Anyone using Dietmar Loleit's HUDCA?

**MarkH** · February 11th, 2015, 01:51

I am trying to get Dietmar Loleit's HUDCA HUD to work but having no luck. I think I have followed his instructions to the letter to install it in the default B737-800 but when I activate the gauge all that happens is I see a black rectangle flash briefly and then disappear. I am using FSX Acceleration.

Anyone had this and got it to work? I don't really understand gauges so I'm not sure how to debug this.

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 07:03

Originally Posted by MarkH

I am trying to get Dietmar Loleit's HUDCA HUD to work but having no luck. I think I have followed his instructions to the letter to install it in the default B737-800 but when I activate the gauge all that happens is I see a black rectangle flash briefly and then disappear. I am using FSX Acceleration.

Anyone had this and got it to work? I don't really understand gauges so I'm not sure how to debug this.

In your panel.cfg file, your windows are not correctly numbered, or the gauge details is not correct inside the window

I have not this gauge, but check your windows numbers. also the window number you added must be added under the [Window Titles] section

can you upload your panel.cfg file somewhere then I can take a look for you if I see something that you might have missed. PM me download link.

**MarkH** · February 11th, 2015, 07:33

Originally Posted by snow_white

can you upload your panel.cfg file somewhere then I can take a look for you if I see something that you might have missed.

Thanks, I guess I can just attach it here. (I have renamed the file panel.cfg.txt as the editor wouldn't let me attach it otherwise.) I have enclosed my additions with lines starting with '//---MH---'.
panel.cfg.txt

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 07:33

Just installed and got the same
Change the gauge entry under window00
to read like this. Copy & paste

gauge40=HUDCA$/config!config, 0, 0, 1, 1,./gauges/HUDCA$/B737config.ini

if I have it like this then the gauge work 100% for me

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 07:48

Also add the entry
type=SPECIAL

under window10 and 11 like this

Code:

[Window10]
Background_color=0,0,0,0
size_mm=768,640 //do not change this
window_size_ratio=1
visible=0
sizeable=1
no_luminous=1
ident=1768 //do not change this
window_size= 0.500,0.450
window_pos= 0.300, 0.000
type=SPECIAL
gauge00=HUDCA!HUDCA_Frame, 0,0,0,0
//gauge00=HUDCA!HUDCA_FrameB, 0,0,0,0 //Entry for the beige version
gauge01=HUDCA!HUDCA_Display, 125,20,750,750

[Window11]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=768,640 //do not change this
window_size_ratio=1
visible=0
alpha_blend=0.25
sizeable=1
ident=1769 //do not change this
window_size= 0.500,0.450
window_pos= 0.300, 0.00
type=SPECIAL
gauge00=HUDCA!HUD_Glass, 0,0,0,0

This will result that the HUD stay up if you change views

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 07:58

Also remember to go shift 1 first to switch on hud

on the Shift 1 the on/off is here

thereafter you can also use views > instrument panel > and select HUDSA

For my setup I will definitely also adjust the size of the HUD to be a bit deeper in the screen (or lower) Sorry dont know how else to explain. My english a bit bad. Photo might illustrate

I would set it to be more like this

**expat** · February 11th, 2015, 08:08

OK, I have that gauge and not been able to get it to work. Tried this panel.cfg change but still get a message - in green font in the HUD glass popup - "Configuration error - check your INI file" - but not sure what needs checking, lol.

Also - particularly dumb question from someone doing this for so long - if you have pop up windows that go above Shift +0, i.e, Shift + 11, etc, how do you open them? when I press, first "Shift", then "1" and quickly then "2" for Shift + 12, nothing opens. Must be doing something wrong as many panels have more than e.g. 10 popup windows.

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 08:15

Originally Posted by expat

OK, I have that gauge and not been able to get it to work. Tried this panel.cfg change but still get a message - in green font in the HUD glass popup - "Configuration error - check your INI file" - but not sure what needs checking, lol.

