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Here's my Pride and Joy; a $160 8" touch-panel LCD screen (640x480 res) that's the right size for the Garmin 530!!!
You can "push" all 14 buttons, but I use a GoFlight RP48 right under it to run the right-hand knobs AND the right-hand cursor
function (the left-hand, or frequency select knobs are controlled from the GF-166 radio control module underneath).
Let me tell you: it feels just like the real 530 I have on the Cessna 310. And Reality XP's use of the original Garmin
trainer package makes it sooo realistic!... my "acid test" is a flight from Leesburg. VA (KJYO, where my 310 is based)
to Martinsburg WV (KMRB) via the ILS 26 approach, using the GPS for transition and situation awareness, especially during
the PT. I fly that approach for practice 20-30 times a year (Jan 2007 update - the ILS at KMRB is still down due to
the destruction in progress at the airport... ), and my goal is to make the sim feel just like the real flight - and I think
I'm there!
Now, if Reality could do the same thing with the G1000 trainer...
(UPDATE: XP hasn't to date, but Mindstar has... see Page 4)
By the way 640x480 res on an 8" screen results in the exact same dot size and pitch as 1280x1024 on the 17" LCD that
has the main instruments, so the visual resolution match between the two is fantastic!
I created the custom panels (mainly for the 17" LCD main instruments) using a combination of FSPanelStudio and hand-editing
the .cfg file. I also need a (registered) copy of FSUIPC to connect the GoFlight knobs to the RealityXP Garmin, and
also to implement the feathering position on the GoFlight prop levers (thanks to Tophatter for the hint!)
Note: the slight curvature apparent in these pictures is due to my camera's lens being in its widest-angle setting.
In reality, there is NO distorsion whatsoever on the 8" touch-screen panel... you'd swear you're manipulating te real thing!
Here's what the touch panel does NOT control on the 530: the two right knobs, the "cursor select" (punching the right
inner knob on the real unit), and the left, frequency select knobs. The two right knobs and the cursor select function
are controlled with the RP48, the frequency entering with the GF166A's knobs. I use the touch panel to flip Com
and Nav frequencies on the 530.
Another BTW: if you use the RealityXP Garmins and you haven't done so, download the sim update from the Garmin website
(they were kind enough to post a late 2005 software release and nav database version of the sim), see Jean-Luc's posting in
http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=13589&PN=1. The old database was from 2002; this one is from Sep 05, and there are a lot of new approaches!... The
AVNCS/GPS button on the RP48 does just that: it toggles the 530 and the rest of the avionics panel on the touch screen;
the main use for the avionics display on the touch panel is enabling/disabling the Nav audio (you DO indentify all your navaids,
don't you?...), using the stopwatch built into the King KR87 ADF, and playing around with the nice RealityXP Garmin GTX327
xponder, (hmm... does it have mode-S ADSB? - wait! It's not a 330!), as shown in the following picture:
Last but not least: with one of the homebrewed pushbuttons below the throttles (again: Radio Shock buttons and recycled
cheap stick USB controller) I can select the DreamFleet Baron's electrical panel. My default position for that panel
spans the 8" touch screen and the 17" LCD "main panel": the toggle switches (on the left-hand side of the panel) on the touch
screen, and the gear and flaps indicators and the fuel and electrical gauges in the 17' LDC (overlaying the normal instruments,
of course...) Can't use the touch screen for the magnetos/starter knobs; that will have to wait for the second RP48
(and version 3 of the sim...)
Finally, I keep referring to this sim as "version 2"; here's a picture of "version 1": no panel displays, only some GoFlight
modules. It lasted only a couple of weeks.
Version 2 has been up for about a month, but I already found a number of problems; for one, the stick (to the left) and
the throttles (to the right) are way, way too far apart.
VERSION THREE will have no modules to the left of the 17" LCD, a much longer (vertically) stack of modules to the
right of it WITH THE THROTTLES AT THE BOTTOM, a small platform at hip height for the stick (it's too high sitting on the tabletop
right now), and, last but not least A TOUCH PANEL OVERLAY FOR THE 17" LCD!!!
Stop the presses!!! I just did that!!! (well. ALMOST all of it...) - turn the page to the (new) page 3!
Continue to Page 3...
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