noobs basic 737 cockpit?? could it work?

[shmiddy]

hey guys, ive been a fan of flight sim for about 7 years, and i have the basic saitek pro flights ect, but i recently decided i would turn a room into a home cockpit, now im not a crazed fan and i dont need a real 737 cockpit..but i am geting scale MIP made incase oneday i want to turn the fake knobs ect ect, into working ones..
i am a tradesman by day and i do know myway around my computer fairly well, i know nothing about networking 2 computers so the idea of a full proper sim build scares me slightly, i would love to be able to run a full working 737 cockpit oneday, PM, functional panels, projector ect ect...

SO CAN THIS SYSTEM WORK????



but i do know my limits for now so i have been reading up and i have come up with a base idea, i have made a pic so you guys can see the idea of my setup, only problem i can see myself having is on the 2 mip monitors with the PFD,ND ect.. is once i have sized them to fit, is making them stay there and being able to bring themup everytime i start fsx...

im open to all comments, but understand im a noob to home pit building...

if any of you guys out there have a fully functional cockpit ect, i think it would be great is some of you could make a basic diagram like i have with how you run your systems, would help in understanding the process...

thanks guys

[Matt Olieman]

Of course it can work!!!!! :)

Glad to have on board. Welcome to our crazy world of Flight -Sim Building :) :) :) Plenty of help available, just ask and you shall receive.

Matt Olieman

[Kennair]

Hi Shmiddy,

Assuming you're in Perth Western Australia and not Scotland, we could be neighbours but welcome in either case.

Yes your diagram is certainly workable and a very common setup. Mine is pretty much the same. You will need two video cards in your PC to cater for the screens you are suggesting (this is what I have done) but they don't need to be the same. As FS graphics relies more on CPU than GPU you don't need a huge belly buster card, anything mid-range and therefore affordable will suffice.

If you do live in Perth WA you're more than welcome to come and have a look at my setup. It might give you some ideas and inspiration. If you are looking at a 737 build then I'd highly recommend contacting our forum manager Westozy (Gwyn Perrett) who also lives in Perth and has an awesome 737 cockpit. His has been flown by a Virgin Blue captain who was very impressed (and did a barrel role I'm told). Just PM both or either of us to make arrangements.

Never the less, good luck and most of all, have tons of fun.

Ken.

[shmiddy]

thanks for the welcoming replies guys, yes i am in perth wa, maida vale. looking forward to the build, in process of ordering parts.. ect. and today had my 1st problem. restored my comp to factory settings to clean it out and reinstalled fsx, and it wont let me register it, regerstration wizard doesnt even pop up, so im running demo mode, hahaha,

ken your setup is great i had a look, great job, i have no doubt i will be calling on your help once or twice...

again if anyone with a major build could post up a simalar diagram, would love to see how they do it out of curiosity..

[weshollett]

Welcome Shmiddy,

Must be something in the water around Perth.
I too am a local up Joondalup way.

Great to have you on board!!

Wes.

[wingman621]

Hello All,

Glad to see some other Flight Simulator enthusiasts here in Perth.

Like many others, I am planning on taking the next step and building my own 737NG home-built cockpit.

I originally purchased some of the GoFlight gear (Throttle Quadrants, Gear/Flaps etc) some time ago and I still find them useful today.

After finally getting my hands on another PC, I am currently trying to network the two and have one running FSX and the controls, whilst the other would run the Instrumentation screens.

I have to say, I honestly thought it would easier to do, but I find myself struggling on having the ability to make this happen (let alone find the software to help me achieve it). The network doesn't seem to be the problem, but I have tried to look around WidevieW, WideFS and FSUIPC without much luck.

Is it better just to get another video card for the first computer to do this?

Any help with this issue would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks again guys,

Troy

[twisted8]

Hello,
I have almost your exact setup idea. 3x20" lcds for outside view, 1x19" + 1x17" for panels, vrinsight mcp combo and saitek yoke and rudders. The first thing I have upgraded is the throttle quadrant to the VRaircraft TQ and made my own custom switches with the opencockpits master card. I can pretty much do a whole flight without using the mouse. (Still saving for the opencockpits CDU) and haven't spent too much money. I don't see the need for track IR with 3 monitors but I guess it wouldn't hurt. Next thing I want to do is the MIP like your diagram.

