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DIY GPS Using Raspberry Pi/Bodnar Board?


TheAwesomeCobra

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Hi all,

How hard would it be to make a GPS (for FSX) out of a Raspberry Pi? Maybe even some buttons via a Leo Bodnar board? There are small touchscreens made for attaching directly to the various Pi models (I think it uses GPIO), possibly eliminating the need for physical buttons? My main worry would probably be software - I have very little knowledge in terms of how to interface with FSX. I could probably 3d print the case/frame.

 

any ideas are appreciated!

 

p.s. this page of a thread lightly touches on my idea, but like I said earlier, I'm barely understanding the talk about the coding/interfacing part: https://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27826&p=1293170

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Hi all,

How hard would it be to make a GPS (for FSX) out of a Raspberry Pi? Maybe even some buttons via a Leo Bodnar board? There are small touchscreens made for attaching directly to the various Pi models (I think it uses GPIO), possibly eliminating the need for physical buttons? My main worry would probably be software - I have very little knowledge in terms of how to interface with FSX. I could probably 3d print the case/frame.

 

any ideas are appreciated!

 

p.s. this page of a thread lightly touches on my idea, but like I said earlier, I'm barely understanding the talk about the coding/interfacing part: https://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27826&p=1293170

Hi,

It depends on which gps unit you are looking to recreate and for which aircraft. I made a Garmin G1000 unit for my cockpit using an off the shelf touchscreen and a Bodnar card.

 

I chose a difficult aircraft in the Carenado Phenom 300, but if you just wish to recreate the standard fsx Garmin GPS500 this should be easier as Microsoft gave access to the control assignments.

 

I guess the hardest part would be getting a touchscreen the right size. My 10inch touchscreen is straight usb and is effectively plug and play, i just drag a gps window onto it within fsx, then i used the bodnar card to interface the switches and rotary knobs of the side bezels, so no need for raspberry pi programming.

 

I only needed to do any programming because i chose the Phenom.

 

Cheers

Stinger

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

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Hi,

It depends on which gps unit you are looking to recreate and for which aircraft. I made a Garmin G1000 unit for my cockpit using an off the shelf touchscreen and a Bodnar card.

 

I chose a difficult aircraft in the Carenado Phenom 300, but if you just wish to recreate the standard fsx Garmin GPS500 this should be easier as Microsoft gave access to the control assignments.

 

I guess the hardest part would be getting a touchscreen the right size. My 10inch touchscreen is straight usb and is effectively plug and play, i just drag a gps window onto it within fsx, then i used the bodnar card to interface the switches and rotary knobs of the side bezels, so no need for raspberry pi programming.

 

I only needed to do any programming because i chose the Phenom.

 

Cheers

Stinger

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Thanks, never thought about the assignments thing. I forgot to mention I'm not building a whole cockpit or replicating anything specific; just the GPS and possibly a few simple buttons (but I can imagine it being somewhat similar to the default for the assignments reason). So, what kind of monitor do you mean? As in plugged directly into your PC? I've never heard of a USB monitor, much less a touchscreen one. Just looked them up, seems expensive (over $100). I was thinking of using a raspberry pi because it seems cheaper; pi for under $20 (pi zero, for example, for $5), touchscreen (most under 8") for the same price. I think there is free software for "casting" the GPS video, or the GPS live info (i'm terrible with the nomenclature :D) to GPS emulator software on the pi.

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Yes, it would be way cheaper doing it your way. In fact i think you would struggle to get a usb monitor small enough for what you are after too.

 

It works well for my G1000 as i needed the touchscreen to replicate the soft buttons of the G1000 but i wish you well with yiur project.

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

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As far as the Leo Bodnar boards are concerned they are very easy to use. They interface with your pc via a usb lead and show up in fsupic as another joystick. So for a simple switch for example all you need to do is wire the switch to the leo board (2 wires) then the switch will show in fsuipc ready to assign to the fsx control of your choice. No programming to do unless you are trying to assign an action in an addon aircraft that uses non native fsx controls and instead uses what are known as "local variables" or "Lvars"

 

All the best

Stinger

 

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

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