Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'mixture'.
Found 1 result
-
Review: Replica TPM And Gear LeverCreated by SimMax.itBy Ray AndersenIntroI have now for several years been on aquest of testing various software and hardware materials createdspecifically for flight simulation purposes and this time I have founda rather new flightsim manufacturerwww.SimMax.itthat sells both blueprints to aircraft panels and also modules bothplug-and-play and also modules without the interface card. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax03.jpgThis review will cover two of their recently developed products.One is the replica Cessna style TPM and the other is an independentreplica Baron 58 style landing gear lever featuring gear lever as wellas LED lights. This is the first time I have tested and reviewed materials fromSimMax but the products have definitely proved their worth and I wasvery positively surprised. I do hope you enjoy the write-up of myexperience of these new and exciting products and how they in myopinion performed. Packing And DeliveryThe products included in this review were ordered directly athttp://www.SimMax.it which is a multi-language international web site andwhere you can make your purchase in several currencies with world-widedirect shipment. The company is an Italian company located on theisland of Java in Indonesia and the products are made by Simone Saruiswho is a very talented flightsim builder. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax18.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax19.jpgThe delivery was performed by the Indonesian Postal Service whichcarried the package to the international haulers and finally to theDanish Postal Service which did the final delivery. Overall the entiretransit time was about two - three weeks, however the extendeddelivery time was mainly due to a delay at the Danish customsservice. The shipment was supported by track and trace and the numberwas sent directly to me by SimMax - this was excellent so that I couldkeep track of how close the pack was getting to delivery. You knowthat when you have finally ordered some new hardware, you just can'twait to receive it. Receiving the package I saw that the transport had been carried outnicely and there were absolutely no signs of rough handling on thepackage. The parts were carefully packed within a strong and thickcardboard box which had an inner layer of polystyrene plates to shieldthe parts from rough handling. Furthermore the parts were also packedin a dual/triple layer of bubble wrapping, so the parts were verycarefully and nicely packed. The TPM Cessna StyleMy primary focus immediately zoomed in on the Cessna style TPM(throttle, prop, mixture) which absolutely looked awesome layingthere in the box. Included with the TPM is also the USB cable 2.0 A/B(short version) together with mounting screws for an easy mountinginto your home cockpit. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax06.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax10.jpgThe TPM is built as a box with the measurements width 157mm, height45mm and depth 175mm featuring a faceplate with the measurements width170mm, height 65mm and depth 3mm. The button of the TPM is made ofmetal, most likely aluminum whereas the cover (sides, end and top) iscreated in good quality plastic which is painted in black. Thefaceplate is laser cut hard acrylic and features engraved legends ofgood quality. The cylinder arms or levers are made of aluminum as well as thefasteners - these however can be ordered as a plastic version to keepthe costs down, but I would recommend upgrading to the aluminumversion instead. That does really add more realism to theexperience. Last but not least, the knobs. The throttle, the prop and themixture knobs are all 3D printed knobs made of hard plastic andthereafter polished and painted with a great accuracy, realisticcolors and focus on quality and eye candy. The knobs are absolutelyawesome and indeed very realistic replica knobs that provide a great experience to the simmer. The core of the knobs isthe aluminum cylinders and the front end of the knobs is also aluminumwhich really adds to the feeling of a realistic TPM and the experienceof using it. Overall the quality of the TPM was better than I expected - I didexpect the TPM to be rather heavy but that is certainly not thecase. The weight is less 1 kg for the complete TPM which makes is veryeasy to mount into your home cockpit without the use of additionalsupport. I did see a guy in the forum at SimMax who had applied extramounting brackets on each side of the TPM, so that he could mount theTPM below his desk. Very nice idea and maybe an idea for a potentialselectable option upgrade of the TPM. There is no twist function on the cylinders which of course is notnecessary, however by including that it might send the TPM to reachthe skies, because I don't believe I have seen that on other TPMreplicas from other manufacturers. That is simply just an idea for apotential future upgrade or option. Opening up the TPM I quickly got an overview of the complexitywithin - not really that complex but everything is placed perfectlyand mounted firmly. The interface card is an Arduino UNO card with aUSB connector and the card is placed in the back of the casing withthe USB connector mounted to the left side of the casing, probably dueto the limited space available