Is there equivalent for fs2004 to keep electrical ON?

[JBaymore]

I am trying to put together the APU panel for my simpit so that it actually has some functions. Unfortunately the aircraft things are based (loosely) upon is a BAe 146-200....... so the four available "Microsoft" engines are already "occupied" (otherwise I'd just create a thrustless jet engine with generator and bleed air).

Looking in the FSUIPC docs I see that the offset for "electric always available" is not listed as carried through fopr fs2004. So I am looking for the equivalent for that offset that would make electric always available for fs2004 by writing a value to the location and turing it off by writing another one.

That way when the APU is "on"....... I can have the value written so as to supply power to the aircraft systems independent of what position the main battery switch is in. That allows an APU start with the battery supplying power, then the APU generator takes over, then the battery gets set to "charge", and then the engines get started to supply power from their generators. And then once in the air, the APU can be shut down. And so on.

I can't seem to find the equivalent in the FSUIPC docs. I know that in the aircraft.cfg file there is a line for adding this option. Is this still possible "on the fly" within the sim itself?

best,

................john

[Pete Dowson]

Looking in the FSUIPC docs I see that the offset for "electric always available" is not listed as carried through fopr fs2004.

This is only because it is controlled by something in the Aircraft.CFG file, and gets overridden all the time.

So I am looking for the equivalent for that offset that would make electric always available for fs2004 by writing a value to the location and turing it off by writing another one.

You don't really want to do it that way, I assure you.

That way when the APU is "on"....... I can have the value written so as to supply power to the aircraft systems independent of what position the main battery switch is in.

I'm not sure what aircraft you are looking at, but most of the airliners I know of won't power the buses for the instruments unless the battery is on in any case. The APU just provides more power and keeps the battery charged up.

I can't seem to find the equivalent in the FSUIPC docs. I know that in the aircraft.cfg file there is a line for adding this option. Is this still possible "on the fly" within the sim itself?

No, but you can control the battery voltage by writing to offset 2834. That's the better way. You can drain the battery and charge it. More realistic, no? ;-)

Regards,

Pete

[JBaymore]

Pete,

Thanks for the VERY fast reply to this. Wasn't necessarily expecting "The Big Guy" to answer this.

To clarify a bit........ I'm hoping for a very simplistic solution even if it is not exactly like the "real deal" in the aircraft.

I am not actually planning on writing some "code" for developing this APU function, and the panel I mentioned is hardware in a simpit and uses only basic switches.... no "processing power" involved. The panel is tied to both a Hagstrom keyboard encoder and a Phidgets interface card for getting info to the sim.

Using this approach, I only have the options for writing a value to an offset via one of two methonds..... a kepress from the Hagstrom encoder to FSUIPC to place a value into an offset....... or alternately via the FS2Phidget software interface that basically allows me VERY limited manipulation (multiplication or division ....no "logic" functions) of the parameter to be placed into an offset by the Phidgets card.

So, to my understanding, if I place a value into the battery voltage offset vai a single event switch throw (turn on the APU generator) .... won't it just about immediately get "overwritten" by what is happening from within the sim?

I'm trying to stay away from having to write something like an XML gauge to place into the aircraft panels that models the APU function....since I pretty much know squat about XML. :? And getting keypresses into XML gauges (other than the ones that are from the keypress events listed in the "Assignments" screen) when the gauges are not actually being displayed on any panels (out the windscreen views only) I have no idea how to accomplish.

best,

.....................john

[Pete Dowson]

Using this approach, I only have the options for writing a value to an offset via one of two methonds..... a kepress from the Hagstrom encoder to FSUIPC to place a value into an offset....... or alternately via the FS2Phidget software interface that basically allows me VERY limited manipulation (multiplication or division ....no "logic" functions) of the parameter to be placed into an offset by the Phidgets card.

Oh, right. Sorry, I misunderstood. And I assume you aren't using software with flexible user programming like the pmSystems from Project Magenta?

So, to my understanding, if I place a value into the battery voltage offset vai a single event switch throw (turn on the APU generator) .... won't it just about immediately get "overwritten" by what is happening from within the sim?

I am reasonable sure that it just counts the voltage down as juice is used up before the generators are on, so you might get away with just writing a value once, but some experimentation would be needed. Used in conjunction with FSUIPC's "magic battery" option (to extend the life) maybe you'd only need to be able to write something small to it.

Trouble is it is 64 bit floating point, so with current FSUIPC facilties the only value you can easily write is zero, but you'd need to write two 32-bit zero words to do that.

Best actually for me to add new FSUIPC offset controls, to write 32-bit and 64-bit floating point values calculated from, say, a normal 32-bit value representing the amount needed times, say, 1000. I would probably add these to the list in the Advanced User's document:

0x7000zzzz Offset Float32 Set

0x7400zzzz Offset Float64 Set

I'll check first that offset 2834 does operate as I thought. If you think you could use this I could supply a test version of FSUIPC for you. What do you think?

Another alternative is, of course, to simply use FS's master battery switch, and invent your own which only operates the FS one when the APU is running correctly. You could achieve such simple logic using FSUIPC's conditional button facilities.

Regards

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Okay. I've checked, and, yes, writing to 2834 does "stick" -- all that happens is that FS counts down by an amount which is determined by the electrical load (unless FSUIPC stops it via the "magic battery" facility),or, if it is set to a value below full charge, when the generators are running it increments it until it gets to full charge.

So, I've added the following new FSUIPC offset controls:

0x7000zzzz Offset Float32 Set/1000

0x7400zzzz Offset Float64 Set/1000

0x7800zzzz Offset Float32 Inc/1000

0x7C00zzzz Offset Float64 Inc/1000

In each case the parameter is divided by 1000, so giving three decimal places in the final value written or incremented. Decrements are via negative increments.

I attach interim test version 3.609 of FSUIPC for you to try, to see if it meets your needs.

Regards,

Pete

FSUIPC3609.zip

[JBaymore]

Pete,

WOW!

Thanks for tackling this problem for me this way......... the interim version was totally unexpected.

I just downloaded the new version attached here and will get around to testing it in the next couple of days. I'll get back to you on my progress. Hopefully there'll be no problems......but I can be "dense and dumb" at times.

As to Project Magenta.........

Only in my dreams! :) That particular software is SO far out of my budget range it is amazing. Home built cockpits are a "money pit" no matter HOW you slice it........ but mine is a "small money pit". One reason I went "generic" in design.

Having written a small amount of commercial software way, WAY long ago, I appreciate how much work goes into coding.....and PM is certainly a MASSIVE piece of research and coding...... and since it sells to a VERY limited market.....certainly worth the price. But so is a BMW car....and I don't drive one of those either :lol: .

Thank you again for the superior and exceptional service you provide in support of your software.

best,

......................john