Button & Key Assignments - Does anything wrong lead to in-flight engine shut-down?

[TszChun.Anson]

Dear Pete,

I am glad that my issue of unexpected in-flight engine shut-down can now be replicated. I would be very thankful if you could diagnose with me.

https://youtu.be/LX_BNFEjzME?t=4681

As you can see, when the plane was cruising, suddenly without my control the two fuel control switches switched themselves OFF. Also, I didn't know why the landing gear lever also attempted to switch itself to DN position but bounced back. Based upon this observation, I suspect that I did something wrong in my control assignment.

Particularly, the two buttons on my Thrustmaster warthog throttle unit that I had assigned to fuel control switches are both "on-off button", which means that it was ON and HELD when it was flipped UP while OFF when flipped down. Therefore I assigned the buttons, when released, will send the command of switching the fuel control switches to OFF. I know it is very hard to understand, so I have attached my FSUIPC config file for your reference. Please take a look at the assignments of fuel control switches (event ID 70152 & 70153) and landing gear lever.

Thanks very much.

Anson

 

 

FSUIPC5.ini

FSUIPC5.JoyScan.csv

FSUIPC5.log

[TszChun.Anson]

For your easy reference, this MIGHT be the relevant lines as when issue occurred the fuel control switches and gear lever moved themselves without my input:

13=PT,24,C70153,0     -{Custom control: <70153>}-
14=UT,24,C70153,1     -{Custom control: <70153>}-
15=PT,23,C70152,0     -{Custom control: <70152>}-
16=UT,23,C70152,1     -{Custom control: <70152>}-

5=PT,19,C66079,0     -{GEAR_UP}-
6=UT,19,C66080,0     -{GEAR_DOWN}-

 

P.S. 70152 and 70153 are the event IDs of left and right engine fuel control switches respectively; 0 and 1 are the parameters of start and shutdown respectively.

[Pete Dowson]

5 hours ago, TszChun.Anson said:

As you can see, when the plane was cruising, suddenly without my control the two fuel control switches switched themselves OFF. Also, I didn't know why the landing gear lever also attempted to switch itself to DN position but bounced back. Based upon this observation, I suspect that I did something wrong in my control assignment.

You need to enable Button logging AND Event logging, and check the log after it happens to see which button or switch made the changes.

The log you attached is no use. In fact it is very odd indeed.  It contains nothing useful, but this repeated every 300 seconds (5 minutes):

  1532328 Planned flight from WSSS to VHHH
  1532328 E:\Windows Libraries\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\WX.pln
  
What is reloading the plan every 5 minutes?

Also, the log finishes in the middle of that sequence. Looks like the session was not terminated.

5 hours ago, TszChun.Anson said:

Particularly, the two buttons on my Thrustmaster warthog throttle unit that I had assigned to fuel control switches are both "on-off button", which means that it was ON and HELD when it was flipped UP while OFF when flipped down. Therefore I assigned the buttons, when released, will send the command of switching the fuel control switches to OFF.

These "buttons" are actually locking toggle switches, then? Not normal "on when pressed" buttons?

A log with the correct logging options selected will show if those are operating at times you don't expect.

Pete

 

[TszChun.Anson]

24 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

You need to enable Button logging AND Event logging, and check the log after it happens to see which button or switch made the changes.

The log you attached is no use. In fact it is very odd indeed.  It contains nothing useful, but this repeated every 300 seconds (5 minutes):

  1532328 Planned flight from WSSS to VHHH
  1532328 E:\Windows Libraries\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\WX.pln
  
What is reloading the plan every 5 minutes?

Also, the log finishes in the middle of that sequence. Looks like the session was not terminated.

These "buttons" are actually locking toggle switches, then? Not normal "on when pressed" buttons?

A log with the correct logging options selected will show if those are operating at times you don't expect.

Pete

 

Thanks for your help.

I have never paid attention to the loading of WX.pln. However, is it possible that the action was stuff relevant to the weather up-/downlink coordination between Active Sky 16 and PMDG 777?

