Seeking advice on new set-up

Hi Guys (and Gals)

My current set-up is:

i5 SandyBridge 2500k clocked at 4.43GHz

8GB of DDR3 1600MHz

Asus P8Z77 V LX

Various SATA2/3 Hard drives

Gigabyte GTX760 OC 2GB

3x 1920x1080 monitors, currently at 5926x1080 using nVidia surround

and for control:

Warthog HOTAS

Cougar MFDs

Home made UFC with G940 pedals and home made trimwheel attached (BU0836X based)

TrackIR 4 Pro

I also use an android tablet when possible.

I will be updating some items:

Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming (4GB)

16GB HyperX 2400MHz DDR3

SSDs to replace the SATA HDDs

My question is regarding monitors. I miss having the MFDs shown separately from the camera view, and I want to go down one of three routes:

1> Buy two tablets, probably 8", and put them behind the MFD bezels.

2> Buy a larger touchscreen monitor and export the entire MFD displays and control to it

3> Use one of my spare 19" 1440x900 monitors to display exported instruments including the MFDs and stick my Cougar bezels to it in the appropriate place.

The 3rd option won't cost me anything extra - and cost is an issue, as it's all going on my credit card! :D

I'm only asking about the monitor/MFD situation because I've already done heaps of reading on the kit and that is what I'm updating with.

I'd like to hear from peeps who have tried one or more of these methods about whether they went well or not - thanks.

Oh - I'll upload a picture of my set-up so you can see what's what - fitting the 19" monitor below the camera screens would be a tight squeeze...

I'd have to move the UFC and I would prefer to avoid having to do that

1. How would you export mfcd viewport to a tablet?

2. Not a fan of touchscreen.

3. That's the route I took on my very old build.

1. How would you export mfcd viewport to a tablet?

2. Not a fan of touchscreen.

1: With Touchscreen Pro? I think that's what it's called - I bought it yesterday, though it requires Java, which I don't particularly like having on my gaming PC.

2: I have become one in the last few months :)

In fact, I'm writing out a lot of checklists for the DCS World aircraft, for the community to use (both tapping the checklist items and using the tablet audio to read them out). That will be up on the downloads section and my website when I've done enough to make it worth up/downloading.

Why not going number 1 but with custom panels. I will be going that route in coming days. For the price you spend on two tablets you may be OK with that solution pricewise.

I will be doing exactly that:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=144269&highlight=mfd+home

Based on picture attached you are a tinkerer and DIY is not something new to you. Also I don't see much space below your screens for additional big panel.

Edit: Forgot to mention that you will need an extra 2 video outputs (best HDMI or Display port) but that wont be an issue once you upgrade your Graphics

Yes, this was one of the main attractions for the G1 Gaming - apart from the excellent reviews. Two DVI and 4 HDMI outputs gives me all I need.

I can't find any reasonably priced 8" tablets - 7" ones are ten a penny (okay, less than £30) and I did look at those Lilliput ones - maybe around £112 each, which increases the cost by £224 - not a small amount. Mind you, if I use screens behind the MFDs, they don't need to be touchscreen.

I wonder if these would do:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/inch-Color-Monitor-Speaker-Resolution/dp/B00OK5HIS8

The screen would be the exact same size as the MFD bezels - so no overlap except the LCD controls and frame. I would think 1024x768 would be sufficient, too.

Then again, if I can squeeze in my spare 19" LCD, I can hang the bezels on that and have enough space to export the RWR, too. Would mean a complete re-org of the set-up, though, but it's certainly do-able.

The link for the screens in that post you linked to is dead, but I found some elsewhere - have to have a think about that. Thanks for the link, anyway.

Hi Brixmis

I've been using a 19 inch monitor with two Cougar MFD's stuck on top of it for ages now. I knocked up this small wooden panel and put it over the two mfd's (used double sided sticky tape to keep the mfd's stuck to the screen).

I made a UFC which works wonderfully. That fits snuggly into a tight groove cut out of the top of the panel.

Between the mfd's I cut out an extra section to export the RWR and clock to. I can also press a button and have the kneeboard displayed there, with checklists etc.

I am going to do a different version soon, with a larger monitor. The monitor here is just a 19 inch one that i got for £5 from a charity shop.

Whole thing was cheap and cheerful.