Also - particularly dumb question from someone doing this for so long - if you have pop up windows that go above Shift +0, i.e, Shift + 11, etc, how do you open them? when I press, first "Shift", then "1" and quickly then "2" for Shift + 12, nothing opens. Must be doing something wrong as many panels have more than e.g. 10 popup windows.

there is no shift x for panels 9 and upwards. if you have windows above 9 it will normally be opened through a gauge and will use a specific refernce called "ident=xyz". then the gauge open the window no problem, but it is using ident and not windowxx anymore

use shift1 and then switch on HUD as in my post above
thereafter use
use views > instrument panel > HUDCA

I am trying to upload my panel.cfg file but i cant get it to upload.. says panel.cfg is invalid file
Yes there I had to correct the one gauge entry before it worked for me. See post above

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 08:22

here is my panel file. please note it have .txt extension at the end to be able to upload at the back that should be removed if you wanna use it. Always make sure you have backup your panel.cfg
panel.cfg.txt

**MarkH** · February 11th, 2015, 08:27

Originally Posted by snow_white

Also remember to go shift 1 first to switch on hud
or go views > instrument panel > and select HUDSA

on the Shift 1 the on/off is here

AHA! For some reason I cannot get it to display unless I go to this 2D instrument panel and click the hotspot. If I do this, it does display, and then I can turn off the 2D main panel again. Thanks for the help, I can now experiment with it in my aircraft! I will be putting it in the Aerosoft Twin Otter, not the B737

**MarkH** · February 11th, 2015, 08:29

Originally Posted by expat

OK, I have that gauge and not been able to get it to work. Tried this panel.cfg change but still get a message - in green font in the HUD glass popup - "Configuration error - check your INI file" - but not sure what needs checking, lol.

That message is addressed on page 14 of the manual!

**snow_white** · February 11th, 2015, 08:43

Originally Posted by MarkH

AHA! For some reason I cannot get it to display unless I go to this 2D instrument panel and click the hotspot. If I do this, it does display, and then I can turn off the 2D main panel again. Thanks for the help, I can now experiment with it in my aircraft! I will be putting it in the Aerosoft Twin Otter, not the B737

yes that also confused me that is why I specifically mentioned it in the post. You must first go Shift 1 (bring up 2D panel) and then switch it on. Then thereafter as you said, you can close 2D panel and then continue with gauge.

if I am you that want to use in Aerosoft twin otter, I will just change the code of the hud to have it switched on as "default".

I am glad you got it working. First time I saw/heard of this gauge and it looks nice and maybe I will also use it in the twotter. You just give me idea

**expat** · February 11th, 2015, 10:26

Working well now - thanks all!!

**MarkH** · February 11th, 2015, 11:57

Originally Posted by snow_white

...looks nice and maybe I will also use it in the twotter. You just give me idea

Great, win-win!

**MarkH** · February 12th, 2015, 08:13

Originally Posted by snow_white

First time I saw/heard of this gauge and it looks nice and maybe I will also use it in the twotter

I tried this out in the Twin Otter and unfortunately it's a complete frame hog, so not really much use practically. I am experimenting with William Lipscomb's F16 HUD instead, which is simpler but has much better performance. (It also turns on and off easily!)

**MarkH** · February 14th, 2015, 10:49

Originally Posted by MarkH

I tried this out in the Twin Otter and unfortunately it's a complete frame hog, so not really much use practically. I am experimenting with William Lipscomb's F16 HUD instead, which is simpler but has much better performance. (It also turns on and off easily!)

I take this back about the frame-hogging. I have since re-installed and the performance does not seem to be an issue. I can only assume I had something else going on that was interacting with the gauge. You can also control all the features of the gauge under program control from a Lua script, which is cool.

**ChrisJD** · June 26th, 2016, 02:22

Hi Mark, Bought your excellent Kindle book on the Twotter, & the section about a HUD. So I managed to install & run the HUDCA program. A couple of questions. I, like you, don't like the frame. I have removed it, but cannot access the controls - as you point out. Also I found that you can change the transparency once, but the next time freezes the controls. My question is - can I remove the frame but as default have the setting on bright & auto? I have no idea what things like LUA, LINDA & VLAR are - so I don't want to use them if possible. Any ideas please? FYI To avoid the HUD disappearing when you change view, insert the line type=special after the window position line. Thanks to someone on the Aerosoft forum, I think. The last point I found that even though I entered line 40 in the VCockpit01 I still have to press Shift + 1 to bring up the icon. Regards, ChrisJD

**MarkH** · June 26th, 2016, 07:44

Originally Posted by ChrisJD

Hi Mark, Bought your excellent Kindle book on the Twotter, & the section about a HUD

Thanks for buying the book! I think needing to press SHIFT+1 is normal if you want to use the icon to switch the HUD on and off, although there is probably a way to get that panel (window00) to show automatically. I don't use the icon, I use a real switch that pokes the lvar (see below). For your second question, the only way I know to make the values default like you want is, again, to poke the lvars. If you have the paid-for FSUIPC this is not that hard. See below for how to do it.

