FDS 747 CDU ideas / questions

[jtmuzix]

I have an FDS 747 CDU unit that I mainly use for AerowinX PSX 744 and the PMDG 777 due to the button layouts being almost identical.  However, I started thinking that I know it's possible by using various tools like FSUIPC, fsintarrogator.exe and Linda and possible some other .lua scripts to remap the keys on my CDU for a 737ng or even an Airbus. 🙂  Granted, the key labels wouldn't actually change but I would create a cheat sheet.  Also, is it possible to connect an extra keyboard to your main simulator machine and control avionic packages like project magenta (Boeing) or Prosim-Ar 737 that are networked to the main sim? 

Funny, I thought the .lua scripts was an x-plane thing.  I need to read about these scripts more as they seem to offer a lot.  I just know that my experience in x-plane a while back with .lua wasn't very stable.  Anyway, any assistance and/or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Jason Tutwiler

[Pete Dowson]

8 hours ago, jtmuzix said:

However, I started thinking that I know it's possible by using various tools like FSUIPC, fsintarrogator.exe and Linda and possible some other .lua scripts to remap the keys on my CDU for a 737ng or even an Airbus.

Whilst it does open up even more possibilities, you don't really need to get into Lua programming. FSUIPC offers "Profiles" which allow for different button, key or lever assignment and calibration for different aircraft or class of aircraft, changing automatically based on what you've loaded. Lua scripts can allow more complication but for all the functions built into the aircraft models there are usually simpler methods -- for input control, that is.

The display, however, is another matter. The PMDG Boeings have their CDU display data mapped into a form that can, with programming, be transferred to another screen such as the one in your hardware CDU. I would assume that FDS provide some suitable driver software to allow this to be done vitually painlessly, but FSUIPC itself has no specific facilities for outputs, though there are provisions in the Lua support,.

8 hours ago, jtmuzix said:

even an Airbus. 🙂  Granted, the key labels wouldn't actually change but I would create a cheat sheet.  Also, is it possible to connect an extra keyboard to your main simulator machine

Extra keyboards are problematic. You need software which can tell the difference between the same keys on the separate keyboards. Windows treats every keyboard connected to a PC the same. I know there is a way, but it isn't easy and I'm not aware offhand of ready-made software for this situation.  I did try it once for my two CDUs (captain's and first officers) but it got messy and fraught when both pilots accessed at the same time, so I decided to just use separate mini-PCs, one for each. that also made it easy for the screen -- the CDU screen is the PC screen.

If you do come across any reasonably easy to use keyboard driver which can automatically differentiate between two (or even more?) keyboards on the same PC, please do let me know!

8 hours ago, jtmuzix said:

control avionic packages like project magenta (Boeing) or Prosim-Ar 737 that are networked to the main sim? 

Yes. I used to use Project Magenta -- for a long period, in fact (from FS98 days). But I now use ProSim737 which is more dedicated to the detail for the specific aircraft, and still under live development. ProSim (and the SimAvionics suite too, for that matter) has drivers for popular makes of kit (such as your CDU) built in. And of course they can operate over a network of PCs (my cockpit system currently occupies 7 PCs, 5  small ones internal to the cockpit, and two external (including the simulator program P3Dv4 moving to v5, and the display system).

Pete