CS 747X CDU and PSX integration with CS Bridge

[JG]

So my CS 747X CDU's have arrived very speedily from Hong Kong....ordered Friday, given to DHL express on a Sunday and arrived on my door step late on Tuesday afternoon after slipping through Australian Customs without my being garnished for more money.....the last part is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
The product looks and feels of very high quality. I had a little trouble getting it all to talk initially, turns out my version of Visual C++ redistributable was outdated and in need of an update. After reviewing the CS web site, I couldn't for the life of me find any reference to Visual C++ as a requirement in the system. Anyway after that was sorted it all just came to life rather better than expected. I did note in their system requirements that win 10 and 11 feature but not IOS, so if you are a mac user you may be out of luck at this time. Just for a giggle I tried to connect with a win 7 64 bit machine but the CDU's need a usb driver not supported under win 7.
After it all started to work I needed to re-flash the CDU's with new firmware....absolutely seamless process handled by the bridge software. It seems at this time you have to run the CS bridge software on the same machine as the PSX server. IP selection is available under the CS Bridge configuration page as if it may be possible to run it on a different machine to the server. However, PSX and CS bridge also need to run under the same user account with PSX being started first.....if you run CS bridge as administrator the user account issue is bypassed so this may be a way of running platforms on different machines, but I haven't messed with that as yet.
I have already used and verified that the CDU assignment L,C,R routing works with 2 CDU's as expected. The button back lighting also works from the isle stand illumination pot on the overhead!
So far I'm really impressed and to date I have found no functionality limitations at all......only just started looking at things though with legacy FMC only. The best part.....it all works with just a USB cable, no extra graphics outs required at all.
Cheers JG.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

I'm getting more and more interested in this thing. Not so much for PSX, but the speed with which they did it suggests that they have their act together, and I am dead curious about their API.

[JG]

Hi Hoppie, sorry I got the spelling wrong of your name on a previous post....these guys have certainly got their act together. The level of assistance and speed of response has been nothing short of spectacular (helps only being time offset by 2 hours I guess). The bridge software program is quite small(about 9Mb I think) it starts 2 executables that don't appear to put any real CPU load up on task manager monitoring and provides interfacing to both flavours of MSFS, P3D, Pro SIM.....some other thing I can't recall without starting it as well as PSX.
JG

[Kurt]

So my CS 747X CDU's have arrived very speedily from Hong Kong....ordered Friday, given to DHL express on a Sunday and arrived on my door step late on Tuesday afternoon after slipping through Australian Customs without my being garnished for more money.....the last part is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
The product looks and feels of very high quality. I had a little trouble getting it all to talk initially, turns out my version of Visual C++ redistributable was outdated and in need of an update. After reviewing the CS web site, I couldn't for the life of me find any reference to Visual C++ as a requirement in the system. Anyway after that was sorted it all just came to life rather better than expected. I did note in their system requirements that win 10 and 11 feature but not IOS, so if you are a mac user you may be out of luck at this time. Just for a giggle I tried to connect with a win 7 64 bit machine but the CDU's need a usb driver not supported under win 7.
After it all started to work I needed to re-flash the CDU's with new firmware....absolutely seamless process handled by the bridge software. It seems at this time you have to run the CS bridge software on the same machine as the PSX server. IP selection is available under the CS Bridge configuration page as if it may be possible to run it on a different machine to the server. However, PSX and CS bridge also need to run under the same user account with PSX being started first.....if you run CS bridge as administrator the user account issue is bypassed so this may be a way of running platforms on different machines, but I haven't messed with that as yet.
I have already used and verified that the CDU assignment L,C,R routing works with 2 CDU's as expected. The button back lighting also works from the isle stand illumination pot on the overhead!
So far I'm really impressed and to date I have found no functionality limitations at all......only just started looking at things though with legacy FMC only. The best part.....it all works with just a USB cable, no extra graphics outs required at all.
Cheers JG.

omg - this is turning expensive - can you confirm that the two small vertical displays (DSPY, FAIL, MSG and OFST) also is working correctly

You can check by selecting IND LTS Test on th OH

Thanks

[JG]

Hi Kurt, not the cheapest option but still half the price of FDS....As far as I can tell from an initial fiddle, everything works, including the annunciators for Fail, Dspy, Msg and Offset both in normal flight and under the influence of breaker pulls and Dim/Test switch. The CS CDU's mimic the PSX CDU's and vise versa in every way. The only thing that appears independent is the operation of the LCD/CRT screen brightness.....which does actually make perfect sense. So now I have to go and buy the NG FMC....that was on my agenda anyway. The legacy screens are green phosphor as they are on a CRT, I'm sure the NG FMC will have the colour screens faithfully reproduced on the CS CDU's though.
What can I say....Happy Days, J.G.

[B747-400]

Thx for your info, Kurt!

