Back in Germany

I definitely left Chile the 31st of October and I am back in Garching since last saturday the 5th and back at work since monday the 7th.

Now that I am back in Garching it is time to set up the system to flight.

My old PC is really too old... it was already very old and slow a couple of years ago but now I found almost impossible to work with it. It is a P4 Fujitzu Siemens and I have to say that it never stopped working. The only failure in so many years has been an hard disk! I am now evaluating if it is the case to use the PC for some background not expansive task or to definitely retires it.

After a survey in the internet and in the shops in Munich, I bought a new machine from csl-computer. It has the components that I would have chosen by myself. In short: Intel Core i7 3.4Mhz, 16Gb RAM, 2Tb HD, NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 550 Ti with 4096 MB, Motherboard ASUS P8H67 Pro, USB 3.0,...

I am a little bit concerned about the graphic card. In principle it is a good one with its 4Gb RAM but I need to see it in action with the flight simulator. However, in my opinion, the graphic card is the only one component that is worst to upgrade in a couple of years to increase the performance of the whole machine. After it is usually better to change the computer itself. 

The network is also on the way. I choose a DSL with 6.000 kbit/s. It was enough in the past so it will hopefully be now again.

Knowing germany, I will probably have the PC and the network during this week or the first days of next week. 

Back to Europe

At the end of October I will come back to Europe after a wonderful period I spent in Chile.

Chile is a wonderful place that I suggest everybody to visit. The country offers a lot of special places for hiking, exploring, walking and whatever you like. The climate ranges from the cold south and its glaciers to the warm and dry desert of the northern part.

Talking about Chile is not in the scope of this blog of course but if you're curious take a look to some of the pictures I took in this 2 years looking at my albums.

From a personal point of view the time I spent here is invaluable. The experiences I did working at the observatory, the places I visited and especially the persons I meet here will be part of my life forever.

XPlane first tests

The first challenge is to find good liners for XPlane. For good liners I mean liners complex enough to be close (or, better, that I believe are close) to the real plane, with a good FMC for flying online and a good flight model.

After some browsing on the net, it seems that there are basically only 2 good liners: a 737 and A320. Unfortunately both of them come with no FMC even if it is possible to add but both of them are for free.

I have tested the 737 that seems quite interesting even if it is not comparable to FSX version of 737. But it is 100% free and as far as I recall there are no such good products available for FSX for free.

The flight model for this plane seems quite good. It was initially very nervous but after setting up my joystick it responds quite well.

The biggest problem is the lack of an FMC. It is possible to buy an FMC from the same site that delivers the plane but until now I tested only a freely available FMC: X-FMC.

X-FMC is generic in the sense that it is customizable for a lot of planes like the 737 or the FMC. It is quite complete with initialization pages, performances pages, routes, SIDs and STARs.

However the route is quite unrealistic, not smoothed at all and the plane does not follow it 100%. In the 737 this FMC is not well integrated in the sense that it works by setting the HDG and the appropriate vertical mode instead of VNAV and LNAV. This is enough for me to say that it is not acceptable as it is quite far from a good simulation of the systems.

But I kindly suggest this FMC as a chep solution and for flying offline.

Next step will to buy and test the x737FMC that claims to be 100% integrated in the x737. With the incoming version of X-Plane, I prefer to wait before buying.

XPlane 9 arrived

I bought XPlane 9.xx from the Laminar Reserach web site and arrived a few days ago.

I was surprised to receive the software in a so short time.

I was expecting a box but it was an envelope with the DVDs inside. I have to say that one of the DVD, the number 4, was missing. I contacted the support and they provide for sending me the DVD (not yet arrived).

The installation procedure is quite easy on windows. What I liked is that it is clean in the sense that does not write tons of things in the registry: it creates only a folder with all the software, libraries and so on inside.

I could not install all the sceneries for Europe as they are right in the 4th DVD. :-(

There are a lot of planes ready to fly. The Piaggio P180 seems to be one of the best but it is very nervous and difficult to fly. i have to say that a new version of this plane has been published a few days ago.

Looking for a serious plane to fly I downloaded a B737 and an A320. They comes with a lot of liveries.

The plane did not work and I discovered that the my XP was quite old, something like v9.22 instead of the last one (9.60 at this moment). It was quite surprising but after installing the planes worked and I liked it considering that they are freely available, especially the 737.

I am looking for a plane to fly on IVAO and to use for my home cockpit too.

Return date postponed again

It seems that my temporary transfer in Chile lasts longer then expected: at the present the return date has been postponed to may 2011.
I have no chance to bring the simulator and the cockpit in Chile because there is no point in organizing a removal for a few months only.

In the mean time I am thinking about the future of the simulation because Microsoft flight simulator seems stuck since long time and there are no rumours of any future development.
I am planning to buy and test X-Plane that seems the only valid alternative. Since september 2009, CPFlight supports X-Plane and there are libraries to interface SIOC to this simulator too.
I will report after the testing.

Temporary stop

Due to a temporary transfer in Chile, my home cockpit is not progressing.

I will resume the work as soon as I come back in Germany (forseen date is May the 1st).

AeroPlayer53 follow up on my blue light

This period I do not have so much time for the cockpit: a new digital camera, the Nikon D300, the sunny weather and a lot of work keep me well far away from the simulator.

Riccardo just added a thread in the italian forum I follow describing the progresses of his home cockpit. As he said, the work started from the description of blue light of my home cockpit in the Cockpit light post of this blog. I found his proposal very interesting: he used strips of blue LEDs to lighten the instruments instead of the whole cockpit. He fixed the LEDs below aluminium arms fixed on top of the instruments.

