Duke (Piston + Turbine) LVAR for MobiFlight

[Captain_J]

Thanks, so just to clarify ... the blue propellor levers have the lit translucent handles on BOTH the PISTON and TURBINE models?

1. So, I note there are several liveries, and most have a USA aircraft registration on the aircraft skin. Am I able to modify any of these main liveries to show an Australian aircraft registration instead eg. VH-ABC ? When I changed the registration in the aircraft selection menu, the paintwork on the skin of most of those liveries still displays the original USA registration.

2. Thanks - if the engines were to be over-torqued too much over time ... can they be reset to new? How do I perform a routine 'engine overhaul', or 100 hourly etc., so as to return certain characteristics to new/default etc.? Is there an actual 'maintenance action' selection anywhere, or a 'factory default' selector to return all airframe and engine degradations to 'as new'?

Thanks and kind regards, John.

[Black Square]

When a Piston Duke is converted into a Turbine Duke, it's original propeller handles are replaced with the lighted ones; hence, only the Turbine Duke has the lighted handles.

All of the default liveries were created with my dynamic registration system, and should respond accordingly when you change the tail number in the menu. Like I said, you can also edit the aircraft.cfg to make a permanent change to a livery's registration. If you're using 3rd party liveries, I know that some of them support my dynamic registration system, and some do not. If you believe there is something not behaving correctly with my default liveries, please let me know.

You can reset the condition of the engines using the "Repair Engine" button in the engine page of the tablet interface. There are also some additional buttons, like "Repair Starter" that can be used if you break anything else engine related. All other failure features can be disabled with the slider on the failures page of the tablet interface.

[Captain_J]

Hi, just wondering if there are LVARs for the following:

External power source / cart

Tablet interface access (rather than having to visually navigate to the left side panel and most select)

Pitot Heat ... the same variable appears in the manuals for both L and R Pitot Heat ...K:2:PITOT_HEAT_SET (are there meant to be two different variables for the Left and Right Pitot Heat?)

I will probably find a few more that I was unable to find, and will just post a query as I come across them if that's OK?

Thanks, John.

[Black Square]

The external power is triggered with the native event, "K:TOGGLE_EXTERNAL_POWER". It will be automatically connected to the power system as soon as it is plugged in.

You can toggle the tablet interface on and off with "L:bksq_TabletVisible"

The pitot heat events take two inputs, as signified by the "K:2: prefix. The first input is the state (0=off, 1=on), and the second input is the pitot heat index (0=left, 1=right)

I hope that helps answer your questions! Always feel free to ask more.

[Captain_J]

Do you have LVARs for the Fuel Selectors and Crossfeed Selector (for both the Turbine and Piston Duke)? Also, I must be blind ... I'm looking everywhere in the actual flight decks and I cannot find either - can you please help me out there as to where I should be able to see them? Thanks, John.

[Black Square]

They are on the floor, over the wing spar, between the two front seats. They are not controlled with L:Vars, but instead the native simulator commands. The same commands for the Analog Baron should work with both Dukes. They have been discussed very recently here. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[Captain_J]

Thanks, I've only just found the spare time to try coding these - but realise I don't actually know how to interpret what you've said about the Fuel Selector coding. I need to put a code in MobiFlight for my Fuel Selector switch and I've read the other post you've cross-referenced, but I don't follow the syntax of what I'd need to enter. Can you please assist further? Thanks.

[Captain_J]

Actually, I worked it out through some extensive trial and error, so for anyone else who might be wondering, here's what I have for working commands in MobiFlight for the Fuel Selectors:

Both to CROSSFEED
20 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
19 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_2_SET)

Both to INDEPENDENT L and R fuel sources
19 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
20 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_2_SET)

Both to OFF
0 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
0 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_2_SET)

[Captain_J]

I have another LVARs that I'm looking for, if you can please assist?

The external propane heater?

Also, I was looking into the 'Record' button on the ETM and cross-referenced the Shadin website, but couldn't really get the clarity I was after. In your sim Duke, does the Record button function - and if so, what it does it do in the sim?

Thanks and regards, John.

P.S You might want to check 2 x typo :) in the Descriptor field of the ETM table on P.151 for the Clock Start / Stop Switch.

[Black Square]

L:bksq_PreHeater should do the trick. Just make sure either the chocks are in, or the parking brake is on first. Found the typos. Thank you! No, my virtual ETM does not have a record function. I probably would have added it, except saving raw data from the JavaScript environment (as opposed to WASM), is quite a bit of work for such a small feature.

[Captain_J]

Thanks :)

[Captain_J]

With the external propane heater, is it just a matter of LVAR = 0 for off and disconnected, and LVAR = 1 for connected and on, or are there additional values as well to separate connected, and subsequently turned on?

Oh, and is the engine temp able to be monitored during external heating?

Thanks, John.

