FS2004 Help adding simple autopilot to vintage aircraft

[Roy Holmes]

Well I actually added a whole normal autopilot section in the aircraft.cfg which includes the bank limit. I could have just added the bank limit, but the point is that any autopilot sections in the air file are completely out of date and disregarded when there is a proper autopilot section in the aircraft.cfg. Just changing the 0 to 1 will cause the built in autopilot to function but without its normal bounds and that gave the problems you saw.

I installed the Courier and downloaded the Ford to get the gauge only.

I do not have FS2004 but the Courier works in FSXA.

Essentially your understanding of what I wrote is correct.

I just noticed something that might be the cause of my problem...

You do not have to look further for why the Courier behaved as it did. If you do not have an autopilot bank limit the autopilot will just keep on applying bank in the direction of turn. That is how it turns the airplane.

There is nothing really complicated about the sim if you know how things work. If you do not know, as you have stated several times, then listen to those who probably do know how things work.

Roy

 

[Leo2789]

Well then it seems that this Heading indicator issue is the real problem since it's the only thing different from your setup and mine! Because as I stated, I do have the bank limit set at 25 in the courier's cfg as well.

I've been listening intently to what you and others have suggested here; I only insisted on the air file being an issue because, if it isn't, then why does any other air file make the Courier use the autopilot flawlessly?

The problem now then is how to solve this Heading indicator issue, like I said it doesn't respond to the reset control, it just keeps telling me the ''indicator is set incorrectly. press C to reset''. I press C, nothing happens and seconds later same message pops up :/

Might there be any Heading setting that's messed up on the air file? or on the cfg file?

any thoughts?

 

[Roy Holmes]

your heading indicator is set incorrectly means the gyro compass has drift. Usually the response is keyboard D Heading Indicator (reset)
There is no instrument in the Courier or Ford that has a heading bug. You have a vacuum directional gyro and a liquid compass. Both of these instruments are standalone and are not interfaced with the autopilot so what you have is a heading hold. It is possible to alter the heading by using the INC and DEC commands but it just turns you a bit in one direction and then holds that heading.

Because as I stated, I do have the bank limit set at 25 in the courier's cfg as well.

I have not been able to find which post you stated you had the bank limit set to 25. If you have it set the overbank issue should have stopped. Has it, when did you set the limit and if the problem had continued when did you comment on it being still bad in a post?

Might there be any Heading setting that's messed up on the air file?

If you want to think that the problem is in the air file when there is a solution involving the aircraft.cfg and nothing in the air file that could cause it, then so be it. Maybe you should look elsewhere
for "any thoughts"

Roy

 

[Leo2789]

Regarding the pop up message, when it says 'heading indicator set incorrectly' I press the C on the keyboard, since that's the key I have assigned to function 'Heading Indicator (reset)', but nothing changes in the Ap's behavior, and the sim warns me moments later that my heading indicator is incorrect again... 0.o

I mentioned it in post #19 here, and I believe I have the 'max_bank=' set to 25 since earlier this afternoon, when I was trying to troubleshoot using aired to see if I could solve anything in the air file. The problem is still there regarding the heading hold, even though it clearly states in my aircraft .cfg of the Courier 'max_bank=25.000' :/

Roy, please don't get me wrong! I'm not disregarding you when you say that there's nothing wrong with the air file, I'm simply trying to make heads and tails of this problem, and since changing the air file to another completely unrelated to the Courier made the issue go away, it's only natural that I'm inclined to think that the problem lies there! You said it yourself that there's no logical reason as to why changing the air file should fix the problem in an earlier post, and I believe you, but that's the reality I got unfortunately

I also understand now that in FS2004 most of the things in the air file can be 'overridden' in the aircraft.cfg, but as I have done exactly what you have done in your recent test, why do I get different results than you? With different results being that my issue is still there with no change whatsoever :/
I'm just trying to understand what could possibly be going wrong here to fix this.
Could I send you my air file, the original, un-edited one I have, for you to assign to your Courier and see if you still use the AP flawlessly?
If you still can use the AP with no problems that way, then there must be something FS9 cfg file related going on here, since I believe you said you tested it in FSX?

