15" monitor advice for sim panel.

[sleightflight 1]

Hi All,

 

This is my first post so I hope I am in the correct place.

After talking to the Mutley Hanger guys at the Cosford flight sim show I am looking for a suitable 15" monitor for sim panel guages, as demonstrated at the show by the Mutley Hanger crew.

My work has a 15" AOC VGA monitor, the outer bezel is wide though + I'm not sure about going through VGA and they want £20 for it.

I think I can do better than this but I'm not sure really what I should be looking for.

Any help / tips much appreciated.

[brett 2,284]

You are in the right place and I would like to welcome you to our forums Paul.

 

Give it a day and I am sure you will get the answer you are looking for, I'm not a hardware guy, just the welcoming committee.  Good luck with your project.

 

 

[sleightflight 1]

Thanks Brett

[J G 927]

Hi Paul.

 

Firstly, more than one monitor is always good, and £20 seem like a good deal.

 

Brian's setup at the show was good, I saw it too. Just be a bit careful on how old the monitor is as some older monitor or cheaper monitors need to be viewed from directly in front. looked at obliquely they can be difficult to make out the image. you get a sort of shadow effect on the screen.  The easy way to test for this is to look at a mostly black image from 60 degrees above an see if the image is clear. It must be a dark image as the shadowing effect is worst on this sort of image and FSX gauges are generally dark.

 

If this is an issue then make sure that the display is angled (usually up) to be at 90 degrees to your eye and you wont have a problem.  Many moons ago I built a panel with two landscape monitors for instruments built in for instruments only to find the images were very difficult to view and had to scrap the whole thing.  My current panel has two 6 inch monitors that suffer this problem, but they are angled upwards to counteract the problem.

 

Sometime today I will paste some images of my rig so that you can see the issue I am talking about.

 

Hope this helps,

 

J.

 

 

[needles 1,010]

Hi Paul, welcome to Mutleys Hangar.

I spoke to so many people at the show so forgive me if I can't remember you.

The monitor I have in my cockpit is indeed a 15" monitor.

I have mounted mine more or less at eye level, so I don't suffer any with the problems John is talking about.

I completely deconstruct the monitor so I don't have any of the plastic bezel of monitor frame on mine.

I bought mine for a tenner from one of the modern named second hand shops.

Having taken the monitor apart, I disconected the cable associated with buttons and soldered momentary push buttons to the various button controls, then mounted the buttons on the front of my panel.

All I was left with was actually mounting the monitor inside my panel. I did this by simply fixing a small shelf inside and making some clamps that we're screwed into from the face of my panel.

I then connected a vga cable to a free slot on my graphics card (gtx570) and run Panel Builder from RCSimulations and dragged the instruments to the 15" monitor.

It works well but having had time to figure out why I was getting some problems at the show, I have found that it is much better stability wise, to run Panel Builder on a separate machine connected with FSWide.

£20 seems a fair price for the monitor you talk about because at least you know it is working.

As for going down the route I did, I have to warn you, do not do what I have done unless you are comfortable doing so.

There are some high voltage components in a monitor that, if not treated with respect can give you a nasty shock.

If you need any more details let me know.

Have fun on the forum and don't be worried about asking questions. There are no stupid questions here.

[J G 927]

Unfortunately the issue I was having with the shadowing across the monitor not possible to replicate with a camera. It seems the camera is too sensitive for the shadowing to show up.

 

However the picture below illustrates why a dark image should be used:-

 

 

As you can see the RHS monitor is overexposed as it had a white Plan G map on it and was fairly bright.  The LHS had the FSX GPS which is dark, and can be seen clearly.

When looking at the monitor obliquely the blacker screen will illustrate the issue better.  

 

The picture below shows how the problem can be easily overcome.  You will see that the screens are angled up to meet the operator's eye at 90 degrees thus presenting the screen at the best angle to the eye.

 

 

Good luck with what ever you decide to do.

 

J.

[needles 1,010]

Great idea and well done John.

 

BTW; Is the top lefthand lcd a self build from Maplin?

I ask because if it is and you need another, I have one that I've built but no longer use.

[J G 927]

@Brian the LCDs are all purchased through ebay as just basic components.  All the stuff that makes then work is homemade.

 

I don't need another just yet, thanks anyway.

[sleightflight 1]

Great answers guys, & thanks for the info so far

I'm now wandering if a 15" monitor is going to be a bit big.

I do have my old FSX pc I could use if I need to but

I have also thought about two cheap android 10" devices

to alleviate a second pc and using the android FS guages app that works through wifi but I have not seen anyone go this route yet.

my study where my flight sim is set up isn't very big so space is a bit of an issue but I really want to get a good looking / functioning sim pit.

[needles 1,010]

Hi Paul,

Give your panel plenty of thought before you start to build because I learnt the long way.

I built one panel and found I needed more space, so I had to build a second.

Good luck with it anyway and don't for :thum:get to post some pics during your build.

[needles 1,010]

@Brian the LCDs are all purchased through ebay as just basic components.  All the stuff that makes then work is homemade.

