Question about avionics state during cold and dark start...
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Hi,
When starting a 'cold and dark scenario' (aircraft positioned parked on the ramp at spawn), certain analog avionics in the stack (ADF, transponder, et al) have switches automatically positioned in the 'ON' position. Thus, they spring to life right away when the battery master is turned on.
There does not appear to be any kind of cockpit state persistence with these radios; thus, with every ramp start scenario, the associated power switch will always be on the 'ON' position at aircraft spawn on the ramp. I'm thinking these particular radios are default MSFS ones and are aliased to the Blacksquare Baron because this is also a characteristic of default MSFS radios.
Should this prove to be the case, it's just a nuisance of course (one can manually switch everything to off before turning on the battery master). Just wondering, thanks.
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EDIT I meant that specific radios including the KNX81, KR87, and the Garmin GTX 327 transponder are all in the ON position at cold and dark aircraft spawn. Also, they don't come on until both the battery master and avionics master(s) are both on. I think on the real aircraft this might trip a breaker if the entire suite powered on at once.
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This question comes up with some frequency, which always intrigues me, because I do not know a single pilot in the real world who turns off any avionics between flights. Unfortunately, I think if I had them default to off, I would get even more messages asking for it to be the other way. Such is the problem with trying to please everyone.
The only piece of avionics that is still aliased in my aircraft is the transponder, which I have been meaning to replace too. It would be possible to get all the avionics to default to off, but it's not exceedingly easy either. I think it could all be done by editing some XML files, but MSFS's very confused aircraft loading sequence also might interfere with this, and you would have to edit the *.flt files too. If you would like me to walk you through the procedure, I can lend a hand. You could start by investivating the behaviors XML files in the aircraft's model folders. Near the top, you will find the line
0 (>A:CIRCUIT SWITCH ON:@DoorSealPumpCircuit, bool). After this, you could add appropriate lines for all the avionics circuits (listed at the top of the file). This would get you started, although all the volume knobs might not be set in the correct orientations. -
An idea for this - could you have a couple buttons on the tablet for "save startup state" and "recall startup state" and then have those buttons assignable? You could save the states of all of the switches to a file plus the chocks etc (this would help you work around the current chock startup issue). Then when people come in they could just hit their key for startup settings (or click it on the tablet) and wala they'd have everything setup exactly the way they want.
I've been trying to figure out if I can make spad.next do this but haven't figured that out yet. I could make a manual one for myself but it would be nice to be able to just hit a save button rather than have to code everything.
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Found a way to implement in spad.next with persistent variables but then I realized that some stuff (like the GTX327 transponder) can't change mode until it's turned on.
Some of your input on this may be a generational thing. I was last actively flying around 2002 and we had mostly analog transponders then and they didn't want you to turn it to alt until right before take off. That is unless I was doing it wrong then
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Found a way to implement in spad.next with persistent variables but then I realized that some stuff (like the GTX327 transponder) can't change mode until it's turned on.
Some of your input on this may be a generational thing. I was last actively flying around 2002 and we had mostly analog transponders then and they didn't want you to turn it to alt until right before take off. That is unless I was doing it wrong then
@MiRexer said in Question about avionics state during cold and dark start...:
Some of your input on this may be a generational thing. I was last actively flying around 2002 and we had mostly analog transponders then and they didn't want you to turn it to alt until right before take off. That is unless I was doing it wrong then
You're absolutely right about that, because the FAA made its recommendation shortly after I got my license in maybe 2015, at which time I was also still flying with a Bendix/King transponder.
I'm glad you figured out a working solution. I knew that other people have done exactly this in SPAD or MobiFlight.
Your suggestion about saving configurations is a very interesting one. As usual, these things are a lot easier said than done, but I will be thinking about the best way to do this while I'm away from my desk. Thanks for the idea!