Regards,

Milli

3 monitor setups are awesome and let you look into a much bigger world than single monitor setups, but VR puts you into that world. :) Personally I'm putting my upgrades off until I find out exactly which gpu hardware/software works best in VR. It could be much cheaper, and more immersive than the very cool 3 monitor setup, with MFD's. BUT is still remains to be seen if the resolution and frame rates will be good enough for flight sim VR.:(

Hi Brixmis

 

I've been using a 19 inch monitor with two Cougar MFD's stuck on top of it for ages now. I knocked up this small wooden panel and put it over the two mfd's (used double sided sticky tape to keep the mfd's stuck to the screen).

 

I made a UFC which works wonderfully. That fits snuggly into a tight groove cut out of the top of the panel.

 

Between the mfd's I cut out an extra section to export the RWR and clock to. I can also press a button and have the kneeboard displayed there, with checklists etc.

 

I am going to do a different version soon, with a larger monitor. The monitor here is just a 19 inch one that i got for £5 from a charity shop.

 

Whole thing was cheap and cheerful.

 

 

Regards,

Milli

This looks like a good option.

I've managed to find some cheap 8" tablets (£60/$100) but if I can do it with no outlay - and I have the things that you have used - that would be great.

I tested using the 19" LCD propped against my current 'dashboard' and whilst it's OK - it is a bit bulky and of course, conceals the UFC as in the photo, so your option would negate that.

Chivas, I am very wary of VR, as I have some health issues affecting my eyesight and I use some very powerful painkillers (morphine) which can cause disorientation if I move my head about too much. I need to give it a try before I buy - and that will only be once they have been tested over a long period by 'Joe Public' - so VR might be something for me in the long term.

Thank you very much, guys, for your thoughts and ideas :thumbup:

My new card and RAM are due in an hour or so :pilotfly:

PS - this would be nice as a layout for the 19" monitor, with the MFDs on top and no touchscreen:

How about the Raspberry Pi's 7" monitor. That's pretty cheap. I just used the 8" Lilliputs, but that's because at the time, Raspberry Pi wasn't available.

FYI: Someone on Amazon posted this: Mine is 6 3/16 inches wide and 3 3/4 inches high.

hsb

I've got my hardware set-up sorted now. I will post some pics tomorrow - I'm waiting for some paint to dry before the last part can be assembled (and my 4th monitor cable doesn't arrive until tomorrow).

I was going to use Helios, but I think I may just do what I always have and tweak the lua files myself. I'll give it a try, anyway.

Took me some time to get the new RAM to a frequency it would run at with the CPU overclock and had to end up settling for 4.2GHz on the cpu and 2133MHz on the DDR3. It should be sufficient.

The GTX970 G1 is great - at first I thought it was maybe too big for my HAF932 case - but when I took the GTX760 out I found they are the same size! So no issues there.

If this all works like I hope it will, it'll be fantastic :)

btw hsb - 7" screens are too small for the MFDs - they are about 4¼" square on the display area.

Will be good to see your pics. I'm always looking for different ideas.

I had a bit of a struggle getting windows to show up in all the monitors - but got there in the end. Now I'm about to start playing with the monitor lua, configing it as though I have two monitors - one will be the nVidia surround using 3 screens, and the other will be the 'Input' screen.

Just a quick snap of the moment when it came together:

Yahoo! Massively happy! it works, and it's fantastic!

So chuffed I tried this....

Here's a vid from when I was still high as a kite from it working:

https://youtu.be/V0pLBwSQcKY

I'll be posting a description of how it went together and the settings tomorrow. Really pleased... :cheer3nc:

You do sound very happy!

Sticking the mfd's on top of the lcd works great. If I took me piece of MDF wooden surround off my 19inch monitor (in above photos) it looks just like yours. And its very portable too. I just lift my panel up and slot it to one side of my main monitor, out of the way.

Simples.

Glad you made it work. Good to see someone happy!

Regards,

Milli

Thanks, Milli - yes, very pleased. I'm just about to see how well the RWR displays in the space between the MFDs.

Spent an hour tweaking the positions last night, and it turned out I was using the wrong ratio in the monitor lua file (the ratio for all 4 monitors instead of just the 3 camera displays) which was why the VC looked a bit narrow and the MFD button titles were not aligning as well as they should have.

