In my quest to make the pedestal of my simulator more useful, I finally got the pedestal reworked and the 2nd 10.4″ touchscreen LCD in and working! Here you can see it running VoxATC, FS2Crew Voice Commander and the FSHost Client to the My737Sim Multiplayer Server! This is a real treat as it gets all this information off my main FSX display and into a nice, readable section in the cockpit!

I’ll be the first to admit it, I like it when my sim looks cool in the cockpit. But I’m starting to move away from that (a little) to get more functionality. Let me explain. First off, there are some things that are just not simulated (yet) when it comes to our hobby. Yes, I could use a lower engine display, but really, I can cycle those on the upper display. That’s why I put in the 10.4″ LCD and use that for my EFB.

So, back in the sim after a 2 month break (due to work and family) I started looking at my pedestal. What did I see? A bunch of useless panels. Not useless from the standpoint of they don’t have anything wired. Useless in that if I wired them up, I’d have no logical use for them. Except to make them do things other than intended.

I have an iPad. I have Air Display. (An app that lets you use your iPad as a monitor, via WiFi) So then it hit me. Hey, I can use the iPad to hold various FSX undocked windows, like for VoxATC and FS2Crew! This would give me a lot more functionality, because lets face it. I have a simulator, that runs off two Windows computers. I have a ton of addon software, many with their own interface. And this would be a great way to bring interactive functionality with this stuff, right to my finger tips in the cockpit!

Well I won’t bore you with the problems I had getting it working. (Which was a DNS related problem) But in short, it didn’t work with the iPad with Air Display because FSX SP2′s dreaded shader requirements saw it as a generic display adapter and wouldn’t start. (It’s been so long since I ran into that problem, I didn’t even think about it happening with a setup like this)

But that didn’t leave me abandoning the idea. I found the same guy on ebay I had bought the 10.4 touch screen from for the lower engine display/EFB on the MIP, and ordered another! Its VGA, so it’ll go on card 1 which means I’ll have 5 screens connected to the FSX PC.

That is ok. Because now, any information window that can be undocked from FSX can go on this screen, as well as anything else really. Since it’s Touch Screen, it’ll work just like the iPad anyhow. Sweet!

So when the new 10.4 touch screen arrives I’ll mount it in the pedestal. I’ll have software/addon functionality like I haven’t had before. Not nearly as cool looking as the panels but hey. Those panels aren’t doing (and may never do) anything anyhow! So whats the point of that heh.

Below, a concept drawing showing the screen, VoxATC, FS2Crew Voice Commander, and the FSHost Client. (That connects to the My737Sim FSHost Multiplayer Server) I could also add default ATC for when doing Missions, etc. Or even Radar Contact! (FYI, the switch in the bottom left is a USB switch box, that changes which PC the bluetooth keyboard/mouse control while in the cockpit)

More to come…

Another quick shot, progress has been made in the roof liners. Simple but effective. Am working on a few switches for lights now and will post pictures when all this is completed :)

Just a few picts I took this evening. Spent 12 hours rewiring everything, brand new usb powered hubs, longer cables, and labeled everything.

The OpenCockpits Radios I ordered arrived today!

And here is the fire extinguisher panel! (I’ll be building the fire box soon. Not sure why the picture looks blue, they are grey)

I resized the pedestal to a 2 row unit as this simmer did which will help out with space.

Here is the pedestal during a test fit. One coat of primer so far, will sand and paint this weekend. Will order more panels and radios in the next couple of weeks!

Backlit testing the fire panel

The radios worked right out of the box!

And they look GREAT! VERY HAPPY WITH OPENCOCKPITS RADIOS!

Just ordered a couple of 737 radios from OpenCockpits! Eren from Revolution said he really liked them. A few cool simmers bought my GoFlight radios that I was selling, so I put that money into these more authentic 737 looking radios. I’ve ordered a com radio, a nav radio, an ATC radio and a blank fire engine panel that I can use for size to make my fire box above the pedestal.

I’m partial to the amber/yellow digits so I’ve picked those up:

COM Radio

NAV Radio

ATC / Transponder

I don’t have yet have any 737 radios or pedestal panels, so I’ve built a 2 row pedestal that fits in my cockpit area and works with my current goflight radios. The nice thing is, once I do get some 737 pedestal hardware, the only thing I need to change are the front and back pieces. (IE make them wider or smaller if the 737 panels are different sizes) I’ve got the unit placed to check size. (And will build the fire control box when I have that panel) Either today or tomorrow I’ll start painting.

I’ve been wanting to build a pedestal for quite some time now. But I held out until I have my TQ so I could check dimensions, size, etc. Unfortunately there is a bit of a space problem. In your typical cockpit the captain and FO have room on their sides to move about, in my case, I don’t. The FO has a wall to his right. So that makes the room between the chairs a little smaller, so I do not think I have room for a “to scale” 3 row pedestal.

However, I found another sim builder with a similar issue.In his case, he made a really nice looking 2 row pedestal. I think I will do the same.

(Below, the pedestal from http://www.boeing737sim.se/index.html)