A320 and X-Plane Home cockpit

[OmniAtlas]

Hi HellG -- thank you for the informative post.

I do not see a beta 2.10 available for download on the X-Plane QPAC forum -- will this be available to the public?
Linux has its advantages

CP Flight has a x-plane driver for the FCU, I am not sure about the FDS MCDU -- I have not seen anyone successfully interface this hardware with QPAC and I am not too sure if it is even possible.

Regards,

Ben

[HellG]

Hi Ben,
as we paid QPAC to add a special interface into their A320 model I think we got some exclusive preview to test the new functions. But these interfaces are only to connect our own experimental FMS to it.

Interfacing the MCDU is quite simple: On the output side there are datarefs for each line, each color and each size and on the input side there are command refs for each key. We send the output strings to an Raspberry Pi that runs a small QT program which just prints the content of the strings in the right line with the right color and size. The keys are also accessed via the network and are then translated to single commands within XPlane. Very simple and straight forward. The only mess is the network protocol of the hardware, but this is made by a french company and althought the look and feel is quite realistic (we have a real A320 in the hangar to compare with: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefa...3/339_read-277) the interface is horrible. So as long as the FDS MCDU has some kind of interface description it is just a matter of connecting the wires...

At the moment wer are searching for an overhead panel to integrate in our cockpit simulator. So far we got a sample panel from JAA Simulators but I am not convinced of the switches they use. Our next option is the one from Skalarki Electronics but maybe we investigate also other manufacturers.

Regards,
Helge.

[OmniAtlas]

Cheers -- I will continue to observe QPAC and see how it evolves. Jeehell FMGS offers 'plug and play' setup -- especially with FDS equipment and IITCreator; is FMGS something your team is not considering?

[HellG]

No, so far we did not consider to use Jeehell FMGS or similar products based on FSX and due to the research work we plan to do with the simulator I don't think that we will in the future.

Until we got the A320 as research aircraft we had a VFW-614 (two engine medium type jet plane build in the late 60s) that got retrofit with a fly-by-wire system developed in-house. For that system we developed most of our software like FMS, autopilot logic and displays (PFD, ND, HSI etc.). Although our cockpit simulator has the shape of an A320 cockpit up to now it was completely based on our old research aircraft. Since two years we are switching more and more to a "real" A320 simulation but still we need flexible structures and open interfaces to adapt the simulator to the projects we work on. As we do also human factors evaluations of e.g. new cockpit displays we need to create workload that is not directly related to the investigation and that is why we want to install an overhead panel. If we finished the installation I will post some picture here.

Regards,
Helge.

[OmniAtlas]

Hi Helge,

FMGS has an API and may be worth considering down the line if it is flexible and fits your purpose.

Interesting your research centres around human factors - my work surrounds occupational health and the aviation industry would be something I would be interested in looking at further down my fellowship pathway.

Do you have any research available to the general public?

Thank you,

Ben