The B200 Project

[Bob Reed]

After many hours of thought, I am about to restart the B200 project. I had thoughts of going back to the 737 but, it will be the B200. I am working on the room now and should start hard construction in the next 2 weeks. The TQ that I got from some guy on here (hehehehe) is on it's way to be re-built by a good friend that wants to be involved in the project. So with that, off we go again. Lets see where we get.

[RayS]

Hold the vision, Bob!

[Trevor Hale]

That's one heck of a throttle. Bob this is a good decision bud.

[XOrionFE]

Awesome Bob

We'll be watching

Scott

[geeman47]

Love the King Air!  Looking forward to progress reports Bob.  Good luck.

[tkellogg]

I love the 737 but if I had to do it all over I would choose the King Air. With over 1000 hours in the Beech 99 I can assure you it's a blast to fly. I can make that bird sing for me. The most fun I ever had was in that plane. Almost better than sex. And I never had to buy the plane any jewelry. 

[jackpilot]

Good news
Go 4 it Bob.
Did you get those parts from NZ?
Jack

[Bob Reed]

Good news
Go 4 it Bob.
Did you get those parts from NZ?
Jack

Well, yes.... Yes I did.. Maybe from one of your crew!

[Trevor Hale]

Almost better than sex.

I assure you with the issues I have had with my Beech 99, I vote for Sex LOL.  Its waaaaaay better than the headaches this thing causes me. LOL

Bob I am looking forward to seeing you get back into this..  No throwing your hands in the air anymore LOL

[Bob Reed]

Well for the first time since before June of 2013, my B200 project has a life. I just spent the last 2 hours flying the plane I will be using for this build. Have some work done in the area that will house the sim, the TQ is out being re-done and I am about to go down and drag out the MIP. It is so good to be back!

[Bob Reed]

Well a couple of pics, if I can stop flying long enough!  Anyway, this is the pilots side of the MIP and all that really nice wiring was Tyler!

[Bob Reed]

Great news for the project! My daughter and son in law just got a place and I will be getting the basement back!! more room then I know what to do with.. Well ok, not that much but...... YA!!!!!

[RayS]

Uhoh... I see a problem. Not so much with the wiring, which looks great, but with the switch types....

Now, before i tell you what's wrong, i will say that there is a plugin that corrects it, but i've never used it so i can't attest to it's usability.

In short, Xplane doesn't see switch "off" events. It only sees "on" events. This means that if you have your NAV lights set to turn on and off via a SPST switch, you can turn them on, but never back off because XP needs a seperate "on" event to turn them off. (confused yet?)

So, your panel is populated with SPST switches, which won't work unless you have this certain plugin that I can't recall at the moment.

Without the plugin, your entire cockpit needs to be outfitted with at least SPDT switches. I used a small-footprint toggle switch so a lot more of the backlight could get through.

[Bob Reed]

Uhoh... I see a problem. Not so much with the wiring, which looks great, but with the switch types....

Now, before i tell you what's wrong, i will say that there is a plugin that corrects it, but i've never used it so i can't attest to it's usability.

In short, Xplane doesn't see switch "off" events. It only sees "on" events. This means that if you have your NAV lights set to turn on and off via a SPST switch, you can turn them on, but never back off because XP needs a seperate "on" event to turn them off. (confused yet?)

So, your panel is populated with SPST switches, which won't work unless you have this certain plugin that I can't recall at the moment.

Without the plugin, your entire cockpit needs to be outfitted with at least SPDT switches. I used a small-footprint toggle switch so a lot more of the backlight could get through.

Not confused at all. I see exactly what you are saying, but I will not be talking directly to XP, I will be using the software for my interface card and using offsets through XPUIPC so before I jump off the bridge I will see what happens.   

[Trevor Hale]

You should be ok Bob, because the Interface software sends a different message for each position.  XPUIPC providing it has ALL Current offsets in it should be ok.

Trev

[Bob Reed]

Running tests with the interface tonight. All works as planned... I am controlling the sim with switches in my MIP!!!!! WOW this is AWESOME!!

[RayS]

It's my understanding that XPUIPC uses an INI file and that any missing offsets can be added manually.. I've not tested this feature yet...

[Bob Reed]

Ray, my interface does not talk to XPlane directly. It goes through XPUIPC. So my switch is going into XPlane via a FSX offset. All I know is it works as desired so I am very happy. So my switches are talking to XPlane via software. So it does not matter my switches are SPST.

[Bob Reed]

Well lots more work today. Still have a no go on the landing lights but I am still working on it. I just installed another piece of software that I forgot I owned! FSwidgets EFB. The jury is still out on it but i will give more information as I get it.

[Bob Reed]

In the last few days I have spent a lot of time flying.. I KNOW!!!! It has been great! I have also been working on the interface for my switches. It is all moving along. Yesterday I did more work on the area where the sim will go and today I drew up the plans for the base. I do not think there will be much building until after World Flight at this point. More to come!

[Bob Reed]

So with Worldflight in the mirror and I am getting set to head home, I find myself thinking about my project. Excited to get back working on it. I have made a few decisions while here (Sam's) flying. I will be using FSX and not X-Plane. Many reasons. The first one is, I am flying this aircraft (King Air B200) because I want to be able to fly low but not so slow! lol What is the use of flying low if there is no scenery to see? I know there is freeware out there for X-Plane but I downloaded some of that the other night and was disappointed with it. I have been working on the flight controls in fsx as I try to get FSX closer to X-Plane and so far so good! Anyway enough rambling back to the grind soon......

[Bob Reed]

Working on software and hardware tonight. Here is a taste of what I will be running for avionics...

[MLeavy737]

Looks Great Bob!!   LOVE the engine displays!!! LOL..     (Looking for the code from 3 years ago!!)

Mike L

[Sam Llorca]

Looks great Bob, can I have it?

[Bob Reed]

Looks great Bob, can I have it?

The software?