Wanted: Serial output module for 1984 Simex on 32/77

[sim-zone]

We'd like to add a constant output of the aircraft position and orientation data to our running simulator (CAE Simex (Fortran) on Encore 32/77, 1984) over a serial interface, to help experiment with homebuilding a visual system.

Is anyone out there that would like to help? We have a similar application already implemented by Sonda (TCAS upgrade) with source etc. which might help, basically we just need to find the right variables to export (coordinates that are updated at 30Hz) and constantly spit them out :-) should be easy for someone who has done any programming on that system!

[Egyptian]

I am not an expert, but I think you might want to consider using an HSD card rather than serial. There are a heck of a lot of variables that have to be transmitted for visual, both directions. The HSD card would give you a lot more speed and it is fairly easy to program. There are very good examples in the Encore manuals.

Egyptian

[sim-zone]

That sounds good for the host side, but then we'd need to build an HSD interface for the PC. I dont really want to buy a 6000$ card just to play with... Of course, maybe we could build our own, but if we get that deep into hardware, maybe we should go all the way and build a shared memory interface? (Our current visual uses shared memory to communicate with the host) Or maybe there are shared mem interfaces on the market? I could imagine a PCI card which emulates the shared mem bucket connector in the visual's 32/77, and uses shared mem in the PC's RAM.

[sim-zone]

There are a heck of a lot of variables that have to be transmitted for visual, both directions.

By the way, we were originally thinking of just outputting long/lat/alt and pitch/roll of the plane, and feeding that to Microsoft FS2004. We dont need the weather data etc. because we can seperately make those settings on the PC.

Of course, if we do the "real thing" and go for a complete visual replacement, it would make more sense to use HSD or shared mem or whatever, maybe we'll even do that, I dont know yet. We're just playing around for the moment :-)

Ethan

[Egyptian]

You can buy PCI based HSD cards. Then it is easy to run them in IBL mode from Encore to PC. A lot of people (Thales comes to mind) use this scheme to run their PC IOS systems. They may be a bit pricey, but I have never seen one fail.

Egyptian

[sim-zone]

Thats what I meant by a 6000$ PCI card.
We dont have that kind of budget.