MAIN COMPUTER AND COM’S OUT TO CONTROL COMPUTER.

Overview.

For the mechanical people and people that are not much into software, this page is easy. If you’re a software guru then you are probably away ahead of me and shouldn’t really be here.

There are (as I know) 3 ways of getting info out of flight simulator and sending it to another computer, via serial, they are…

1/… FSUIPC out and spending the rest of your life working with the SDK to do what you want it to do…… I’m not that young.

2/… Using “flight data recorder” (FLTREC.dll) and yes this works great (with a few tricks) as output on the RS232 but frame rates take a knock.

3/… Using FSUIPC and CHCOMM3A. CHCOMM3A is an absolutely brilliant program for getting info out of the flight sim and sending it down the RS232.

FSUIPC is a program for “hooking” out data from flight simulator… To find it, go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html or do a search for it by name…unfortunately, to use the “send” data on another computer you need to be an expert on software development or be very young,,, both of which, I am not.

CHCOMM3A is a program that uses FSUIPC but sends all the required data out on the RS232 port (of your choice) in a straight ASCII bit stream.

Chcomm3a.zip Has just been through a revamp to include a free key for access to FSUIPC so if you use chcomm3a.zip you don’t need to license FSUIPC The whole registration happens automatically when it gets run for the first time … So all the software for this whole mission is FREE !!!!

A small digress here … chcomm3a.zip is exactly the same as chcomm3.zip (The “a” identifies it as including the automatic free key.) Both install a program called chcomm.exe so hence my reference to both.

Get chcomm3a.zip and its all done for you. Chcomm3a.zip (the one to use) is available here www.flightsim.com and search for chcomm3a (Don’t forget the “a” or you will download the old one) Both these files contain “get it going real quick” instructions.

As you can see from the above, all the software is FREE !!! a special thanks must go out to all those involved….

Claude Hanssens … for the original chcomm and to agreeing to the update.

Peter Dowson for FSUIPC and also the free key to suit chcomm.

Erich Leonhard for being the driving force behind all this update or none of this would have happened.

Thanks Guys !!! from us all.

Of particular note to the legal heads out there .. I have had e’mail contact with Claude and he agreed to the “modification” of his original chcomm.exe to include the free key and the additional text files. Claude advised he is not available for support !!! Claude has moved on with his interests and we must respect that .. although hopefully we may see him back amongst us one day !!

That aside, lets look at what CHCOMM3A can do. First you install FSUIPC which is a very simple process and from there it is in place and ready for other programs (chcomm) to interface with it. In our case chcomm talks to FSUIPC and gets the required data from FS2004 that you need to get the platform to move… Roll and pitch.

Now CHCOMM takes the required info from flight sim (via fsuipc) and sends it out the RS232 (of your choice). Chcomm runs via an INI file and what you want, you get. In my case, I only wanted pitch and roll so I disabled all the other stuff that it would do and made my program on the external computer to suit.

An easy way to test your output is hook it to another computer using a ‘null modem’ cable or a ’nul modem’ adaptor with an ordinary serial cable and use ‘hyper terminal’ (Its on most operating systems, but you may have to install ALL ‘communications’ sub programs) and set it up for the same baud rate etc…. After which, scrolling down your screen should be the pitch and roll.

This setup has been tested and works with FS2002, FS2004 and Combat Flight Simulator 2 with Windows ME. I now currently use it with FS2004 and Windows 2000.

And my settings in CHCOMM.INI Download it here …. http://www.jimspage.co.nz/files.zip

CONCLUSION.

This whole setup worked really well considering it was only a trial machine.

Doing things this way had the great advantage that you can get each thing going and confirmed as operational, before moving on to the next stage.

IF I WERE TO BUILD THIS AGAIN ?

I’d do it the same way again. There would have to be a very good reason why not.

Updated 25-5-06