What have you done for your simulator today?

[sagrada737]

Hello Bernard,

It's a fact that we live in a world that desires instant gratification.  We all have a need for affirmation for who we are and what we do.  That's the worldly part of being human.

The real question for all of is...  Where and how do we find true peace and contentment in how we view life, within our hearts, and in the things we do?  If the answer is through others, then we truly miss the boat.  For when we depend on others, we are often disappointed, as we typically have an expectation to be recognized and have a bone tossed our way.  Truth be known, when we don't receive accolades for what we do and share with others, we tend to have our own pity party -- not feelin' the love.

However, the reality on this Forum is most represented by the sharing our love for building Flight Simulators, which for most folks, is a hobby.  That said, the nature of building anything complex, is that it is typically filled to the brim with multiple disciplines, stretching to the max the mental, physical, and financial capability of those embarking on such projects -- Sim building is no exception.

A good example of exercising capability to the MAX is Micky's FlightDeck.  What he is doing is no less than amazing, and if that were not enough, he has a heart to share it with others!  That's the true spirit of what I think this Forum is all about.

There is an old expression, "Feed your success, and starve your failures."   In the art and practice of Sim building, we enjoy a stream of little failures as we strive to come up with successful Sim solutions.  When we have come to a successful end-point, we often want to share our success with others -- be that a small Switch Module, or something more major like the acquisition of a T-38 to turn into a Sim.  On one end of that scale are the minor accomplishments, and the other extreme end are the massive projects like what you have accomplished with your 747, and now your T-38 project.  What can one say to this, except it's all good -- all worth sharing -- all worth commenting on.

So...  Hats off to your Bernard.  When it comes to Sim building, your bandwidth, aspirations, capabilities, fortitude, determination, and shear scale of your projects are way beyond what most folks on this Forum can comprehend.  It seems that whatever you do, you do it BIG!   Where most people look at a blank sheet of paper and all they see are obstacles and dilemma.  Not you!  You look at a blank sheet of paper and see your dreams -- then go and make them come true.  You are a "get it done kind of guy"!  In that regard, you are an inspiration to those here on this Forum.

I think I can speak for everyone on this Forum...  We all admire what you have accomplished with your Sim projects, and especially delight in reading your updates/photos on the T-38 Sim project.  Awesome undertaking! 

Keep up the good work!

Mike

[Garys]

All I will say Bernard is that your not cooler than Elvis until those seats are recovered in Red Velvet Velour - You know what to do, now get it done 

[Garys]

Clocks, Finally working.
Bernard... do you know how to use photoshop?...common man, I left the door wide open for you!

[RayS]

Everything works on this Avidyne EX5000 MFD except the Altitude data. Took it for a flight last night to test the LAT/LON conversion accuracy. It's spot-on.

I have a whole bunch of ARINC-429 test gear on the way to help me figure out how to get ALT data into this thing....

[RayS]

This is more for Bernard than anyone else... ;-)

I have always loved the lines, the curves, the graceful beauty of the T-38. She is simply a gorgeous aircraft.

"For a plane to fly well, it has to be beautiful."

--Marcel Dassault

[ame]

Everything works on this Avidyne EX5000 MFD except the Altitude data. Took it for a flight last night to test the LAT/LON conversion accuracy. It's spot-on.

I have a whole bunch of ARINC-429 test gear on the way to help me figure out how to get ALT data into this thing....

Are you taking $GPGGA? That's the only sentence containing altitude AFAIK.

[RayS]

I've tried the Following:

$GPGGA,210230,3855.4487,N,09446.0071,W,1,07,1.1,370.5,M,-29.5,M,,*

$GNGGA,001043.00,4404.14036,N,12118.85961,W,1,12,0.98,1113.0,M,-21.3,M*


However I think the $GPGGA and $GNGGA is for Fixes and not for Ownship, as the Avidyne doesn't show any altitude info using $GPGGA. (It does correctly show everything else in that sentence and instead of the center target being an aircraft outline, it's just a white + sign.

I would so much rather do this through the NMEA protocol rather than ARINC429, but I think this MFD is unique in that it gets ALT/HDG data from the EXP5000 PFD, then it's processed as TAWS data in the MFD.

[ame]

I've tried the Following:

$GPGGA,210230,3855.4487,N,09446.0071,W,1,07,1.1,370.5,M,-29.5,M,,*

$GNGGA,001043.00,4404.14036,N,12118.85961,W,1,12,0.98,1113.0,M,-21.3,M*


However I think the $GPGGA and $GNGGA is for Fixes and not for Ownship, as the Avidyne doesn't show any altitude info using $GPGGA. (It does correctly show everything else in that sentence and instead of the center target being an aircraft outline, it's just a white + sign.

I would so much rather do this through the NMEA protocol rather than ARINC429, but I think this MFD is unique in that it gets ALT/HDG data from the EXP5000 PFD, then it's processed as TAWS data in the MFD.

Ok. I pasted the first example into two online parsers and got errors. Are you sure it is correctly constructed?

That aside I concur that your unit might collect altitude data from another instrument and ignore GPS altitude (because it's notoriously inaccurate).

[RayS]

Thanks for checking those sentences. Both of them parse and are accepted by the Avidyne without issue.

If the incoming NMEA data isn't valid the unit will report "Nav Source Data Format Error", or "Nav Data is NOT Valid!"

(Maybe that parser needs the checksum as well?)

Regardless, I'll keep experimenting with it but I suspect you are correct in that the unit won't accept altitude data from a GPS source because of the margin for error.

