I sure hope the hype lives up to it! As it stands right now, it seems like it will! I received an email today from Revolution Sim Products, the guys who I’m buying my 737 TQ from.

Man, this email had 11 new things they are doing to make their product even more rock solid. Changing certain parts to metal frame work, better switches, using different parts to make things hold better. And then, included a series of new photos!

What a great company, to keep their customers up to date about the development and continued improvement of their product! I really, really like them so far, and can’t wait to get my TQ!

My first real big piece of heavy machinery is heading to the production line! I just ordered my 737 TQ from Revolution Simproducts! These guys have been very communicative and up front from the start, and they have said they are upgrading my TQ to have manual trim for a Christmas gift to me! That is awsome!

Also, shipping is expensive (like $650 dollars) and when I asked them why it’s so high, they not only emailed me back saying well, it’s got a long trip, it’s packed in a huge wooden box with metal frames and weights a ton, they also sent me photos of the shipping box. Wow! They also mentioned if they don’t ship it like this, I’ll get 2 TQ’s instead of one.. broken. And that cost includes insurance which is really the smart thing to do here.

Anyhow, I’m excited to get this on the production line! They said lots going on so probably about 7 weeks to get it done. In the mean time, here are some photos!

And their video!

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Holy cow, did one little job turn into a day of work!

So, this morning I decided I’d investigate why my Fire Warning light on my glare wasn’t coming on. I fiddled with the TSR settings, checked off a couple boxes and then well nothing worked. After checking them on, suddenly, my Fire Warning light worked. Go figure. My guess, a bad config file or setting in one and unchecking/rechecking those boxes resolved it.

Of course, since TSR is the one doing the logic, you can only initiate failures (that show up on real hardware) within TSR. FSX’s failures light like the software panels in FSX, but won’t interact with pmsystems or TSR it seems. Ohwell. Just means if I want to automatically do failures, I have to buy pmInstructor. Who’d of thought?

OK, I guess that was too easy for me. Because then I started on all these minor issues that I have just put aside, until today. I wanted to have better overspeed and stall sounds. I got those working properly in pmsounds.

Then, I wanted to finally find something for the tire scrubber sound and braking sound to be used with the autobrake pro of the TSR software. (Through pmsounds) I found some sounds, and now have those working, cool!

After that I found better cockpit sounds, better apu starter sounds, and a whole slew of other 737 sounds. I updated those in pmsounds, killer!

Finally, I had never addressed the issue of flaps within the PFD software. (That runs as an EICAS for my middle screen) If I set flaps 5, it would show 1 on the eicas. If I set flaps 15, it would show 5. So, I went into the PFD, the EICAS and the FO PFD software and set the aircraft type to CDU.

I then went into the CDUType file (that is OUTSIDE netdir…) and set in all my flap settings. The flap pos and rel pos should be the same. IE 1 and 1, 5 and 5, 15 and 15, 30 and 30, etc.

So FINALLY… if I call Flaps 15, it shows 15 on the EICAS.

Holy cow, really cool to get all those little things out of the way and working, finally!

These guys are great! I’ve been having an email conversation with them about their product. Due to my limitations of the sim, and also cost, I’ve decided to get a non-motorized unit. I really don’t want to make it more complex and have more stuff go wrong.

They let me know the non-motorized unit is backlit capable for an additional cost. I said lets do that. And on top of that, they are adding in manual trim for me at their cost! That is so cool! These guys ROCK!!

Very communicative, up front and willing to do things for their customers. That is exactly why I’m going to buy their TQ and not Throttletek’s!

http://www.revolution-simproducts.com

I have most of my default FSX sound turned off, and use pmsounds. Today I added in an overspeed and a stall warning into pmsounds. Here is what you do.

1. Open pmsounds

2. Click Edit SoundList

3. Add these two lines to the bottom of the soundlist file:

overspeed, 036D, .0, 1, CYC
stall, 036C, .0, 1, CYC

4. Close the file and save.

5. Click Edit INI File

6. At the bottom of the file add in these lines. Note there is a space before type, disabled and volume.

File=overspeed.wav
Type=main
Disabled=Off
Volume=default

File=stall.wav
Type=main
Disabled=Off
Volume=default

7. Close the file and save.

8. Download these two files. You should right click these, chose save as, and put them into your pmsounds/sounds folder.

Stall Warning
Overspeed

9. Quit PM Sounds, start up FS9/FSX, launch PMSounds and you should be good to go!

In the previous post, I mentioned I might have found a better TQ solution, and for less then double the price I can go from a ThrottleTek to this:

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I guess I’m not the only one who thinks charging your customers your fees stinks. Got an email from Juan who saw my post and said that stinks. He also said he has had problems in the past with both the cockpitsonic and FSC TQ’s and recommended I check out Revolution Simproducts.

Looks like they have a motorized and non motorized unit as well. I’ve emailed their sales department for more information and availability.

So, maybe not getting the desktop flyer Throttletek unit was a blessing!

I really wanted to purchase a 737 throttle from ThrottleTek but unfortunately Roberto seems to want his customers to pay his merchant fees that Paypal dings him to accept payments through their (service) and to boot, it wasn’t mentioned at all on his site until I got an email from him after I placed my order.

