FDS Elite CDU (Boeing)

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Been debating whether to post first and add pictures after, or wait 'til I've got the pictures ready and uploaded, but figure I'll chum the water first.

I've finally gotten my FDS Elite CDU with PSOne LCD display built (USB controller for the PM CDU and similar software CDUs)

Grabbed lots of piccies with my mobile phone, but this laptop doesn't have any image editting software on it that doesn't suck (do any of you know how to make MS Paint do specific size resizing, rather than percentage?), so as soon as I get into work tommorrow and tweak all the pictures, I'll upload a couple here (majority will go onto the FDS forum for future builders to see...)

[EHM-1343 Jonathan]

wow, did you pay 600USD for it.....now thats dedication, looks amazing though;D

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Originally posted by Razza
wow, did you pay 600USD for it.....now thats dedication, looks amazing though;D

Jonathan, no, I didn't... all told I ended up paying closer to $700USD (once you take shipping from Canadadia, a very reduced VAT cost [thank you Pete at FDS], and the Import duties and Royal Mail fees into account)

But I have to say I've got a feeling it's going to be worth every penny (once I get to use it "in anger"...)

Next purchase from FDS for me (and it's the one I'm saving up for now) is the Signature series glare unit (yes, the $1,200 one)

Anyhow, those of you that love the PMDG 747, I see that FDS now have a 747 MIP

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Wow Murray,

those stuff looks awesome! Are you going to build a complete cabin, will all the panels, displays, seat...etc, or just a smaller desktop application ?

Anyway, good luck for the stuff

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Eventually, I would love to make a full, side-by-side, 737NG pit (using the FDS cabin shell...) but for now, I'm planning to make just a single-seat 737NG with a full MCP since I don't have a house of my own to build all this in (so I am forced to keep everything really portable...)

Just took another shot of the CDU in the half dark of twilight, and it's the best pic so far, so expect that around 0800Z tommorrow.

[EHM-1617 Iain]

Hmm thats not really within my budget range lol. Good luck with the cockpit build in the future.

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Iain, this project is going to be soooooo long term for me. It's going to take me a good long while to save the $1300 or so for the glare setup...

Finally, following a morning of real-life (and work at that) getting in the way, I've put up my page for the build - http://webmail.liquidthinking.co.uk/~murray/fds_cdu/fds_cdu.html

EDIT: See new post below for pics.

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Here's a couple of new shots of my CDU taken with my old digital camera (EuroHarmony exclusive! I've not posted these shots anywhere else)

Point of interest, I'm running totally unmodified Project Magenta CDU software at present. Once I get a chance, I will be mod'ing the software for the 737-800 that we fly here at EuroHarmony.

First a flash lit shot. The artefacting on the screen is an anomally from the palette that PSP9 gave the picture when I 256-colour'ed it.


White balance is all wrong in this "night" shot (should have shot it set to "Tungsten light") but this shows the quality of the PSOne screen better than the flash shot, even though it too has a 256-colour palette.