New free simulator (Version 2 now available)

[markb]

microphone jack. The input gain has to be real low on mine. Smartpropo is the setup I used to develop HeliSim... it works!

[markg]

i just tried it using the realflight g4 interlink elite, and after changing all the channel assignments, it works fine.

issues;
no sound
inverted doesnt have enough power to hover for more than a few seconds; falls slowly into the ground.

other than that, good job!

[markb]

[quote=PilotSmith;474550]Didn't work for me on my iMac in bootcamp. I mapped the controls and they calibrated fine. Calibration screen shows that the control signal is smooth and reading correctly but when I try to fly it it doesn't respond most of the time. Pumping the throttle I got it up in the air a few times but.../quote]

Also try re-doing the calibration. Center sticks, click OK. then move em in circles. If you missed the last step, or missed full range on one stick, it wont know the range of travel, and you may not be able to reach full collective or full throttle.

And: If using a real RC tx. The throttle/pitch curves can screw up calibration badly. Center isn't center, and normal pitch doesn't even go through the whole range. So... I definitely recommend a special setup for flying a sim, with linear full range ( 0 25 50 75 100 ) throttle and pitch curves. If you REALLY want to use your transmitters curves, you at least need to make them linear during calibration. Then put them back.

[markb]

Originally Posted by markg

i just tried it using the realflight g4 interlink elite, and after changing all the channel assignments, it works fine.

issues;
no sound
inverted doesnt have enough power to hover for more than a few seconds; falls slowly into the ground.

other than that, good job!

You're probably in Normal mode. Idle up indicator is a red dot in upper left screen, if its not there, you're in normal. The default curves in normal have enough juice to just barely hold hover for a bit.

[DDragon]

I like it very much! It's better than G3.5 I think for a smaller Heli. Seems more sensitive to crashes or hard landings than G3.5. But I see nothing with that. Let you practice and get better. Took me a little to get the controller to work the way I wanted, I use the G3.5 controller. But once I had the channels in and the reserve set or not, works great. Good job!

[PilotSmith]

Originally Posted by markb

There is no sound. I doubt that it was responsible for turning sound off, though anything is possible. But HeliSim doesn't contain any accesses to audio functions....

If you see smooth responses in the joystick mapping, but cannot take off: you may have throttle hold on....

I was using an Optic 6 radio from Hitec with their USB cable. I tried several configurations and unable to get it to work properly. I was able to get it up in the air for a few to several seconds but then the controls were off so it would crash. Next time I get a chance I'll play around with it some more. I mapped the throttle hold to a switch on the radio and tried it both ways. Also mapped it to the keyboard in case switch not working right. Next time I will try it with a simpler Laser 4 Hitec radio in case the Optic 6 is outputting extra stuff that the sim doesn't like as the calibration bars were moving as they should have been to each corresponding stick movement.

How long did it take for you to program this? Seems like a lot of hard work!

[markb]

Originally Posted by PilotSmith

I was using an Optic 6 radio ...

If the heli moved... you didn't have TH on, otherwise it wouldn't get over 0 RPM, and wont budge. Sounds like the pitch mapping was backward from the throttle, or some such. Using a real RC radio... be sure the T/P curves are 0..100.

Originally Posted by PilotSmith

How long did it take for you to program this? Seems like a lot of hard work!

Well... yeah. lots of work. hundreds of hours probably. But I like programming. Its kind of like doing a puzzle for me. You struggle, you make progress, it starts taking shape... Years ago, I worked for Link Flight Simulation on the Apache simulator, so I have some background. And I had a number of pieces already working from previous projects. I got started (as usual) "just seeing how hard it would be".... then I started flying it in preference to FMS, and I knew I had to finish it. Now, the documentation and wrap up, that was a drag.

[PilotSmith]

Update: I tried it with the Laser 4 radio and it worked. It will not maintain altitude inverted. I don't think idle up mode is engaged. I have checked the keyboard box and tried the I key and left Ctrl key but they seem not to do anything. To get it working with the Laser 4 I had to map both the throttle and collective. I think I skipped mapping the collective on the Optic 6 as once I mapped collective then it started to fly okay. The piro rate is slow (about 50% of my real one). That is all I had time to play with for now. Got to run. If I can figure out later how to get idle-up going and speed up the piro rate I think it will be working okay on my iMac.

