CPFLIGHT MCP737EL

[Aeropayo]

Hello there! loving this plane as you all I guess...

I have an MPC from CPFLIGHT 

I can't make it work in XPlane

I followed the steps in cpflight web along with the drivers and installed the plugin properly, the MPC does work, all lights, switches and butons work but it seems to be no connection between the MCP and the 737, the plugin reads the inputs but has no effect in the plane's MPC

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Paco

 

[Slayer]

It's because the CPFlight is using default datarefs. The IXEG uses their own datarefs.

You would have to build a profile for it or whatever means that hardware uses to interface to X-plane and use the IXEG datarefs. 

Sorry I can't help further you would have to talk to the CPFlight people.

Even if you do get a profile made for it you will probably have crashes like the rest of us until they can get that part sorted.

 

[Aeropayo]

On 30/4/2016 at 2:35 AM, Slayer said:

It's because the CPFlight is using default datarefs. The IXEG uses their own datarefs.

You would have to build a profile for it or whatever means that hardware uses to interface to X-plane and use the IXEG datarefs. 

Sorry I can't help further you would have to talk to the CPFlight people.

Even if you do get a profile made for it you will probably have crashes like the rest of us until they can get that part sorted.

 

Thanks Slayer for your answer.

I contacted with the CPFlight people and they say I can assign MCP commands to IXEG datarefs.. but my question is how? the plugin provided works, but I can't see my MCP in joystick assignments, is there any other plugin or program that could detect the MCP in Xplane so I can assign the inputs?

Thanks again

[mmerelles]

3 minutes ago, Aeropayo said:

Thanks Slayer for your answer.

I contacted with the CPFlight people and they say I can assign MCP commands to IXEG datarefs.. but my question is how? the plugin provided works, but I can't see my MCP in joystick assignments, is there any other plugin or program that could detect the MCP in Xplane so I can assign the inputs?

Thanks again

Your MCP plugin should have a graphical interface or a text configurable files for you to define profiles for every aircraft and assign the buttons, switches, rotaries to its corresponding addons custom commands.

Don't you have any manual, readme, guide with your plugin?

[Aeropayo]

Just now, mmerelles said:

Your MCP plugin should have a graphical interface or a text configurable files for you to define profiles for every aircraft and assign the buttons, switches, rotaries to its corresponding addons custom commands.

Don't you have any manual, readme, guide with your plugin?

Yes it has, I'll try to post some pictures and take a look at the plugin folder, not now at the computer!!!

Thanks a lot

[Slayer]

In the docs folder of the IXEG there is a .pdf with a big list of datarefs in it, those you will not see in the joystick interface of Xplane.

You will though be able to see and configure the "commands" stuff to joysticks  and buttons.  Those have logic built into them already so all you do is use it.

[frumpy]

The dataref list ist not complete for all functions, but I think some will already work. It's on the list

for later, so I guess we'll have to wait until the dust settles.

[hhbrbg]

Hi Paco,

I own the MCP737PRO from CPFLIGHT. I had a testflight a few days ago and I came to the conclusion that the CPFLIGHT MCP is currently NOT 100% compatible with IEXG 737 Classic. But I was able to use the heading, course and altitude knobs to dial in the proper values. The vertical speed dial works too. But at some point (I still have to figure out the reason) the trim wheel of the airplane went crazy and came to an endless spinning loop.
I sent a mail to the developers in Italy. They told me, that they have currently no plan to fix this problem. It's a great pity, because flying this superb plane from IEXG together with a hardware MCP is stunning.

Kind regards
Tom

 

[frumpy]

Check the FMA when the trimwheels move. I think it's due to ALT HLD or some other vertical mode.

[hhbrbg]

 

1 hour ago, frumpy said:

Check the FMA when the trimwheels move. I think it's due to ALT HLD or some other vertical mode.

 

Thank you, will give it a try...

Tom

[Aeropayo]

2 hours ago, hhbrbg said:

Hi Paco,

I own the MCP737PRO from CPFLIGHT. I had a testflight a few days ago and I came to the conclusion that the CPFLIGHT MCP is currently NOT 100% compatible with IEXG 737 Classic. But I was able to use the heading, course and altitude knobs to dial in the proper values. The vertical speed dial works too. But at some point (I still have to figure out the reason) the trim wheel of the airplane went crazy and came to an endless spinning loop.
I sent a mail to the developers in Italy. They told me, that they have currently no plan to fix this problem. It's a great pity, because flying this superb plane from IEXG together with a hardware MCP is stunning.

 

Kind regards
Tom

 

 

Hi Tom!.... Thanks a lot for your reply.

So my question is... how did you get to make it work? you have the plugin installed, haven't you? but how do you assign the values?

[hhbrbg]

1 hour ago, Aeropayo said:

Hi Tom!.... Thanks a lot for your reply.

