CheckSix Forums

Dear Sir,

You can already buy our gauges for F16

Please visit this webpage: http://www.flightillusion.com/gallery3.htm

Be advised that at this point, you will only be able to use our gauges with FS or with X-Plane
Best regards

Dear Sir

If you want our gauges to work with another software simulator than FS2004, FSX or X-plane, the only option at this time is to write your own interfaceing software

To do this we have a protocol:

Our instruments can be driven via a standard communication port. The CIM or Multiplexer contains a USB to Serial Port module and will show up in windows as a Virtual Communications Port. A standard driver from Microsoft is available for that. Default we use 38400 bps, 8 data bits, No parity and one Stop bit. But this can be changed via Instrument commands to up to 115.2 Kbits/sec.

Commands sent to the gauges are always 6 bytes long. This 6 byte command frame contains the Gauge address (maximum 255), the instrument command (maximum 16 commands) and the corresponding value that is typical for the Gauge.



As an example in Visual Basic this would mean that you have to assign a Communication port e.g:

MSComm1.CommPort = 4

MSComm1.Settings = "38400,N,8,1"



Serial comms is fine, but the problem always is synchronisation, so detection of the start and end of a message. There are many HW and SW handshaking tricks to handle that, but often either time-consuming or not very reliable (and Windows is sometimes unpredictable as to this).

We resolved that by a "flag" byte, a byte with the value zero (&H00). So all messages start with that flag byte and all gauges will then read the next byte, being the address (we call that the GaugeID, being 1 to 255).

After the GaugeID follows a byte with a 4 bit command and 4 bits that are part of the value that are next to this byte.



Consequently, using the "zero" as a unique flag, the other bytes should never contain zero, and that’s why one of the bits in each following byte of the message is forced to "one". To "repair" the two bytes of the command value the original bits are given in the 4 bits following the command in the command byte. The last byte of the message must be 255 (&HFF). If not the gauges will reject the message. For details see the protocol for the "single needle gauge" below.



Only a few commands will result in a reply message. Also here a fixed length message, being 25 bytes long. We use fixed length to prevent com port interrupts to "crawl up" to application level for every received byte. The 25 is based the longest message we can get back from gauges.



So, to control a gauge, you need to send 3 parameters: the GaugeID, the Command and the Value/Operator. In Visual basic we use the following sub for that:



Private Sub ComposeCmd(GaugeID, icmd, ival)

XferCmd = " "

int1 = GaugeID

Mid$(XferCmd, 2, 1) = Chr$(int1)

long1 = ival

If ival < 0 Then long1 = Abs(ival)

int2 = Int(long1 / 256)

Mid$(XferCmd, 4, 1) = Chr$((long1 And &HFF) Or &H1) Mid$(XferCmd, 5, 1) = Chr$((int2 And &HFF) Or &H2)

int3 = icmd * 16

int3 = int3 Or (long1 And &H1)

int3 = int3 Or (int2 And &H2)

If ival < 0 Then int3 = int3 Or &HC Else int3 = int3 Or &H8 Mid$(XferCmd, 3, 1) = Chr$(int3 And &HFF) Mid$(XferCmd, 6, 1) = Chr$(&HFF) Mid$(XferCmd, 1, 1) = Chr$(&H0) ComBufferXmit = ComBufferXmit & Chr$(&HFF) & XferCmd End Sub



Just as an example of course and retyped, so can contain some syntax errors.



The "single needle" instruments use the following command set:

'--------------------------------------------------------------

' Commands from control PC

'

' Message layout:

'

' Byte 1: Flag byte:&h00

' Byte 2: Address: 1-255; address zero forbidden!

' Byte 3: Command: Bit 3 always "1": CCCC.1SHL (H&L = databits, S=sign)

' Byte 4: Data Low: &h00-&hFF; bit0 always 1 : XXXX.XXX1 -> XXXX.XXXL

' Byte 5: Data High:&h00-&hFF: bit1 always 1 : XXXX.XX1X -> XXXX.XXHX

' Byte 6: End byte:&hFF

'

' Commands:

' 0= noop

' 1= Initialize

' 2= Set Instrument Address; Value 1-&hff (not zero!),second byte:&HAA

' 3= Set instrument speed; Value 0-&h7fff

' 4= Set Instrument direction:lowbyte =0=CW,<>0=CCW

' 5= New needle position; Value 0-&h7fff

' 6= New display value: 4 bits per digit 1111222233334444

' 7= Enquiry instrument info; Reply &h00, Address, Type, Model, Direction, "B"(16 bytes)

' 8= Switch lights: Low byte= DL00.0000; D=display on/off, L=light on/off

' 9= Set Instrument Model &Version, Low Byte=Model, High Byte=Version

' 10=Write an EEPROM byte

'

'----------------------------------------------------------------



Command 2: sets a new GaugeID

Command 3: sets the needle speed; Larger number is longer time between steps

Command 5: Positions the needle on 0-939. Please note that larger will run the needle to its end stop.

Command 7: Returns the gauge properties.

Command 8: to switch backlight (and in case present the numeric display)



Other commands are not that important for the single needle and should even be used with care. E.g. some commands are for debug purposes and can -when used wrongly- change the instrument properties and/or the micro program.



The IO module works via the same principle. It can reads 48 input contacts, 6 analogue inputs with 10 bit resolution and drive 32 Leds (15 mA each). All input contacts have pull up resistors.





Command are:



' Message layout:

'

' Byte 1: Flag byte:&h00

' Byte 2: Address: 1-255; Odd addresses=only (bit 0 always 1)

' Byte 3: Command: Bit 2&3 always "1": CCCC.11HL (H & L are databits)

' Byte 4: Data Low; &h00-&hFF; bit0 always 1 : XXXX.XXX1 -> XXXX.XXXL

' Byte 5: Data Hight:&h00-&hFF: bit1 always 1 : XXXX.XX1X -> XXXX.XXHX

' Byte 6: LPC Check byte

'

' Commands:

' 0= noop

' 1= Initialize

' 2= Set Instrument Address; Value 0-&hff (odd addr. only),second byte:&HAA

' 3= Set Scan frequency (Instr Speed)

' 4= Set Output drivers 1 (&h0000 - &hFFFF) = 16 bits

' 5= Set Output drivers 2 (&h0000 - &hFFFF) = 16 bits

' 6= Send Inputs: &h00, Address, Sw1-Sw6, <16 bytes analogue>, &HFF

' 7= Send info about instrument; Reply &h00, Address, Type,"B"(25 bytes)

' 8= Set LED intensity: byte 4 (&h00-&HFF)

' 9= Set Instrument Model &Version, Low Byte=Model, High Byte=Version

'

Command 4 and 5 control the LEDS.

Command 6 returns the state of input contacts (6 bytes) and 16 bytes (8 integers) with the analogue inputs. Currently 6 used, but will be extended in newer versions.

Card layout is given below:









Hope this helps a bit