You can’t build the entire home cockpit from scratch without any partners in the hardware and software industry. Let’s have a first look on the hardware partners I’m working with.

• OpenCockpits
• Conrad Electronics
• Simparts.de

OpenCockpits
You can find them at http://www.opencockpits.com. What they are offering you is just amazing: they have build hardware cards, which interact with external hardware switches. Their hardware cards are connected through a USB connection to the computer, where the software is running which is interacting with the hardware and the flight simulator software. Further more they also sell panels on which you can mount the hardware switches. The panels are as real as possible and very cheap and a very, very good starting point for building home cockpits. I have currently running the following hardware cards from Open Cockpits:

• Master Card
• USB Expansion Card
• USB Keys Card
• USB Servo Motor Card

Conrad Electronics
Just go to http://www.conrad.at and you will find a lot of switches, LEDs etc. that you will need for building your home cockpit. As you will see in the next weblog posts, you can build around 80% of your home cockpit with hardware switches from Conrad Electronics. But don’t tell them what you are doing with the bought hardware, they look a little bit crazy, when you tell them that you are building a Boeing 737-800 flight simulator with their hardware *gggg*

Simparts.de
I very interesting supplier I found in the last weeks. If you need hardware that you can’t find at Conrad Electronics, just try http://www.simparts.de. They have for example a dual encoder with a push button, which you need for the EFIS (EFIS: Electrical Flight Information System).

Here are the software partners I’m working with:

• Project Magenta
• Microsoft

Project Magenta
They (http://www.projectmagenta.com) are providing you the whole system logic for your home cockpit in the needed deep. The “problem” with Microsoft Flight Simulator X is, that you can access the internal functionality very easily from the outside world, but some functionalities are not completed 100%. And this is the point where Project Magenta starts. They provide you every hardware circuit and hardware logic which is available on an real airliner in software. So you can attach your hardware switches to their system logic and their system logic is working against Flight Simulator X. When you for example are pressing a button on the overhead panel, Flight Simulator X just changes the state of the associated variable inside it’s own software. But with Project Magenta they are also checking other variables and other environmental requirements regarding the official Boeing operation manuals. Furthermore Project Magenta provides you external software visualizations for the whole glass cockpit of the Boeing and Airbus fleet – very amazing.

Microsoft
I’m using the Microsoft Flight Simulator X currently on Windows Vista as the flight simulation system. Furthermore I use the .NET framework to program my hardware switches against the Project Magenta software. This means the following: I’m changing a real hardware switch => my programmed software obtains this hardware event => my programmed software changes a variable inside Project Magenta => Project Magenta provides it’s own simulation logic and finally changes the correct variable inside Flight Simulator X. In the next weblog post we will have a more detailed look on this architecture I have chosen.

-Klaus

Building a Boeing 737-800 is one of the most challenging activities I’ve done in my whole life. If you want to be successful, you need to know a lot in the following areas (or do several months of internet research as in my case):

• Construction engineering
• Electricals
• Software programming (that’s my main area)
• Flight experience on a Boeing 737-800 – the most complicated point

Let’s have a look on each of these topics.

Construction engineering
When we speak about building a full scale flight simulator, we are talking about building the whole (!) cockpit shell in REAL dimensions. In my case I have a dedicated room in the basement of my house (which we build in the year 2007…), which has enough room for a whole cockpit shell. The main structure of my MIP (main instrument panel) currently consits of MDF panels (MDF is the english word for “Spannholzplatten” in german ). Now you would ask: and from where I get the real dimensions of the cockpit shell? Answer: internet research!

The big problem here is, that you can’t search to site xyz, and read everything about building cockpit shells. You need to visit several different sites, and combine their concepts to your final solution, which works best for you. There is no complete solution which fits for everyone – unfortunately. But that’s the great aspect of doing such things: reseraching, making prototypes, checking them against requirements and refine them, until you have found the ultimate solution.

Electricals
Another very important thing about building flight simulation cockpits is hardware engineering. You are working directly with the bits & bytes of your hardware switches instead of using great APIs (application programming interfaces) around these “input types”. In my case it took me several weeks, until I was able to use a hardware switch (bought at the electrical shop Conrad) to move up and down the gear – but it’s amazing when you have done it the correct way. In subsequent weblog posts I’ll look at the different hardware switches you will need at least to build a fully functional cockpit. You also need to know something about the inner workings of electronics and your used hardware switches, because when you have problems, you can’t just attach a debugger and debug the problem. Here you are working with wires and voltage!