So my question is... how did you get to make it work? you have the plugin installed, haven't you? but how do you assign the values?

Hi Paco,

I’m new to X-Plane. Before I was a convinced p3d guy. IEXG’s 737 Classic changed my mind.
Preconditions:

At the time of the change to XP, I had and still have a functional MCP installed with the following drivers from the cpflight website.
a) for  prepard3d the driver InstP3D_347_v3.zip
for usb usbdriver32_64.zip
with theses drivers I was able to use the cpflight mcp in prepare3d with the following planes
- pdmg 737
- realair turbine duke
- and a few carendo planes.

After the change to X-Plane:
I  downloaded this driver from the cpflight website and installed it

InstXplane64_103.zip
within X-Plane I tried (via the plugin menu) to connect to the mcp and I got a „Port Open Failed“ error.

the apparent solution

I search the web and read somewhere, that XPUIPC has to be installed for proper function of the mcp.

I installed it and it worked. But wait…

the weird part

today I checked the plausibility of my solution and removed XPUIPC from the X-Plane plugins directory
…\FlightSim\XP\X-Plane 10\Resources\plugins
If my solution were correct, the mcp should not work. But it did.
To be honest, I do not know why the driver works now and failed to connect before
Sorry
Tom

 

[dr_nerdrage]

To summarize, you say it works. Does that include all of its functions? 

I quite like the 737 and have been toying with the idea of picking up the CPFlight PRO panel.

If it's possible to assign datarefs in the software (or ini file), it should be pretty easy. I had a look over the dataref list in the pdfs and it seems to have everything one would need(?).

Edited May 5, 2016 by dr_nerdrage

[mmerelles]

1 hour ago, dr_nerdrage said:

To summarize, you say it works. Does that include all of its functions? 

I quite like the 737 and have been toying with the idea of picking up the CPFlight PRO panel.

If it's possible to assign datarefs in the software, it should be pretty easy. I had a look over the dataref list in the pdfs and it seems to have everything one would need(?).

If you are willing to buy a MCP hardware... get one that is fully supported for xplane, otherwise you will end up having a hardware partially useful and they are not cheap.

Most aircraft no matter its complexity uses default xplane commands/datarefs for IAS, COURSE, ALTITUDE, HDG. But all payware aircraft that mimics real life birds uses extensive proprietary custom commands/datarefs for VNAV, LNAV, CMD A-B, CWS A-B , FD switches, AT switch, VS display & wheel, N1, AP disengage, light status, etc. thus they will not work unless your can program your MCP on a per aircraft basis.

That being said, the most important thing you have to look at for your decision is: per aircraft support vs platform programable support

 I mean, if you get a MCP that the developers made internal support for specific aircrafts, then be sure you will not run your precious and expensive MCP to any other cool addon that releases until they decide to support it, and you even risk some features stop working on your existing aircrafts during aircraft's developers updates until they update their code as well.

What you need is a MCP having a xplane interface tool for you creating on a per aircraft profiles to map your mcp hardware to differemt aircraft specific commands/datarefs.

 

Unfortunately i learnt that the hard way.

 

Bought my Goflight MCP PRO without much research/knowledge a year ago, sooner i realized it had no interface for xplane, some free developers managed to create plugins that supported specific aircrafts of their interest. Those developers moved on some time ago, and once those payware birds got a few updates they stopped working, crashes and many issues that forced me to retire my MCP PRO.

Fortunately god shined us a few weeks ago and Pollypot released their Goflight intergace tool for xplane (payware), but dam, this app is so cool. It has a graphical interface were you create profiles on a per aircraft basis, and you assign any button, light, switch, rotary, display, etc. of the MCP PRO to any aircraft custom command / dataref. So it supports ANY aircraft and you can keep tuning it by yourself when new aircraft releases or existing ones updates. You can also import/export profiles to share the community not requiring everyone creating their own profiles.

 

I am not telling you go and grab goflight + pollypot, that is your call, could be other alternatives to compare. But be sure you get what you need, otherwise you will get a course/hdg/ias selector instead of a full working MCP to any aircraft as you expect.

 

hope this helps someone.

Edited May 5, 2016 by mmerelles
misspelling

[hhbrbg]

1 hour ago, dr_nerdrage said:

To summarize, you say it works. Does that include all of its functions? 

I quite like the 737 and have been toying with the idea of picking up the CPFlight PRO panel.

If it's possible to assign datarefs in the software (or ini file), it should be pretty easy. I had a look over the dataref list in the pdfs and it seems to have everything one would need(?).

Hi dr_nerdrage,

please read my first reply to Aeropayo. This screenshot below shows the content of the cpflight dir. The CPflight.ini file within this directory has one single line with a com-port assignment. I do not see a file, where I can make or change datarefs. The Setting.exe is just for setting the com-port.

