A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

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N8033F
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A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

Post by N8033F »

Greetings! I’ve tried to research my issue but have yet to find anything definitive to resolve it. I recently acquired a used “Instrument Radio Stack” manufactured by VR Insight. This piece of hardware, which is COM/USB based, works flawlessly with the default FSX Cessna 172 to control everything on the radio stack. However, it does not work so well with the A2A 172, and I can only presume it is how A2A receives/uses commands. The radio stack that I purchased provides default FSX/P3D commands to the simulator I am wondering, is there a way to make the A2A C172 radio stack respond to default FSX commands? The hardware seems proprietary as the buttons/knobs are not seen as joystick buttons or keyboard commands. However, when I log events in FSUIPC, I can clearly see the requested command when I press the buttons...just the A2A does not respond to most of them. I’d like to think there is a way to convert a default FSX hardware “input” to an A2A LVAR “output”...is this possible? Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Michael

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Nick - A2A
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Re: A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

Post by Nick - A2A »

Hi Michael,

A2A use a wide variety of L:Vars for radio stack functions, so with your copy of FSUIPC you should be able to get your VRinsight radio stack working, though I've no experience of this particular hardware. There's a listing of the most useful L:vars available from the link in this thread.

What you'll probably need to do is create a text macro file listing the relevant L:Vars, and then use the "buttons + switches" page in FSUIPC to assign them to your hardware buttons. Not sure what your level of experience with FSUIPC is, but I posted a sort of 'mini tutorial' on creating a text macro here which you could use as a starting point.

Cheers,
Nick

N8033F
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Posts: 11
Joined: 22 Sep 2017, 11:28

Re: A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

Post by N8033F »

Nick M wrote:Hi Michael,

A2A use a wide variety of L:Vars for radio stack functions, so with your copy of FSUIPC you should be able to get your VRinsight radio stack working, though I've no experience of this particular hardware. There's a listing of the most useful L:vars available from the link in this thread.

What you'll probably need to do is create a text macro file listing the relevant L:Vars, and then use the "buttons + switches" page in FSUIPC to assign them to your hardware buttons. Not sure what your level of experience with FSUIPC is, but I posted a sort of 'mini tutorial' on creating a text macro here which you could use as a starting point.

Cheers,
Nick
Hi Nick!
Thanks for responding to my inquiry. I understand what you are saying about programming the buttons on the VR Insight radio stack using FSUIPC, but therein lies the issue I am having. FSUIPC does not recognize the button inputs/presses in the “buttons/switches” tab. When I press a button, it does not populate in the FSUIPC window. The “radio stack” is not seen as a typical USB joystick. It is apparently going through a “virtual COM port”, even though it interfaces via a USB connection. However, like I said before, it provides direct FS commands. When I enable logging within FSUIPC, and check the log, I see the commands from the button presses. Somehow, I need to figure out a way to convert those FS commands to the appropriate LVAR commands for the A2A Cessna 172. I sort of regret not doing further research on this VR Insight product before I purchased it. There were some additional PDF documents that came with the FSUIPC installation in the modules folder, that referenced VR Insight products but it was referring to things called “Lua Scripts”, and I’m sorry to say that it is a foreign language to me... Thoughts? The unit looks pretty neat, but if I can’t get it to function well with the A2A 172 that I prefer to fly, I may just sell the unit.

Regards,
Michael

N8033F
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Joined: 22 Sep 2017, 11:28

Re: A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

Post by N8033F »

Nick,
Also, here is a link I came across...does it make sense to you about these “Lua plug-ins”? Thanks!

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/83413- ... t-connect/

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Nick - A2A
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Re: A2A Cessna 172 trainer and VR Insight Radio Stack

Post by Nick - A2A »

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the added info. I had a quick read through the topic you linked and looks like it could be a somewhat complex job to get your hardware working with the A2A Skyhawk. "Lua" is a programming language but one which I've barely dabbled with myself. However, no doubt you could create some scripts to detect standard FS commands and trigger the appropriate L:Var.

Have you checked out LINDA as mentioned in that thread? Though I haven't used it so far, it might be the simplest option. There's a support forum for LINDA on Avsim, so you could make some enquiries there.

Cheers,
Nick

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