My Present Projects.

Link2fs-Multi…. (FSX only …. Any service pack ,, 32 or 64 bit)

This present mission came about out of frustration I suppose. Every time I went to do some “normal” flying ,,, I had to start a bundle of “other” programs to have all the things running that I normally use.

Quite some time ago I made a GPWS program that was completely user adjustable for any plane and any type of flying. There were no freeware GPWS programs on the net for FSX that were easily adjusted by the user. Also to fill the void of silence I needed some chatter going on.,,, After playing with some of them out there ,,, I decided to build my own ,,, again for easy user changes. Both these worked great and could be set up to suit my sort of flying. (Low, in rough weather,, up valleys etc) You don’t expect to hear much chatter if your miles out in the ocean but you expect heaps if your near a big airport,, well mine does that.

Then I started another motion program ,,, then I moved on to software to make my panel more interesting while flying ,,,, meters, LED’s etc. At the moment I am planning “other” things ,,, external electrical/mechanical happenings (stick shaker, seat belts, seat bumper, CB’s etc etc etc) and I am keen to incorporate semi-intelligent sound events around actual flying (Semi-interactive stuff) ,, again to liven up the cockpit and flying.

Anyway ,,,, To cut a very long story short ,,,, I started to combine everything into one program. Don’t be fooled by the 15 variables coming out of FSX ,,, there is a bloody site more than that coming out ,,, It just didn’t seem to be practical to display them all. I change what is shown to suit what I am programming at the time.

Everything comes out at framerate speed so there’s no delay in the information. ,,,, And no ,,, There appears to be no framerate hit.

You can see just about EVERYTHING is user adjustable ,, looks complicated but if the user takes ‘one page at a time’ and then ‘one line at a time’ and then saves that profile ,,, its all set up and ready to go with just 2 mouse clicks.

You are probably wondering what card does what ,,,, well any of the cards listed will work when it is finished. You don’t even need a card if all you want to do is ordinary sound stuff. If you have 1 card then you use that,,, if you have 2 or more you can use what you have wired up.

Looking closely at the first picture you will see a large letter next to each card settings dropdown ,,, in my case I have 2 Arduino Mega cards wired up at the moment. (1 for the motion system and 1 for the output) ,,, So one Arduino card is known as “C” (The output card) and the other as “D” (the motion card).

Now ,,, In the bottom picture you can see all the pin number box’s ,, the ones used start with “C” that means that its pin number 22 on board C which is the Arduino mega using com3.

If it were the Velleman card it would be (say) A02 indicating the Velleman card output pin no.2. I haven’t programmed all the boards in yet as its still just a work in progress ,,, however,,, I have been pleasantly surprised as to how easy its been to incorporate outputs for the different cards.

Yes ,,, On each page you can use a mixture of cards … So if you had (say) an Arduino card, a Velleman card and a Ruscool card then the above (lower) picture would show entries starting with “C” and “A” and also “K” etc. depending on which card the command was going to. ( Neat eh ??)

The Arduino cards can be a Duemilanove or a Mega. (it doesn’t matter)

I got to admit,, I’m really pleased as to how well this is coming together ,,, Its working great and my panel is really coming to life. (LED’s and meters so-far)

For the curious ,,,

The card input page (Not done yet ,,, what it does keeps changing)

The motion page ,,,, Not complete. (Well,, not pretty to look at)

The “Other” page ,,, I got plans for some neat stuff in here. Stay tuned.

Probably as time goes by,, there may be more pages added.

Oh,,, And Yes ,,, You can make your own sound files or download them from the net. (Your not stuck with the ones included)

And ,, No ,,, you don’t have to use all the sections of the program ,,, just use any section(s) you like. For

instance ,, if you just want the GPWS and/or the chatter stuff, then you don’t even need any cards.

This sort of thing really should have been a project at some flightsim forum and I hope it spurs some people along and do something similar.

For instance ,,, I wouldn’t have a clue as to what other people would want in the drop-down menus.

The end result isn’t “top-line” ,, its versatility and ease of use is aimed at the starting to medium flight simmer. The top-line guys can buy what they want.

When will it be released ??? I wouldn’t have a clue ,,,, if its ever finished or released at all. The main object of posting this is to spur people on to do things either individually or as a group and “do it for themselves” instead of reading all the “buy, buy, buy, stuff” or the “buy and brag” that’s currently in a lot of forums.

Summary ,,,,

Not much to say here really ,,,, Just an update of “where I’m at” for anyone that’s interested. Saves me having to type it all out in emails.

The project will continue although I wont get time at it for a couple of months. (busy doing other stuff.)

Dated 12 September 10