What best to interface my cockpit to the sim?

[blueskydriver]

Hello Glenn,

Your choice to go with OC cards is a good one since you are interfacing real gauges. You need to find the downloadable manuals on the OC website and print them off, as you will really need them.

Plan to use the SIOC program for the OC cards. It has a learning curve, but with your background you should have no problems. As for FSUIPC, look at it as a translator of sorts. FS9 and FSX uses offsets to describe, define and deduce what and how to do things with your buttons, switches, gauges and controls. Offsets are described by names, as well as the offset value. The name defines what the offset does. The deduction comes into play as to when you or the FS9/FSX performs an action.

FSUIPC works with those deductions to perform those actions. For example, you have a landing gear handle that uses a switch. The switch is an off/on state or 0/1, so you would use an offset for landing gear down for the off state and use an offset for landing gear up for the on state.

Of course this is an easy example; a more complicated one is a rotary switch. Say for example you have rotary switch that is used for 4 values, like the Engine Start switch of a B737. So you have start, off, continuous and flight. Now, the engine start switch would use the same offset for all 4 locations, but you use a bit value of that offset to define each location. Thus, start could be bit 1, off would be bit 0, continuous could be bit 2 and flight could be bit 3.

If you notice I said could be, that is because for this switch it likely will be, but for other rotary switches those bit values could represent something else, not in a logical flow such as this example for the start switch of the 737. The thing is, you have to get FSUIPC and the manuals to learn more.... Peter Dowson, the developer, should be given the civilian medal of honor for making this program. There are so many other programs that rely on FSUIPC to make things happen. It seems you will never hear of a builder not using FSUIPC!

Finally, you need to contact Rob or 727/737Nut as he is known for interfacing real gauges, using OC Cards, SIOC and FSUIPC. You can find him here on MYC.

Good Luck with your project,

BSD

[Atomic_Sheep]

I concur... nothing wrong with bodnars card... but doesnt give u much flexibility in the long run unelss you want 50 usb cables sticking out of your computer.

[notgotaclue]

I concur... nothing wrong with bodnars card... but doesnt give u much flexibility in the long run unelss you want 50 usb cables sticking out of your computer.

You mean you have less than 50 USB cables connected to your computer?
Lightweight
Allan.

[blueskydriver]

Mine doesn't have 50 USB cables, but it has 50 gerbils that run on wheels to keep it working...

[dazchad]

i don't think you can interface gerbils or can you?

[blueskydriver]

That depends on what you're willing to stick into them! ...lol

[Mike.Powell]

i don't think you can interface gerbils or can you?

Isn't that what an Arduino grblShield is for??? http://blog.makezine.com/arduino/grbl

[Atomic_Sheep]

That depends on what you're willing to stick into them! ...lol

Must have got them hooked on some fairy dust now they can't get enough :P, keep coming back for more and the simulator is as reliable as a mechanical one .

You mean you have less than 50 USB cables connected to your computer?
Lightweight
Allan.

And nope, at the moment I don't, my blog would suggest my simulator is not very far advanced at the moment .