Hi Tim

Yesterday i spent a few hours playing with PocketFMS and Skydemon on a 7" tablet PC running Windoes Embedded R3

I like both apps, but the maps on SkyDemon are superior as if you zoom in on PocketFMS to anything less than 6nm, the font and graphics appear blocky (like its an enlarged bitmap instead of vertor based)

However, there are features on PocketFMS i would love to see on SkyDemon (i'm still undecided which one to purchase so if these bits get added the choice will be clear)

1) Bigger buttons - on the 7" screen, the menu is barly 5mm tall and makes it difficult to select accurately using my finger in flight. I'm also prone to loosing the stylus. If all buttons were slightly larger, perhaps transparent and hidable it would be SO much easier to use in turbulent air. Example, when pocket FMS loads up, the buttons to accept or not accept the disclaimer cover one third of the screen. On Sky demon its barely 5mm by 20mm.

2) Checklists - PocketFMS give you rudamentary checklist options. But they have to be customised and integrated by the user. I'd love to see checklists in Skydemon, that can me easily modified (maybe from preset templates by aircraft) and sync's with the tablet PC. The checklist should then be easily accesible from the main menu when in flight (and again transparent so the map is always in site if needed)

What are the chances?

Many Thanks

Neil

The checklists are an interesting idea, definitely worth our consideration for the future.

The button problem is almost certainly because your device DPI settings are wrong. We measure all SkyDemon user interface elements in inches, so they'll be about the same size whether you're running a big screen or a small screen, a high-res screen or a low-res screen. And all buttons and menus in SkyDemon have been carefully designed so that they're bigger than a fingertip. But this does depend on the device accurately reporting its screen DPI. Some of them don't.

I'm attaching a file that, if you drop it into the same folder as skydemon.exe on your device, will force a high-DPI mode which you should find will make everything larger. If it does, you can tailor the file yourself so that things are sized just as you want them.

Hi Tim,



I have been evaluating your SkyDemon Inflight software for a few weeks now on a 7" Mio Moov V735 with 800x480 resolution and I must congratulate you on the recent release which performed excellently in the air. I did, however, notice that the digits and heading arc, in particular, was very small in relation to the screen size and was about to post a topic on the forum before I came across this one. I downloaded and copied the device.xml file into the SkyDemon folder and started the software. The difference is huge with all gauges easily readable and the 'touch' menus very easy to operate. You mentioned that you can alter the size of the instruments by editing the xml file and would be grateful if you could explain the code required to do this.



Weather permitting, I will be flying into the AeroExpo next Saturday and look forward to seeing you there.



Many thanks for this simple but very effective fix.



Richard Avery

Hey Richard

I'm no coding expert but it looks like it just contains a field which say how many dots are in one inch. So the bigger the number in the xml file, the bigger an 'inch' will be.

What you need to do is right click on the xml file you have downloaded and select 'Edit With Notepad' or 'Open With > Notepad'

Then if you want buttons etx to appear larger increase the number. In tims file its 192. I changed mine down to 140 and that works perfectly for me!

Thanks Neil for your help, that has done the trick! It is now a good balance between the size of the map and the size of the digits and buttons. It will now be easy to read in the cockpit and also much easier to operate without a stylus in turbulent conditions.



Many thanks,



Richard Avery

Hi Tim, I have the same problem - buttons, etc are too small. However, the link in your message to device.xml file seems to be broken and I am unable to download it. Would you be so kind and re-post the link or email me the file directly? I also have a suggestion - perhaps it would be a good idea to place links to such customization and other useful files on your 'Download' page, so that users have an easy access to them...



Thank you.



Ivan

The link appears to work ok, just make sure you're logged in first.

The functionality provided by that file may become part of SkyDemon in the future. At the moment its future is uncertain and it's provided as a concession for people whose devices unfortunately don't provide accurate information about screen size. I do agree it should be more discoverable though.

Thank you Tim. I finally managed to get it using Internet Explorer (earlier I was using Safary and Chrome)... The display looks good now!

Best Regards,

Ivan

Hi



I've spotted a small problem with the DPI setting - it also scales the text on the runway markings (when you zoom in on an airfield). This causes them to be huge and no-longer readable.



Steve

It scales all text, which is the point. Can you be specific about what device DPI and overridden DPI you've got which results in runway markings being unusual?