Project Magenta - High End Flight Simulation Software

Some Airbus Interfacing Notes:

Thrust Lever

The potentiometer value for the individual thrust levers 0-16383 are written to

0×5914 WORD (2 bytes) Throttle 1
0×5916 WORD (2 bytes) Throttle 2
0×5918 WORD (2 bytes) Throttle 3
0x591A WORD (2 bytes) Throttle 4

Thrust Gate Positon(s)

Separate Gates:

Airbus Separate Gates

0×5490 BYTE Gate Engine 1

0×5491 BYTE Gate Engine 2

Thrust Gate Value (0=Control Off, 1=MREV, 2=Rev Idle, 3=Idle, 4=CLB, 5=THR MCT, 6 = TOGA)

Value 10 Disables Current Setting, forces setting via Trust Lever 2
Value 11 Disables Current Setting, forces setting via Trust Lever 4
(the Values 10 and 11 can be used to switch back and forth to MREV and REV IDLE while using the lever position for the other settings)

Alternatively, only one position for all:

0x48F2 BYTE (1 byte)
Thrust Gate Value (0=Control Off, 1=MREV, 2=Rev Idle, 3=Idle, 4=CLB, 5=THR MCT, 6 = TOGA)

Value 10 Disables Current Setting, forces setting via Trust Lever 2
Value 11 Disables Current Setting, forces setting via Trust Lever 4
(the Values 10 and 11 can be used to switch back and forth to MREV and REV IDLE while using the lever position for the other settings)

Flaps

0×5911 BYTE  Airbus Flap Position, starting with 1 = UP (for Airbus 5 positions UP-1-2-3-FULL)

The FCU will then set the flaps according to the situation, i.e. if you write the value 2 for Flap 1 on the ground, it will set flaps 

Spoiler

0×5910 BYTE (bit 1) Spoiler is in ARMED position 
0×5910 BYTE (bit 2) Spoiler is in DOWN position 

0x591C WORD (2 bytes) for the Spoiler Potentiometer (0 – 16383)

FCU

If you are not using hardware that is directly interfaced to PM software such as the CPFlight FCU, please note the following:

For the commands, please use the FCU Throughpass Offset 0x4F2 with the individual values listed in the pmOffsets list. I.e. do not use K031 (value 31) for VS but use K059 (Value 59) for the VS PULL.

Airbus-Type Extensions
ALS K049 (AB LS Button)
ALS K149 (AB LS Button) (Copilot)
ASTI K050 (AB STD/QNH push)
ASTO K051 (AB STD/QNH pull -> STD BARO 29.92 in)
ASPI K052 (AB Speed Button push – managed speed mode)
ASPO K053 (AB Speed Button pull)
AHDI K054 (AB Heading Button push – managed heading mode)
AHDO K055 (AB Heading Button pull)
AALI K056 (AB Altitude Button push – managed altitude mode)
AALO K057 (AB Altitude Button pull)
AVSI K058 (AB VS Button push – managed altitude mode)
AVSO K059 (AB VS Button pull)
AEXP K060 (AB EXPED Button)
ATFP K061 (AB TRKFPA Button)
IN K062 (AB QNH INHG)
HPA K063 (AB QNH HPA)
VN1 K071 (AB VOR1OFF)

MCDU

Please note that you can switch to the Thales version via the MCDU MENU SETTINGS page.

In the last couple of months we have been focusing on our cooperation with two companies in particular: Cockpitsonic Solutions in Germany and  Flight Simulator Center in Italy.

Both provide turn-key simulator systems for Entertainment as well as flight training (AATD, FNPT and FTD). A lot of new hardware has been developed and there is more to come.

Right now the top priority is to add type-specific features to the existing software and streamline the interaction with this new hardware (e.g. dynamic control loading, CAN Bus interfacing…  while still maintaining reverse compatibility to existing and working simulators.

Please visit both sites above, because they have recently been updated.

Link to Flight Simulator Center Website

Link to Cockpitsonic Solutions Website

With the recent releases of two amazing new products several people are rightly asking about compatibility between that software and Project Magenta.

In the past add-ons with their own flight management and aircrafts simulations (which go well beyond the capabilities of FS) could easily be used with third party software by removing or replacing the panels, as those were the ones used for the additional features. This way cockpit builders were able to use the parts they wanted, i.e. the flight model and the outside view of their aircraft within FS, and the rest of the Project Magenta Software in their networked computers with their dedicated hardware. Typically these add-ons are used in a normal one-computer setuo.

