g-bvob.net

Some lighting photos

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:20:54 +0000

Not great quality but here’s a few shots of the overhead lighting running. Got to hook up the dimmers and a couple more spots but it’s rewired now into a simpler more logical circuit.

First post for 2012

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:23:27 +0000

It’s been too long since I posted any news.

Took it gently over the winter, but we’re all fired up to progress, shame that there isn’t enough time.

I’ve made a lot of progress on the electrics within the cockpit. Bought an input card from Leo Bodnar (www.leobodnar.com) to check out, and all tests so far have worked fine, I think I’ve got the hang of hooking up potentiometers, rotary encoders and basic switches, the card makes it simplicity itself, no soldering required and just plug and play into FSUIPC. The overhead panel on the F27’s very simple, and all the switches work perfectly with the BU0836X card. So time to buy a couple more and we’ll get the overhead panels working in FSX.

Cockpit lighting is almost complete now, got the dome light and overhead spots hooked up yesterday as well as the Grimes utility light – it’s dimmable and has interchangeable red/white lens, looks really neat. All the light posts in the overhead are lit and I’m working through various indicator lights so they operate in test mode, or as a system is activated when a particular switch is thrown, eg when Water Meths is selected on. The effect with all the lighting in place at night is just great. I’m using a 24V supply so things aren’t quite as bright as they might be, but hopefully the bonus will be increased lamp life.

The main panel has been stripped and a bit of work with the angle grinder has cleared space for 2 monitors. Engine instruments on a 19″ monitor behind the centre panel are in place, but I need to get a couple of faceplates cut from aluminium sheet for the Captain’s side to better fit a 21″ widescreen monitor and on the F/O’s side so I can mount the servo driven instruments. Just have to finalise the drawings and then we can get them cut on a CNC machine.

I picked up a Smiths SEP2 autopilot control panel and the F27 de-ice panel a couple of weeks ago so another 2 spots are filled, which will leave only 10 blanking plates to cover up all the remaining holes.

It’s good to be static (once in a while)

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:17:00 +0000

Every so often a piece of FS-related software comes along which puts a big smile on your face. I’ve long been tempted to get-online, but I’ve grown used to having airports full of detailed AI aircraft and losing that once in multiplayer mode was a downside. Browsing the FSDeveloper.com forum I came across a utility called SAMM – Static Aircraft .mdl Maker, programmed by Don Grovestine. It turned out that this was software designed to do just what it says – make static aircraft models using either original flyable or AI aircraft. It is several months into development, up to version 10 by this stage so many of the bugs had been ironed out, and best of all as freeware it is priced perfectly.

SAMM looked like the answer to my prayers – could I populate my 25 or so detailed European airfields with quality static aircraft to improve the visual atmosphere of online flying? Furthermore when flying offline could this overcome one of the drawbacks with Ultimate Traffic 2 which only injects aircraft into FSX just before schedule departure time? Well the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes”, and in response to the second question the ability to park static GA, bizjets and cargo aircraft adds significantly to those often forgotten parts of airports away from the passenger terminals, on- or off-line. SAMM will convert just about any original aircraft model designed for FS2002 and FS2004, but not those built for FSX. But that’s no problem, all the freeware AI-traffic models were originally built for FS2004, and they work perfectly in FSX, although you may wish to convert textures to .dds format.

Belfast/International now has some cargo traffic!

New Video

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:25:54 +0000

I thought I’d have a go at making a video to show how the visual system has progressed. To correct the projected image for a curved screen I’m using FlyElise-NG software (www.fly.elise-ng.net), but at the moment have only used the warp grip. Next will come edge blending to try and improve the projector image joins. More by luck than judgement the cockpit windscreen posts hide the joins perfectly from the captain’s seating position, so the joins are far more noticeable in the video than in actual use.

This is a circuit at Rockhampton, Queensland using a combination of Orbx’s superb scenery, with the freeware airport scenery made by Anthony Lynch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0JqfSbPh14

GPS Brainwave

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:22:40 +0000

I’ve been struggling to decide what to do about a GPS installation in ‘OB. I was looking for a decent Bendix King KLN90B but couldn’t find a solution for FSX, the simulations which are around are very basic and use the FSX navigation database which is out-of-date and incomplete. The Russian Project Tupolev team produced an excellent KLN90B unit for their Tu-154M which runs off a database which can be kept current using Navigraph data. It includes SID/STAR data, reproduces most of the functions of the real thing and is free, but it only works in FS2004 and not in FSX.

I was about to part with cash for a 2nd-rate representation, but then thought I’d give FS2004 a try on the network with Wideview. Wideview doesn’t allow aircraft instruments to be driven across a network, but it drives the GPS perfectly! Magic , GPS problem solved – now all I have to do is dust off that 8-year old PC from the spare room to run the GPS display on a 10″ monitor I kept for a rainy day.

June Update

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:31:49 +0000

Not much activity on the blog, but making progress on the build.

I took the plunge and bought a new PC powered by an overclocked i5 2500 Sandybridge processor – the machine just eats FSX it is so fast. Using Wideview it’s now driving the forward and left external views, and the old i7 has a less stressful life handling just the right view.