[PilotSmith]

Originally Posted by markb

If the heli moved... you didn't have TH on, otherwise it wouldn't get over 0 RPM, and wont budge. Sounds like the pitch mapping was backward from the throttle, or some such. Using a real RC radio... be sure the T/P curves are 0..100.


Well... yeah. lots of work. hundreds of hours probably. But I like programming. Its kind of like doing a puzzle for me. You struggle, you make progress, it starts taking shape... Years ago, I worked for Link Flight Simulation on the Apache simulator, so I have some background. And I had a number of pieces already working from previous projects. I got started (as usual) "just seeing how hard it would be".... then I started flying it in preference to FMS, and I knew I had to finish it. Now, the documentation and wrap up, that was a drag.

Now in addition to software development you are going to be tech support for us here! That can be a challenge...

[Ginvent]

does anyone have any hardware for me to get a hookup to my CPU or one of those sim boxes? a mono audio cord? something that will make my xp6102 work with this

[JustPlaneChris]

Great job! I just tried it with my G3 controller and it works very well. I agree with the other comments that the flight characteristics seem at least as realistic as RealFlight, if not more! In particular, autorotations in G3.5 are a joke. Yours seem much more believable.

Thanks very much for the effort.

-Chris

[Gary JP4]

Originally Posted by Ginvent

does anyone have any hardware for me to get a hookup to my CPU or one of those sim boxes? a mono audio cord? something that will make my xp6102 work with this

You should be able to get a mono phone jack (male to male) from radio shack or just about any electronics store. I would suggest using gold connectors. I had to replace the one on my Reflex sim cord with a gold one as it started having bad connections to the TX right away. Once I soldered the gold one in it worked great after that.

Can you solder? If you can you could follow the directions in the link 10karer gave you that shows how to make one. Here it is again. http://www.geocities.com/shaul_ei/SmartPropoPlus.html

Click the cables button at the top and go down to the mono cable and click on JR.

[Ginvent]

So wicth hole do I plug the mono cord into?

Anyway does anyone how one they could sell me. Would save mea trip to walmart wicth probally only has stearo cords as I have one of those and it took me a hell of a time to find it. Shame it doent work.

[rdlohr]

Mark,
Sounds like all great reviews. Nice job! I particularly enjoyed that people are adding their own backdrops. I've always meant to do that but never got around to it yet. Looking forward to some sound.

By the way, I can tell you Mark put in many many hours getting this sim decent before breaking out for the public. Kudos!

Rick

[rogue_leader]

i have an intel macbook with bootcamp and xp pro corporate , i run phoenix perfectly , 2gb ram

[outhouse]

thank you, thanks a bunch. your hard work has made my day and night.

i just got it working with the HBFP TX and usb cable and now i can learn without dumping 200 into realflight 4.0

[markb]

I had to change the name… I just discovered (a week late), there’s a company that calls their full scale flight trainer technology HeliSim. Since I already started out using that name, I just tacked on RC. hoping to avoid further unnecessary confusion. So, its HeliSimRC now. Which comes up blank on google, that’s a good thing. Same software as the 1.1 build.

Its still at:
http://www.marksfiles.net

[markb]

Originally Posted by rogue_leader

i have an intel macbook with bootcamp and xp pro corporate , i run phoenix perfectly , 2gb ram

Does this mean HeliSimRC is working on your system now? or you've got trouble with it, but phoenix works?

[10karer]

Originally Posted by Ginvent

So wicth hole do I plug the mono cord into?

Anyway does anyone how one they could sell me. Would save mea trip to walmart wicth probally only has stearo cords as I have one of those and it took me a hell of a time to find it. Shame it doent work.

Go to Radio Shack and ask them for the mono Cord, the cord plugs in to the microphonejack on your sound card.

[Wii1]

Can someone please point me in the direction to buy a round futaba sim cable? I would like to use it with this sim, or FMS. Please help me