Nick1150 Home Cockpit 737NG project in Athens

[Nick1150]

Hi Nick

Your cockpit is looking great, you're streets ahead of me now!

I notice you are running laptops as your client PC's. What are the spec on them, particularly the graphics solutions, and how do they run the PM displays? It's something I'd thought about. I tried an Atom based netbook, but it was terrible. I'm wondering how a 2nd generation Intel i3 with HD3000 graphics would do?

Sean

Thanks Sean, but I am not streets ahead... You've got the two most important modules a home cockpit MUST have a) Complete overhead and b) interior liners... In my opinion those two are the most important MUST HAVE for our hobby, which I do not yet have, and I am afraid it will take time for me to be able to build.

As for the laptops, you don't have to go that far. My laptops are simple pentium are overqualified, just google "HP 620 laptop" and you will find the specs. I tried the netbook route also with the same results as you. What I did was to visit local Media Markt and found the cheapest laptop deal of the day. After a short negotiation with the stuff I plugged in a usb stick with PM demo. It run perfect so I bought 4 laptops in the best possible price, 299 euro a piece

[Sean Nixon]

That's interesting. There are various specs for the HP620, including Celeron, Pentium and Core 2 Duo. Do you know which you have? It's the graphics solutions I'm more interested in, I don't want a repeat of the Atom fiasco!

I'm absolutely certain your laptops will have an integrated graphics solution, and it's good to know PM runs ok on them.

Thanks again Nick.

PS - if you could see my sim now! it's in pieces while I build a new base to accommodate dual linked yokes. How do you find the Ace ones?

[Sean Nixon]

Also, what are the tasks of each laptop? Do you have a desktop as your main FS PC? Any other computers in your setup?

Sean

[Nick1150]

Hello Sean,

Sorry for the delay. I really had no notification about a reply in this thread, or I missed it somewhere in the tons of e-mails I receive everyday.

So I have 4 HP-620 laptops as my 4 clients. All of them are Pentium and PM runs great on them, more specifically:

Client1 = Labeled as Captain side, runs WideFS, PFD.exe, CDU.exe, PM get weather
Client2 = Labeled as Upper EICAS, runs WideFS, PFD.exe
Client3 = Labeled as First Officer side, runs WideFS, PFD.exe, RCDU.exe
Client4 = Labeled as Lower EICAS, runs WideFS, PMsystems, Squawkbox

As for my server is an i7 with 12GBs RAM, 1MB graphics card and 2 SSD disks desktop PC which runs the following:
FSX on startup which then starts automatically (and closes automatically on exit) the following programs
MCP.exe for PM MCP
SIOC for RSP TQ
B737 driver for Cockpitsonic MIP driver
REX weather

Unfortunately Revolution Sim Products driver does not start automatically. I have made tons of skype requests and many e-mails for that but all they know is to sell new products.... I have given up on them....
So all startup on their own except RSP driver for Project Magenta which I have to click to start.

As for the laptops, as stated previously, don't worry about fiascos...

Download PM demo and put it in a memory stick. Go to your local store and find a cheap laptop that suits your needs. Plug in the stick and run PM demo. You will most probably see the results in a few seconds. If it runs then it's perfect (I am sure it will), if not go to the next laptop model. Make your negotiations and get your clients as low as 299 euro a piece as I did, and beleive me laptops are great for clients. I wish I could do the same with the server...

What is the key point here is the way my sim starts up and shutsdown, and also the use of one mouse and keyboard for the total 5 PCs with the help of Warren in the following thread:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/show...light=shutdown

Hope I helped a little

[Sean Nixon]

Hi Nick

Thanks for that. Since my last post, I have purchased a couple of laptops for use as the left and right PFD's. I've also bought the components and built a new PC for FSX (I was previously on FS9, but really like the enhanced visuals that FSX offers, hence the need for a decent PC)!

I'm busy putting the network together as we speak. Hoping to do my first online flight with this setup tonight!

Totally agree with the single keyboard and mouse setup. I was doing that on the old setup, but used a program called Synergy, which is similar to what you are using. Also have a little batch file that runs on startup and wakes all the PC's up over WOL. I've decided to bring the trusty Mac into the equation and want to have this as the overall 'manager'. So I'll control all the network PC's from here, as well as using it for all the usual flight planning stuff.

I'm also using the iPad for pulling up charts when in flight.

Thanks again, we'll have to meet up online sometime.

Regards

Sean

[Nick1150]

Hi Sean,

That's great news !

As always in this hobby the amount of work needed is huge and it is endless!

I'm also using the iPad for pulling up charts when in flight.

I would use a word of advise how to do that too

[Sean Nixon]

Using the iPad for pulling up charts is a real no-brainer. This is what I do, in order of preference:

1. Download the App, Circle to Land. What it does is brings all the charts of those countries with free access to their AIP's into one neat interface so it's really quick and easy to pull up the latest chart. It contains the UK and a lot of Europe (as well as the US and Australia), but no Greece yet. As it downloads the chart from the official AIP, it's always bang up to date (it does store downloaded charts for offline use, just be sure to hit the refresh button every now and then to make sure you're up to date).

2. Before I discovered Circle to Land, I had the aerodrome webpage of all the countries that I flew to saved as a link in bookmark folder I called AIP. So I'd fire up Safari, bookmarks, AIP, UK (for example), and I'd have all the UK airports listed for me. I still use this method for countries that aren't part of Circle to Land yet, for example, Belgium and Austria.

3. If all else fails, open Safari and just google, for example type "lgts charts" and 99% of the time the first hit will be a load of charts for that airport. These charts are however well out of date, and nearly always Jeppeson charts, which I personally dislike. But given that I always fly in Europe, and I can pull up the latest charts via the 1st two methods, I never have to do this.

Hope that helps.

Sean

[Nick1150]

Great advice Sean,

I am still printing the charts !!!

I will try with my iPad,

Thanks

Nick

[bas_v]

Hi Nick,

I see your project is coming along great. Love the remark about the stealthy looks of the shell, that's exactly what I thought

About that Revolution Sim Products driver, you probably already tried putting it in the startup folder...? There are also registry settings that allow for automatic program execution upon startup. If both of these fail you could try a little auto-it script.

Does the startup of the driver depend on other software being loaded first (I am not in to FSX and PM)?

[Nick1150]

thanks Bas_v for your comments,

Unfortunately RSP knows the issue and does not do anything. I have spent thousands in many suppliers and I have received the service I deserved. Most of them changed their products according to their customers needs. A few did not. One of them was RSP. Its not a windows or FSX issue. It is a RSP issue only.

Its strange but if you double click on the icon "revolution sim products for project magenta" the correct program opens. If you choose to put this icon, the shortcut or it's file destination in the startup menu it opens the 'revolution sim products' driver (not for project magenta), thus the correct driver (revolution sim products for project magenta) can only open with the help of the mouse and there is no way to open it whatever you try, even if this is a script, startup menu, FSUIPC, etc... RSP knows the issue and does not do anything about it.