XPlaneCDU

Wayne Piekarski

About this app

XPlaneCDU is a remote control interface for the Control Display Unit (CDU) present in X-Plane 11. This app does not provide an FMS, but simply a way to control the existing CDU from an Android tablet or phone. Currently it works with the Zibo Boeing 737 and SSG 747 aircraft.

Requirements:
- X-Plane 11
- Download the ExtPlane v2 plugin from http://waynepiekarski.net/extplane and unzip it, copy the extracted directory into the Resources/Plugins directory
- Zibo's Boeing 738 or SSG's Boeing 748
- Open TCP port 51000 in Windows firewall for ExtPlane
- Multicast support on your network for auto-detection

XPlaneCDU will auto-detect your X-Plane instance assuming that multicast is working. Many routers do not support multicast properly, and so you can tap on the connection text or the CDU screen to configure a manual X-Plane hostname or IP address.

You must have the ExtPlane v2 plugin installed in your X-Plane 11 Resources/plugins directory. This plugin uses port 51000 to provide external control capabilities, so you must make sure that Windows firewall is not blocking it. You must download the binaries for the plugin from http://waynepiekarski.net/extplane - you cannot use the original ExtPlane v1 plugin because it has bugs related to string datarefs.

This application is open source, released under the GNU Public License version 3 (GPLv3) and available from https://github.com/waynepiekarski/XPlaneCDU - it is written in Kotlin and shows how to implement the complex screen layout on any device size. The plugin source code is https://github.com/waynepiekarski/ExtPlane and is forked from the original code at https://github.com/vranki/ExtPlane (licensed under GPLv3).

It should be possible to extend XPlaneCDU to work with other aircraft, but it must provide datarefs for the CDU text strings. The default X-Plane 737 does not support this, and every other payware aircraft uses non-standard datarefs. It should be possible to support the Flight Factor 757/767, but they already provide a web-based CDU.

I look forward to feedback on any problems. Visit the GitHub page to file bugs https://github.com/waynepiekarski/XPlaneCDU

Remember: extract the plugin from http://waynepiekarski.net/extplane into your Resources/plugins directory, and make sure port 51000 is not blocked by the Windows firewall.

Ratings and reviews

Works very well once it connects. This app is so much better than pushing the tiny buttons on the screen with a mouse. It works as promised and as expected. very easy to set up. I had a strange experience where I had to use a VPN to create a internal local network group as my PC could not even ping other devices including the android on the local network. This was a local PC problem and not with the app. But once it connects its great to use while your flying and saves looking down to see the way point you are on. Well done Wayne keep up the good work

Very slow response when I click on any CDU buttons. It's sometimes does not respond and asked me for the X-Plane IP over and over again. Another problem it stops the Android phone home button from working. I cannot go to the home screen to exit from the app when I'm finished. I have to use the power button and restart the phone. My Wi-Fi signal is strong so it's not because of low signal strength, that I get slow response.

Its a virtual glass cockpit. For free its worth 10+ stars. Can you please help as to why this does not work for 737-900u which is also a zibo mod aircraft.? Or, can you please make it work for 737-900u? Thanks. With 737-900u the cdu buttons are functional but the screen remain blank.