I always enjoy having a play with set-ups and so-on and I'm always like a kiddy at Christmas when it works! :yes:

The only downer in this upgrade is that my activations - that I had just completed last week - are all now void and I have to use another one up!

So - graphics card and RAM change = all modules deactivated. I did try to find the post which detailed the accumulative changes that would cause reactivation to be required, but even with the search engine, I couldn't find it. The one I did find said that graphics cards could be changed with no 'penalty' at all and was obviously wrong. No activations left for The Ultimate Argument now :(

Sorry to hear about your activation issues. Its not good that a legitimate user has to put up with all that stuff. I haven't changed my hardware in ages so have yet to go through that loop.

By the way, I use Easy Monitor Configurator to place the exported displays. Quick and easy. I'm not sure if it has been updated to up with each new version of DCS World. I've read that if it is installed new now, then some registry editing is needed to point it to the right file path.

If you haven't tried it then here is the link:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=71831

There is of course ULTRAMFCD which I haven't yet used. Looks very good.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=138924

I've got it, but I've never tried it. I actually had a quick look at it before this mod, but decided to try what I knew first.

i've been sat here since my last post, reading, and I have not yet tried to get the RWR showing! I'm always doing that these days - if I spent half the time flying that I do reading forums and websites, I'd be a much more proficient pilot! :joystick:

I'll give it a go if I get stuck.

I did look at UltraMFCD, too, but I've been taking on board so much recently that I can't remember why I didn't go with it (or if I decided that at all). It's my age...

I'm going to reinstall FalconBMS as well - think this set-up would suit that quite well ;)

As for the activations - the frustrating bit is that I decided not to upgrade the hard drives to SSD purely because of this. Now I have to reactivate anyway I think I'll be ordering them.

Okey dokes, I've got the lua files etc all sussed, thanks mostly to this guy's upload:

http://lockon.co.uk/en/files/1411604/

so thanks to him!

Had to play around a lot with the co-ordinates of course, but got it all sussed out now:

A-10C, with the UHF radio data in between the MFDs and UFC (wish you could export the frequencies of all 3 radios). I added a large RWR between the MFDs:

Here is the Black Shark, using my button title cards in the MFDs and the ABRIS displayed between them - I'm happy to use the Shkval in the VC:

...and finally the set-up for the Grach. Just put the Shkval IT-23 display between the MFDs. I'll have to check the remaining aircraft and see how the exported instruments look with each one:

Now that's looking very smart and tidy. With the A-10C RWR, I'd like to know if its possible to have the range rings shown too. For some reason they don't show up when exported.

And you've given me the idea of adding a BIG eject button somewhere on my panel. How I need that one ha ha.

Regards,

Milli

I've just had a look at the RWR rings. You can't export them because they are not a part of the display. The rings and graduations are printed onto the display lens.

So the only way to have them on your monitor is to print them on in some way. It wouldn't even be possible to have a background image of it, due to the screen being blanked out by DCS.

Now that's weird!

Regarding reactivation - only the A-10C wanted reactivating, all the other modules (everything except 109/190) are fine :huh:

I've decided to add a separate box with all my pots on it - well, 6 in all. I just wish we could use them to change radio frequencies as standard assignments.

I've had 3 pot knobs on the edge of my UFC for some time, but can rarely find something useful to assign them to in DCS modules. Maybe volume controls? I currently use the rocker switches on my MFDs for that (except in the A-10C, of course).

If I could get a decent mini-stick, I'd put that on it.

I now also have the CMS screens on the 4th screen.

Here we are then - I'm pleased to say it all went very well - just took me a couple of hours, including walking the mutt! :)

Here you can see the internals of the UFC, as I'm cutting the cables and ensuring the individual wires are tinned....

and here it is, all together, without labels etc (using my normal custom P3D MFD inserts in this case):

...and I made sure that all of the pots are wired so that they all rotate clockwise from 0 to 100%:

so now I just need worthwhile analogue assignments to give them for all aircraft!

Over to you, ED! :music_whistling:

I still have a complete joystick assignment (X/Y axes) left on the BU0836X which I'm hoping to use for a mini-stick, if I can find the right type. Otherwise it may have to be a D-Pad instead.

:cheer3nc: SSDs are now on the way.....

don't ya just love Christmas sales :D