within the box. This works nicely butfor my home cockpit I would have preferred that the USB connector wasmounted through the back-end of the casing, but that is just for myhome cockpit. To open the lid you need to unscrew nine small Phillips screws andcarefully tilt the lid from the opposite side from where the USBsocket is placed - very easy! The interface card features several available pins, so if you haveadditional switches or buttons in your home cockpit, or evenadditional axis that you would like to add, then you can actually usethese extra pins to do the connection. Nice detail that could come inhandy. You are also able to increase or decrease the tension on thecylinders by either tightening or loosening the screws in the clampbetween the pipe and the potentiometers. I did not change the settingon my TPM since I found the tension to be very nice and close toreality of the Cessna 172, but this might be more user friendlyif the tension control was mounted in a way where you could access itwithout opening the lid. Connecting the TPM to the computer was easy - simply plug in theUSB in both the TPM and the computer and I found that Windowsimmediately recognized the interface card and I was now alreadyconnected. The connection was tested on both a USB2.0 socket as wellas the newer USB3.0 socket which is actually notorious for not workingproperly with several gaming devices - this however was not the case,the TPM worked perfectly using both the USB2.0 and the USB3.0socket. The TPM is a plug and play unit however, when connected you stillhave to calibrate each lever and you also have to assign thecorresponding functions that you would like the TPM toreplicate. Originally the TPM is created to utilize the throttle, theprop and the mixture, but you can of course assign a variety of otheraxis/functions to it in stead if you want to. I did notice that whencalibrating the axis there actually showed up two axis for themixture, but that was because the Arduino UNO interface card featuresadditional axis inputs. I tested the TPM on both the old 32-bit Microsoft FSX platform, thenew 64-bit Lockheed Prepar3D v4 platform and additionally also the64-bit X-Plane 11 platform. The TPM worked perfectly on all platformsand was recognized as interface card 'UNOJOY'. Assigning the axis was easy and I could perform the assigningthroughout all standard assignment tools within each simulator. I alsotested the assigning using the FSUIPC by Pete Dowson and that alsoworked beautifully. I assume that basically you could use more or lessany programming tool or language as SIOC, LINDA, C++ etc. as long asthe interface card is recognized by Windows. One thing you need to be aware of when assigning the TPM in XP11is that if you already have assigned a function/axis to a differentcontroller that already is plugged in, then you will get anerror. This I found out when assigning the throttle axis on the TPM towork on all throttles - this axis and function was already assigned tothe throttle axis on my Logitech controller and that caused myassigning of the TPM to not work. To overcome this issue all I had to do was to unplug the Logitechcontroller or simply just remove the assignment from the Logitechcontroller. This issue I only encountered using XP11 and not usingeither FSX or P3Dv4. Before I found the solution I contacted SimMax to get a littlehelp, and SimMax urgently replied with several suggestions to fix thisissue - thanks SimMax for quick and excellent support! /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax21.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax08.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax17.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax12.jpgThe potentiometers are of a good quality with a perfect reaction tomy change in inputs. However, I have not been able to verify theduration to see how many cycles the potentiometers can do beforefailing. Additionally there are not applied Hall Sensors to the unit- that could maybe be an idea for an upgraded version with even bettersensitivity. Short YouTube video created by SimMax.it here: The Gear Lever Baron 58 StyleThe TPM certainly set the quality bar quite high so it wasabsolutely with great anticipation that I now moved my focus on to thegear lever Baron 58 Style. I have for a while been looking for anindependent gear lever that was neither a Boeing or Airbus gearlever or even a part of a secondary system like trims or similar, sowhen I discovered the gear lever at SimMax, I just had to check thatone out. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax16.jpgThis gear lever is not a 'Plug 'n Play' unit and consists of thefaceplate, the back plate, the lever, the LEDs and the mechanismbehind. All parts are assembled including the connection wiring andthe unit is all ready for mounting into your home cockpit. The faceplate is made of 2mm acrylic plate that is laser cut,painted and thereafter the legends has been engraved on it. Behind thefaceplate is the back plate which also is an acrylic plate but a 5mmplate instead that also has been laser cut - normally a 2mm acrylicplate can be rather fragile but when you actually have both afaceplate and the back plate put together, you have excellentstability within the plates and a combined thickness of 7mm. