Glitch (cockpit error?) with Garmin 430

Flew many hours with the old (Garmin 500) in FS9. Now flying FSX (Flight 1 PC-12) with the Garmin 430. It says on page 28 of the manual:

 

"Note: After you've turned the Outer Knob to highlight the first letter, you can type the identifier on your keyboard."

 

I just can't make that happen. If I try to manually select (NOT from a list) an intersection like DANTE (near Gainesville, Florida), I highlight the first letter, make it a "D" then move to the second position. When I try to input the "A" for the next letter (using the keyboard), it starts cycling through various views of the cockpit.

 

This process seems to be very straightforward in other craft (I think those are the Garmin 500 that's been around for quite some time).

 

Driving me crazy trying to utilize the "Direct-to" function because I can't type in the letters and the "hotspots" are seemingly very thinly divided.

 

Art - N4PJ

Leesburg, FL

Simple enough: Once the first box is highlighted type ALL of the letters and numbers on the keyboard.

No scrolling of the highlight required.

You'r right. You can't "type in" the letters. You CAN use a) the mouse wheel, with the mouse pointer on the inner knob, where it indicates either a + or - sign when you hover over it, or b) you can click on the inner button on the + or - side to make the letters change. To change the flashing cursor position one to the right, you can click on the outer knob on the + side, to move the cursor left, you click on the - side of the outer knob. Or you can use the mouse wheel. One very small movement will move the flashing cursor one position right or left, with the mouse pointer on the outer knob.

When you try to type in the letters, the sim takes those as keyboard strokes, thuse changing cockpit views (A), setting the barometric pressure in the altimeter (B), or whatever lettter you hit. They almost all do SOMEthing, just not place a letter.

I have never tried to use the keyboard to enter anything in the GPS, whether the old 500 or hte newer 330, 430, or 530. In FS9 you can only use the clicks method, the mouse wheel usually doesn't work like it does in GSX.

 

Does that answer your question adequately?

page 28 of the manual:

 

"Note: After you've turned the Outer Knob to highlight the first letter, you can type the identifier on your keyboard."

 

I highlight the first letter, make it a "D" then move to the second position. When I try to input the "A" for the next letter (using the keyboard), it starts cycling through various views of the cockpit.

 

Art, your method differs slightly from what the manual says, try doing it exactly as described.

 

Peace,

the Bean

Yes, I had to resort to just "clicking." A pain in the rear! I *think* when I fly the Baron, the GPS 500 *does* allow me the keystrokes after you get the cursor flashing. I could be mistaken. I miss FSNavigator - been snooping at FSCommander. Maybe I relied too much on my "co-pilot!" LOL

Yes, you're right - but, even following the directions to the "letter of the law" doesn't work the way the manual says it does. What is interesting is that GPS1 doesn't quite allow it to work the way it's supposed to. GPS2 comes a little closer, but the third GPS (MX200) *does* allow all the proper clicking (no keyboard).

 

As "tweak" above pointed out, there are far too many keys on the keyboard that mean *something" to the sim - it takes a dim view of anyone banging on the keyboard!

 

I have a friend who has two planes (real ones) - a Lake Amphibian and a Mooney Ovation. He installed a dynamite GPS in the Ovation. One day we were out flying and I mentioned an interesting airport (Keystone Heights in Florida a little NE of Gainesville. He asked me if I knew how to get there. I "programmed" his GPS and we flew straight to it. He was flabbergasted. I pointed out that it was one of the GPS's available in Microsoft Flight Simulator and instead of a manual, they referred you to the Garmin site where you could download the actual manual.

 

Years ago, when I was still flying FS9, I had a gadget called a Contour Shuttle - I programmed it to be my GPS controller. Worked almost as well as the real McCoy!

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Art - N4PJ

Leesburg, FL

I miss FSNavigator - been snooping at FSCommander. Maybe I relied too much on my "co-pilot!"

For FSX, you can try using Plan G. It's supposed to be a "similar" program to FSNav, but for FSX.

BEWARE: It uses a lot of computer resources, so unless you have kick-butt PC to run it on, run it on a seperate computer entirely, using SimConnect (I think, it specifies in the ReadMe stuff). I haven't tried that yet, but I can't run Plan G and the Sim at the same time, without a bad slowdown of the Sim. Then again, I am running on an OLD Dell laptop, with a 2-Core processor and only 4GB RAM. Runs FSX-SE nicely, with the clouds and AI traffic turned down pretty far.

On the positive side, it IS freeware :D

Pat☺

That works exactly as expected with the 530, but NOT the 430. When entering the keystrokes in the 530, the sim is prevented from interpreting the keystrokes for anything but for the GNS 530. The sim "sees" the keystrokes when I type in the GNS 430.