Are the fonts replicated perfectly as well, or did they use "any" font to display text?

BR
Hans

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

I think I read that you can replace fonts yourself...

[B747-400]

I found something about that as well, but it was for Winwings CDU.

Here's a tutorial video, if one is interested in!

BR
Hans

[JG]

Hans, at this time I can only comment for the legacy FMC....The font geometry is very slightly different,
slightly thinner pitch on lines making up the characters, perhaps very slightly narrower characters with a tiny bit more spacing. The font character type is identical. All very legible though and unless you displayed the PSX CDU font next to the CS CDU font....you wouldn't know it was different at all. The annunciators are red for Fault, slightly less red towards orange for the other 3 rather than white.....guessing that lines up with the LCD version CDU but I don't know for sure because as yet I don't have the NG FMC installed
J.G.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

As long as the display is a hard 24 x 14 matrix, and they don't use a proportional font with "align left" and "align right" features, it will be good enough. I think those old ways of doing things have been mostly eradicated by now.

Like this stone age Project Magenta display:

[B747-400]

Have fun with your new CDU, JG

Aaah, Project Magenta ... decades ago, I felt like a king, once the displays showed up on my old CRTs...

BR
Hans

[Kurt]

Just placed an order for 2 CDU units

Also told them that if they change their mind and produce a 747,757,767 style MCP/EFIS/EICAS it will be an instant buy for me if the quality of their products is what they look like and what I hear from others.

Will report back my experience when I get them installed in the sim.

Cheers

Kurt

[JG]

Ran my 2 up today with LCD CDU'S selected in PSX.....Kurt, you won't be disappointed.
J.G.

[macroflight]

I use the no longer maintained PSX Remote iPad CDU app to get an external CDU. It works well, but tactile buttons would be nice.

It has a feature that is very nice for small space-constrained sims like mine - switch between left, centre and right CDU at the press of a button.

A physical CDU with its own display driver (i.e not displaying the PSX CDU via HDMI) could easily do something like that, e.g press MENU+C to switch to centre CDU, MENU+L for left, ...

I don't suppose this fantastic CS CDU can do that? If so, I'll buy one immediately.

[JG]

At this time the CDU selection is done with the CS bridge software, it is just a mouse click and not too much of a stretch of the imagination that the routing functionality could be emulated on the CDU screen by a key press or combination of key presses or even a combination of key presses without using the screen. The guys at CS seem very open to ideas and a mail to them might see that embraced.
J.G.

[macroflight]

At this time the CDU selection is done with the CS bridge software, it is just a mouse click

That sounds very encouraging. How long is the switching delay from mouse click to when the new CDU data is displayed on the physical CDU?

Also, I sent them an email suggesting this.

[JG]

It changes in the blink of an eye.....in my initial mail to these guys only a few weeks ago I said I would be interested in 3 CDU's if they supported centre CDU operation.....they implemented it almost immediately even before PSX support was finished. It is worth asking the question and the more enquiries they receive from us the better.
J.G.

[JG]

PS...I don't know anything about Stream Decks, but the functionality Macroflight wishes could probably be programmed into such a device without alteration to CS's setup. It also opens up possibilities for EFIS and EICAS control using the CDU in a limited space environment.
Additionally, I have proven the order of start is unimportant, any start order works. The CS software will see the CDU's without PSX running and will connect with PSX when you start it. This is contrary to CS's instruction to me....obviously you need PSX to be running as a server and the CS software appears as a client on the PSX network page.
J.G. 

[Will]

It has a feature that is very nice for small space-constrained sims like mine - switch between left, centre and right CDU at the press of a button.

I wish my FDS CDU could do this! Great feature.

[Kurt]

Ok got my two CDU units delivered in Denmark today Thursday (was shipped on Tuesday!! ).

Downloaded CS Bridge - connected the CDU´s - updated firmware and entered PSX Server IP address ... and bam.. it just worked

One little note that I am also communicating to the developer is that it seems you need to have a PSX instance running on the PC where you run the CS Bridge software for it to detect PSX. Not an issue for me as I will connect the CDU´s and run CS bridge on the PC where my PSX server instance is running (right now they were just connected to my P6 CB panel PC for testing and the local PSX client instance has to run for CS bridge to select PSX as platform even though it do not need to be connected to the server at all)

The CDU´s instantly replicate whatever happens on the CDU´s in PSX- that being the screens (Green CRT and LCD) etc but also backlighting and announciators.

My impression of the physical quality is stellar and surpased my expectations. Its been a couple of months since I have been in a real CAE 738 Full Motion Sim but the tactile feedback seems to be more or less the same feeling I remember from back then.

Next step is to build them in as CDU L and R in the sim over the weekend

VERY satisfied I must say and highly recommended - as JG stated- you wont be disappointed !!

Cheers