enlarging the GPS

[shermank]

I have noticed that on many aircraft, there is no popup for the GPS, which leaves it very small to read, much less to use. Does anyone have a general workaround for this problem? Thanks...

 

Sherm

[texerrn]

You can add a GPS to any aircraft as a pop up. An easy way is to just copy from a default such as the 172, look in the panel cfg. In the panel folder. It is obvious, something like guage = fs9 I thing. Paste into the panel config. Of the desired aircraft. May need to re number the list or make some room. You can only have like nine show at once.

[MarkH]

The following code shows two excerpts from the default trike's panel.cfg file. You can see how the GPS panel is set up as window 02, so you can just copy this into the panel.cfg for any other aircraft. You may need to change the 02 to something else if there is already a panel 02. This code gives you the portable GPS.
 

[Window Titles]Window00=Main PanelWindow01=Radio StackWindow02=GPSWindow03=PopupWindow04=Mini Panel...[Window02]size_mm=545,354window_size=0.5,0.3625position=2BACKGROUND_COLOR=0,0,0VISIBLE=0ident=GPS_PANELgauge00=fs9gps!gps_295, 0,0

You can substitute gauge00=fs9gps!gps_500 for the panel-mount GPS500.

 

If you're going to run the GPS on an external monitor, particularly a small (GPS-sized) one, you will discover sooner or later that it doesn't scale well. The problem is that the icons and labels remain the same size regardless of how you resize the panel. This is fine while it's on the main screen but if you drag the panel to a smaller screen with a comparable resolution they will appear smaller. On my 7" external screen, even running at a resolution of 800x600 the labels are barely readable. There are three ways around this. (1) Don't use a small screen! (2) Run your small screen at a low resolution. The Garmin GNS530, which is comparable to the panel-mount G500, has a roughly QVGA (320x240) screen. (3) Get the Reality XP GNS530, which scales the icons and labels on its 2D panel in proportion to the window size. (There are lots of other reasons to get it!)

[shermank]

Thank you. I will give this a try.

 

Sherm

[Rodger Pettichord]

Hi. Thank you, Texerrn and MarkH. For years I have wanted to be able to put a GPS into a plane lacking it but didn't know how. Yesterday, I took a deep breath and brought my total computer illiteracy to bear on trying your instructions on my WACO. It worked! Now I know where I am as I fly my favorite biplane around the Aegean Sea. Thanks, guys--you have fulfilled a longtime wish.

[olli4740]

The no. of popup windows is not limited to 9; that's probably the limit for the no. of shortcuts that can be assigned to open those windows.

The max. no. of windows in a panel.cfg is slightly more than 60 (64, IIRC), so in most aircraft there's still room for several additional windows. AFAIK, the only plane that gets close to the limit "out of the box" is the PMDG MD-11.

 

If you want to open windows which can not be accessed via shortcuts, just use 'Views' in the menu.

[akmatov]

Wow! This is GREAT info!  Just today I discarded the idea of buying an otherwise interesting little GA aircraft bc of no GPS popup with the GPS awkwardly placed.