I’ve temporarily got the captain’s and centre instruments running on two LCDs within the cockpit. The layout’s pretty much finalised, and Reality XP’s WX500 weather radar and a TCAS display from DBS are now installed. Overhead and other systems are running on a third screen, which I’ll also move into the cockpit. Along with the CP Flight navcom control heads everything I need to fly is now working, apart from DME display and a decent KLN90B GPS which seems impossible to find in FSX at the moment.

Next step is to fit my Flight Illusion DME unit into the glareshield bracket, then clean out OB’s main instrument panel and get the 2 monitors installed behind it.

Updated Gauges

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:59:18 +0000

I got a nice Easter present with an email from Fraser Mckay over in Scotland. Fraser has created a number of excellent FS2004 panels for classic British airliners like the HS748 and Viscount – they’re widely available online and well worth checking out. He’s also produced F27 and Fairchild FH227 work and sent me the Beta of his latest version. The gauge image quality is superb, take a look at the engine instruments which I’ve resized and repositioned on a blank test panel, these will be perfect for the centre console on ‘OB.

If it doesn’t look right …………

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:10:05 +0000

Slow progress over the last few months. A change in job has meant less time at home and I’m also trying to undertake a major change to computer hardware and visuals.

First step was to start a network so that one PC acts as the aircraft and my newer i7 is only used for generating the outside view. My older PC is 3 years old, but fortunately with graphics sliders set to minimum it will run FSX quite happily at a steady smooth 30 frames per second. As this machine will only be used to display instrumentation and act as an interface for mouse control of switches lack of an external view is no disadvantage. Splitting the workload will allow a faster and smoother simulation overall.

The key to this working was to introduce a programme called Wideview (www.wideview.it). This software allows aircraft position and orientation to be shared across a network so panoramic scenery views can be set up. Their website explains things better than I can so that’s all I’ll say for now!

Secondly, and harder to resolve, is to get the external view correct. I’ve been using a neat box, the Triple Head 2 Go from Matrox, which takes a single video output and spans it across three monitors (or projectors), with minimal frame rate loss. However the Field of View produced by the TH2Go is a lot less than 180 degrees. Stretching the image horizontally gives a 180 degree projected image, but the result is a very distorted, elongated image at either side. At first that’s not so much of an issue when flying, but it soon becomes apparent that a 30 degree turn gives a 45-50 degree swing on the visuals, so it’s not truly possibly to fly a visual circuit. Moreover on the ground it’s a complete disaster, the view when making a 90 degree runway exit is all wrong.

The solution is to break the single external view into 3 separate “windows” each giving a 60 degree field of view, and full left-right viewing when put side by side. In FSX that’s very easy to do by adding additional camera views to an .FLT configuration file. The improvement is dramatic, but in this hobby it always seems to be a case of 1 step forward, followed instantly by ½ step backwards. The downside is a significant drop in frame rate, resulting in a less smooth external image. With default FSX or Orbx scenery I’m still getting low 20s on the fps on the ground, which is perfectly acceptable, but try that at a detailed add-on airport and the resultant 10 fps doesn’t work.

So next step is to investigate 2 options – hopefully initially get the multi-window configuration working in FS9 to take advantage of what I hope will be significantly higher frame rate with that version of the sim and then secondly see if the finances will stretch to another PC. Then I can further share the workload, one machine would just drive the straight ahead view and another the side views. Sometimes I just hate this pastime, it’s a never ending spiral chasing hardware improvements.

Let there be light……..

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:54:25 +0000

Much progress has been made this week, the projectors have a permanent home in the ceiling and I have loosely fitted speakers for the 5.1 surround sound system. The cockpit structure gives plenty of options for speaker location. Even just sitting in a garden chair and using an old Saitek joystick the visual and sound effects are better than I’d hoped for. The accoustics inside the cockpit are amazing, I spent an hour I should have been working with a few beers just relaxing, soaking in Sabbath, Dio and Ozzy at high volume. The Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop soundset for FS sounds just as good! Fortunately the combination of cockpit and building means noise levels outside are minimal unless you crank it up to arena levels (or 11 on the dial!).

The two side projector positions need adjusting about 6 or 7 inches further from the screen, but other than that it’s pretty spot on. Time for testing of the 2 image warping software options to correct for the circular screen.

I’ve set up the main PC admin screen on a TFT screen outside the cockpit to make life easier, the projectors will now only be used for the flightsim view. I need to order a couple more long monitor cables and we’ll put 2 TFT’s inside to provide basic instrumentation before moving onto the next step.

First Screentest

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:47:43 +0000

I carried out the first test of the projectors on the curved screen today before it started to rain – until the projectors are mounted in the ceiling I have to move the cockpit outside. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the demo Nthusim software to run other than to configure the alignment grid, so the flightsim image isn’t yet corrected but I’m really encouraged that the concept works, it just needs to be refined.

First takeoff in FSX with FlyTampa’s excellent Grenadines scenery, I wish they’d do some more of the Lesser Antilles.