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FSX:SE Course Deviation Disconnect Pause

Messages
73
Country
us-texas
Thanks to Milton and Rob and their wonderful wind-powered HMS Bounty tall sailing ship I am able to enjoy my mariner-ish interest. Thanks also to Bitzer and Beaumont as well as Kronzky and the Bubble Sextant I am able to navigate the FSX seas. Actually, the Bubble Sextant was created to use for aviation but serves just as well as a marine sextant. Accolades aside, the Bounty does have "Otto" (my nickname for an automatic helmsman). "he" can hold a heading, but if the winds change suddenly or die (I use real weather) and the ground speed goes below 3(?) knots Otto will give up. Now if the winds pick back up there is no one at the helm and the ship heads off to who-knows-where. This is not too bad if I am awake, but when I need to sleep I need Otto to man the helm until I awake.

So...

I need a gauge that will lower the sails or at least PAUSE the sim if the heading deviates from a user-defined course, probably +/- 5 degrees off the set HDG. Can this be done with FSX gauge programming? I am not that good with it, but I don't mind homework. What do you think?
 
Messages
440
Country
us-wisconsin
Calvin,

Here is something that should work for you, successfully tested multiple times here.
It does come with a caveat though, Rob B. has brilliantly programmed quite a bit of logical automation in this ship so trying to "shoehorn" additional automation into the system may have some logical "holes" in it.

To install:
1) Because of copyright you need to modify this gauge. I cannot provide it for you.
In panel\rcb-gauges\CourseHold.xml replace the <Click> section with the following -
XML:
    <Click Repeat="No">
      0 (&gt;L:HH_TICKS,enum)
      <!-- (L:HeadingHold,bool) ! (&gt;L:HeadingHold,bool) -->
        (L:HeadingHold,bool) if{
            0 (&gt;L:HeadingHold,bool) 0 (&gt;L:Auto_Stow_Armed, bool)
        } els{
            1 (&gt;L:HeadingHold,bool)
            (L:HeadingHold,bool) (A:VELOCITY BODY Z,knots) 2 &gt;= &amp;&amp; if{
                1 (&gt;L:Auto_Stow_Armed, bool)
            }                    
        }        
    </Click>

2) Install the following gauge in the [Vcockpit01] section -
XML:
<Gauge Name="Bounty_Auto_Sail_Stow" Version="1.0">

    <Comment>
        For Milton Shupes HMS Bounty V2.0! (no other versions looked at)
        The panel.CFG is unaltered.

        The following gauge must be active with the mod provided in the forum post.
        [Window00] --> gauge04=rcb-gauges!CourseHold, 294,246,11,27
        The active course hold gauge uses TRUE heading while the commented out heading gauge uses MAGNETIC heading.
       
        For possible future use, is paused? --> (L:SimRunning,bool)
    </Comment>

    <Update Frequency="1">      

        <!-- DISARM ROUTINE IF AUTO SKIPPER IS LOGICALLY TURNED OFF -->
        (L:AutoSkipper,bool) ! (L:HeadingHold,bool) ! (L:Auto_Stow_Armed) and and if{ 0 (>L:Auto_Stow_Armed, bool) }

        <!-- AUTO SAIL STOWING IS ARMED AND AUTO SKIPPER IS STILL ON -->
        (L:Auto_Stow_Armed, bool) (L:AutoSkipper,bool) and
        <!-- CURRENT HEADING IS OUTSIDE EITHER 5+ OR 5- DEGREES OF COMMANDED HEADING -->
        (A:PLANE HEADING DEGREES TRUE, degrees) (L:HeadingHoldVar,degrees) 5 - dnor &gt;
        (A:PLANE HEADING DEGREES TRUE, degrees) (L:HeadingHoldVar,degrees) 5 + dnor &lt; and ! and
        if{
            <!-- TURN OFF AUTO SKIPPER, MUST TURN OFF AUTO SKIPPER IN ORDER TO STOW SAILS  -->
            0 (>L:AutoSkipper,bool)
            <!-- STOW SAILS -->
            0 (&gt;L:sail_ftg_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_tg_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_mztg_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_fts_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_mzts_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_ts_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:jibs_fly_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:jibs_out_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:jibs_in_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:spanker_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:staysail_mn_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:staysail_mz_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_fs_sw,bool)
            0 (&gt;L:sail_mn_sw,bool)
        }

    </Update>
   
</Gauge>

Hope this works for you, stay awake!
 
Last edited:
Messages
73
Country
us-texas
Thank you. I will give it a shot. Actually, I was not really wanting to infringe on Rob B's brilliant work. I was just wanting to add an adjunct function which I thought might be an exterior function.

FYI - A skipper has to get some sleep even if the probability of being awake at any of the twenty-four hours is uniform. :)
 
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