I told Roberto I was ready to place my order, and he sent me the paypal address and asked me for my address to calculate shipping.

During that time, I sent him the cost via Paypal for his unit, $649.99

I then get an email back from him saying shipping from El Salvador to me in Los Angeles is $90 so total cost is $649 (though the site says $649.99?) + $90 + 4% PAYPAL FEES, total of $768.

Hmmm.

Well, I sent him the $90. Why am I as a customer going to pay a Merchant (Roberto) his Merchant Fees?

He sent me an email back very nicely saying “Thanks I will need the 4% of paypal fees for the total!”

I replied informing him why would I pay his Merchant Fees… sorry that’s silly. If I as a business choose to accept credit cards, well the (company) that authorizes said card of course is going to ding the merchant 3-4%. That’s just how it goes. But I as a customer am not responsible for that. A merchant of course can accept other forms of payment but in the long run, is going to get dinged anyhow.

I get charged $12 / month by my bank for having a business checking account. I don’t change that back to my customers, it’s a cost of business.

Roberto stated those fees are part of ebay and not paypal and since it’s their fee not his he won’t pay it. (Of course, it IS his fee, charged TO him BY PayPal to USE THEM as a SERVICE to ACCEPT PAYMENTS.. then he is passing the buck onto his customers. I just feel that is wrong)

He did however offer to accept a check or money order, which was cool. I just don’t feel comfortable sending a check of that size to someone.

Too bad too, was really looking forward to it. I guess I’ll just put this towards the full sized, to scale unit.

Good luck to everyone who buys it. I still think it’s a great unit and in it upon itself looks FANTASTIC! But this is just a conflict on interest between two businessmen. He said everyone else has paid the 4%. Well, that’s their choice of course. I stand behind my beliefs and won’t ding my customers fees I have because of my business.

So, sadly, I had to ask Roberto to please refund the paypal payments (which he did immediately) and am not going to be ordering this throttle.

Bummer.

I also find it silly that Matt Olieman (Who runs MyCockpit.org) says I’m using his forums as a soapbox. (view post here) I expressed my point of view and my experience about a product. Isn’t that what many of us do? We google a product, to see a review. Well, how is my posts any different? At any rate, ThrottleTek is a sponsor of MyCockpit, so I’m not at all surprised that Mr. Olieman jumped through hoops to come to their rescue.

My friend Allen sent me this, wow!

Found this on a site, can’t remember where.

Strange airports and nice places in FSX.

Mont Saint-Michel

This attraction is only present in FSX
Mont Saint-Michel (Mount Saint Michael) is a small island off the coast of Normandy,
France, and home of an old abbey.

Depart from Granville (LFRF) and follow the coast to the south. The island with its abbey
will soon be easy to spot. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so Epson overnighted me a new projector. I immediately packed up the old one and shipped it back. They have a hold of over $600 on my card that does not come back until they receive the old (bad?) unit back. That should be Friday, or Monday.

Alright, so I get home, hook up the new projector and test for that pattern of lines. ITS THERE AS WELL!

No, this is not the same image from the other post. This is a picture taken of the new projector. First thing, I checked serial numbers. Did I send the new one back? Nope, different serial number, so this is the new (refurbished) one.

Alright, now, this happens even with nothing but power connected, so it’s not the computer, video card, cable, etc. I tried a different power cord, different extension cord, same problem.

So, I call my brother to run this past him. We go back and forth, and finally he goes “Could there be another light source reflecting off the lamp?” I said “No, there is nothing else lit in the room.”

But then, that got me thinking, wait a minute. 2 weeks ago, I put up two cardboard tops as templates to figure out how to cut the real ones out of wood.. Here’s what it looks like.

As you can see, there is some light that casts on the tip here. There is no way around that due to the size of the room the sim in in. However, you don’t see the shadow on the projector screen because it’s below your eye point.

BUT… could the projector be casting light off this cardboard, and that light be reflecting UP back onto the screen? You can’t see in this shot, but on the front / bottom of the cardboard that is on the FO’s side, along the edge is clear packaging tape! Which is REFLECTIVE… DOH!!!!!!!!!!! (Smack’s Forehead!)

I removed the tape and guess what… my mystery lines vanished…

You can see above, where I ripped off the clear packing tape. And the mystery lines are now gone. The oddball thing is, I left the projector ON for that one hour on the Vista login screen just before I put up these cardboard template tops.

To boot, the lines MATCHED the Vista login screen! So it seemed likely that this was burn in from that hour long view of the vista login screen… Sigh.

I’m glad it’s resolved. Many thanks to my brother who saved my ass and ended my day on a high note. (and to Karl and Ron on the FDS forums for their helpful insight and recommendations/suggestions)

Too bad I have a refurbished projector now and Epson has my brand new one.

(Smack’s Forehead again)!!!!

Had some issues with the LED lighting on the glare wings so Peter up and shipped me two brand spanking new ones! How is that for supporting your customers! Steve personally checked to make sure they were OK as well! Thanks!

I must say these pictures don’t do them justice, they look GREAT!!!