CDU Driver for PMDG 737 - Video

[Delvos]

Gentle(wo)men, the CDU driver developemnt for PMDG's 737 has reached a state that allows to present a video. Watch and stay tuned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mma3SOe2ADE

[rjvcarvalho]

That looks great, good job!

[ran56]

Great job.
Can you spare more details, if possible ?

Thanks for sharing.

[Delvos]

As desired, i'll give an overview of this driver:

The driver connects OpenCockpits' CDU with the PMDG 737NG with FS2004 as well as with FS2002. It talks via IOCP/SIOC with the built-in KeysCard but there is no need to define key-assignments and mouse-macros so it is simple to configure; SIOC.INI needs to be fitted with just a few lines which can be copied.

The driver consists of two modules to be copied into FS root folder and modules subfolder.

I really had to fight:-) because PMDG do not publish an SDK to me, so the keypresses on the CDU are forwarded as mouseclicks and there are two different ways to display the data, depending on your hardware capabilities.

The first one is just to move and resize PMDG's CDU panel to the screen of OC CDU. Anybody who has ever made an attempt to do so will have noticed, that it is quite complicated because the LSK lines to not fit to the layout of OC CDU panel and if width and height do not have a specific ratio you'll have problems with the keys, pressing 'A' results a 'B' and so on - you can check it out by yourselves if you resize PMDG's CDU panel and try to hit the keys. It is possible, but the result will only be working - not good looking...

So you can choose to use an external CDU window. This one is made to fit OC's CDU panel (as you can see in my video) and it is done by copying and sizing parts of the original PMDG CDU to this external window. But this means: PMDG's CDU must be visible as well, because i have to copy the screen data! My solution was to move PMDG's CDU to my TFT that displays PFD and ND because this TFT is mostly covered by the MIP panel.

There's still some work to do (config dialog, enabling/disabling when PMDG's 737 is active or not, a manual...), but you can see in this video that the results are - in my opinion:-)- quite good, so stay tuned!

I'll show you some pictures of my screen layout the next days to make you see what i was talking about...

Regards,

[ran56]

I know all about the re-size thing and the A and B issue.
Played with it a lot :(
What do you mean external CDU display ?
I have a PS1 5" connected to the PC via the TV out, it that what you referring ?
Very smart way to go with copying the display.
Can this work also with the PMDG 744 ?

The result look great.
Thanks again for sharing, can't wait to see the final result :)

[steveeverson]

Looking good Michael,
Be very interested in the driver when you have it finished!
cheers
Steve

[Delvos]

@ran: the "external display" is an external CDU window provided by the driver! It is the window you will at least drag and drop to your OpenCockpits screen and this is also what you see in my video. In order to copy PMDG's CDU panel into memory and display it on the external CDU window, PMDG's CDU panel must be visible as well - the upper part of it. In my pit i moved PMDG's CDU panel to a position where it is covered by my MIP panel, so it cannot be seen. The next days i will take some photos of my setup and post them here in this thread, so you can see what i'm talking about...

At this moment the driver only works with the 737. The problem with the 747 is not the 747 herself, but if i'm going to make a driver for the 747 many users want to have a driver for the 747X as well! But i have neither FSX nor the 747X (of course:-)) - only the FS9 747. But - never say never:-)

Regards,

[ran56]

Cool, thanks :)

[Anderson/SBSP]

Great job, we wait more news soon!!!

[bagarie]

Very good job!!!

I think this is a very revolution about a Pmdg737 cockpit based. I'm very interested on it and waiting for news...!!!

Many thanks for sharing
Arnaldo

[t1dUs]

Beautiful. Keep up the good work ^_^

[Delvos]

Gentle(wo)men; the project has been progressing to a state that allows me to start beta testing when i finished the manual. So stay tuned; the next days i'm going to look for some beta testers...

[bagarie]

Hi Michael,

If you want,I'll be very happy to do some test for you. As I wrote before,I have a Home cockpit based onPMDG 737.

Let me know.
Regards
Arnaldo Vacca

[Delvos]

Hello bagarie, thx for your offer.. but i'm not yet searching; first i have to finish the manual that you must read before making up your mind if your system meets the requirements described in the manual. The search for beta testers will take place in a new thread...

Sty tuned:-)