Pls Help with Simtools Setup for Force Dynamics 301 (Sim Newbie)

All,

This is my first post on the forum. I've tried to read as much as possible but feel a bit overwhelmed. I don't know if I even have my account setup properly yet.

This is my first post on the forum. I've tried to read as much as possible but feel a. After Boeing finished with the platform they ended up on the auction block and I was able to get one of the five which were being auctioned. I had it modified by Force Dynamics to perform as a Flight Sim instead of racing. They installed x52 controller and made some other modification.

I would like to run DCS World ver. 1.2.9 A10C on the platform utilizing Simtools. Force Dynamics no longer provides support for my platform since I didn't buy it from them and the control software they provide only works with Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

I really need some help configuring the Simtools to drive the platform properly. This is a very powerful platform and I'm afraid that if put the wrong value in or misconfig a setting I may either damage my platform or myself. This thing is serious steel and would break you body if you standing in the work place.

Place help with some guidance on I tried to follow the instruction on the site but allot of the terminology is new to me.

Thank you

Andre

pictures?
details on controller?
voltage of motors?
anything really at this stage.

bsft,

Thank you for your reply. It would seem I'll have to take the platform apart to get the answer to the questions you are asking. In the mean time while I do my research. Is this the correct forum to post my request for help. I've purchase the DCS game plugin for Simtools and I also notice there was a Axis Preset for the Force Dynamics 301. How can I determine where it came from and if it's configured correctly. It only has Heave, Surge, and Sway force setting. There are not Pitch and Roll.

Do you know if Simtools worked with Force Dynamics company to determine these Force and % setting?

Thanks

Fraza44

We have made a few interfaces but a FD301 has not been looked at, without knowing how they actually communicate to there drivers this may be a little hard to just write without having a lot of information provided.
What needs to happen is to be able to reverse engineer what is actually being sent to the controller. If this is usb a snooper or device monitor will tell you the commands being sent to it in hex from there I can build an interface. As I already have for the Darim 3DOF units available out of South Korea.

We would either need an SDK kit for their interface(controller) or a bit of clever snooping on the port and you should be able to discover the commands needed, from there we can help.

Eaorobbie,

I just received an email from my friend who also has the same FD301 platform and this what he had to say about the control software;

"The majority of what the control software is to receive phyics information from the game and convert it to position information for the galil controller. If they are looking for information the FSUPC software takes care of the translation in FSX. The MSFSRealtimePhysics10 did the same for the FS2004. I believe the MSFSRealtimePhysics10 was written by Codemasters. Another reference would be the LFS (live for speed) their software work perfectly without any patching or shims."

Does this information help any?

Fraza44[/QUOTE]

That sounds good. Live for Speed sends out data via UDP protocol. Can you check with your friend, what UDP port they are using? For DSC you then possibly won't even need SimTools, just the export.lua script!

Value 1,

I spoke with my friend and he stated port 25010. I download LFS and check the cfg file and found this information related to the "outsim" information the LFS need to connect with my controller software. In the Owners manual for the FD301 it outlines how to go into the LFS cfg file and change the below value which I have done below for this example.

OutSim Mode 2
OutSim Delay 1
OutSim IP 0.0.0.0 (my game computer goes here)
OutSim Port 25010
OutSim ID 1

I found the below values in a "Preset File" you can choose within the platform control software. I believe these are the value that are set for the force the platform will use. My friend stated that LFS has good force setting which can be used for a flight sim to start then adjusted within the control software if more motion is need. I think I just need DCS to talk to force control on UDP port 25010.

[LFS NORMAL]
sInstant=10
sSustain=10
sChassis=10
sOverall=50
aX=4
aY=4
aZ=4
aR=1
aCOR=60
aM=10165
aS=8600
aA=1
aL=1
aI=0

What do you think?

Fraza44

Now I personally am not fluent with lua.
The most sensible is that you find a friend, who can mimic the Outsim stream from LFS in the export.lua.
Alternatively @yobuddy integrates an interface for FD301 in SimTools or I can tweak the DSC plugin for you.
Best option is to find someone fluent in lua...

Well I don't know anyone who knows lua because I just discovered it myself after entering the world of DCS but I wonder if I could convince "BlazinH" to help me out with the export.lua. I noticed in this post; http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/telemetry-from-dcs.5544/#post-56893 - he mention he was able to do something similar to what I'm trying to do, I just didn't understand how to configure the export.lua, LuaSocket files, and were the file need to be placed within the DCS directory structure once changes have been made. I'm using DCS vers 1.2.9 and allot of the post I've read relating to DCS and lua don't track very well with DCS 1.2.9. The post mention directory and files which are no longer in the program.

Fraza44

It appears that in 1.2.8 they made a major overhaul of lua scripting for DCS http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3947462 .