The other way would be to edit the gauge itself. I think that this must be an XML gauge because it has lvars, but the gauge seems to be in a CAB file and I do not know how to extract it. I guess there is a simple way and then you could edit the XML file and find where the lvars ('L:Bright_ONOFF' and 'L:HUD_AUTO') are initialised. This will likely be very cryptic but it may be a simple matter of changing a 0 for a 1 in a couple of places. I will look into this if I get a chance.

For the FSUIPC way, here's how to create a couple of new functions you can map to buttons:

Use Notepad to create a text file in fsx\modules called 'hudca_ON.lua' containing the following text:

Code:

local HUD_PanelId = 1768
local HUD_Glass_PanelId = 1769
local PANEL_OPEN = 66507


ipc.writeLvar("L:HUDCAONOFF", 1)
ipc.control(PANEL_OPEN, HUD_PanelId)
ipc.control(PANEL_OPEN, HUD_Glass_PanelId)


ipc.writeLvar("L:Bright_ONOFF", 1)
ipc.writeLvar("L:HUD_AUTO", 1)

And another file called 'hudca_OFF.lua':

Code:

local HUD_PanelId = 1768
local HUD_Glass_PanelId = 1769
local PANEL_CLOSE = 66508



ipc.control(PANEL_CLOSE, HUD_PanelId)
ipc.control(PANEL_CLOSE, HUD_Glass_PanelId)
ipc.writeLvar("L:HUDCAONOFF", 0)

You should now be able to map these to buttons on your joystick in FSUIPC. Just choose 'lua hudca_ON' and 'lua hudca_OFF' as the button actions. You might be able to get the 'hudca_ON' to run automatically by adding a line to the [Auto] section of fsuipc4.ini, but I am not sure if this will work as the aircraft (and the HUDCA gauge) would need to be loaded when it runs.

**ChrisJD** · June 26th, 2016, 10:19

Hi Mark, Thanks for your comprehensive answer. I only have the free FSUIPC, & I think it looks like too much trouble to start using scripts. I will have to stick to the frame - I know its not pretty, but it works. If you do happen to find a way to edit the program I will be very interested, but in the meantime I'll just get on with flying the Twotter. Thanks again for your help. Regards, ChrisJD

**MarkH** · January 15th, 2019, 12:25

Very long follow-up on this. I found that the HUDCA wouldn't work with P3Dv4, because there is a small compiled gauge (Config.gau) that is supposed to load the settings from the ini file but doesn't seem to work. The good news is that the HUD itself is an XML gauge and does work! All you have to do is stuff the mandatory Lvars with values instead of defining them in the ini file and it will work as normal! You can do this in a short Lua script. Here it is in LINDA, which is how I've done it (these values are for the Twin Otter):

Code:

ipc.writeLvar("L:Decision_High", 300)
ipc.writeLvar("L:TO_V1", 63)
ipc.writeLvar("L:TO_Rotate", 63)
ipc.writeLvar("L:TO_V2", 73)
ipc.writeLvar("L:V_Landing", 74)
ipc.writeLvar("L:Disp_Radio_High", 2500)
ipc.writeLvar("L:Flaps_Takeoff_set", 2)
ipc.writeLvar("L:aircraft_type", 1)

WOO!

**PhantomTweak** · January 15th, 2019, 23:09

By the way, there IS a way to load a Window.X entry higher than 9, and it's relatively easy. You just need to use an Icon on the instrument panel, whether 2D, VC, or both.
Say I've got an radar screen I can open or close, to use as a TCAS, or refueling plane locator, or whatever. It's [Window.12] in my ficticious panel. I just need to place an Icon for it. I always put one on both the VC and 2d, so no matter which I'm using, I can pop it up real fast.

Many addons, like the HUDCA, or a radar display, come with an Ican included, so opening it is not a problem, whatever window number it may be. If it doesn't, well, making an icon for something isn't at all hard. Takes me about 10 minutes, once I find the picture I want to use to identify whatever it is.

David "Opa" Marshall wrote a "How-To" as part of his Tips and Tricks library, but I can't find which one, right now. Take a look through them, though. A quick, simple method for creating Icons to add to a pop-up so you can get it up easily without having to go to the menu bar. I'll look some more when I have time...
Pat☺

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