I use 1 PC with FSX + Level-d 767. Everything runs smooth without needing networked PCs. I'll post some pics later.

So I agree it can be a nice setup, of course you will always want more. Sometimes I think about replacing the vrinsight MCP combo with a more realistic units but the vrsinsight unit does the job of 6 units or more and it works fine.

[wingman621]

Can I also ask that if you're using only the single PC, how you are breaking up the different screens for different uses (ie How does one send only the AI/ASI to one screen and the EFIS on another).

Is there a simple program I am missing out on??

Thanks in advance.

Troy

[Kennair]

Hi Troy,

To send different panels to different screens you need to run FS in Windowed mode and undock each panel. Drag this undocked panel to your respective monitor as required. If however you only want to put one gauge to another screen that happens to be part of a complete panel then you'll need to edit that panel or make a new one. You can do this manually by editing the panel.cfg file which will take a lot of trial and error not to mention head scratching, or get hold of FSPanel Studio (http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=FSP-ESD-001) which will do it within an easy program. This too will take some training but once you've got it you'll be customising all your aircraft for your specific purpose. I highly recommend it.

Ken.

[Spyah]

Hi All i'm Richard and i just regestred yesterday. I did to tell you guys about a plan i have , and when i read this thread i had to reply cause i have almost the exact same plan. only my plan was use of 2 computers.

I allready own the vri mcp ,th2go , 3 22" screens and the saitek yoke.
and now i am designing the mip , i will post a pic of it soon .
But ... i have been testing some software to display the glass cockpit on extarnal screens. trying on the laptop , best for now is the projectmagenta and all works fine for example with the pmdg ,or stock aircraft... exept for the display of the CDU info on the fd , the flightplan i mean.

i like to fly with the pmdg but this wont show the flightplan on pm panel.
and when i use the pm_pmdg plane in combination with the PM MCP and PM CDU, that works , but then the displays of the VRI MCP don't sync with the PM MCP.

So i really am desperately looking for the answer , i hope there is glasscockpit software that can display the flightplan of the pmdg or there have to be a way to make the vri displays sync with the PM MCP.


But Smiddy i'm almost stealing your thread here , i'm sorry for that , but i was exited that someone else had the exact same idea , cause i had never seen anyone who wanted to use the vri mcp ... i thought the real simmers would find this a bit lame as it is not the real thing , so .... cool dude :D

i have attached a screenie of my work in progress design for the mip ....


greets Richard

[Spyah]

Hey Smiddy , how's progress ... ?

i just did some more prep work , made a design and think i come a long way now towards my final idea.

i thought i post it here , maybe it's a idea for you too.

[twisted8]

That's a fantastic idea for a custom setup. Well done!
But why have the FMC inside the MIP? I would go for an Innovative or Opencockpits FMC, they are reasonably priced.

[Spyah]

that's because i allready own a vri mcp, and this way i don't need to buy a complete radio panel cause this is all in the vri mcp.

but i wont rule out to replace the vri for a opencockpits one in the furture, cause i also plan to build a center console with cdu and throttle and to make this console realistic offcource the com's should go in there too.

blaaah ... never min this reply , read above ...

[Spyah]

i read again , and saw i read wrong what you said , i thought you talked about the mcp , but i see you ment the fmc ..

i am indeed very much in doubt about this , but the main reason was that in this setup i can place 2 19 widescreen monitors next to eachother and next to that i can put the gear lever , so i just had this blank hole , so i thought i make a screen for additional info , for instance the fmc aslong i dont have one.

also i am in doubt now about the vri mcp , cuase i found out about poldragonet and their kits , and in combination with the open cockpits electronics i can build a mcp myself for under 200 $ as well as an efis panel. the same counts for actualy every panel .

the main concern for me is what kind of screens to use , if i use 2 19 inch wide screens i keep having the problem of having no room for the gear lever. i also find the front panel of poldragonet interesting but actualy my goal was to build a desktop mip , because of the limited space... and their front panel is a full size panel , don't know the measurements though , they dont heva alot of info on their site .