My friend Dave is both a god of both graphics and avian photography. He’ll be writing the software that will show the various screens on the AWG-20 PACS or Programmable Armament Control Set (also known as the MPCD or Multi-Purpose Color Display)
Below is a test display he wrote for me and I’ve put my “spare” MPCD button collar frame around it so you can understand what it’s all about. 🙂
I rebuilt the MPCD that I have with a 7″ monochrome green VGA monitor. Within a couple of months of that feat (it’s not easy shoe-horning a “standard” CRT into the original enclosure!) I discovered that the MPCD is a COLOR display. Cue facepalm.
You cannot buy a 7″ color VGA display for any amount of money. I’ve tried. Repeatedly. For five years. The original display is a 5″x5″ color vector tube and while I could find a replacement, they wanted $5000.00. EACH. Cue 2nd facepalm.
I finally found a 6.4″ LCD kit from Earth LCD to the tune of $350. Painful, but no where near the pain of the original.
So what I’m doing is replacing a 1:1 aspect ratio display with a 4:3 aspect ratio display that “mostly” fits. The important part of the real estate that the LCD covers is the 20 buttons that surround the frame. With a little adjustment, it properly covers all the space that they “occupy” on the screen. I’m going to place a layer of 1/16″ or 1/8″ smoked plexiglass between the LCD and the MPCD button collar. When the unit is enclosed, no light will enter from the back and you won’t notice there’s a huge air gap above and below the LCD.
The original display had a resolution of 512×512. At 640×480, I’ll have the width I need, but I’ll be short 32 pixels (shy 16 at the top and 16 at the bottom for all practical purposes). This will make things a bit tight – there are some MPCD pages that are pretty dense, but I’m sure we’ll get it figured out.
Comments
Leave a Reply
YOANN "yoyo" QUERE on 01.03.2010
hi
I am really impressed by your work on the cockpit !!
I started programming a software cockpit () for lock on (F15/A10) and i started to emulate the PACS system but i don’t have a lot of information about this system (an the F-15c globaly)
can you indicate me a good technical reference (size of the equipements /functions …) , i found these book on amazon (US)
– author : Jake Melampy
– The Modern Eagle Guide: The F-15 Eagle/Strike Eagle Exposed
– The Modern Hog Guide: The A-10 Warthog Exposed
which kind of reference do you use ?
best regards
admin on 01.03.2010
Thanks. I use the flight manual as my reference. 🙂 It’s not available outside the US however.
g.
YOANN "yoyo" QUERE on 01.03.2010
thanks for the answer, so i will buy the jake Melampy’s books
good luck for your cockpit
Nikolas_A on 08.25.2010
You don’t you use a bigger monitor rotated 90°?
Most VGA cards can rotate their output
Nikolas (from VP)
admin on 08.26.2010
The display is inside the original enclosure and there’s no room to rotate the CRT unfortunately. If there was, I would do as you suggest.
J.Bleeker on 03.09.2011
Any chance you could send a copy of your version to my boss at Military Visualizations? We are doing a F-15 for FSX and cant get any info on the ARMT page of the MPCD.
You can find his email address at http://www.milviz.com