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17. Motion Driver for Aerowinx Precision Simulator

A beta version is available for the professional flight simulator Aerowinx PSX. The download is on the Introduction page.

IMPORTANT: this is BETA software and may contain bugs - please use with care!

IMPORTANT: This version of the 6 DOF motion software is NOT compatible with W10 (I'm working on this! - UPDATE it runs on some and not others - geez!).

IMPORTANT: DO NOT run PSX in accelerated time when the motion software is active and your platform drive is live!

Access to the flight sim's telemetry data is via the sim's TCP/IP network - there are no plugins required. To allow the motion driver access to the PSX telemetry data the Boost Server output of PSX must be enabled in the Instructor window - under Network-Boost select Start.

Installation:

Installation of the motion driver is mainly the same as the other versions - see section 2.

To enable the motion software to connect to the PSX Boost Server the IPAddress and Port setting in the .bff config file must be set. The Port setting in the default .bff file uses the PSX default boost server port and does not usually need to be changed.

However you must set the IPAddress to the address of the PC with the PSX session that is running the Boost Server. This should be an address on the local network. If both PSX and the motion software are running on the same PC then the IPAddress can be a loop-back address (ie 127.0.0.1 etc).

On start-up the motion software will indicate an error if it is not able to connect to a PSX Boost Server session so make sure the Boost Server is running before starting the motion software.

Operation:

The software operation is mainly as described in Section 3 Operation.

The default .bff configuration file contains a start-point for tuning motion cues to suit your own motion platform.

Note that the acceleration levels of heavy jets are generally not high in comparison to smaller more dynamic aircraft. Those flight circumstances in which larger accelerations are experienced are on-runway acceleration and braking operations, and in-air flight with heavy turbulence. When tuning cues you should test out your settings with these types of flight conditions to ensure they are not set too sensitively.

NOTE: When PSX changes its aircraft's location the motion software must carefully manage the flow of telemetry data into the motion cues. As part of this the motion software will automatically send the cue to Hold when it detects a significant change in location of the aircraft (eg when a new flight situations is loaded.

The Drive button can then be used to return the cue output to drive mode.

Remember you can use the Drive and Hold hot-keys or hot-buttons which are defined in your .bff cue configuration file to control this also.

IMPORTANT:

Due to the nature of the telemetry data provided by PSX it is necessary for the motion software to carefully control the flow of incoming data packets so that none are lost. To do this the software buffers the incoming telemetry data. This requires that the motion software refresh rate is fast enough to prevent a backlog of TCP data from building in the buffer. PSX can export data packets at up to 72 FPS.

The refresh rate of the motion driver can be controlled using the .bff configuration file parameter MD_Delay. Reducing the value (in ms) will increase the speed of reception of the telemetry data packets. However reducing it too far may cause the motion software to consume CPU resource inefficiently.

The setting in the default .bff config file is MD_Delay=10 (ms). On first operation of the software with PSX unpaused and Drive selected observe the data item Bytes Avail in the lower text area of the motion software window. This should show fluctuating values in the 60-65 byte range (typical size of a single PSX Boost Server output packet). However if the value appears to climb consistently then the motion software may not be running fast enough to clear the incoming data buffer.

In this case reduce the value of MD_Delay to increase the loop speed of the motion software. Some experimentation may be needed to get the best value for your system - it will depend on your PC's specs.

NOTE: In some Windows PC's all values of MD_Delay lower than 16ms may be treated as a value of 16ms. If you find that values less than 16ms have no effect on your system then you may need to switch the delay off completely by setting MD_Delay=0.

If you find any bugs or strange behaviours in the beta version then please let me know.

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