Dummy FMC

[phil744]

Hello,

Just thinking out aloud here but I need 3 FMC's for my 747, to be honest I will be happy with one fully functional one and 2 dummy ones.

However I know I wont be happy with just having a blank screen on the two dummy units so what i'm thinking is to use 2 of these cheap digital photo frames of eBay and uploading screenshot images from the PMDG 747 FMC.

I bet you could actually wire up the "next" and Prev" buttons to cycle through the images stored on the photo frame, not functional at all but adds a load of realism to the flightdeck.

Has anyone here done it before? and any decent results

Somthing like this I am thinking off (sorry for the huge link)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Insignia-5-6-Digital-Picture-Photo-Frame-New-in-Box_W0QQitemZ220244572087QQihZ012QQcategoryZ150043QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Trevor Hale]

Why wouldn't you just put PSone Screens behind each of them, and then you get the same image on each. you can split the video signal with "Y" splitters.

trev

[phil744]

your right Trev but to me it wont look "real" if all 3 FMC's mimic each other, its probably me being a perfectionist as usual;)

[Geremy Britton]

WOW... i thought of exactly the same idea as you phil about 2 weeks ago... i don think im going through with it though ... i will end up buying a small monitior instead ... the CDU is of more importance than i expected so full functionality is needed on a tl east one CDU in the pit.

just funny how great minds think alike eh :)

[pdpo]

Hi all,

I have done this in my sim but with not such good results.
The PSone screen on the captain side is perfect but the one on the FO side
does not display color, and is not nicely aligned.
In the graphics properties I cannot change since this affect then also the good screen.
The FO screen works good if I connect it only to the computer

Greetz Peter

[vidarf]

If you have three FMC's, why not using one of them to display some useful program? Just a thought I've been fiddling around with myself. :) I'm not going to use two ADF radios on my pedestal, so maybe a FMC? Hmmm...

[Sweetwater]

Hi Phil and all...

This is a cool idea... Got me thinking.. Which is almost never good..:-(

Since I am building a generic pit, (Roughly Boeing based) this photo frame idea might be a cool place to store my checklists.. Just do them up yourself or copy jpgs of the real thing into the correct picture format.. Sort them in order and have them advance at the push of the button...

Cheap way to fill the one last big open spot on the panel with something "bright and shiny"... and functional... Thanks for inspiring the thoughts about this! :rolleyes:

Regards, Jeff

[oal331]

Hi all,

I have done this in my sim but with not such good results.
The PSone screen on the captain side is perfect but the one on the FO side
does not display color, and is not nicely aligned.
In the graphics properties I cannot change since this affect then also the good screen.
The FO screen works good if I connect it only to the computer

Greetz Peter

I had the same idea before almost one year, but even i bought 2 Psone LCDs i didn't test them yet to check the results.
It seems that the signal is not strong enough to support both LCDs, but can we find an amplifier in the market to make better the VGA's output signal :?:


Also i would like to have both FMC's keyboards connected at the same USB keyboard IO card, to have both FMCs operational in the same time, as clone (not like real ones that one is backup of the other and you can type different data in the same time). Have anyone test it?


regards


Eddie Armaos
Athens-Greece

[pdpo]

Hi ,

I have two FDS MCDUS and they are in fact USB keyboards. Plugging them in both in the same
computer makes them work just like two parallel connected keyboards.
So I can use both MCDus as input keyboards and to this computer I also have an PS2 keyboard connected and they work all three in parallel.
The only issue I have is that the FDS keyboards are qwerty while my PS2 keyboard is azerty
and I need to swap in the windows the keyboard layout depending on the program that is
active.
What is nice about windows is that my PC starts up as azerty and only when I activate the MCDU windows it switches to qwerty. When I activate the IVAP window it goes back to
azerty.
Now I was thinking to write a small program which runs on the PC with the PFD/ND (no keyboard input needed) and send the keystrokes via the network to the MCDU running PC and deliver the keystrokes directly to the PM MCDU window.
This way I dont need to swap back and fourth between IVAP and MCDU which requires mouse action and I can built in translation from qwerty to azerty...
Anyone another idea to get this ?

concerning the PSone... maybe the signal has become to weak since I had a resistor of 50 ohm connected
over the input of the first screen. I left it there when I connected the second one in parallel....maybe I should
try to remove that one.....hmm...

Anyway I still have a very strange issue with this PSOne screens. When the PC starts up the screens
are blinking in red or blue depending their mood. Then I need to go to the properties and change the
screens timing. When I apply this nothing happens. But then I change this timing a second time (same change)
and when I apply then the normal CRT screen and the PSONE go black for some second and when they come
back on the screens (psone too) are OK.
Strange ...but it works ...

Greetz Peter

[Tomlin]

Just a quick note- I have seen in some Boeing cockpits where one CDU screen was color and the other was just the green, so it's not unthinkable!

[Trevor Hale]

Hi all,

I have done this in my sim but with not such good results.
The PSone screen on the captain side is perfect but the one on the FO side
does not display color, and is not nicely aligned.
In the graphics properties I cannot change since this affect then also the good screen.
The FO screen works good if I connect it only to the computer

Greetz Peter

I had the same issue, but corrected this with a larger power supply.

Easy fix, she just needs more curent!

I am using the composite input not VGA though.

Trev

[Jackpilot]

The Dummy FMS screen can be used to display ATC instructions Either FS ATC on an undocked window from the main computer or Radar contact from a remote computer.

Having ATC instructions on a screen is realistic since the new ATC systems allow it (or will soon).

[Jackpilot]

One 15" flatscreen can accomodate The lower DU (moving map or whatever) and the dummy FMS display....both undocked on that 15"


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/jackpilot/QM-1.jpg