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View Full Version : Phidgets SimPlugins X-Plane Help!!!!



Steelwings
07-18-2012, 04:22 PM
I would really appreciate some advice here. I just purchased the simpulgin for PhidgetAdvancedServo boards. I have installed everything exactly as per the instructions. I can test the boards and sevos using the Phidget Control Panel. All works fine. I run the plugin and it too seems to work fine...at least in testing mode when it goes through two gyrations of 180 degree sweeps. I am using the PhidgetAdvancedServo.ini example file to test the system. it is set for port 50002 (localhost) using the dataref:
2F_00=sim/cockpit2/engine/indicators/engine_speed_rpm with EngineInstruments=enabled. Everything seems fine but when I fire up X-Plane...no communication from the software to the servo. ( I am using the 8 servo board with hightec 422s) I have tried everything I can think of. I know this is probably an obvious detail that I am overlooking but I am completely baffled. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks,
Sal

CocnutAir
07-20-2012, 09:53 AM
I am curious why this was posted in fs2phidget forum ?
Did you take up issue with suppliers of simplugin?

Steelwings
07-20-2012, 05:49 PM
I am curious why this was posted in fs2phidget forum ?
Did you take up issue with suppliers of simplugin?

My mistake. (New Guy) Anyway, I am in contact with the manufacturer but no joy yet. Thanks.

xplanematt
07-25-2012, 07:45 PM
What the heck is a single-machine Phidgets setup doing with network ports in a plugin??? Sigh....I'm sure SimPlugins is a fine piece of software, but seriously, the X-Plane SDK is VERY well documented and pretty straightforward to use, even for a programming beginner. Plus there are plenty of tutorials and examples for it. Do yourself a favor and ditch any "helper" plugins intended to make your Phidgets board work with X-Plane. If you really want to make things fun and easy on yourself, use Sandy Barbour's Python plugin for the SDK:

http://www.xpluginsdk.org/python_interface_downloads.htm

Even though I can program in C, the Python interface is pretty much all I use now. Python is just more fun to work in.

Anyways, it's better to work with the X-Plane SDK directly, and deal with the datarefs on your own. This way you are more or less forced to get into the SDK docs a bit, and you may find that the dataref your think you want to use is actually deprecated, or returns values of a data type or data value you weren't expecting (like a ratio instead of a raw value, or a string instead of a bool). I actually thought of making some sort of "layer" for Phidgets, but soon realized that the tiny amount of work required to get a Phidget board talking to X-Plane in the first place would hardly be reduced by whatever system I could come up with...seriously, if you can edit a text file, you can write a simple plugin.

Another bonus is that you will have *far* more control over what you're doing with the Phidgets and X-Plane.

Matt