[Black Square]

The L:Var is just on and off. The heater will start automatically. The engine's simulated temperature responds to the heater as it would while running, so you can monitor the temperature with the EDM, ETM, tablet, instruments, or L:Var.

[Captain_J]

Thanks again for your help and info.

[Captain_J]

I've encountered a problem trying to code the AP ALT value setting.

The value setting winds up and down by 100's of FT, but I cannot get it to switch to 1,000's of FT. I have successfully coded the 100/1000 push switch and I can see that knob going in and out when I push my 100/1000 selector. If I use the mouse to wind the ALT value up and down it behaves correctly for 100 or 1,000 increments as selected. However, regardless of the position of the 100/1000 push selector, when I use my encoder (Honeycomb Bravo) it only changes the ALT in increments of 100 FT.

I tried coding the ALT encoder via MobiFlight so I could use the K:AP_ALT_VAR_INC and K:AP_ALT_VAR_DEC variables, and I have also tried binding directly into MSFS2020. Via MobiFlight it doesn't move at all (but I don't think I can address KVAR variables), and binding via MSFS2020 it works but still in 100' increments regardless.

Are you able to please offer any help on this one?

Also, I have a couple of other unrelated questions:
Can I change the whole Duke setup to be metric; litres of fuel, kilograms etc.?
Is there a 'state' selector for each sim session start i.e. whether I want engines running or not? Or, is it just based on the state of the previous flight ... if I left the engines running when I exited MSFS2020, they'd be running next time I started the sim.?

Many thanks, John.

[Black Square]

Hi John,

Looking at my code for the altitude selector, it appears that the K:AP_ALT_VAR_INC/DEC events can accept an input, which is the amount you would like the altitude to increment or decrement by. For instance, in my code, the line to increase/decrease the altitude by 1,000 ft looks like this: 1000 (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_INC) Hopefully that's something you can do on your end.

Which outputs are you trying to change units for on the Duke? On the tablet, the instrument faces, or the output L:Vars? The starting state of the aircraft is controlled via the FLT files in the aircraft's root directory such that the aircraft is properly configured for each phase of flight that can be loaded from the simulator's free flight menu. While there is no easy way to select these configurations from within the simulator (this would be a really easy solution to aircraft starting state that I wish Asobo would implement), you can edit those files or copy/rename files to create any desired starting state you might wish. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[Captain_J]

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

Re the altitude - I'll try what you've suggested, but that would 'hard' code the 1000' increment into the altitude encoder. I'm really trying to resolve the 100/1000 scale change button not functioning as expected in conjunction with the encoder (which is preferably facilitated via the encoder binding directly to MSFS2020). The 100/1000 ALT SCALE button movement is correctly reflected on the instrument panel (and for mouse wound ALT changes), but has no effect if the ALT is changed via an encoder.

Re metric - I note the ETM is all in US GAL etc., so that would be good if that was an option for KG and LITRES, plus of course on the physical instrument panel guages ... but I'm thinking that's a lot to ask for (unless it's already an option I wasn't aware of). I wasn't looking to access LVAR outputs for those, but I guess that's another option (but I don't actually have or need additional output instruments).

With the starting state - many thanks, I'll take at look at the config. files. So, just to clarify - in it's current form, the starting state now will be exactly the same state the sim was last shutdown?

Thanks again, John.

[Black Square]

If you want to emulate the behavior of the knob in the simulation, then all you should have to do is read the value of the knob's pull state to determine whether to add 100 or 1,000 feet. In RPN, that would look something like this:

(L:var_AltitudeSelectorKnobPushed, bool) if{ 100 } els{ 1000 } (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_INC)

Unfortunately, there is no convenient way for me to adjust the units on the ETM. For the EDM 800 in the Piston Duke, the units can be changed at any time by pressing both buttons (click spot between the two buttons) at any time, but for the ETM, the unit setup is something that can only be done by a professional when the unit is installed in the aircraft, so I did not implement it.

The startup configuration is controlled by the phase of flight selected in the free flight menu, or as part of a custom mission. For instance, if you select a starting position on the ramp, the aircraft will be cold and dark. If you select a starting location on the runway, it will be ready for takeoff, and if you select a starting position on final approach, the aircraft will be configured for approach and landing. You can edit these files, or copy and replace them with another to change the loading configuration. For instance, if you wanted to start on the ramp fully ready for taxi and takeoff, you would just replace the apron.flt file with the runway.flt file. There are other features of my aircraft that are saved between flights, but the main items, such as whether the engines are running, are controlled by the simulator.

[GunStrauss]

@Black-Square said in Duke (Piston + Turbine) LVAR for MobiFlight:

the units can be changed at any time by pressing both buttons (click spot between the two buttons) at any time

I've setup these knobs on two touch buttons, will dual input trigger the same response as with the 'click spot' with the mouse?

[Black Square]

@GunStrauss Unfortunately not. I would have had to approach the button input events in a completely different way for that to work, but I never even considered that someone would want to make that happen from their hardware. Sorry to add another button to your layout.