 

I don't need another just yet, thanks anyway.

 

Mo worries John.

[sleightflight 1]

This is where I am at the moment.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/view/jvb24630aq9pb3q/20140928_211852.jpg

 

Hopefully this will work, not sure how to post a photo direct.

 

 

[J G 927]

Before the rig I have now I used a Samsung 7 inch tablet set into a panel running one of two apps, an app that provided FSX gauges and another that provided a moving map.

 

I bought a cheap 7 inch tablet (£40 quid in Dubai) to move free up my more expensive Samsung device. It didn't work as the apps wouldn't run on it.  In theory they should have but they wouldn't - Caveat emptor!

 

In any event i would not recommend this way to save on processing power.  The apps work but are not completely accurate and the moving map has a fair margin of positioning error.  Good for keeping an eye on that long autopilot Atlantic crossing while in the next room watching TV, but not as an instrument. Far better to go for the 15 inch monitor and mask off what you don't need or do what Brian has done. You could put up several gauges and the GPS if you thought it was on the large side.

 

An alternative, and you can see them in my rig are these:-

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-inch-LCD-Car-monitor-computer-HD-digital-VGA-AV-CAR-REAR-VIEW-RESERV-CAMERA-/221472116228?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item3390c44e04    But if you go for these make sure they are VGA as there are some out there that are not.  In addition to the screen you will have to buy a 12 volt power supply for each screen.  I got mine for about £10 in Maplins. Altogether they are cheaper than a tablet anyway.

 

Hope this helps.

[sleightflight 1]

Wow thanks, I never even thought about dual screen TV screens, I have a twin set that join together by a a three socket wire but I realise that the piggyback screen will only be able to display the same as the first screen.

But at least I can see how using the single screen works, great tip thanks.

[J G 927]

Most pc's these days will support two screens. By default the second screen will duplicate what is on the first. If you look in the control panel in the screen settings you will see a tick box labled Extend onto this screen sor the second screen. Tick this and you will be able to use both screens independently.

Each screen muat be connected to its own port on your PC's graphics card. Having said thar all modern graphics cards have more than one port these days.

[sleightflight 1]

I have I think 3 spare gpu ports & I also have the intel IGPU ports built into my mobo, but I don't think FSX can see those.

I will get the simplugin panel builder software soon but I'm undecided which package to go for.

[sleightflight 1]

OK,

I have a DVI D port, a DVI I port & a display port spare.

I am using the HDMI for my PC display.

I am unsure about how to use these ports with regards to VGA coupling or which ones are the best to use, I think I can get DVi I to VGA converter quite cheap, I might even have one lying around somewhere, the DVI D to VGA seem expensive and the Display port to VGA converter is between the two.

I am going to get two of the 7" lcd screens suggested by J G.

Thanks for the help so far everyone.

[J G 927]

Glad to be of help. Good luck with your venture.

It might be a good idea to see which ports work well together before you splash out on new hardware.

If you havent already got 2 screens (monitors or compatable TVs) you might want to get a friend to bring around a monitor to see what works best

[sleightflight 1]

I have got a spare old 19" monitor but I want to run two small LCD displays as well as the main FSX display at the moment.

Think I will get them and then figure out how to make them work.

Thanks.

[sleightflight 1]

Hi,

I have received one of the lcd panels.

The power lead is loose in the box and not connected to anything, I have no idea where the wires connect inside the unit, there is nothing obvious.

Any clues anyone ?

Thanks.

[needles 1,010]

Hi Paul,

Could you take a photo of what you have and post it here. That way I might be able to help.

Cheers. Don't despair.

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Needles.

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/32y77ywl43j43

hopefully this link will work.

Thanks.

[needles 1,010]

Looking at what you have bought Paul, it looks like a monitor for a cars DVD player.

Have you tried just plugging the VGA cable into a vga port on your graphics card?

It looks like you have a couple of options of connection looking at the cables.

Is there any documentation at all?

It also looks like the red and black cable has a power connector on one end.

This would normally plug in to a port on the circuit board.

As you don't seem to have a power supply with it, I would think it might need a 12v power supply of some description.

I can't advise you on which type to get unless I know the input voltage details.

Is this on the monitor somewhere?

Have a look at the circuit board and see if there is a port for the round plug on the end of the red and black cable.

Also let me know where you purchased the screen so I can take a look at the sites info.

Cheers for now

Brian

[J G 927]

I think I mentioned this before, but you need to buy a separate power supply.

 

The PS must be 12 volts and be able to plug into the red socket of the three that you show.

 

Maplins do a good PS that has selectable voltage and interchangeable heads.

 

look here:- http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-12w-acdc-multi-voltage-power-supply-l82bf

[sleightflight 1]

I went to maplins last night and asked about an adapter fot the monitor and was told they didn't do one which I found unbelievable.

I have got an old netgear router adapter that has a 12V 1A output, there is no documentation telling me the power requirements.

There is no socket inside the case for the male plug on the red and black cable, it does however fit into the red plug on the red white and yellow cable coming out of the unit.

Thanks for the help so far guys.