Flight Director
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I am trying to get the Duke's Flight Director to work via RealSimGear's GFC500. The GFC500 relies on K:TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR to turn the Flight Director ON/OFF. When I push the FD button on the GFC500, the Flight Director turns ON momentarily in the Duke, but then it promptly turns OFF. The K:TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR command does not toggle between ON and OFF as expected.
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Yes, the Duke's flight director is toggled with L:var_FlightDirectorVisible, as it is a mechanical function of the attitude indicator, rather than some amorphous software function. I don't own any of RealSimGear's fantastic equipment, but I would imagine they offer the ability to program specific L:Vars for their hardware, or else that would be severely limiting with addon aircraft. Let me know if you discover anything. There are solutions we could implement on your side by editing some code, but that would be a less than optimal solution.
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Thank you so much for your prompt response.
In the event it has not already been brought to your attention: A correction needs to be made to both Piston & Turbine Duke manuals which do not list the Flight Director variable as "L:var_FlightDirectorVisible," but rather, "K:TOGGLE_FLIGHT_DIRECTOR."
In pursuing this matter with RSG, this is the response I received:
Since a large number of the variables for the Duke's use L:vars you would need to program the GFC500 autopilot using software like Spad.next. Our current device interface is not able to send L:Vars.
Additionally the Duke's internal coding (at least on the Turbine version) has a flag in it to maintain the activation of the MSFS Flight Director and HDG modes on the Century 4 autopilot. The L:var flag that is listed in the manual for the flight director will only turn on/off the FD needles on the attitude indicator in the 3D cockpit, while the lights on the GFC500 will always stay on for the flight director.
I do not have Spad.next, so I am unable to test it with the GFC500. But I do have FSUIPC, and unfortunately, the GFC500 does not show up as an addressable device.
I will pursue this matter further with RSG to see if they might consider updating their interface to include L:Vars. I would be open to other solutions you might have.
Thank you for your time, and for providing such awesome products.
