Installation X-Plane

Overview

The Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder can be be installed on different PC's if required, however a shared network drive will be needed to share data files between them. The PC's used do not need to be your X-Plane PC.

 Procedure (Single PC Running X-Plane)

  1.  Run the VFSHSetupXPlane.exe setup program.
  2. Accept the license agreement.
  3. Leave all options ticked. Click OK.
  4. Click Install.
  5. You will be prompted to confirm the found X-plane plugin directory. Change if necessary.
  6. Start a Command Prompt by right clicking the Windows Start button and selecting Command Prompt.
  7. In the Command Prompt window, type ipconfig which will list all the known IP addresses of your PC. For the following steps, you will need to decide upon one of the IP addresses listed under Ethernet adapter. We recommend the IPv4 Address as its short.
  8. Start the Flight Sim IO Server and click the Settings tab.
  9. Enter your chosen IP address in Server IP Address in the Networking area.
  10. Enter your chosen IP address in Host Address in the X-Plane Plugin area.
  11. Click the Status tab.
  12. Start X-Plane and once its loaded, confirm the middle LED has gone green and stable (X-Plane). It may also be useful to check the Log tab to confirm no errors have or are occurring.
  13. Select an aircraft and load it, so its virtual cockpit is visible. On the Status tab, Confirm the Aircraft LED has gone green and the name of the aircraft is shown.
  14. Start the Virtual Hardware Builder.
  15. Click the File menu and select Settings.
  16. Enter your chosen IP address from step 6 into the Server IP Address and click OK.
  17. Confirm on the Status Bar that you have green network icon which indicates that the Virtual Hardware Builder is successfully communicating with the Flight Sim IO Server. You can also get confirmation in the Flight Sim IO Server. Log tab.
  18. Power up your tablet or touch screen device and go to its Store. Search for VFSHC App and install it on your tablet/touch screen device.
  19. Load the VFSHC App. Once loaded, tap the Settings cog in the top left hand corner of the screen.
  20. In the Network section, type the IP Address from step 7 into "IP Address / DNS Name".
  21. Click the Back To Panel button at the bottom of the screen.
  22. On the Status tab of the Flight Sim IO Server., confirm that Connected Qty in the Tablet Controller area states 1 which will confirm your tablet is successfully communicating with the Flight Sim IO Server.
  23. You are now ready to Build and/or Use.

Procedure (Networked PC's)

  1. If the Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder are going to run on separate PC's, setup a network share somewhere on your network to share data between the Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder and add two directories to it, one for Documents and one for Images. Ensure the PC's running the Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder have full access to the network share and directories.
  2.  Run the VFSHSetupXPlane.exe setup program, on each PC that needs the software.
  3. Accept the license agreement.
  4. For the X-Plane PC, only select the option for X-Plane Plugin.
  5. For the PC running the Flight Sim IO Server, only select the option for Flight Sim IO Server.
  6. For the PC running the Virtual Hardware Builder, only select the option for Virtual Hardware Builder.
  7. The Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder can run on the same PC, so select the appropriate options depending upon what you plan to do.
  8. Click Install for each of the PC's.
  9. On the X-Plane PC, you will be prompted to confirm the found X-plane plugin directory. Change if necessary.
  10. On the PC running the Flight Sim IO Server, start a Command Prompt by right clicking the Windows Start button and selecting Command Prompt.
  11. In the Command Prompt window, type ipconfig which will list all the known IP addresses of your PC. For the following steps, you will need to decide upon one of the IP addresses listed under Ethernet adapter. We recommend the IPv4 Address as its short.
  12. Start the Flight Sim IO Server and click the Settings tab.
  13. Enter your chosen IP address in Server IP Address in the Networking area.
  14. Start the Virtual Hardware Builder.
  15. Click the File menu and select Settings.
  16. Enter your chosen IP address into the Server IP Address and click OK.
  17. On the flight sim PC, start a Command Prompt by right clicking the Windows Start button and selecting Command Prompt.
  18. In the Command Prompt window, type ipconfig which will list all the known IP addresses of your PC. For the following steps, you will need to decide upon one of the IP addresses listed under Ethernet adapter. We recommend the IPv4 Address as its short.
  19. Enter your chosen IP address in Host Address in the X-Plane Plugin area of the Setting tab in Flight Sim IO Server.
  20. On the flight sim PC, edit the Lua Config.txt file in the directory Documents\Virtual Flight Sim Hardware\SimConnect\Lua and replace "localhost" on the hostname line with the chosen IP address.
  21. See the Firewall Configuration article to configure your firewalls on all PC's.
  22. If the Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder are running on the same PC, skip to step 30.
  23. In the Flight Sim IO Server, enter the network share and the directory for Documents and Images from step 2 in the Main Directories area on the Settings tab. e.g \\DESKTOP-8HY76\Documents
  24. In the Virtual Hardware Builder, enter the network share and the directory for Documents and Images from step 2 by clicking the File menu, then Settings.
  25. Quit the Flight Sim IO Server and the Virtual Hardware Builder.
  26. On the PC running the Virtual Hardware Builder, using File Explorer, go to the Documents directory and cut the directory Virtual Flight Sim Hardware and paste it into the Documents directory on your network share.
  27. On the PC running the Virtual Hardware Builder, using File Explorer, go to the  C:\ProgramData directory and cut the directory Virtual Flight Sim Hardware and paste it into the Images directory on your network share.
  28. Start the Flight Sim IO Server and check the Log for any errors about missing files. If there are some, the network share is not available or you have entered the directory paths incorrectly.
  29. Start the Virtual Hardware Builder and check the Log for any errors about missing files. If there are some, the network share is not available or you have entered the directory paths incorrectly.
  30. Confirm on the Status Bar of the Virtual Hardware Builder that you have green network icon which indicates that the Virtual Hardware Builder is successfully communicating with the Flight Sim IO Server. You can also get confirmation in the Flight Sim IO Server Log tab.
  31. Start X-Plane and once its loaded, confirm the middle LED has gone green and stable (X-Plane). It may also be useful to check the Log tab to confirm no errors have or are occurring.
  32. Select an aircraft and load it, so its virtual cockpit is visible. On the Status tab, Confirm the Aircraft LED has gone green and the name of the aircraft is shown.
  33. Power up your tablet or touch screen device and go to its Store. Search for VFSHC App and install it on your tablet/touch screen device.
  34. Load the VFSHC App. Once loaded, tap the Settings cog in the top left hand corner of the screen.
  35. In the Network section, type the IP Address from step 11 into "IP Address / DNS Name".
  36. Click the Back To Panel button at the bottom of the screen.
  37. On the Status tab of the Flight Sim IO Server, confirm that Connected Qty in the Tablet Controller area states 1 which will confirm your tablet is successfully communicating with the Flight Sim IO Server.
  38. You are now ready to Build and/or Use.