I did type this post with the problematic sim paused (if I remember it correctly).

I will enable the loggings you suggested and report back. Thanks very much for your advice.

Anson

[Pete Dowson]

1 hour ago, TszChun.Anson said:

I have never paid attention to the loading of WX.pln. However, is it possible that the action was stuff relevant to the weather up-/downlink coordination between Active Sky 16 and PMDG 777?

I don't know what sort of coordination there is between AS16 and PMDG aircraft. I only thought the latter might read the weather radar information from AS. 

Active Sky does have the option of automatically loading a plan into itself when it sees it loaded into the Sim, but what is relaoding it every 5 minutes?

BTW i assume you mean ASP4 rather that AS16, as you are using FSUIPC5 and therefore P3D4.

Pete

 

[TszChun.Anson]

10 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

I don't know what sort of coordination there is between AS16 and PMDG aircraft. I only thought the latter might read the weather radar information from AS. 

Active Sky does have the option of automatically loading a plan into itself when it sees it loaded into the Sim, but what is relaoding it every 5 minutes?

BTW i assume you mean ASP4 rather that AS16, as you are using FSUIPC5 and therefore P3D4.

Pete

 

Thanks for your correction. Indeed I use ASP4 not AS16.

I will further investigate the loadings, but maybe after I solve the in-flight fuel cut-off issue since they seem not related. Anyway thanks for reminding me about that.

What I am going to do, is to enable the loggings and clear the assignments of locking toggle switches which involve “when released...” command. As far as I notice, the landing gear lever and fuel cut-off switch which both moved at the exact moment of the issue (2:48:08 of my Youtube video recording) were assigned with such “when released...” command.

Particularly, if the physical toggle I assigned for gear lever is flipped up, it is detected by PC as a button-holding and FSUIPC will send the command of gear up (but I set control not to be held so that it will not repeat the gear up command endlessly). Then, if the toogle is flipped down, it is detected by PC as a button-release and FSUIPC will send the command of GEAR DN. At 2:48:08, for some reason the landing gear lever was set down then up, I suspect that it related to such kind of control assignment. Maybe  the toogle has been detected as released?

Sorry that my explanation may be confusing.

Anson

[Pete Dowson]

8 hours ago, TszChun.Anson said:

Sorry that my explanation may be confusing.

Not really, but it is the log I need to see, not a video.

Pete

 

[TszChun.Anson]

Dear Pete,

Just completed another test flight with same route and configs as previous, but unfortunately the issue of uncommanded fuel cut-off could be replicated. This was the first successful flight which I don't know why...Anyway, I have attached the log here and would be very thankful if you could help check whether there are something suspicious.

Anson

FSUIPC5.ini

FSUIPC5.JoyScan.csv

FSUIPC5.log

[Pete Dowson]

2 hours ago, TszChun.Anson said:

Anyway, I have attached the log here and would be very thankful if you could help check whether there are something suspicious.

Really, without the problem occurring there is little point examining any logs.

Furthermore, you appear to have enabled more options than I requested. Enabling Weather logging fillls the log and makes it too long to be worth looking at (except for weather problems perhaps).  Similarly for Axis logging -- we are not interested in every little movement of your yoke, throttles and rudder!

Please ONLY enable Button/Key logging and Event (non-axis that is) logging, as requested!

Pete

 

 

 

 

[TszChun.Anson]

7 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Really, without the problem occurring there is little point examining any logs.

Furthermore, you appear to have enabled more options than I requested. Enabling Weather logging fillls the log and makes it too long to be worth looking at (except for weather problems perhaps).  Similarly for Axis logging -- we are not interested in every little movement of your yoke, throttles and rudder!

Please ONLY enable Button/Key logging and Event (non-axis that is) logging, as requested!

Pete

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your reminder. I will soon have another test flight, hopefully the problem can reoccur then for our diagnosis.

Anson