Software programming
As soon as you have build your hardware interface, you have to program the whole thing to interact with the real flight simulation software – in my case with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I have a long history with Microsoft technologies and especially with the .NET framework, therefore I’ve build a managed interface wrapper assembly around my hardware switches, with which I can interact with the switches and output controls (like LEDs) in an event driven approach. If you do not know something about software programming, don’t try to build a home cockpit.

Flight experience on a Boeing 737-800
That’s the most complicated part to achieve in real world, and after 9/11 it’s very hard (or let’s say: impossible!) to get in any cockpit during the flight :-(. You have only 2 options here:

• Research through the internet: there are great Boeing operation manuals available for download, but they are just describing each switch in the cockpit. They don’t tell you the interdependencies between the switches and how one switch will affect another one in the cockpit.
• Try to find a friend (or a person who will be your new friend) who is flying a Boeing 737-800. I’m currently going for this way, and talking to any pilot I can see when I’m on my business trips. Unfortunately our local airline (Austrian Airlines) only flies A-319 & A-320 within Europe (short haul distances) and B-767 & B-777 to US, Australia, China (long haul distances) etc. So currently I have no access to a person who flies the 737-800.

In the next weblog post I’ll describe the several hardware and software partners I’m working togehter to build this amazing project.

-Klaus

As you already might know, I’ve found a new hobby in the last few years – I’m currently building a fully functional fixed-based Boeing 737-800 flight simulator. I’ve started this project around January 2006 with a very, very long research phase (around 18 months). During the christmas holidays of 2008 I decided to put this amazing project into reality and started building the main structure of my flight simulator and several hardware interfaces that are working together with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Here you will see some impressions of the current status. In the next ongoing weblog posts I will dive into the technical details of my flight simulator, and I will show you how things are done and implemented.

Figure 1: The MIP (main instrument panel) of the Boeing 737-800 flight simulator in >>>REAL<<< dimensions.

Figure 2: The pilot’s side of the MIP. The left window frame is the PFD (primary flight display), where the window right window frame next to the PFD is the ND (navigational display).

Figure 3: The auto-break/flaps panel.

Figure 4: The upper part of the landing gear.

Figure 5: The lower part of the landing gear.

Figure 6: The inner workings of the MCP (Mode Control Panel), aka Auto-Pilot. It took me around 3 months to build and program it.

Figure 7: Parts of the MCP from the front.

Stay tuned for further more detailed and technical information

-Klaus

As announced in my session at the SQLBits conference in Manchester, you can download the sample code here. I hope you enjoyed my session and my attractive back

-Klaus

As announced in both of my sessions here at the DevWeek conference in London, you can download the sample code here. But the download files will be online on Sunday, when I'm returning to Vienna

• ADO.NET Enhancements for SQL Server 2005/2008
• Building a distributed enterprise application with the .NET framework 3.5

I hope you have enjoyed my sessions

-Klaus

Well, a very good question: the last months were very stressful for me, and therefore I had to take priorities, and blogging wasn't the number one priority. But things are changing. By now I'm trying to post a lot more than in the past (which is very easy, as you can see from the history of my blog...)

Since february I'm employed as an software architect & consultant at EDS, an HP company in Vienna. I've been now around 6 weeks with EDS, and it's very amazing to seen how such a global player is working. And also the combination with HP will be very nice - just trust me Currently I'm doing a lot of SQL Server related stuff (my main topic, as you might already know), and also some things with .NET related technologies, evangelizing some great internal EDS technologies in Europe.

Here's also my upcoming conference schedule for the next weeks and months, where you can meet me face-2-face:

• DevWeek Conference London, UK (23. - 27. march): I'm doing one session about ADO.NET enhancements for SQL Server 2005/2008 and one session about distributed applications with the .NET framework 3.5
• European PASS Conference Neuss, Germany (23. - 24. april): I'm doing 2 session about SQL Server 2008: GEOGRAPHY data type and T-SQL enhancements
• Solid Quality Summit Vienna (June): I'm doing 4 (!) SQL Server related sessions together with my very good friends at Solid Quality Learning

See you!

-Klaus

A few minutes ago I finished my preparations for the upcoming DevWeek conference by the end of March in London, UK. One topic that I'll be talking about is building a fully distributed .NET application based on the .NET framework 3.5 technologies, WCF, WF, and WPF.

