FS2004 Autopilot Will Not Smoothly Acquire Altitude

[FSMuseum]

Hi all,

Working on the 747 again, I have resigned myself to forcing it to work with the default autopilot instead of my own (for now at least, just to get the dang thing flying...).

I am attempting to use the default autopilot variables with some XML trickery to make the gauges on the panel behave accurately while making the system functional.

However, during testing, I could not get the aircraft to smoothly capture an altitude. If I use the default 747 panel, the autopilot behaves perfectly: it begins capturing a given altitude about 300 feet out from it given a climb/descent rate of 2000 fpm. However, on my panel, altitude acquiring does not begin until 100 feet for some reason, causing the autopilot to overshoot, and instead of trying to acquire the correct altitude, it simply remains at whatever altitude it overshot to. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is conflicting and causing the problem.

Here is the relevant portion of gauge code:

            <!--Vertical Speed Mode-->
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 1 !=
            if{
            (A:VERTICAL SPEED, feet per minute) (>L:VS Wheel Setting, number)
            }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 1 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) 0 == (A:AUTOPILOT VERTICAL HOLD VAR, feet/minute) 0 &gt; and and
            if{ 99999 (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH) }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 1 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) 0 == (A:AUTOPILOT VERTICAL HOLD VAR, feet/minute) 0 &lt; and and
            if{ -5000 (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH) }

            <!--Altitude Modes-->
            (A:AUTOPILOT MASTER, bool) 1 ==
            if{
       
            (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) 1 ==
            if{
            (L:AltHoldDoOnce, bool) 0 ==
            if{
            (L:Altitude Filtered, number) (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
            1 (>L:AltHoldDoOnce, bool)
            }
            (>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON)
            (>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_OFF)
            0 (>L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number)
            }
            els{ 0 (>L:AltHoldDoOnce, bool) }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 0 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) -1 == and
            if{
            (L:AP Altitude Setting, number) (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
            (>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON)
            (>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_OFF)
            }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 1 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) -1 == and
            if{
            (>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON)
            (>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_OFF)
            (L:VS Wheel Setting, number) (>K:AP_VS_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
            (L:AP Altitude Setting, number) (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
            }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 0 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) 0 == and
            if{
            (>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_OFF)
            (>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_ON)
            (>K:AP_WING_LEVELER_OFF)
            }
         
            (L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 1 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) 0 == and
            if{
            (>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON)
            (>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_OFF)
            (L:VS Wheel Setting, number) (>K:AP_VS_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
            }
         
            }

 

[tgibson]

is this using the exact same aircraft in both cases? There are AP variables in the aircraft.cfg file as well.

 

[FSMuseum]

is this using the exact same aircraft in both cases? There are AP variables in the aircraft.cfg file as well.

Yes, exact same aircraft and flight model, only different panels. With the default 747-400 panel, all works as intended, but switching in mine causes wierdness.

 

[FSMuseum]

I think I might have solved it, but I couldn't explain why this fixes it. Removing this section of the code causes everything to work correctly:

(L:AP Vertical Mode Knob, number) 0 == (L:Autopilot Altitude Select Switch, number) -1 == and
if{
(L:AP Altitude Setting, number) (>K:AP_ALT_VAR_SET_ENGLISH)
(>K:AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON)
(>K:AP_ATT_HOLD_OFF)
}

 

[tgibson]

One thing is that it appears you are flooding FS with commands in this section. If the knob is 0 and the switch is -1 then you send those 3 commands to FS 18 times a second. This will really clog things up. There should be another test in the first line that checks (for example) for the altitude hold being turned off . If it is turned on from the AP_PANEL_ALTITUDE_ON command, then these commands should not be called again.

 

[DragonflightDesign]

Although I don't do XML as a general rule, from reading your code above it appears that you may have a lot of code flooding going on which, as Tom says, will clog the system up badly. Each time you use a K: var, before you send the same command again, run a check on the event to see if it has been actioned before sending the command again. Depending on how quickly the code reacts (the more code, the slower it is likely to action) you may even need to add a short timer that fires at the point you send the command, prevents the same command from being sent again while the timer is active and then check for the command result when the timer expires.