Leonardo

 

[Roy Holmes]

If the air file is unedited and original then that is what I used so no need to send me the same thing. I have solved the issue which was caused by not enough commands to the autopilot regarding bank.
I copied the autopilot aircraft.cfg section from the DC3 since it has the same sort of gauges. Here it is
[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 0
pitch_takeoff_ga=0.0
default_vertical_speed=700.000000
autothrottle_available=0
direction_indicator=1
attitude_indicator =1
max_pitch=10.000000
max_pitch_acceleration=1.000000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.500000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.000000
max_bank=25.000000
max_bank_acceleration=1.800000
max_bank_velocity=3.000000
max_throttle_rate=0.100000
nav_proportional_control=9.000000
nav_integrator_control=0.250000
nav_derivative_control=0.000000
nav_integrator_boundary=2.500000
nav_derivative_boundary=0.000000
gs_proportional_control=9.520000
gs_integrator_control=0.260000
gs_derivative_control=0.000000
gs_integrator_boundary=0.700000
gs_derivative_boundary=0.000000
yaw_damper_gain = 0.0
default_bank_mode=2 //Default to Heading Hold

With that the Courier will bank when the heading bug INC command is given up to the moment it reaches 25 bank and then continued INC does nothing. Using DEC will reduce bank to zero and then begin a left bank. I would see the main use would be to disengage the heading hold, turn the airplane to a new desired heading on the gyro compass or liquid compass then reengage the heading hold. It does not work like a modern airplane where you use the INC and DEC command to turn a bug on a HSI or similar and the autopilot will turn to align itself with the bug.
It may be that you have a different default_bank_mode than 2 (see end of text)
The actual gauge just draws the gauge and switches and the mouse toggles the autopilot master on/off, toggles the heading hold mode which captures the current heading. So that is all it does except you can adjust the current headig with the INC and DEC commands.



Roy



.

 

[Leo2789]

Hey Roy,

Yes I know this gauge doesn't work like a modern autopilot, and that's actually all the use I want out of it; simply fly my plane manually to a certain heading and altitude and then engage the AP to maintain both those values.
Which is what I do in all other aircraft I added this gauge to, and it works as intended. I never actually used the Inc and Dec cmds it has until you mentioned them in your earlier posts.
I will copy that DC-3 AP section to see if it makes a difference. I don't have any 'default_bank_mode=' specified in my Courier cfg for example.

Thank you

Edit: It still doesn't work
It's like the gauge completely disregards whatever's in the aotupilot section of the cfg, when it comes to heading!
I mean it's clearly specified max bank=25 and it will just bank infinitely to the right until crashing :/

Edit2: I've seem to have solved my problem regarding the heading indicator being constantly incorrectly calibrated by doing the following:

Went to another aircraft's cfg in which I have the same AP working, and whose model is actually made by the same person (David Molyneaux), which is the Airspeed Envoy and copied the following section:
[Direction_indicators]
//1 Type: 0=None, 1=Vacuum Gyro, 2=Electric Gyro, 3=Electro-Mag Slaved Compass, 4=Slaved to another
//2 Indicator number of slaving indicator if Type = 4
//direction_indicator.0=1,0
//direction_indicator.1=2,0
direction_indicator.0=3,0

What I did was replace the original Courier's 2 direction indicators (info preceded by //) and pasted the Envoy's direction_indicator info, which is a type 3 as opposed to the originally stated indicators of the Courier. Why there are 2 specefied direction indicators in the first place is also intriguing to me since the airplane possesses only 1 compass.. 0.o
Anyways, this solved the problem of having my HSI always and continually calibrated incorrectly.
It didn't however make a difference in the AP heading problem :/

Leonardo

 

[Roy Holmes]

The message you were getting about heading applies to a non-slaved basic gyro compass which drifts over time. Since you changed it to a type 3 the sim it assuming it has magnetic slaving and that the message does not apply. I would not hear that message because I have the "flying tips" turned off in the sim. And there is no HSI in the Courier. You do have two direction indicators, a gyro compass and a magnetic compass.
Please attach your Courier aircraft.cfg and panel.cfg filles. I suspect the fault is in the former.\
Roy

 

[Leo2789]

Hey Roy,

I see, but is it normal for it to drift every 6 seconds? Because that's what was happening :/

I attached the files you requested. Thanks for the help!

