New projects
I've started a few new projects for the simulator. First I'm working on a control system for the simulation where it will be possible to remotely change time and weather, move the aircraft to different predefined positions, change the fuel status, trigger faults and lot more. Further down the line it will be possible to change weapons in this system. But the most interesting part is that I've managed to integrate this into Google Earth, which means it will be possible to see the aircraft on the globe and also track it's flightpath. AI aircrafts will also be plotted the same way and it will be possible to add new AI aircrafts simply by point and click. My first tests are promising, but there is still a lot of uncertainties.
Another project I've been working on is porting the CK (flight computer) to Borland Builder. This is mainly due to that I work with this IDE at my job, but also since I find it much easier to do a GUI with Delphi. This is progressing just fine, but I still have a few quirks to straighten out.
The idea to use the original electronics to drive the radar, sight and flight computer fr the SUL35 project failed due to lack of some critical equipment. So now I will have to make a similar software suit for this project that I've been working on for the SUL37. Luckily much of the basic stuff can be reused so it will not take much time to have something running.
My last new project for now is a little bit different. I'm working on making a system for modern MFDs in general with an emphasis on JAS 39 Gripen in particular. I will build both hardware and software. The hardware will consist of a bezel with backlit buttons, a 10.2" widescreen LCD in portrait configuration and a mini-ITX as computing unit with a CF-card as persistent memory. Everything will be built into an aluminum case adapted for easy mounting. The buttons on the bezel will be connected to the processing unit through a common keyboard interface and the whole unit will communicate with the simulator and other units through ethernet connection. At the moment the hardware is not much more than drawings due to lack of funding, but that is just a question of time. The software is under development and much of the framework is finished, but no particular implementations are done yet.
The idea is to have Linux as operating system on this unit and I've had my eyes on an interesting small distribution called MyOS. It is very small and has no X-windows, but it still support OpenGL rendering. Sounds ideal for my purposes. Using Linux has one problem though. I can't connect directly to MSFS. There is no implementation of SimConnect for Linux. So I have to use my own protocol to communicate. Luckily we've been planning this for the SUL37 project, so eventually I will have an indigenous solution. I will post more information about this project as it progress.