Due to new copyright protection systems included in the fresh generations of some products, the flight model and 3D model of the aircraft is now interlinked with the rest of the add-on, which makes it difficult, if not illegal, to “break out” these parts from the rest of their product.

As Project Magenta we can’t make any efforts to break this protection, and we will have to see what alternative solutions can be offered by ourselves or others. Please check our forum for a more in-depth discussion about this.

iFly http://www.iflysimsoft.com/
PMDG http://www.precisionmanuals.com/

www.vatsimn.net

Dear VATSIM,

Has it really been ten years? Hundreds of thousands of hours provided by volunteer air traffic controllers servicing pilots, adding a new dimension to the potential of PC based flight simulation? This is an amazing achievement and a great act of dedication, organization and evolution that has taken place for the benefit of everyone involved. Congratulations!

Being one of those who dreamt of these possibilities and tried to do something like this from the very early days, I feel very close to this community and its members. It is time to celebrate, and my understanding is that there is a long list of events that will keep the level of enthusiasm high, publicize VATSIM to those who do not know about it and make those who strayed come back for more!

Many thanks to all of you, it is hard work and fun, or fun and hard work, but what an impressive result and very well worth it! So blow out the candles and make a wish, keep going strong and we’ll all get to a hundred!

Best Regards

 Enrico Schiratti
Project Magenta

A new version of pmStartup and Heritage Aircraft Config Files has been added to the downloads section.

Please check the Forum for more details.

It isn’t just the outside visuals that are impressive in a simulated cockpit, the vast majority of the time a pilot is looking at rendered instruments, flight management computer screens and synoptics. On top of being fully functional, they have to be smooth and visually identical to their real aircraft counterparts.

Project Magenta has been developing flight simulation avionics and systems for more than ten years and OpenGL is a core quality and selling point. Several thousand of installations with Project Magenta are being used by flight training professionals, the aviation industry as well as hobby cockpit builders.

The following products use OpenGL:

• all Glass Cockpit Software
• Flight Management Computer screens
• pmSystems
• Instructor Station
• General Aviation avionics

Having become the industry’s foundation in our own sector heavily relies heavily on using the industry’s foundation of high performance graphics.

Here some changes on the site in recent days:

• new upload of betas for all Airbus-Type programs with several changes
• Instructor Station re-compile with several optimizations
• the new builds overview page has been re-done to make things a bit more clear
• lot of work went into the ticket system to organize things better
• the forum has been re-worked a bit to make it as simple and clear as possible

When it comes to networking and Windows 7, things can be pretty restrictive with the UAC. This is also affects software installation and general network and computer speed.

Disclaimer: We do not reccomend you do this, but if your network is in a controlled environment, and you know who can access it and how (or can’t) then there is no reason for you not to disable the Windows 7 UAC.

To do this, simply click on Start, then enter ‘UAC’ in the “Search Programs and Files” Box.

The first (and possibly only) entry is ‘Change User Account Control Settings’.

The slider in on the left of the screen goes from “Always Notify” to “Never Notify”. The setting we suggest to use is “Never Notify”.

The statement that “need to use programs… do not support User Account Control” is a bit misleading, as even fully certified programs need to be run as administrator on occasions. We are simply doing away with a hurdle which might not be needed in a simulator environment.

As we have had reports of Windows Drivers and even FSUIPC/WideFS or Prepar3D installations malfunctioning, and this is a valid workaround.

Comments welcome.

This program is a simple little tool to update a local computer with files from a given main computer.

Please place this program in your WideClient folder and run it there, if you use any Run1= or RunReady1= commands in your WideClient.INI, then then you can run it with ‘run wideclient.exe’ To let this program run after the computer has finished booting, place it in your Start – Programs – Startup folder. Make sure it is pointing to the right ‘Start In:’ folder, so it finds the script file.

In this example, it assumes that the update zip files are uncompressed and in a folder c:\updates on a computer called MAIN

Files are then copied to the last destination folder that has been defined.

pmStartup will stop WideClient if it is already running and re-start it once it is cone this is done so you can replace wideclient as well from a reference folder

To stop this program, press Esc

wait 5 //waits 5 seconds (if you wish)

source \\main\c\updates\ //sets source folder
dest c:\wideFS
copy wideclient.exe
dest C:\abgc\ //sets destination folder
copy abgc.exe
copy abgc.dll
copy abgc.nav
wait 1
dest C:\pmSystems\ //sets another destination folder
copy pmsystems.exe
copy pmsystems.dll
copy pmsys320.txt
sleep 1
//you can place a run wideclient.exe here
run wideclient.exe
sleep 1
run c:\fcu\fcu.exe
sleep 1
run c:\abgc\abgc.exe