Ralph wrote: ↑Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:08 pm
We will be at the network event on Saturday evening, so that can be an opportunity as well.
Excellent, I will pass that on.
In my opinion the beauty of 'Prosim' with Air Manager is that a user can take a whole combination and mismatch of parts and build the final solution and, for some items, simply click on the item in the hardware connector menu of Prosim, or roll up the sleeves and program with AM or even just download ready made solutions from the AM store. AM can be used for the whole I/O or for just a small part of it. That is total flexibility. For example, I have a flightdeck solutions FMC which I can simply click a checkbox to connect. On the MIP there are several SISMO complete hardware units as in the Chronos and the 6 packs and a few others. These are driven by an old Sismo Ethernet motherboard and various daughterboards but are extremely limited in functionality. However, the parts that ARE sourced from sismo can also be hooked up via a simple checkbox in prosim. Then the rest of the hardware such as the OHP is from kits of parts from 'prosimparts' (no connection to prosim ar) and has no pcbs so needs to be driven by hardware for the I/O. the MCP / EFIS are also from various panel kits and do not contain driver i/o hardware. The complete pedestal is the same. ALL those parts that are assembled from kits and diy parts and some from plain panels can be easily hooked up via Air Manager using simple PICO or similar units, or if needed of course, the amazing messageport allowing virtually ANY hardware. This only needs access to the simvars and events that Prosim use so once written and debugged in AM - as we do already then another checkbox for 'Air Manager general I/O' can be clicked in the hardware connector and prosim is then accessible to AM and a solution is complete, but, unlike almost all commercial hardware we can change the operation and functionality as required with small code or hardware changes. Perfect!. Ready made hardware will happily coexist alongside fully custom hardware using basic off the shelf items. Then of course, Standby instruments or any hardware graphic instruments that are stand alone or ready made and via AM
can also be simply added - also at the click of a checkbox. Everything can co-exist. In the future, I am sure AM will be supporting more hardware general I/O units similar to the old mega etc, for example, the amazing STM32 Nucleo 144 we have mentioned before. Over 100 I/O as standard, less than 25 dollars and light years ahead of mega, and, full arduino IDE support so future proofing is built in should you guys ever decide to expand the hardware options. I plan on adding a range of hardware addons using a simple PICO via AM MP that can be added such as full AM support of WS2812B RGB addressable led units (neopixels). Using this system then a complete set of high power annunciators for a complete Boeing or Airbus cockpit can be driven via one single pin of one single PICO and any and all annunciators have full individual RGB and brightness (luminance) control and addressing in real time. Imagine every annunciator in a complete cockpit driven by a single pin of a single 4 dollar PICO. All running on AM (all via free add on code to AM users to flash their own 4 dollar pico! ). The options are amazing.
In the future, let's say a user buys a simple basic 'cockpit sim parts' panel kit and adds the required switches, encoders, knobs, displays etc, then perhaps someone already has programmed this with AM ?. If so, then all they need to do is assemble it and connect it to a pico or similar and when connected to prosim it will automatically function as we are addressing the simvars / events directly. Libraries of schematics, diagrams, code get built up and make it accessible to more and more at whatever level.