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This document describes how to invoke FlightGear's generic IO subsystem.
FlightGear has a fairly flexible generic IO subsystem that allows you
to "speak" any supported protocol over any supported medium. The IO
options are configured at runtime via command line options. You can
specify multiple entries if you like, one per command line option.
The general form of the command line option is as follows:
--protocol=medium,direction,hz,medium_options,...
protocol = { native, nmea, garmin, fgfs, rul, pve, ray, etc. }
medium = { serial, socket, file, etc. }
direction = { in, out, bi }
hz = number of times to process channel per second (floating
point values are ok.
Generic Communication:
--generic=params
With this option it is possible to output a pre-configured
ASCII string or binary sequence using a predefined separator.
The configuration is defined in an XML file located in the
Protocol directory of the base package.
params can be:
serial port communication: serial,dir,hz,device,baud,protocol
socket communication: socket,dir,hz,machine,port,style,protocol
i/o to a file: file,dir,hz,filename,protocol
See README.protocol for how to define a generic protocol.
Serial Port Communication:
--nmea=serial,dir,hz,device,baud
device = OS device name of serial line to be open()'ed
baud = {300, 1200, 2400, ..., 230400}
example to pretend we are a real gps and output to a moving map application:
--nmea=serial,out,0.5,COM1,4800
Note that for unix variants you might use a device name like "/dev/ttyS0"
Socket Communication:
--native=socket,dir,hz,machine,port,style
machine = machine name or ip address if client (leave empty if server)
port = port, leave empty to let system choose
style = tcp or udp
example to slave one copy of fgfs to another
fgfs1: --native=socket,out,30,fgfs2,5500,udp
fgfs2: --native=socket,in,30,,5500,udp --fdm=external
This instructs the first copy of fgfs to send UDP packets in the
native format to a machine called fgfs2 on port 5500.
The second copy of fgfs will accept UDP packets (from anywhere) on
port 5500. Note the additional --fdm=external option. This tells
the second copy of fgfs to not run the normal flight model, but
instead set the FDM values based on an external source (the
network in this case.)
File I/O:
--garmin=file,dir,hz,filename
filename = file system file name
example to record a flight path at 10 hz:
--native=file,out,10,flight1.fgfs
example to replay your flight
--native=file,in,10,flight1.fgfs --fdm=external
You can make the replay from a file loop back to the beginning
when it reaches the end of the file with the "repeat" flag:
--generic=file,in,20,flight.out,playback,repeat
With a numeric argument, FlightGear will exit after that number of repeats.
--generic=file,in,20,flight.out,playback,repeat,5
Moving Map Example:
Per Liedman has developed a moving map program called Atlas
(atlas.sourceforge.net) The initial inspiration and much code came
from Alexei Novikov.
The moving map supports NMEA format input either via network or
via serial port. Either way will work, but this example
demonstrates the use of a socket connection.
Start up fgfs with:
fgfs --nmea=socket,out,0.5,atas-host-name,5500,udp
Start up the Atlas program with:
Atlas --udp=5500 --fgroot=path-to-fg-root --glutfonts
Once both programs are running, the Atlas program should display
your current location. Atlas is a really nifty program with many
neat options such as the ability to generate and use background
bitmaps that show the terrain, cities, lakes, oceans, rivers, etc.
HTTP Server Example
You can now interact with a running copy of FlightGear using your
web browser. You can view all the key internal variables and even
change the ones that are writable. If you have support in your
favorite [scripting] language for interacting with an http server,
you should be able to use this as a mechanism to interface your
script with FlightGear.
Start up fgfs with the --httpd=<port#> option:
For example:
fgfs --httpd=5500
Now point your web browser to:
http://host.domain.name:5500/
When a value is displayed, you can click on it to bring up a form
to assign it a new value.
ACMS flight data recorder playback
fgfs --fdm=acms --generic=file,in,1,<path_to_replay_file>,acms