I ended up purchasing one of these yesterday to play around with. Seems promising.
https://www.cockpit-concept.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=25_41&products_id=88

I also have a few ARINC429 Arduino daughterboards based on the Holt HI-3593 transceiver chip but I haven't purchased those chips yet... Obscenely expensive...

[RayS]

I also have one of these: A Holt HI-3110 Gen. Purpose SPI Eval Board with an ARINC429 3593 eval board, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to use it. 

[ame]

Thanks for checking those sentences. Both of them parse and are accepted by the Avidyne without issue.

If the incoming NMEA data isn't valid the unit will report "Nav Source Data Format Error", or "Nav Data is NOT Valid!"

(Maybe that parser needs the checksum as well?)

Regardless, I'll keep experimenting with it but I suspect you are correct in that the unit won't accept altitude data from a GPS source because of the margin for error.

The two randomly chosen online parsers probably do expect a checksum. I'm surprised that your instrument accepts NMEA strings without them.

[RayS]

The two randomly chosen online parsers probably do expect a checksum. I'm surprised that your instrument accepts NMEA strings without them

Oh it does. I have to generate my own checksum for the sentence to be valid in the MFD.

My Arduino code to create the checksum:

byte convertToCRC(char *buff) {
  // NMEA CRC: XOR each byte with previous for all chars between '$' and '*'
  char c;
  byte i;
  byte start_with = 0;
  byte end_with = 0;
  byte crc = 0;

  for (i = 0; i < buff_len; i++) {
    c = buff;
    if(c == '$'){
      start_with = i;
    }
    if(c == '*'){
      end_with = i;
    }     
  }
  if (end_with > start_with){
    for (i = start_with+1; i < end_with; i++){ // XOR every character between '$' and '*'
      crc = crc ^ buff ;  // compute CRC
    }
  }
  else { // else if error, print a msg (to both ports)
    //Serial.println("CRC ERROR");
    //HWSERIAL1.println("CRC ERROR");
  }
  return crc;
  //based on code by Elimeléc López - July-19th-2013
}

[RayS]

I just read the entire Avidyne EX5000 maintenance guide and learned I can only inject ALT and OAT data through an ARINC429 port. The MFD will think is is coming from an EXP5000 unit or a Garmin variant if it's configured that way. (I can configure it as Avidyne has some secret setup menus. )

I built a small circuit tonight to convert TTL signals to ARINC429 signals but I'm afraid of actually connecting it. I really don't have a EX5000C MFD to spare... :-)

[RayS]

Had to take a break from working on the ARINC429 data to the Avidyne MFD.

I'm sure everyone in this hobby is painfully aware of the Ripple Effect: One very small change can snowball into several major projects.

That's exactly what has happened with the Avidyne project.

The sim is back in the hangar undergoing a (seemingly simple and easy) MIP color change. She's moving out of the '70s paint scheme into a more updated, modern 'Blackhawk' look.

Talk about opening a can of worms!Not a valid attachment ID.Not a valid attachment ID.Not a valid attachment ID.

[navymustang]

What a great upgrade. The immersive effect has increased because it is what we expect the interior to look like !

Great job.

[RayS]

Some systems still need to be reconnected but overall I think it came out looking great!

[FredK]

Terrific!

fred K

[FSAddon_boss]

Haven't done a thing since my operation....... that's 4 months without activity. 

And now the heatwave season starts here in Italy, and I still don't have an airco installed in my sim hangar...... grrrrrr.....

I couldn't build anything anyway, because I now am in the midst of an attic cleaning, opening all moval boxes from our previous two moves, and throwing away lots of stuff. My sim floor is a total mess for now..... snifffff....

I was making inroads into learning to connect my old hardware, and also bought a 3D printer and did my first gauge rims......

Oh well...... it took me 40 years to get to this point, so a few more won't matter I suppose...

[bernard S]

flight controls hydraulics ..not an easy job

[sagrada737]

Hey Bernard,

I'm impressed that you are making the hydraulics active.  Be extra careful concerning hydraulic pressures and potential for leaks at such high pressures.  Definitely wear hand and eye protection.

It's pretty exciting what you are doing!  How about a video of the hydraulic test?

Mike

 

[RayS]

Not much going on here. Sat down with the Avidyne EX5000 MFD to work on a LAT/LON bug.

It was discovered during an East-bound flight as I crossed from -100.00 00 to -99.99 99 Longitude. Turned out to be a lead zero-padding issue.

Reworked the code to send -099.99 99 instead. Same issue for Latitude but that fix was a bit easier using the same methodology. 

[bernard S]

been working with Medusa  right PITA

[bernard S]

pic :-)

[MistyBlue]

Ok, so it's not a flight sim, but my side sim-build is now almost complete.  This virtual pinball machine can play hundreds of classic pinball games.  It has a working coin mechanism, addressable LED lights sync'd to the games, solenoids to reproduce the feel and sound of flippers and bumpers, a gear motor to replicate mechanical sounds, table vibration, table surround sound so the ball sounds like it's moving around the table, hi def main sound system with sub for immersive sound, and on and on.  A fun project if you're looking for something different.

I also finally got my 737-700 CB panels in.  They will definitely add to the immersion when complete.  It's going to take a lot of tweaking to get them to fit properly as the rear flange of the FDS shell is interfering with the CB's, which are mounted externally on my roll away rear bulkhead.  Turns out when you roll the bulkhead up to the back of the FDS shell the flange blocks some of the CBs at the top.  As with most things in this hobby, you have to do a lot of custom work and tweaking to get what you really want.

[bernard S]

now that is super cool   a pinball machine just the right touch for mancave i have shiney pole with base too add ;-)