Steve Masters GarSim Unit

[Boeing 747 Flyer]

Hi everyone,

I have been wanting to built my own GPS Unit for awhile now, and have come across Steve's fantastic tutorial on this site.

However, I also see that Steve is now retailing the Unit as a product with Leo Bodnar.

He is selling it for £450, even though his manual says that the materials cost £491.87!!! So why is he selling it for much less than it costs to be produced?

Also, what are the advantages of building it myself vs buying the Unit directly from Steve's site? Are they even the exact same Unit or not?

I think a bit of clarification would help out here.

Regards,

Jack:)

[Steve1970]

Hi Jack

The unit that we now sell is the product of a lot of investment in time (and money) to get it to a point where it is more commercially viable. How did we do that?

1. The enclosures are produced in batch quantity to reduce costs.
2. The BU0836x card from Leo is integrated on the board, so no wiring is needed
3. The Faceplates are made by myself in-house
4. The LCD screens are purchased in bulk for cost saving.
5. The buttons and caps are pad printed (no more time consuming transfers)

As a result of this, and through the work that we have done, the emuteq GNS530 is a very robust and high quality product that we are very proud of. Rather than charge ridiculous prices, we decided to offer the GNS530 at a fair and honest price, after all this is a hobby for me too!

Hope this helps

Cheers
Steve
www.emuteq.com

[TurbineSeaplane]

Would it be possible to use this device as a display/hardware in conjunction with SimAvio so one could use it with X-Plane?
Display of SimAvio (powered by a PC obviously) and manual mapping of the buttons/knobs to X-Plane?

Thanks Steve.

[Geremy Britton]

Hi Jack,

I can vouch for the GPS unit Steve provides. I did a review of the module here at MyCockpit.org which you may or may not have seen. Definately worth a read!
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php/270-MyCockpit-Review-Emuteq-GPS-Unit

Hope that helps! :) :)

[Steve1970]

Hi

We have sent a unit to the developers of SimAvio for final testing.

But essentially-

The emuteq GNS530 is seen by windows as a standard Windows HID device, no drivers are required, the unit is simply recognised by windows once the USB is connected.

To map the buttons is no problem, the built in LCD is a standard VGA and operates like any other additional monitor connected to the PC.

I am not familiar with the SimAvio software, but the emuteq GNS is a very flexible unit built specifically for cockpit builders. The only problem with xplane is that the program does not support undocking of windows like MSFS does, but if you are running SimAvio over a network, then this may not be an issue for you.

Hope that helps
Steve.
www.emuteq.com

[TurbineSeaplane]

Cool.
Great information Steve.

Side question...

Did you used to (or still do perhaps) make & sell com/nav units at Emuteq?
They looked great!
What happened if I may ask?