You guys won't believe this. Please have a read.

[Michael Carter]

I got to thinking awhile ago about the 12" monitor problem I'm having. If you haven't been following along, I needed a 12" monitor for my 727 engine gauge stack. So I buy an ELO touchscreen thinking I can integrate this into the panel with a bit of fussing & cussing.

I didn't realize the video problems were going to be worse than the hardware problems.

For days on end I've been trying to figure out how to get a 600x800 portrait display out of this monitor. FS sees it as a widescreen when orientation is rotated 90° and there is no available resolution that the monitor will support.

Just now, I opened the FS configuration file, forced the resolution to 600x800, and crossed my fingers.

After firing up FS and undocking the engine display I created in Panel Studio it works. It finally works! I can't believe I didn't think of forcing the resolution through the .cfg file. This was my last trick. If this hadn't worked I'm not sure which direction I would have taken.

Well, if anyone else has to do this I hope this helps.

Now I just have to refine and align the gauges after I disassemble and nount the screen behind the panel


http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/boeing722/Enginestack003.jpg

[BHawthorne]

Congrats! Good to see it working. :)

[Michael Carter]

Thanks!!! I would have really been stuck if this hadn't worked. I had all but given up, but I couldn't let this slide without searching for something to make this work.

I would have had to go to a 15" monitor and I would have lost my clock and my only real instrument, and probably a half a dozen different Korry's.

I still have to import this panel into the flight sim computer. This is on the old system in the shop I use to build panels and test.

[BHawthorne]

Thanks!!! I would have really been stuck if this hadn't worked. I had all but given up, but I couldn't let this slide without searching for something to make this work.

I would have had to go to a 15" monitor and I would have lost my clock and my only real instrument, and probably a half a dozen different Korry's.

I still have to import this panel into the flight sim computer. This is on the old system in the shop I use to build panels and test.

One thing I've learned in life is there are always 10 ways to do something. Only problem is the first 9 ways are either cost or time prohibitive. It just takes persistance sometimes. :)

[Michael Carter]

Or just won't work.

I tried cloning the sceen, stretching the screen horizontally and vertically, researched ways to build gauges turned 90° when displayed, searched for ways to rotate an entire panel within FS, but I found nothing.

It's hard to believe this problem is so unique that this solution isn't out there for the searching.

The computer and the monitor didn't have a problem with either the rotation or the resolution, it was FS that had a problem with it. Apparently, it does not see what the video card settings are and perform accordingly.

This has to be the simplest trick in the book, but I could kick myself for not figuring it out a week ago.

[BHawthorne]

Or just won't work.

I'm of the belief that most of the time if it doesn't show up on google, I've got a lot of work cut out for me. I never think things can't be done though. It's just figuring out the way to do things that are a pain. :)

[Michael Carter]

I'm of the belief that most of the time if it doesn't show up on google, I've got a lot of work cut out for me. I never think things can't be done though. It's just figuring out the way to do things that are a pain. :)

Same here, but sometimes I'm not so sure if I can figure out the solution. And it was right in front of me the whole time.

Eric asked me about the many hurdles in this build and this is one of those that I thought was really going to be insurmountable.

"That was easy" as the commercial goes. Well, it was easy once the solution was found. Finding the solution was the hard part.

[AndyT]

Mike,

There is software out that will rotate your screen 90, 180, or 270 degrees.

[Michael Carter]

The video card software will do that. FS won't recognize the resolution in portriat mode without changing the config file.

As I said, the computer and the monitor had no problem with the rotation from the video card. Everything worked great until FS was started and I tried to undock the panel to the monitor.

FS was lost.

[JBaymore]

Michael,

I would have thought that you could have just gone with an external gauge program for those instruments. How come not?

best,

..............john

[andarlite]

Hey Mike

Glad that you finally got this all going. It should really enhance your flying once you get it in. Look forward to seeing the photos when it up and running.

Regards,
Henry

[Michael Carter]

Michael,

I would have thought that you could have just gone with an external gauge program for those instruments. How come not?

best,

..............john

You lost me there John. What sort of program?

[Geremy Britton]

ahh, you've figured it out! great ... get it mounted behind the MIP quick i wanna see the pics of it done! ;)

Great work Mike, and Andy; would you mind posting the software for screen rotation that would be great.

Cheers:)

[JBaymore]

You lost me there John. What sort of program?

For your custome needs, something like FSXpand comes to mind (payware).

It allows you to set up custom gauge panels laid out any way you want with the gauges types and parameters being whatever you specify and the gauge faces can be of many designs or you can use a bitmap if you prefer. The gauges run "external" to the sim...... not undocked panels. A stand alone program....can be run on the same machine as the main sim.... or on a networked PC.

There are others like that too....can't remember names right now for the life of me.

best,

.................john

[Michael Carter]

Thanks for the explanation.

Well, I probably would have had to resort to that had I not figured this out.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/boeing722/IMG_0045.jpg