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P3D v2 Can one increase battery life?

lionheart

lionheart

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Hey all,

Can one increase the battery life of a plane? Do they all only last about 2 min's or so? Is that hard wired into the sim or is there a secret setting somewhere for planes?
 
It depends on the certification. IIRC FAA mandates at least 30 minutes on standby circuits, JAA at least 60.

I don't know of any way to control the time other than make your own battery "gauge", but then again, I only have a passing knowledge of aircraft design.
 
lionheart said:
Hey all,

Can one increase the battery life of a plane? Do they all only last about 2 min's or so? Is that hard wired into the sim or is there a secret setting somewhere for planes?
Click to expand...

Using XML, no. Battery in FS discharges too quickly, very unrealistic.
To overcome this limitation you have basically two choices:

1) include electric_always_available = 1 in aircraft.cfg, [electrical] section and then build a custom system to simulate battery starvation.

2) Regulate battery rate of charge/discharge via a direct update to its AVar using Simconnect directives.

Long ago I used the first method on a 757 project for FS2004; wasn't much complex but required a specific design of the electrical system.

Tom
 
Option #3 depends on the customer having a registered version of FSUIPC so they can use it's battery life extension feature. That's not a particularly good idea unless you as the developer pay Pete to provide a limited license for your company's specific use.

I have no idea what Pete charges for this limited use license. You'd have to ask him...
 
Thanks guys. Good to know there are options.

That option-1 idea sounds interesting. Probably timers would be the way to go, or maybe a primary timer L:var, and once that hits its mark, the system shuts down.

When one starts up a Learjet 20 series, the first engine uses up almost all of the batteries. You can see on YouTube during a cold start that the amps arm goes to about 25% as its spooling up the turbine. I want to have this really bad. You have to wait and let the turbine charge the system back up before you can spool up engine two. I was thinking of having a system of logic that says 'you cannot start second engine until timer has finished'.

That FSUIPC has an immense amount of options and things in it. Is he going to make his own sim someday?
 
Bill, maybe you could use actuall battery state simulation. If you know how much is the starter outtake and recharging intake of the system, you could approximate energy state of the battery for any given time. Then you could use the state to switch three startup states for the other engine - low energy - no starter, mid energy - slow rotation, impossible to start, sufficient energy - successful start.
 
AFAIK you could also modify the Electricals section of the plane's cfg file to lower the current draw of things normally left on when sitting at the gate? Don't know if this works or not. I do know it lasts a LOONG time in FS9 if you set all electrical draw in that section to zero!
 
Tom's method works like this:

Code: 
[Electrical]
max_battery_voltage           = 24
generator_alternator_voltage  = 27.7
max_generator_alternator_amps = 200
 
avionics_bus           = 0, 0 , 9.0
avionics               = 0, 0 , 9.0
 
additional_system      = 0, 3.2 , 9.0
fuel_pump              = 0, 0.1 , 9.0
starter1               = 0, 0.4, 12.0
pitot_heat        = 0, 0.4, 12.0
gear_warning        = 0, 0.4, 12.0
hydraulic_pump        = 0, 0.7, 12.0
directional_gyro    = 0, 0.4, 12.0
 
// Note: Due to the ridicuously quick way the FSX battery drains these values are lower than usual to compensate.

I even put in a comment about it. The problem is I have to calculate a value for the current draw (to show on a current draw gauge) but as I do this for a bunch of individual elements (ie lighting systems, individaul radios etc ) which go beyond what FSX provides anyway that is not so much a problem.
 
Have you thought about trying to implement a GPU for starting the engines? Very realistic for one, and would eliminate the need to always wait for the batteries to recharge.

Just thinking out loud after reading what you are working on.

Greg
 
pity,

anyway, i only use l:var's for a custom made elec sys., but it would have been nice to have a gsu with charger.
 
gapeters said:
Have you thought about trying to implement a GPU for starting the engines? Very realistic for one, and would eliminate the need to always wait for the batteries to recharge.

Just thinking out loud after reading what you are working on.

Greg
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea Greg. Interesting. I really want it to be able to start without an APU. But.... That said, it would be nice to have an APU show up outside if you 'wanted' one. There are air-starter switches for APU air powered versions, (air starters). (Nice little 'spring loaded' starter switches that flip back up when you release... love it!!!)
 
Bill, better avoid confusion - APU is inside aircraft, what you talk about is GPU... that is the common usage. Ground starters also known as GSUs or ASUs.
 
arghh... Thanks PFabian. I totally forgot about the difference.

The little 20 series do not have APU's, so that takes out that option. I was thinking GPU's.
 
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