Steam Gauge Overhaul

@Black-Square Very nice article. My Dad was a professor @ NC State University in the Mech & Aerospace Engineering dept, where I also got my degree back in 1984. I taught myself programming and ended up jumping back and forth between engineering and IT throughout my career. I am now retired, and am a very serious simmer who evidently shares a common perspective with you. I am VERY picky about the aircraft that I choose to learn, and then I dive in deeply. It started with the Challenger 650 from Hot Start. But I switched over to MSFS eventually because I was so impressed with various things on that platform. I am a developer of systems at my church over the past 35 years, but find plenty of time to spend with the sim. My competency with the Bonanza is coming up to speed nicely, shot a handful of missed approaches today, and have just completed a deep dive and a lot of flights to learn the GTN750 (PMS50). Getting ready to take the Bonanza into live ATC soon. After completing the CAT and I test series on Pilotedge, I'm now especially interested in the Boston ATC club on VATsim, they seem to be relatively advanced and also have a similar training flight program. Have a good weekend! Kirk

@Black-Square One other note - I really would like to congratulate you on a fantastic product. After doing a lot of glass cockpit flying (G1000, G3000), I decided to search out what the best steam gauge piston single w/ retract, and although I used to fly the Arrow in real life, your Bonanza is just superior. So while I'm cheating a bit w/ the GTN750, you make it so easy to switch configurations for when I want to go all the way back to how I flew in the late '80s and '90s in the PA28. Wonderful job, I will eventually bring in your Baron as well. Kirk

Thanks for the explanation. So if I didn't previously have the WTT package for my Analog Caravan, the PMS 750 wasn't fully functional?

@KRoy7 I know the events listed above will let you bind all the buttons, switches to your home cockpit, and you will be able to do the same tasks you usually do using the mouse. I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish can be done using the mouse, for instance.

@Black-Square from the TBM and upcoming Duke it is clear that your work really shines with a completely blank canvas. Would be very nice to have those aircraft in 2024 in current/improved form. Even. Better to offer them with new models from the ground up. Possibly an option for an upgrade path for that? Alternatively if starting from scratch maybe different varients of the aircraft. How about a King Air 200 or 90? Regardless the implantation of the tablet is really ideal, I am never a fan of those switches to change avionics although I understand the reasoning! I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be appreciated by all! Ps.. Looking forward to seeing the starship :p

Hey Indrajit, I'm glad that you found a solution so quickly. I just wanted to reply for anyone else who might find this in the future to confirm that the problem you are describing is almost always caused by some GPS addon in your Community Folder which does not belong. I hope everything is working well for you now!

@Black-Square I doubt most of us are going to forget about the Dukes! Waiting is hard, but I have faith the results will be worth it. I just hope you won’t forget about your MSFS 2020 planes as soon as 2024 comes out. I have a strong feeling that 2024’s system requirements will be going up, and if so, my computer likely won’t be able to run it well enough, so I expect to be flying 2020 for some years yet. At least MS has said that 2020 will continue to be developed after 2024 is out, and I hope that proves true.

@meh1951 this solution works just fine. Thank you! I just changed it a little bit in order to use the button held and button release events instead. [image: d63532a2-bf32-4dfc-a4e5-c4ecce4675e9.png] note: disregard the LOCAL:JOY_0X07380XA221_BUTTON_36 condition, it's an internal solution of mine to reuse the same button for multiple functions

I just added to that original thread. Looking forward to any feedback from the developer.

In the WB-Sim Cessna, they use animation events called: CDI1: (L:INSTRUMENT_CDI_KNOB_COURSE_1_1, Number) CDI2: (L:INSTRUMENT_CDI_KNOB_COURSE_2_1, Number) HDG: (L:INSTRUMENT_HeadingIndicator_Knob_Heading_1, Number) It makes sense that the animation should be controlled by a separate event, as the course itself can, and should be adjusted by incrementing and decrementing the events with some acceleration, independent of the movement of the knob. I increment and decrement the following data events with acceleration: NAV OBS:1 NAV OBS:2 AUTOPILOT HEADLOCK DIR I'm not sure if the former mentioned events that control the animation in the WB-Sim Cessna are default events, but at least these latter data events are the same I use to control the content of the knobs in the Black Square aircraft. For knob-animation in the Black Square aircraft, it would be great if a similar approach as used by WB-Sim could be utilised in the upcoming Dukes - and in the updates of the previous aircrafts following...

@GunStrauss For me a failure reset in the failure system now helped. After that and after pushing back a popped out breaker, the GNS530 went over the startup and welcome screen again.

NAV3 standby was added to their database after I made a request.

Sorry that you're one of the unlucky ones with the state saving. My beta testers for the Dukes report that my new method for state saving is much more consistent for them. I'll port this backwards to my older aircraft in their next updates for the important things like engine condition. In the meantime, yes there is a very easy way to check and set engine condition! It's contained in the L:Var "L:var_engineDamage" from 0-100. For my multiengine aircraft, just add "_L" or "_R" for the left or right engines. Let me know if you need any more help with that!

I thought I remember there being something somewhere, that was it! I couldn't find it because I normally turn off my yoke.

From the manual: "To access the “FAILURES” menu, rotate the mode knob on the weather radar to “LOG”. On the screen shown, you will be presented with a segmented bar graph indicating the current global failure rate as a multiplier of real-time. [...] Random failures can be completely disabled by pressing the indicated decrease key until the global failure rate indicates “NO FAILURES”."

Are you using the default GNS 530? That GPS, enhanced by Working Title, should automatically generate the plan into the unit.

Thanks for the tip. All is well.

@Black-Square Thanks for the tips. I will check them out. Thank you so much for another way of seeing these variables. As it turns out it is SPAD v9.15.54 that is not seeing the variable change. Thanks again m

Great! Glad to hear it! That file should be overwritten when you download Sim Update 15, but if you have any issues after that, just delete the file altogether. This will force the launcher to download a new version.