Battery run down

[Wink207 78]

Hi all:

Just bought the S550 today and am conducting self orientation. I have read through a lot of the forum and found numerous good tips. However, one thing keeps shutting down my cockpit orientation. The battery runs down in no time at all, maybe 2-3 minutes, and everything goes dark. I have searched the docs as well as looked at every switch on the panel and I can't figure out what is the drain. The only way out is to start the engines but I don't want to do that until I have prepped the aircraft. What am I missing?

Thanks

[el_kab0ng 29]

Are you using the GPU?

[~Craig~ 10]

Yep, you need to turn on the GPU (it's on the config panel, on Shift+..... one of the numbers!).

[raymar 969]

See if you can find this popup.

 

Regards,

Ray

[autogyro 18]

FSX, and therefore Carenado battery modelling is woeful.

 

Although the GPU is a nice workaround, what happens when you have an engine failure at FL300? You shouldn't lose your instruments too after 5 mins, certainly not enough time to get down and land.

 

You have 3 options:

 

1. If you have FSUIPC, registered edition, you can adjust battery discharge rate.

 

2. Adjust the actual battery amp draw, down to about 4 amps total through the aircraft.cfg file. The capacity of the FSX battery is for something like a C172 or C152, it simply doesn't have enough capacity for the majority of aircraft. Nor does half of the amp draw variables really work anyway. The visual appearance can be corrected through gauge coding. This is how I fixed the PC12 to have 1 hour idle discharge and about 40 mins in flight, with the amp indications at least appearing more realistic.

 

3. Write a custom battery variable and introduce it as a gauge through sim connect. Best way, but need to know coding.

[Wink207 78]

Thank you all. Now I'm kinda wondering whether this was $50  well spent. How would I know about the config panel without you guys and this forum. Did I miss a doc somewhere?

[raymar 969]

Yes, I think you missed it along with everyone else that was looking for some type of Flight Manual for initial orientation and startup. The series of a handful of small pdfs really can't replace a basic Operations or Flight Manual. But, it seems all our recommendations continue to fall on deaf ears.

 

It is absolutley mind boggling how Carenado continues to ignore some of the basics like what is included, where information is located, and what is not included.

 

I looked back through several other Carenado add ons and the documentation is not getting any better as the prices continue to increase. If anything, we are getting less and less documentation.

 

A good tip for any recent (last 5 years) add on is to cycle through Shift +2 through Shift +9 for configurations, set ups, and popups.

 

Of course, the fall back is to do exactly what you did. Go to the forums and ask.

 

Regards,

Ray

[raymar 969]

FSX, and therefore Carenado battery modelling is woeful.

 

Although the GPU is a nice workaround, what happens when you have an engine failure at FL300? You shouldn't lose your instruments too after 5 mins, certainly not enough time to get down and land.

 

You have 3 options:

 

1. If you have FSUIPC, registered edition, you can adjust battery discharge rate.

 

2. Adjust the actual battery amp draw, down to about 4 amps total through the aircraft.cfg file. The capacity of the FSX battery is for something like a C172 or C152, it simply doesn't have enough capacity for the majority of aircraft. Nor does half of the amp draw variables really work anyway. The visual appearance can be corrected through gauge coding. This is how I fixed the PC12 to have 1 hour idle discharge and about 40 mins in flight, with the amp indications at least appearing more realistic.

 

3. Write a custom battery variable and introduce it as a gauge through sim connect. Best way, but need to know coding.

Flight1.com has an Aircraft Battery Utility that will do exactly what you are looking for. It is a little pricy but works great and solves the obvious lack of proper coding in the FS by Microsoft.

 

Regards,

 

Ray

[autogyro 18]

That's brilliant, gonna need to look into that, thanks raymar

 

Edit: if all it does is adjust battery drain time then it's the same as having registered FSUIPC. Need to see if it fixes amps and whether drain rate is linear or not.

[raymar 969]

That's brilliant, gonna need to look into that, thanks raymar

 

Edit: if all it does is adjust battery drain time then it's the same as having registered FSUIPC. Need to see if it fixes amps and whether drain rate is linear or not.

It is Flight1 so you get 30 days to check it out.

 

Ray

[~Craig~ 10]

Just perhaps worth reiterating that you absolutely don't need the above F1 product if you already own FSUIPC regd version.  There's a utility in the GUI that let's you choose an unlimited batter life, or else a specified one.

 

$12.95 for that battery addon;  not that much cheaper than a registered version of FSUIPC, which means getting tons of other features too, and supporting the fantastic development work of Pete Dowson.   No brainer.  2c.

[Wink207 78]

Thanks everyone. I went the FSUIPC route. Works fine.