Purchase of FMC

[davemckee]

Considering the purchase of a "Working FMC", but I have limited funds, and do NOT know what software is availible for the person who does NOT have alot of money. I had looked at opencockpits FMC (in my budget range) but I am not sure what software it runs on. Needless to say I love the looks of the FDS and engravity unnits, BUT, my understanding is PM software is way too expensive for my limited income. Can anyone let me know what your'e using, and what was the total cost? Anyone using opencockpits FMC and are you happy with it. Thanks for any input. Dave

[BishBash]

An FMC has been on my list of buys for a while now, i fly the pmdg so as far as i understand the engravity fmc is not compatible,FDS looks very nice not sure if iy can work with pmdg.
That leaves opencockpits fmc which you can use with pmdg and you use their software.

Good luck with your fmc hunting

regards

steve

[Kennair]

Hi Dave. The OC FMC is certainly value for money but it will take a little planning and investigating to get it working. All OC products are cheaper but they do require more manual labour with the software configuring. Once learnt however it is very powerful and offers much flexibility, but there is a steep learning curve. The screen bit simply takes the TV out of your video card onto which you can put any FS window, such as the CDU screen from any aircraft. Addon panel software such as Project Magenta or Sim Avionics offer this output as a separate panel which you can then display onto the screen, however you can also do the same with any FS aircraft with a little panel tweaking. The difference with the FDS version is that it is a full VGA LCD monitor rather than a PS1 TFT screen. This means you can use the standard VGA output of your video card to give greater clarity, however the FMC info displayed is essentially the same. Having said that you can do the same using the OC FMC by adding a TV to VGA converter (at extra expense of course).

I don't own the OC FMC unit but do have many of their other products. In order to get the keypad working you will need to run it via their SIOC software and program it accordingly. Many others here are using it so might offer advice or their running script for it. The other option is to buy a small touch screen and display the FMC on this. I've seen this option used successfully many times.

Hope that helps and good luck in your search,

Ken.