Throttletek / Opencockpits MCP

[Mikealpha]

Hi,

 

I'm an XPlane newbie and really like the IXEDG 737 so far. Unfortunately my programming knowledge is extremely limited, tried to understand the various hardware threads with not much success. Would these two work with the IXEG, or would be possible to get them to work  ?

1. Throttletek

http://www.throttletek.com/g-737v2.html

incl. TOGA switches, reversers, parking brake, engine start levers, ...

 

2. Opencockpits 737 MCP

http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/mcp-737ng-v3h-p-486.html?language=en

There are scripts and drivers for Xplane 10, but I don't know if there are sufficient : http://www.opencockpits.com/uploads/Software-drivers/Drivers%20X-plane%20MCP%20EFIS%20NAV.zip

 

Any advice would be much appreciated :

Mike

 

By the way, the IXEG 737 is a blast to fly with a force feedback Yoke

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cameron]

On May 3, 2016 at 9:17 AM, Mikealpha said:

By the way, the IXEG 737 is a blast to fly with a force feedback Yoke

Curious, which one are you using? I have the IRIS Dynamics one, and I would like to refine it eventually for everyone and this aircraft. To that end, which software are you using for the feedback in X-Plane?

 

Throttletek: I contacted that guy months back. Unfortunately a developer version of the throttle was still very cost prohibitive, so I cannot conclude what it would be like to interact with.

[mmerelles]

41 minutes ago, Cameron said:

Curious, which one are you using? I have the IRIS Dynamics one, and I would like to refine it eventually for everyone and this aircraft. To that end, which software are you using for the feedback in X-Plane?

 

Throttletek: I contacted that guy months back. Unfortunately a developer version of the throttle was still very cost prohibitive, so I cannot conclude what it would be like to interact with.

 

I am using Brunners CLS Yoke, amazing stuff. Couple of things i like to highlight.

-Hydraulics. You can simulate hydraulics on a per aircraft basis. You loose the hydraulics inflight/turnoff intentionally and you better got some training on the GYM, it goes really heavy 

-Stick stall. You can enable stick vibrations for the engine, runway, turbulence, etc. and customize them, but the yoke shaking under stall in the ixeg like the real thing is crazy, really nice.

-Forces based on IAS are extremely good. Feeling how the pitch washes out under low speeds at final is amazing. Specially on the Cessnas. Inflight surfaces are all about pressure on the yoke but during takeoff and landing you have to actually pull it, deflect it.

-Centering. it simulates standard centering as a desktop yoke, centered via wind pressure over the surfaces (you deflect it left while parked and stays there, as soon as you gain speed it centers itself pitch & roll) or via hydraulics. So you can customize how it behaves.

 

It has so many options and parameters, still experimenting for fine tuning it to the ixeg an all of my addons.

[Jovabra]

I am also a happy owner of the Brunner CLS yoke and i like it very much. It needs some fine tuning for different aircraft types. If you have any suggestions pls let me know. I have also ordered the brake/rudder pedals.

Regards John

[Mikealpha]

On 4.5.2016 at 11:36 PM, Cameron said:

Curious, which one are you using?

sorry, completely missed that question. I'm also using a Brunner CLS Yoke. I'm very happy with it, it's reliable and the software is very flexible. FInally it really feels like trimming an aircraft as it should be.

 

Back to the original problem. Any chance for anyone to check the attached scripts in my initial post ? They are for the EADT 737.

If only I would understand how to transfer that to the IXEG 737. If I would understand it for one MCP switch or knob, I could probably do it for the others as well.

 

Mike

Edited May 19, 2016 by Mikealpha

[Thovart]

On 5/4/2016 at 1:36 AM, mmerelles said:

 

I am using Brunners CLS Yoke, amazing stuff. Couple of things i like to highlight.

-Hydraulics. You can simulate hydraulics on a per aircraft basis. You loose the hydraulics inflight/turnoff intentionally and you better got some training on the GYM, it goes really heavy 

-Stick stall. You can enable stick vibrations for the engine, runway, turbulence, etc. and customize them, but the yoke shaking under stall in the ixeg like the real thing is crazy, really nice.

-Forces based on IAS are extremely good. Feeling how the pitch washes out under low speeds at final is amazing. Specially on the Cessnas. Inflight surfaces are all about pressure on the yoke but during takeoff and landing you have to actually pull it, deflect it.

-Centering. it simulates standard centering as a desktop yoke, centered via wind pressure over the surfaces (you deflect it left while parked and stays there, as soon as you gain speed it centers itself pitch & roll) or via hydraulics. So you can customize how it behaves.

 

It has so many options and parameters, still experimenting for fine tuning it to the ixeg an all of my addons.

I fly (simulated) GA and planning on purchasing this yoke. The thing holding me back is the lack of information about force profiles. Is there at least some default 172-like profile present? I think it's pretty much impossible for someone who never'd hold a yoke of real aircraft to adjust forces 'by hand'. I would really appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you.

[Jack Zero]

Mike

I own both the Throttletek v2 and the OC MCP.

The MCP is good but the SIOC script offered at the OC site will only work with the EADT x737 v4.x. However, there's a guy on the "other" forum who's reworked the script for the v5 of the x737 and is currently creating scripts for both the FF 757 and the IXEG 737 classic. In addition, the MCP (at least mine) is very picky regarding the USB Ports and power supply:

• It has a separate power supply for the backlight. However this powersupply also seems to be needed for the operation of the unit via USB. At least my unit won't show up in the software unless the power supply was connected before the USB connection is plugged in or the computer is started. Obviously you cant keep the power permanently plugged in as that way the backlight would permanently be on.
• The connection only works reliable when the unit is directly connected to the computer without a hub. I tried three different USB hubs (unpowered USB 2, powered USB 2, unpowered USB 3) and it would always only work the very first time it is connected to that hub. On the next start of the PC, it would not work on that hub anymore even when reconnected multiple times.

Regarding the Throttletek G737 v2 I'm not so much convinced. First off, the build quality isn't the best, the unit feels rather "hand made". In addition, the internal construction is less then optimal:

• The pots for the axis use only a fraction of the entire range of the pot (i guess about a third). You'll see that if you use the unit without joystick calibration. Using joystick calibration this is obviously evened out (after the calibration, the throttle axis will go from 0 to 1 and not from 0.3 to 0.7). But this comes on the prices of loosing axis precision, if the construction was made in a way that the whole pot range would be used, the unit would gain a lot of precision. 
• Also it appears that either the pots for the two throttle axis are not mounted in the same angle so both axis use a different part of the pot or the used pots have a rather large variance. Even after calibration when moving both axis to exactly the same position I'm getting differences of up to 3% on the axis (so one throttle is at 80% and the other is at 77%). This is rather a lot!
• And lastly there's a quite bit of slack on the pots (not the levers itself): The same position of a throttle lever will yield different values depending on whether you've moved it there from the upper or lower side. So for example: A throttle is moved from 0% to 50%, then up to 75% and back to exactly the 50% position but the axis will suddenly read 53%. Moving it further down and again up to the 50% position will fix this again. 

I've build a custom flywithlua script that wraps around the issue of the asynchronous throttles. It helps but it's not perfect.

Regards

Jack

[glasscockpits]

On 2016-05-04 at 5:36 PM, Cameron said:

I have the IRIS Dynamics one, and I would like to refine it eventually for everyone and this aircraft.

Cool, we have the same yoke. Are you using XPForce or stand-alone mode? Have you been able to tune it for the IXEG?