I'll show the following things:

• How to use the "Workflow Services" technology from the .NET framework 3.5
• How to store workflow definitions in a database, so that business analysts can change them according to their (changing) business requirements
• How to write a workflow designer, that can be used by the business analysts to change the workflow definitions that are stored in the database
• How to use the workflow monitor application from the SDK to monitor the current running and closed workflow instances
• How to use the TrackingProfileDesigner application from the SDK to configure tracking profiles for the running workflow instances

All in all: it's just an awesome sample how to use the current .NET framework 3.5 technology stack!

See you there!

-Klaus

Ende Oktober 2008 findet die Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles statt.
Die PDC ist DIE Entwicklerkonferenz, auf der Microsoft die Zukunft der Microsoft Entwicklungsplattform zeigt.
In den vergangenen Jahren wurden auf der PDC Technologien und Produkte wie das Microsoft .NET Framework (Jahr 2000), Windows Vista (Jahr 2003), oder das .NET Framework 3.0 (Jahr 2005) vorgestellt, die die Zukunft der Microsoft Entwicklungplattform nachhaltung verändert haben.
Grund genug, um vom 09. - 10. Dezember in Wien die Microsoft Platform Future Days zu veranstalten, um Ihnen die aktuellen Neuerungen und Zukunftsvisionen der diesjährigen Microsoft PDC hautnah näherzubringen.

Zielpublikum: .NET 2.0/3.0/3.5 Programmierer/innen, Software-Architekten/innen
Termin: Dienstag 09.12.2008 - Mittwoch 10.12.2008
Ort: Palais Strudlhof, Pasteurgasse 1, A-1090 Wien, Anfahrtsinformationen
Kosten: € 600,00 (im Betrag ist keine Umsatzsteuer enthalten)
Tagesablauf:

• 09:00 - 13:00 Workshops
• 13:00 - 14.00 Mittagessen
• 14:00 - 17:00 Workshops
• Abends (optional): gemeinsames Abendessen zum Ausklang des Tages

Das ergibt 2 Tage aktuellstes Know-How rund um die Neuerungen der Microsoft Entwicklungsplattform, die in den nächsten Jahren maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die Software-Entwicklung haben werden. Der Preis von € 600,00 beinhaltet:

• Demoversionen
• Begrüßungskaffee/Tee
• Vormittagsjause
• 3-gängiges Mittagessen
• Nachmittagsjause
• Konferenzgetränke
• Gemeinsames Abendessen

Warum teilnehmen?
Die Microsoft PDC ist DIE richtungsweisende Technologiekonferenz von Microsoft, die die Zukunftsvisionen und die aktuellen Neuerungen der Microsoft Entwicklungsplattform der nächsten Jahre zeigt. Die Microsoft Platform Future Days präsentieren Ihnen erstmals in Österreich diese Neuerungen innerhalb von 2 Tagen und zeigen Ihnen neue richtungsweisende Microsoft Technologien, die auf Ihre Softwareentwicklung maßgeblichen Einfluss in den nächsten Jahren haben werden.
Bei den Speakern handelt es sich um international anerkannte Experten, die seit Jahren die Zukunft und die Entwicklung der Microsoft Plattform intensiv verfolgen, und daher in diesen Bereichen bereits umfassendes Know-How aufbauen konnten, und dieses in ausgezeichneter Qualität an die Teilnehmer weitergeben.
Top-Themen:

• Windows 7 - die Nachfolgeversion von Windows Vista!
• Cloud Services
• Microsoft Oslo 
• .NET Framework 4.0 
• Microsoft Live Platform 

Die Themen können sich aus aktuellem Anlass ändern, da diese von der Microsoft PDC abhängig sind!

Weitere Informationen zu den Microsoft Platform Future Days finden Sie unter http://developers-summit.csharp.at

Thanks for attending my sessions at the DevTeach conference in Toronto/Canada this week. As announced in all my sessions, you can download the whole material (Slides & Demos) for my sessions here:

• Message in a bottle: Service Broker from 1 to 100
• Service Broker Enhancements in SQL Server 2008
• Workflow driven Service Broker solutions
• SQL Server 2008 & the GEOGRAPHY data type

-Klaus

Thanks for attending my session about Team Build 2008 at the Team System Conference in Munich/Germany this week. As announced in my session, you can download the slides here. Enjoy it!

-Klaus