Just a random thought or two...

[Michael Carter]

With all of the plu-n-play devices for builders out there like FMC, radio heads, nav heads, and the like, what are the chances that someone could come up with a stand alone plug-n-play weather radar display?

I searched last night knowing that my chances of finding anything were about zero, but I did anyway.

A stand alone GPS is possible by extracting the GPS data from FS to display on a unit that has a serial or USB input, but what about WX radar?

What would that take software-wise to be able to offer something like this?

How is this replicated in the multi-million dollar Level-D sims?

Could a real radar display be modified and fed data extracted from FS in some way? This is way over my head, but I'd be interested in hearing some opinions on feasability and integration of something like this.

Mike has a working RWR display from an F-16 so it shouldn't be too far of a stretch to do the same with weather...should it?

[David Rogers]

I would say that plug n play is out, but I would imagine it would be feasible to use something like Reality XPs weather radar add-on, linked into a PSOne screen....

www.reality-xp.com

[Michael Carter]

I have that WX radar as installed with the DF727.

I was hoping for something stand-alone using this type software.

What about a single board computer with the Reality XP radar with a TFT that could be run on a network?

[David Rogers]

Yeah, I dare say that would be do-able actually ..... sounds like you have a new sub-project on your hands!

[Michael Carter]

I don't have the technical expertise to build something of this sort.

What I really wonder is why no one else has that does posses the know-how.

Single board computers and development kits are widely available and so are TFT developement kits. I wouldn't have any idea where to start with either one.

I just think this stuff up. I can't actually design and build it.

[AndyT]

Post me a link to the TFT development kits and I'll see what I can do.

[737NUT]

I'd be interested in one as well since i am also building a 727.

[Michael Carter]

TFT and single board computer kits are at www.Mouser.com

[AndyT]

I've been meaning to build a USB screen but I just have not gotten around to it yet. I'll look over the Dev-kit and see if anything meets my specs.

[Tomlin]

I don't have the technical expertise to build something of this sort...

I just think this stuff up. I can't actually design and build it.

LOL, Im right there with ya! I contacted a developer a while back begging them to create a networkable FMS to complement their other networkable products, but the answer was basically while it would sell very well, the amount of man hours to develop something like that was enormous, especially since his team was very small. I think that the wx radar is another example of this possibly.

Oh, how I wish that Reality XP (for you and others) would make their stuff networkable, and how I wish that Ernie Alston FMS software was networkable (for me and others).

If someone could just come up with a FMS/CDU package that was networkable and affordable, even if it was not quite as feature-rich as some of the other packages out there, it would SELL like crazy.