Had a very common email arrive today. Customer at the start of building a device and very lost/confused about so many elements and asking for help, apologizing for doing so... I read my reply and thought it would be a good item to share with many... Here goes: I dont expect people to know everything. Complex topic and all learnt in steps. Steve and I have been at this for over fifteen years. The radio and xpndr units are USB controlled so quite simple to set up. The other devices are typically wired to one of our SYS boards. Most of this depends on actual functionality requirements. One thing I can tell you... Cockpit builders start out thinking they are replicating the real aircraft in terms of function.. Understandable.. In actuality, you need far less than you think. If you do a flight on your desktop with PMDG and notate the items you interact with you realize quickly that a lot of items are related to a normal procedures. Many other elements of the flightdeck are focused on a abnormal procedures and rarely if at all used. (Ask a pilot how many times they had to flip a toggle guard on the HYD panel in their 30,000 hour career and you will get my meaning!) I try very hard to push people away from the lofty goals and to focus their minds and budgets on things that are key to simulating actual flights. Some items are critical MCP, CDU etc), some are purely eye candy and need to look correct, not necessary function.... (ACP, many of the overhead panels etc). For FDS we call these Realistic Representstions. We want them to look right but if there is no simulation value we are mindful of how much budget we put into wiring and interfacing something that never gets used...) The big thing to note is that when you start out, all of it is a mystery.... Slowly, bit by bit you learn and sort out what really matters. Does not happen overnight. With a good supplier on your team you can easily make it all happen.. Dont plan to build in a day... Expect to be frustrated, know when to walk away for a day... All healthy attitudes... Peter
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:49:33 +0000
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