The new MCDU server application that FBW have added enabling you to run the MCDU in a browser on your phone, tablet, or local pc, also enables you to print messages to a real printer.
Perhaps this little receipt printer will work?! Total waste of money, but could be a bit of fun and I can always return it if it sucks…
People seem to have used these for the fslabs A320, its even mentioned on amazon under the customer questions, so lets see! It’s arriving tomorrow, and I’ll report back.
My main concerns are how the FBW mod formats the messages for printing, and whether it will shrink it down to the little 58mm thermal printer paper rolls!
It works on my work machine, prints from textedit well enough. Only complaint is that tearing off the prints is a little hit and miss with the plastic serrated cutting edge, but it is a cheap printer…
Looking forward to getting it home shortly and trying it with the sim! Report back this evening.
You can print weather and D-ATIS information from the MCDU using the FBW mod.
In the sim it “prints” it from the virtual cockpit thermal printer and you can click the paper to “tear it off” and stack up your prints with weather / atis info above the throttles.
With the MCDU server you can print these messages out using a real printer, which wastes a lot of paper if you’re using a standard A4 office printer! So I’m trying to use a receipt printer which uses less paper and is closer to the real deal!
I tried a simmilar POS printer and it do not work for me.
The reason is, that the FBW MCDU gives out a .PDF document. and the POS printer do not print out PDF´s properly.
all oter documents like word or notpad notes the printer prints out.
Some POS printers, like the Epson TM88 thermals have Win10 drivers so it will print Windows documents. The issue is the scaling, as the paper is narrower.
This is some cool home-cockpit idea. The idea of having a printer is so cool nineties era retro; all the rich people with the great computers and home-offices had printers. That´s why printers = generally awesome.
Nowadays no one has a printer anymore probably because it was so annoying that the ink constantly dried, but in the nineties every technomancer and computer-nerd had one. (But only users of Voodoo5 graphics cards had laser printers.)
But I wonder who had the idea to implement a printer into a cockpit, and why? Maybe for helping program the FMC by printing out flight information data like all the SIDS and STARS and aircraft weight and aircraft fuel and whatnot. To hold a sheet of paper with all the necessary information for the FMC.
(Sorry if my information is wrong, I simply don´t know what stuff a real Airbus printer can print - but that´s how I would use it. Printing data and specific information that helps to program the FMC.)
@GamingCat2130 watch the 320simpilot video linked above, he is a real airbus pilot and explains exactly what the cockpit printer is for and how he uses it irl!
but what does it do? What is it printing related to an Airbus?
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