I have been out of the hobby for a few years and thought I would get some practice on a flight simulater. I downloaded FMS and was looking at the different cables. What is a PIC controller? What is the difference between a serial and the parallel cable to the simulator.

Also, any other recommendations on a free simulator? Thanks!

IMO it's not worth bothering with anything other than FMS. It's excellent.

The only practical difference between serial and parallel cables is which port on the PC they plug into. Parallel uses the printer port , serial the COM port. Note : these only work with Windows 95/98/ME. They will not work with Windows NT/2000 or XP.

For those newer operating systems you need the PIC version which is also a serial port cable but a more complex circuit using a small microcontroller. It is much more reliable and works with all operating systems but it is more expensive to buy/build.

Steve

I'd recommend that you get a cable that connects through your computer's joystick port. These aren't software-specific - they will work with *any* sim that supports a joystick under most versions of Windows.

They are cheap, too.

I got two of them from http://www.simblaster.com . Fourty-five bucks, shipped. One for me, one for a friend of mine (to replace his broken Reallflight box)

They also includes a copy of the FMS sim on CD with a bunch of extra planes - a nice touch.