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax04.jpgAlso, the faceplate features mounting holes in each corner andalso included in the package are four mounting screws so that you canmount the gear lever immediately. The acrylic faceplate feels reallynice but of course it could have been over-the-top if the faceplatewas aluminum. I know the costs would change, but that might be an ideafor a selectable option. The mechanism behind the gear lever is built from variousmaterials, primary 3D printed plastics and both looks and works veryprofessional. Taking a look at the lever and the knob itself; I mustsay it looks and feels awesome - just what I had been waiting for. Theknob is 3D printed and a superb replica of the real gear lever knobfound in the Baron 58 which I have found several images of on theinternet for comparison. After the 3D print the knob has been giving amanual finish and there after a paint job - all is very nice with agreat feel for realism and accuracy. Connecting the gear lever to the computer requires an interfacecard that features both input and outputs or as a minimum twointerface cards where one is an input card and the other an outputcard. I tested the connection first on an interface card from DesktopAviator (DTA) which only supported the inputs meaning only the gearlever up/down function. Secondly I tested the inputs on a commonPokeys57U interface card that supports both input and outputs and thatalso worked perfectly. Originally the gear lever was built to beconnected to an Arduino card, but any interface card that can berecognized by Windows can be used. Just to go all-in Ipurchased an Arduino Mega card and did the connection and test usingthat card and to even test some more options, I also tried to connectthe gear lever to the available pins in the Arduino UNO card withinthe TPM. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax15.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax20.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax07.jpgDepending on the interface card to be used, the connection can varyand please be aware that if you have two separate cards - one inputand one output, you probably have to split the GND wire into two wiresthat can be connected to each interface card. The wiring on the gear lever is very simple - yes there are severalwires, but each wire is perfectly marked with what function is has toperform as well as each wire of course also has a unique color so thebasis for the setup is perfect. You have a total of seven wires where four of them are for theoutputs (LEDs), two are for the inputs and one is a common GND. Eachwire is marked like e.g. 'LED Nose Gear' and this explains that thisspecific wire has to be connected to an output and controls the lightbehind the nose wheel indicator. There are the following markings: /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax01.jpgOrange - LED Nose GearYellow - LED Gear LeftGreen - LED Gear RightBlue - LED Gear in TransitPurple - Gear UpWhite - Gear DownGrey - GNDThe lights are all outputs and e.g. the lights for the nose, theleft and the right gear are green lights that light up when the gearhas been lowered and locked into position. These lights turn off whenthe gear is raised where the LED 'Gear in Transit' now lights up. Thislight is a red light and will light until the gear has been fullyraised and locked where after the light turns off - please see thisshort YouTube video created by SimMax of this feature: This gear lever is not just a click/click gear lever but actuallyhas a built-in feature like e.g. the Boeing B737 levers on themarket. To be able to raise or lower the gear you have to pull thelever towards you to 'unlock' it - and not before you do that youcan't move the lever preventing un-wanted or accidental movements ofthe gear lever. This is a small but superb detail that in my honestopinion shows how much detail this new manufacturer goes into, andagain sets the bar high for these products. Programming the gear lever (inputs) to the functions is verysimilar as to assigning functions to any other piece of hardware like theTPM previously tested in this review. I tested the programming orassigning of functions on the default assignment tools within FSX,Prepar3D v4 and X-Plane 11, and this was absolutely no problem. I alsotested the programming using the FSUIPC and again this also workedeasily - you don't need to be a hardcore programmer to get this gearlever connected and up and running, but if you do need some help, thenSimMax.it has a downloadable guide/manual on their web site that willhelp you connect the gear lever and there after also set it upaccordingly. The guide is written in both Italian and English and isvery easy to read and features lots of images to help. In regards to programing the LEDs (Outputs) then this is adifferent story - I have not programmed outputs that many timesbefore, so this was quite new to me. Apparently this is not possibleto do through the default tools within each simulator and I also triedif it would be possible using the FSUIPC on its own, but I couldn'tget that to work... maybe there is something that I haveoverlooked. Well, I decided to follow the manual from SimMax's website instead and downloaded two programs - links to both downloads areavailable in the manual: Arduino IDEMobiflightI already had FSUIPC, but you can also download that using the linkin the manual. I did this programming on the FSX and P3D platform, butif you would rather do it for X-Plane, then