MobiFlight Community Support

I'm well on the way to completing a generic twin-engine GA aircraft panel. It consists of three modules - the gauge panel (18 Air Manager gauges on separate PC and monitor), a switch panel (Arduino Mega, MF, 20 switches, 3 encoders, 3 rotary switches) and a radio stack (Arduino Mega, MF, 12 MAX7219, 12 rectangular push button switches, 2 rotary switches, 9 encoders, 4 toggle switches). For me it is a better approach than the whole panel that I built last year because it offers more flexibility - and is not as cumbersome to carry from storage to the den each time it is to be run. I expect I will mainly just use the gauges panel, sometimes I will run the gauges plus the switches panels and occasionally run all the three panels together. A major benefit was in the construction where I could concentrate on one panel at a time and also get each one individually debugged and configured to link to FSX.

To create a combined .mcc file from the radio stack .mcc file and switches .mcc file, I used XML Copy Editor (http://xml-copy-editor.sourceforge.net/) to copy and paste the relevant lines into a new file. It probably could be done using NotePad in Windows but I found the colouring and spacing of the lines easier to follow using the XML editor.

For example, I copied all the lines in from the 'switches' .mcc file <outputs> section from into the <outputs> section of the radio stack .mcc file. I also copied all the lines in the <inputs> section from the switches .mcc to the radio stack .mcc file. The modified radio stack .mcc file was then saved as a new combined panels .mcc file. I checked that this new file had no obvious errors e.g: it began with <MobiflightConnector> and ended with </MobiflightConnector> and that there was just one <outputs> and </outputs> section followed by an <inputs> and </inputs> section.

To run the combined files I first ran MF, then loaded the new combined .mcc file then closed MF. The two panel Arduino USBs were then plugged in and MF re-started. The new combined .mcc file loaded and was then available for running or further editing.

I now have one .mcc file for switch panel, one .mcc file for the radio stack and one .mcc file for the combined panels. To run FSX with just, say, the radio stack I run MF and load the 'radio_stack.mcc' then close MF. I then plug in the radio stack USB and start up MF. If I wish to run both the switches panel and radio stack I open MF, load the 'new_combined.mcc' then close MF, plug in the USBs and reload MF.