The MCP737PRO is a great piece of hardware but worthless if the developer (cpflight) does not provide updates to new planes. The consequence is, that the buyers will votes with there feet.
Kind regards
Tom

[hhbrbg]

I will post a list of the few things working and the many more not working with the cpflight mcp soon.
Tom
 

[Aeropayo]

Thanks Tom for the detailed post! much appreciated!. I'll try it in these days and I'll let you know if it works (or not... LOL)

And the rest of the guys in this post, thanks too for shedding light on this problem.

[dr_nerdrage]

3 hours ago, mmerelles said:

If you are willing to buy a MCP hardware... get one that is fully supported for xplane, otherwise you will end up having a hardware partially useful and they are not cheap.

Oh definitely. As I said, merely toying with the idea at this point. From a hardware POV the CPFlight model ticks all the boxes for me, but the software will indeed make or break a purchase like this

I had a look at the PollyPot tool website and it's exactly how I would expect (or I guess want) the interface software to be designed. Shame if the CPFlight software doesn't work like that.

 

3 hours ago, hhbrbg said:

Hi dr_nerdrage,

please read my first reply to Aeropayo. This screenshot below shows the content of the cpflight dir. The CPflight.ini file within this directory has one single line with a com-port assignment. I do not see a file, where I can make or change datarefs. The Setting.exe is just for setting the com-port.

The MCP737PRO is a great piece of hardware but worthless if the developer (cpflight) does not provide updates to new planes. The consequence is, that the buyers will votes with there feet.
Kind regards
Tom

Thanks Tom. That really doesn't seem all that promising, but I hope the developer does work on it. The plane has only been out for a few days after all.

[hhbrbg]

RESUME:
I was too optimistic. A few things work, most do not.
The MCP737PRO is a wonderful piece of hardware, but it is not ready for the IEXG 737 Classic at this time. If you want to buy it, ask cpflight for compatibility first.

I do not recommend pressing any button on the cpflight hardware MCP, because this leads most of the time to an endless trimwheel loop. I use the software MCP buttons on the IEXG 737 Classic in conjunction with the hardware knobs (not buttons). For example: If I want to change the altitude, I preselect the altitude on my hardware and then press LVL CHG on my software MCP. If I want to change the heading, I press HDG SEL on the software MCP and dial the prefered heading on my hardware, or I dial in the heading with the hardware knob and then select HDG SEL on the software. The course selector dial (captain side) works just in one direction (from hardware to software).
Tom

WORKING:
[Captain side Course selector]
[Heading Selector]
[Altitude Selector]

NOT WORKING:
[Speed Dial]
[A/T Arm switch]
[Autopilot A]
[Autopilot B]
[c/o Mach/IAS]
[FO - Course selector]
[FO - Flightdirector switch]
[CA - Flightdirector switch]
[Speed Button]
[Max Bankangle limiter]
[V/S Button]
[V/S Dial]
and the Rest

[737NUT]

7 hours ago, hhbrbg said:

RESUME:
I was too optimistic. A few things work, most do not.
The MCP737PRO is a wonderful piece of hardware, but it is not ready for the IEXG 737 Classic at this time. If you want to buy it, ask cpflight for compatibility first.

I do not recommend pressing any button on the cpflight hardware MCP, because this leads most of the time to an endless trimwheel loop. I use the software MCP buttons on the IEXG 737 Classic in conjunction with the hardware knobs (not buttons). For example: If I want to change the altitude, I preselect the altitude on my hardware and then press LVL CHG on my software MCP. If I want to change the heading, I press HDG SEL on the software MCP and dial the prefered heading on my hardware, or I dial in the heading with the hardware knob and then select HDG SEL on the software. The course selector dial (captain side) works just in one direction (from hardware to software).
Tom

WORKING:
[Captain side Course selector]
[Heading Selector]
[Altitude Selector]

NOT WORKING:
[Speed Dial]
[A/T Arm switch]
[Autopilot A]
[Autopilot B]
[c/o Mach/IAS]
[FO - Course selector]
[FO - Flightdirector switch]
[CA - Flightdirector switch]
[Speed Button]
[Max Bankangle limiter]
[V/S Button]
[V/S Dial]
and the Rest

Simple, the 3 you listed as working are general x-plane datarefs.  The list you have not working are IXEG specific commands and datarefs and until CPFlight addresses this it will never work.

[mmerelles]

As i explained above, no MCP will work properly unless your MCP provider -or a third party developer- provides you an INTERFACE for you to customize your hardware. Even if your provider makes some internal changes to map the ixeg bird, it will not work for any other aircraft addon and surely it will also stop working with the ixeg during updates.

Start pushing your MCP provider for the interface and/or researching if someone else created such interface for your hardware.