XNPDR powers up in ALT mode

JetNoise

@laurreth said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

AFAIK that's an idiosyncrasy of the PMS50 GNS750.

Had to look that word up, lol.
If so, I'd say, it needs to be corrected ...

Oliver

JetNoise

@laurreth said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

AFAIK that's an idiosyncrasy of the PMS50 GNS750.

Talked to PMS50 and quote
"Anyway we just set the current sim state of the transponder by reading the sim var "TRANSPONDER STATE:1".
Just to say that the initial transponder state is managed at the aircraft level so you should ask to BS"

@Voice-of-Reason

JetNoise

@jetnoise said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

@laurreth said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

AFAIK that's an idiosyncrasy of the PMS50 GNS750.

Talked to PMS50 and quote
"Anyway we just set the current sim state of the transponder by reading the sim var "TRANSPONDER STATE:1".
Just to say that the initial transponder state is managed at the aircraft level so you should ask to BS"

@Voice-of-Reason

WORKAROUND:
Search for file apron.flt inside your TBM install and edit
TransponderState=0

seems to work for now ...

Laurreth

@jetnoise interesting, I'm pretty sure that the same issue with transponder starting on ALT is present in other planes using the unit, like the SWS RV-14, so it feels like some default initial state in MSFS gets overridden by all other transponder implementations.

JetNoise

@laurreth
i haven't seen any aircraft using a FLT file for its initial state so far.
In the TBMs case it TX state was set to 4 IIRC, which is wrong.
Correcting that to 0 fixes it for now.

OFF TOPIC
If one knows how to set the FUEL_SELECTOR_OFF SIMVAR in one of the cfg/xml files of the TBM this would "FIX" another issue

to be set FUEL_SELECTOR_OFF =1

Ape42

@jetnoise On your own risk. And create backups of the files systems.cfg and AnalogTBM.xml.

I added these lines to the end of the systems.cfg inside the [LocalVars] section:

LocalVar.11 = SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE
LocalVarDefault.11 = 0

Next I added inside the AnalogTBM.xml these lines within <Macro Name="SaveState">

(A:FUEL TANK SELECTOR:1, enum) 19 == if{ 1 (&gt;L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) }
(A:FUEL TANK SELECTOR:1, enum) 20 == if{ 2 (&gt;L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) }

and these within <Macro Name="LoadState">

(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 0 == if{ 1 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_OFF) }
(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 1 == if{ 0 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_LEFT_MAIN) }
(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 2 == if{ 0 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_RIGHT_MAIN) }

When starting the flight, the fuel lever will switch magically to the last position. But beware! I did not test it when you spawn on a runway. It might happen that the engines will die due to a lack of fuel.

As I said: On your own risk! :winking_face:

JetNoise

@ape42
No Risk, no Fun

in this case: Fun - it magically works ...

Oliver

hughesj2

Re the Garmin GTX330 Transponder start up...Found this from a TBM700 granted but it does appear to load straight to ALT...Which I though was weird as well, so might not be a "bug", could be a preference on the "real" unit?

https://youtu.be/03Z2hgxCPMk?si=2lsxUIyRdxAJiRTM&t=219

Cheers
James

rbringh

I received this from the GTN Discord Team

pms50 — Today at 2:41 AM
After checking, this is definitively an issue at aircraft level.
We have tested by removing the GTN750 packages from the community folder and we get the same result (ALT mode by default).

You can fix the issue by yourself:

Search the entry TransponderState in the files apron.FLT, taxi.FLT and runway.FLT
These files are located in the subfolder SimObjects\Airplanes\bksq-aircraft-tbm850 of the TBM850 package
Set the following values:

apron.FLT -> TransponderState = 1
taxi.FLT -> TransponderState = 3
runway.FLT -> TransponderState = 3

Restart the sim

Hope that helps.

JetNoise

@ape42 said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

@jetnoise On your own risk. And create backups of the files systems.cfg and AnalogTBM.xml.

I added these lines to the end of the systems.cfg inside the [LocalVars] section:
LocalVar.11 = SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE
LocalVarDefault.11 = 0
Next I added inside the AnalogTBM.xml these lines within <Macro Name="SaveState">
(A:FUEL TANK SELECTOR:1, enum) 19 == if{ 1 (&gt;L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) }
(A:FUEL TANK SELECTOR:1, enum) 20 == if{ 2 (&gt;L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) }
and these within <Macro Name="LoadState">
(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 0 == if{ 1 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_OFF) }
(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 1 == if{ 0 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_LEFT_MAIN) }
(L:SAVED_FUEL_SELECTOR_STATE, number) 2 == if{ 0 (&gt;L:var_FuelStopDown, bool) 1 (&gt;K:FUEL_SELECTOR_RIGHT_MAIN) }
When starting the flight, the fuel lever will switch magically to the last position. But beware! I did not test it when you spawn on a runway. It might happen that the engines will die due to a lack of fuel.

As I said: On your own risk! :winking_face:

Dear Ape,

are these still valid ?
Here, some seem not to work anymore ...
There were changes to the files, i noticed ...

Oliver

Ape42

@jetnoise Hi Oliver,

after installing the update these changes will be removed. You have to apply them again.

After I did, the state saving of the fuel lever did work again.

Addendum: When doing these changes you have to restart the whole simulator.

Ape42

One more thing about the state saving:

It seems that the values are loaded correct. I did put passengers to the front seats. The variables are set correct. But the weight and balance screen of MSFS is wrong:

And as soon as you change the weights, the fuel will change too. Very strange.

Black Square

Hi All,

I have made the small change necessary for the transponder to boot up in "ON" mode after a cold and dark start. The best practices vary by country, but in the US, you are expected to operate in altitude reporting mode at all times, including during ground operations. For this reason, I have the very similar transponder in my own airplane default into altitude reporting mode after startup.

As for the payloads, this is a well documented MSFS bug that's been there since day one. We've been doing our best on the developers forum to get them to fix this, but no luck so far. The fuel interface is also bugged, unfortunately. The fuel is loaded from the saved state, and the interface will show it correctly, but any attempt to modify the fuel level will reset all tanks to the default level. This is why so many developers have chosen to just have their own fuel and payload interfaces. I can't make any promises at this time, but something like this is in the works for Black Square aircraft too.

Thank you!
Nick C.

JetNoise

@black-square said in XNPDR powers up in ALT mode:

Hi All,

I have made the small change necessary for the transponder to boot up in "ON" mode after a cold and dark start. The best practices vary by country, but in the US, you are expected to operate in altitude reporting mode at all times, including during ground operations. For this reason, I have the very similar transponder in my own airplane default into altitude reporting mode after startup.

As for the payloads, this is a well documented MSFS bug that's been there since day one. We've been doing our best on the developers forum to get them to fix this, but no luck so far. The fuel interface is also bugged, unfortunately. The fuel is loaded from the saved state, and the interface will show it correctly, but any attempt to modify the fuel level will reset all tanks to the default level. This is why so many developers have chosen to just have their own fuel and payload interfaces. I can't make any promises at this time, but something like this is in the works for Black Square aircraft too.

Thank you!
Nick C.

Please, please do so ....
That MSFS payload manager is a pain in ...., you know where ;-)
It would be (more or less) a one time effort for all existing and future BSQ aircraft .

Oliver aka JetNoise