basis I think. They also do a USB monitor which I've found very useful.

Regards

Pete

[bagarie]

Hi Pete,

you explications are ever very clear.

Now I start to do some "experiment" with Lua, and my MCP.

Regards

Arnaldo