[simpits-tech] Simkits

[Matt Bailey]

On Wednesday 13 August 2003 08:11 pm, you wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Matt Bailey wrote:
> > 	Impressive! I just thought of something though...........I want a flight
> > director. :) And an HSI.......and I'd be flying all sorts of planes with
> > greatly varying speed ranges. Hmmm, what might work would be for me to
> > use a monitor to display the airspeed, AI, turn coordinator, and HSI,
> > then use Simkits for altimeter, VSI, OBS (their VOR indicators look
> > really nice, from the pics), ADF, RMI (by slightly modifying an ADF kit),
> > and maybe some engine stuff.
>
> An HSI would be a great addition to the simkits product range. a FD would
> be an absolute sod though!

	Indeed, if you were to do it "right" (both cues independent of each other) 
you'd need some *tiny* components.

> > 	Hmmm, I was thinking just gutting the instruments and just using the
> > visual stuff. Patience I have, tooling I don't. :)
>
> You still need some way to link the needle(s) shaft to a servo or stepper
> motor and having looked at a few instruments - I wouldn't try.

	I'm talking about REALLY cosmetic stuff, like stripping the faceplate out 
and using it in place of the Simkits faceplate........possibly using the face 
of an AI (particularly if you're doing a military panel etc with a unique 
AI). Maybe using needles/indicators (like the oddly shaped NAV pointers on 
RMI's and HSI's).

> > 	Btw, how hard was it to get this stuff working with Phidgets? Are you
> > using just an X-Plane plug-in, or is there other software?
>
> I knocked up a test program in Delphi which reads UDP data from x-plane,
> does a little math for scaling etc and then drives the phidget servo
> board. Really REALLY simple.
>
> Roy.

	Hmmm, cool. I downloaded your Delphi examples, I'll take a look at those. My 
problem is that I have virtually no programming knowledge. :)

	-Matt Bailey