programing buttons and switches forTurbine engine startup in FSUIPC

[captnjonesy]

Hi first off i want to say this is a great forum and have received much help I think it awesome that Pete Dowson takes the time to support his great product. The problem im having is I want to use my switches on my throttle quadrants to start my engines in my MD11.I need to know what parameter spools up the engines with the APU and what parameter stars the fuel flowing to engines when up to right RPM.

 

Thanks to all for your help

[captnjonesy]

I should have said what parameter in FSUIPC spools engines and what parameter starts fuel to engines.

[Hoorf]

Hi, Jonesy, you seem to be looking for the same thing I'm looking for: I think I found the commands in FSUIPC, but you might be into FSX, whereas I'm into FS2004, and our FSUIPCs may be different. Also, you seem to want to use your throttle quads (Saitek?), whereas I'm using keyboard inputs (I modified a keyboard's PC board to use as a 'switchboard' of sorts for switch inputs), so it looks like we seek similar information for different input methods, so here goes...

 

In the FS2004 version of FSUIPC, in the drop-down menu, I found the starter commands to be "Toggle Starter 1", "Toggle Starter 2", "Toggle Starter 3" and "Toggle Starter 4"; for fuel valves, I found them to be "Toggle Fuel Valve Eng 1", "Toggle Fuel Valve Eng 2", "Toggle Fuel Valve Eng 3" and "Toggle Fuel Valve Eng 4". You'll want to find your commands under the "Buttons + Switches" tab of your FSUIPC for your quadrants, whereas I found mine under the "Keypresses" tab for my custom "gizmo". See what happens...good luck.

[captnjonesy]

Thanx Hoorf thats what I needed to know. I would also like to figure out a way that I can have starter spool up without having to hold the switch on{tried a few things with no luck}.On the MD11 there is a switch you pull out to startup and it shuts off automaticaly when the right N1 rpm is reached after light up.

 

Thanks again for all your help

[Hoorf]

Yikes. That one's gonna be a toughie.

[Ian P]

That sounds like a job for LUA to me... Has anyone done a LINDA file for the MD-11?

 

Ian P.

[captnjonesy]

I can start the engines in my MD11 panel with mouse clicks in this way but I can't figure out how to do it with the saitek switches.

[Pete Dowson]

I can start the engines in my MD11 panel with mouse clicks in this way but I can't figure out how to do it with the saitek switches.

 

Enable event logging in FSUIPC and see if those mouse clicks send normal FS controls. If so you can assign to those. If not, the next step is to see if they are susceptible to the FSUIPC 'mouse macro' option, and lastly, failing that, log L:Vars and see if you can operate them using L:Var macros

 

If the MD11 you are using is the PMDG one, then have you looked at the User Contributions subforum? This thread:

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/63151-pmdg-md11x-commands-upd16thdez09/?hl=md11

certainly appears to show that the mouse macro method works well.

 

Regards

Pete

[captnjonesy]

I use the 2D ACS MD11 panel made by AC soft productions and FS2004.I have tried to use the mouse macro in FSUIPC but that does not seem to work.I have no idea what "L:Var " is im kinda new at this stuff.

 

Thanks again for all your help

[Pete Dowson]

I use the 2D ACS MD11 panel made by AC soft productions and FS2004.I have tried to use the mouse macro in FSUIPC but that does not seem to work.I have no idea what "L:Var " is im kinda new at this stuff.

 

Thanks again for all your help

 

"LVar" stands for "Local variable", and these are used commonly these days in Gauges -- especially those written in XML. FSUIPC provides a way of setting values to these variables, using a macro from a macro file. 

 

To discover if there are any LVars or interest in use in that aircraft the first step is to get FSUIPC to produce a list of them. That's done by assigning a button or keypress to the control called "List local panel variables". It will then simply list all those it finds for the currently loaded aircraft, along with their values.

 

If any of them look to be of likely use, the next step is to see how they change. That's a bit more complicated. You need to put the Lua file called "log lvars.lua" (from the Examples ZIP in your FSUIPC Documents subfolder, in the FS Modules folder) into the Modules folder, then load up FS and assign a button or key to "Lua log lvars"., then use it to start the program. Now the L:Var values will be shown on screen as they change, so you can operate switches and see their affect. 

 

After that it's a matter of constructing the macros to operate those switches through their L:Vars instead. 

 

There is documentation for all this stuff, but if you need further help come back. First you need to see if L:Vars might be the way, or not.

 

Pete