For my taste, the arms are too far over the instruments and can interfere with the movements during the flight. But having the LEDs almost in contact with the panel could lead to a very good result. The reflexions, especially against a plexiglas cover, should be taken into account.

I wish to thank Riccardo, AeroPlayer53, for reading my blog and sharing his experience in the forum.

In the mean time I have received the landing gear and a new master card from opencockpits. The landing gear seems to be good and smooth even if not as smooth as I expected. 

Master caution button complete!

It took me something around four months for designing and building but the button is now complete. It seems a lot of time but you have to think that:

1. I don't have a CNC machine (and I don't want to buy one because is very expansive)
2. I wanted to spend as few as possible (what I have found on the net was around 30EUR)
3. I wanted to use only COTS

I spent most of the time finding the right components to use and made a design. The initial design was published in a post in december. When the project was ready, I bought the two aluminum squared pipes and started building the button with my dremel. A picture was shown in another post in february.

The button at this stage looked very ugly with the 2 big springs and it was also very hard to press because the springs were very hard. But it did its wok. You have to keep in mind that the only visible part is the upper side.
However, at the moment I had to put the leds I discover that there were not enough room in the upper side. Initially I wanted to put the LEDs in the little pipe while the moving pipe is only the big one. This solution was not suitable because the light would have passed from the holes between the pipe making a very noisy reflection. I had no other choice then rework the bigger pipe leaving more room for the LEDs:


As you can see the upper side is now longer. I have also mounted the switch: when the user presses the button, the bigger pipe shift down and presses the switch closing the contact. At this point I made an extraordinary discover: the switch is enough to move the biggest pipe in the original position when I don't press over the big pipe so the two springs are not needed anymore. The movement of the big pipe is very smoot and when the switched is cliked it emits a very nice sound. Unbelievable but is much better then I expected.
I have put screws in the upper side to hold the support for the LEDs. The support is composed of a shape piece of wood divided in 2 horizonthal lines each of which contains an array of 2 LEDs. The red line is at the top and the red at the bottom. After some investigation I have discovered that an output line of the master card can feed 2 LEDs connected in serial without resistance:

The handles in the upper side will hold the button against the frame in the cockpit.
For covering the LEDs, I have bought some white slides to print with my inkjet printer. I have printed the label in dark black leaving the written to appear in negative :

The written has been covered by a piece of plexiglas that protects the label agains my fingers.

I have finally connected the electronics to the master card and made some test to be sure that everything is working. At this point I have mounted the button in the cockpit. This is the view from the rear (internal) side of the cockpit:

And this is how the button appear in my cockpit:
In my opinion the final result is quite good. The movement is very smooth and the sound when I click the button is wonderful. The yellow LEDs are perfect but I would prefer the red ones to be stronger. However the final result is much better then expected.

Finally the cost. I think it cost a total of 12EUR more or less. I still have along piece of the sqaured pipes that I can use for other button. For example the 767 annunciator as a very similar button for the G/S Inhibit button. The same strategy could be used for korry switches but this implementation nedds a lot of space in the back side of the cockpit so it could be difficult to put two of this button enough close one to the other.

There are a lot of technical issues that I did not talk about in this post of course. If you are interested in the project, want the exact measurement or any other clarification feel free to send me an email or post a comment in the blog.

A picture of the Master Caution

As I promised a few days ago, this is a picture of the MC.

You can see the two squared pipes, one inside the other. The upper handles will be fixed to the cockpit frame. The two springs at the bottom keep the two pipes in the right position and allow to press the button. A switch at the bottom left side catches the pressure of the button.

Now the difficult part is to fit the leds in the upper side. I have already shaped a little holes card to fit in the big pipe. The card will be hold by a set of screws in order to keep the leds upon the hole and avoiding the lights to pass through the holes of the pipes.
At the present I plan to put 4 red and 4 yellow leds in the holes. Over the card of leds, I put the plexi and over it a little piece of white paper with the written.

I hope the final result will not be so bad. As I said, at the present I have the impression that the movement of the button is not as smooth as I hoped at least compared to an electronic switch. I will go ahead building that button but I am still not 100% that this tool will never be part of my cockpit.

in fact last week I went to conrad and bought a squared button where it is possible to fit one led. I am investigating if it is possible to fit two colored leds inside the button and if I succeed I will probably choose this second solution even if the button is not as big as I wish.

Master caution again

The master cation frame is finally ready, I will post a few pictures one of these days.

The final version is slightly different from the original design, in fact the two springs had to be put between the two lower brackets. It means that the two springs push the brackets away one from the other instead of pulling. I have tested the movement of the button and it works even if it is not as smooth as I wish. I guesst I have to put some oil between the two pieces of aluminium but it can never be as smooth as an electronic switch.

There is also another problem due to the windows made in the outer windows to let the upper brackets pass outside of the pipe to fix the button to the cockpit frame. The windows will be a problem when the leds are on because the light will pass also throught the windows creating an undesired game of lights. I have thought to two possible solutions and I will probably adopt both of them:

1. mount the button in such a way the window will always be below the frame (in this way I guess the light will be much less because the wood will naturally stop it; I should probably add a fisical protection like a piece of dark gumi)
2. try to mount the led in the upper most side of the outer pipe with a dark gumi in the back (for this implementation I should investigate the usage of special very little leds like those used to light handy phones; the light will probably be inserted into the plexi; particular caution must be applied while cabling the leds because they move together with the outer pipe whenever the button is pressed or released)

In the mean time I think it is time to start designing the right side of the cockpit. I have to put there more commands usually found in the upper side of the real cockpit like fior example the trust control, the gear lever and so on. I have submitted yesterady an order to opencockpits getting a new master card a few switches and the gear lever of the 737 (I had found a 767 model too but was really too expansive).