use the included link inthe manual named 'ARDSIMX' which will be the interface to X-Planesimilar to the MobiFlight for FSX/P3D. Hereafter I first installed the Arduino IDE which is the softwarefor the interface card and thereafter the Mobiflight software which isthe software where you can assign inputs and outputs. I followedthe manual picture for picture, but since this was a new software toolthat I was not familiar with, then it was certainly something I had toget used to. You can either program everything manually or 'upload' a completefile - I started out trying the complete files (.mcc and .mfmc) fromSimMax, but encountered some issues with the .mfmc file - I contactedSimMax who gave me excellent and quick support followed by a sessionon TeamViewer where SimMax made an override of the file and did themanual programming to ensure everything was working perfectly. Here Icould see how easy the software of MobiFlight is to program withdropdowns for the FSUIPC options etc. Almost just like the standardassignment tools but where you of course had to link each function tothe specific pins on the interface card. The issue found with the file was that it contained a complete codefor all modules from SimMax but I only had this gear lever and theTPM, so the program couldn't really figure it out due to what I thinkwas too much irrelevant information. After just assigning the gearlever functions the program worked beautifully. My settings on the Arduino Mega card are: Gear Up - Pin 22, GearDown - Pin 24, Left LED - Pin 30, Nose LED - Pin 31, Right LED - Pin32 and Transit LED - Pin 33. GND in common. Inputs And Outputs Setup In MobiFlight: /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax05.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax09.jpg /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax11.jpgResult when running MobiFlight behind Prepar3D v4 with Cessna 172from Alabeo: One note to the test I had using the TPM's Arduino UNO card is thatyou can only utilize the inputs using that card. To apply the outputsyou do need to use the Arduino MEGA card which can be purchased fromvarious web sites - I found mine at thewww.Arduinoshoppen.dkfor a total of 148,- DKK including VAT charge of 25% but excluding theshipping charge. You can probably find this card on a web site in yourcountry as well. /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax14.jpgGear lever connected to the Arduino UNO card in the TPM: /images/reviews/simmaxit/t/simmax02.jpgConclusionTo wrap up my experience of these new and very exciting pieces ofsimulation hardware I can certainly say that I was very positivelysurprised. The quality is very good, the finish and paint job isbeautiful and the accuracy and focus on the details are absolutelyperfect. Materials used are good quality laser cut acrylics, 3D printedplastics and some parts are even aluminum for better look and feelwhich absolutely does provide a sensational experience and a greaterrealism. Connecting is easy - for the TPM it is plug 'n play and for thegear lever it does require that you purchase an input/output interfacecard and do the manual connection yourself with your preferredprogramming tool or download the freeware software tools. An idea foran upgrade of the gear lever, could be that it would bebuilt with an option as a plug 'n play item like the TPM - of coursefor an extra cost but I am certain that some simmers look elsewheresimply because they either do not wish to or do not think they areable to do the manual connection. These two products are in my honest opinion awesome and certainlyfeature a high quality rarely seen by a new manufacturer. It is veryeasy to see that SimMax.it has a passion for aviation and flightsimulation and have a superb eye for details, quality, finish andrealism - very nice to see other products that are not just for theheavy tubeliners but just as much for the GA sim aviators. I strongly recommend both these products to my fellow simmers - thequality is good and the price level is fair. Both items are a 4+ on ascale from 1-5 meaning that they are well above what I had expected.Of course there are always ways to improve the products but as theyare now, I am so amazed by the effort and talent behind the creationof these products. Finally I would like to thank SimMax.it for joining the flightsimulation community which these awesome products that absolutely willadd realism to any home cockpit. Keep up the excellent work and I willbe looking forward to see future developments from you for sure. /images/reviews/simmaxit/simmax13.jpgRay Andersen Rays Aviation www.SimMax.it Review Test SystemOS Win7 32-bit and Win10 64-bitCPU Intel Core™ i7-4790K 4x4,00GHz (Turbo 4x4,40GHz)Motherboard Asus Maximus VII Ranger (ROG-Series)CPU Cooler Antec Kuhler H20 650 Water CoolerRAM Kingston HyperX Beast-series 32GB DDR3-2133Hard disc Primary 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD (Solid State Disk)Hard disc Secondary 3TB Seagate Barracuda (7200rpm, 6GB/s)Graphic Card Asus GeForce GTX 980 Strix OC 4GBPower Supply Seasonic 750RT 80Plus GoldSound Asus ROG SupremeFX 2014 Sound (Sonic Radar II)Netcard Asus N53 Wireless USB (Dualband) Intel GameFirst III w/LANGuardInternet Connection 120 Gbit/s Lockheed Martin Prepar3D v4Laminar Research X-Plane 11Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX + Acceleration PackREX SkyForce for P3Dv4REX Overdrive for FSX
