Another LCD screen question

[Michael Carter]

As no one makes a simulated HSI instrument for the 727, I have given some thought to using a 6.4" TFT LCD screen.

These are available through several vendors and are not much more than a cheaper 17-19" LCD. I have found that I do not have room behind the panel for a monitor of this size due to Korry indicators and switches in the way.

Flight Illusion makes most of the other instruments I need, so it comes down to only trying get an HSI into my panel.

I don't quite know how to word this question; If I use MicroSoft PS to design a panel with only the HSI displayed, and then load the aircraft with this one-instrument panel, will the rest of the actual simulated physical instruments still function?

Any thoughts or advise would be appreciated.

[Trevor Hale]

Yes!

You will need to create a panel only large enough for this instrument. In Flightsim select that window and undock it. Then you can position the panel window with you mouse, and save the flight. whenever you reload that flight everything will come back where you left it. The issue you will have is.....

fitting a monitor back there that you will display the instrument on.

I have a 5" LCD I bought on Ebay for a Game Cube. Standard video input, I use this for my FMC.

Hope that answers your question.

Trev

[Bob Reed]

Well if I understand the question, I agree with Trevor, yes it will. The hardware gages are getting there data direct from FS via FSUIPC and do not care what panels are loaded. My question becomes, I thought you where going to go all virtual gages? What changed your mind?

[Michael Carter]

The fact that I will lose many, if not all of my indicators located on the panel.

The Korry indicators and the Approach Progress display are right in the way of having a monitor back there. These indicators are very deep at about 3".

I may still be able to get a monitor behind the engine instrument panel, but again, the Korry reverser unlocked lights and reverser operating lights are in the way.

If I could find a chassis-less LCD that would display right to the edge of the panel, I could make this work. Even with an open-frame LCD monitor, there are still borders around the edges that do not allow a full screen display of the instruments. I'd lose about an 1" off the top of the instruments and have only about half of the EPR indicator in the engine display.

Working with this old stuff is a real challenge.

The Flight Illusion instruments should drop right in the holes with nothing in the way. I may have to make a few instrument bezels as the FI gauges are not 4". My IAS hole is for a 4" and so is the ADI. The HSI should fit nicely on a small LCD screen.



Trevor, how do I convert a standard video input to a computer VGA input? I've noticed that usually the smaller the LCD, that options are limited on input and not many that smal have VGA.

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/7506/727panellk7.jpg

[Bob Reed]

Well there are a couple of ways to do this. First and best is probably a VGA to TV signal converter. They are about $80.00 I think. This way will not matter what you get for a monitor.

[Trevor Hale]

My Video card has a TV Video out, or Svideo connector on it, so I just connected the monitor and told windows the monitor was connected and away it goes. The resolution isn't as tight as a monitor but it works well.

Like Bob said, you can get a USB to Video adapter even for like 70-80 bucks.

Good Luck.

[Michael Carter]

Thanks for the helpful advise.

I've narrowed my choice down to Caltron Industries PF-056K, 5.6" TFT LCD monitor. It only has the composite input, but I can get a converter for around $40.

I have a question about resolution support. I'm waiting to hear back from Neutrone who I may be buying this from, but I thought I'd ask here too.

My ATI card only has a minimum resolution of 640x480. The monitor has a resolution of 960x234. Is this going to be a problem with displaying an instrument on this panel? What will it look like if 640x480 is the best I can do with this?

I've read that the aspect ratio of the small LCD is about 4:1 which is an odd ratio.

[Bob Reed]

Well 4:1 is standard TV ratio so that is not strange, but, you may have a problem displaying gages in 640x480 if you are not running FS in that res. Might want to test this! Can someone who is doing this jump in? Westozy?

[Trevor Hale]

I display my FMC on the 5"LCD I use 800 X 600 resolution on it, and it is only capable of TV, it looks excellent. When I goto 1024 X 768 the screen just repositions it self as the mouse moves, almost like the video card just knows.

It should work, You will have to try it to know for sure.

[Bob Reed]

Trevor, aren't you using PM? That is different. Skunk is going to use FS gages to display some of them. I think this will change things a bit.

[Trevor Hale]

Yes I am using PM Now, but when I lived in Toronto, I did the method he is talking about.

It works.

[Michael Carter]

That's correct. I'm only going to use the HSI from the Dreamfleet 727. No PM, AM, or any other M.

[wollo]

You can use a PS1 lcd screen and modify it for vga, This supposedly gives a better picture than S-video or composite. I should be doing this in the next week or two. I'll let you know how this goes.

[Bob Reed]

I have used them both ways and I see no improvement of the picture. Was a lot of work for no gain. In fact I almost think the RGB signal was better! Just my 2 cents.

[Michael Carter]

You can use a PS1 lcd screen and modify it for vga, This supposedly gives a better picture than S-video or composite. I should be doing this in the next week or two. I'll let you know how this goes.

I almost purchased one of these on E-bay the other night, but I was unsure of the screen size in width and height. I know it's 5" diagonal, but can you tell me the WxH? I don't seem to be able to find this information

It has to be a minimum of 4" wide and a max of about 4.25". I've found the hacks on the internet and I'll modify it for VGA since it's cheaper than buying a converter.