Which Interface to Use?

Windows 2000 and Later inc Windows 10 systems

The only options here are the PIC Serial Interface as W2K and WXP do not support IRQ generation from the parallel and serial ports (see below) or the R/C USB Joystick interface. Thanks MS!

This simple serial interface uses the ability of the serial port to generate an 'interrupt' which kicks off a piece of computer code. When the transmitter pulses come in the code measures the system time and hence the pulse information. The only slight problem with this interface (and the parallel IRQ) is that the system time measurement can sometimes be delayed due to other interupts being implemented. This gives an occasional 'blip' in the signal which is barely noticeable. The Serial IRQ interface works with FMS 6,7 and Windows 95,98,ME.

The PIC Serial interface uses a dedicated microcontroller to measure the transmitter pulse information and converts this to a steam of serial data which goes into the PC input buffer until it is read. The 19200 baud version converts every transmitter pulse into a byte of data. Here there is no scope for bad conversion and the response is wonderfully smooth. The PIC Serial Interface works with FMS 7 and Windows 95,98,ME,2000,XP and beyond.

This is a universal interface that makes your transmitter look like a joystick and hence enables it to be used with and program that will accept a joystick as controller. This includes several other simulators. The USB Interface works with FMS 6,7 , Pre-Flight and other simulators that accept a joystick input. It works with Windows 98,ME,2000,XP and beyond. It also works with a MAC and Linux.

Parallel Interface

Why use the printer port when you probably want to have a printer attached? From a technical viewpoint there is no advantage using the parallel port compared with a serial port - one of which is usually available.

Happy flying.