Leonardo

 

[Kyrelel]

In FSXA, the Courier works fine
In FS9, it banks right and crashes.
This seems to fix it: (Edit aircraft.cfg)

[Direction_indicators]
//1 Type: 0=None, 1=Vacuum Gyro, 2=Electric Gyro, 3=Electro-Mag Slaved Compass, 4=Slaved to another
//2 Indicator number of slaving indicator if Type = 4
direction_indicator.0=2,0
direction_indicator.1=2,0

[Attitude_indicators]
//Type: 0=None, 1=Vacuum Gyro, 2=Electric Gyro
attitude_indicator.0 = 2
attitude_indicator.1 = 2

Spoiler: EDIT: For info

The aircraft has only this in it's aircraft.cfg
[Autopilot]
autopilot_available=0

Changing the 0 to a 1 results in FS9/X adding these default settings to the [autopilot] section as soon as the aircraft is chosen in the "create a flight" / "free flight" dialog.

default_vertical_speed=700.000000
autothrottle_available=0
pitch_takeoff_ga=8.000000
max_pitch=10.000000
max_pitch_acceleration=1.000000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt=2.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt=1.500000
max_pitch_velocity_lo_alt_breakpoint=20000.000000
max_pitch_velocity_hi_alt_breakpoint=28000.000000
max_bank=25.000000
max_bank_acceleration=1.800000
max_bank_velocity=3.000000
max_throttle_rate=0.100000
nav_proportional_control=9.000000
nav_integrator_control=0.250000
nav_derivative_control=0.000000
nav_integrator_boundary=2.500000
nav_derivative_boundary=0.000000
gs_proportional_control=9.520000
gs_integrator_control=0.260000
gs_derivative_control=0.000000
gs_integrator_boundary=0.700000
gs_derivative_boundary=0.000000
yaw_damper_gain=0.000000

 

[Leo2789]

Hey Kyrelel,

I assume you tested in both sims?
I'm adding that to my Courier's cfg to see if it fixes the problem!

EDIT: IT FIXED IT!
Replacing the original Direction and attitude indicators entries in the aircraft.cfg with the ones you suggested worked like a charm! Thanks Kyrelel
Roy, you were tight in that the key was in the cfg
But there must've been some parameter in the air file that was influencing the fact that one of each indicator was of the type 'vacuum'; otherwise why would changing the air file result in the problem also going away? 0.o
Nevertheless I'm not really keen on obsessing over this, as long as the problem never presents itself again with another aircraft, or even if it does present, as long as changing the indicators from vacuum to electric solve the problem!

Anyways, thank you very much to you both, Roy & Kyrelel, and also thanks to all who took the time to respond to this thread and tried to help!

Leonardo

 

[Roy Holmes]

While you are changing the aircraft.cfg also delete the "autothrottle_available=0" at line 3 of the autopilot section in the aircraft.cfg. The parser reads from top to bottom and works off the last entry.
It is interesting if the change of direction indicator type fixes your issue in FS9. It makes sense because there is no electrical interface with a vacuum instrument
Roy
Edit. The incorrect entry came from the DC3 aircraft.cfg! And it did work, all very strange.

 

[Leo2789]

All very strange indeed Roy! 0.o
I guess that's FS being it's usual 'let me throw a bug here because why not?' self

I'm just happy I got to solve this, and got a solution for it, should the issue arise in other aircraft!

Once again thanks for your help!

Leonardo