Gauge is 'stuck' - any help please?

[martinlest2 58]

Hi.

I came today to fly Milton Shupe's Dash 7, with the panel that comes with the download. It used to work, I know, but now the four Engine Ignition switches (amongst some others), although they change to a hand icon when you hover the mouse over them (though with totally the wrong tooltips, nothing like those in the xml), are all 'frozen', i.e. do not move/click upwards (to 'ignition') when you click on them (as they once did, I am 99.999% sure!). Which means that the engines won't start. :mad:  (Is the gauge supposed to click back itself to the 'normal' position after the engine start??)

I downloaded the original zip again and reinstalled. Same thing, frozen overhead panel ignition switches. So I installed the aircraft into an 'out-of-the-box' FS9 installation on a separate PC - still the gauges don't move. Totally bewildered why this should be the case. The xml of one of the gauges is below. I'd really appreciate some help understanding what the problem is (so that I can fix it!).

Thanks!

Martin
 

<Gauge Name="Ignition Sw1" Version="1.0">
<Element>
<Select>
<Value>(A:TURB ENG IGNITION SWITCH:1,bool)</Value>
<Case Value="0">
<Image Name="Switch_on2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
</Case>
<Case Value="1">
<Image Name="Switch_off2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
</Case>
</Select>
</Element>
<Mouse>
<Tooltip ID="TOOLTIPTEXT_TURB_ENG_IGNITION_SWITCH"/>
<Cursor Type="Hand"/>
<Click>1 (>K:TURBINE_IGNITION_SWITCH_TOGGLE)</Click>
</Mouse>
</Gauge>

[martinlest2 58]

OK, using an xml file that works as a template, I wrote the one below, (plus three more to start engines 2,3 & 4, of course!) to replace the code above, and having updated the panel.cfg file as necessary, all the ignition switches work just fine now, allowing engine startup and clicking back to normal position automatically when the engine is running.

<Gauge Name="Ign_1" Version="1.0">
   <Element>
      <Select>
         <Value>(L:Starter1v,bool)</Value>
         <Case Value="0">
            <Image Name="Bat_On.bmp" ImageSizes="40,67"/>
         </Case>
         <Case Value="1">
            <Image Name="Bat_Off.bmp" ImageSizes="40,67"/>
         </Case>
      </Select>
   </Element>
   <Element>
      <Select>
         <Value>(L:Starter1v,bool) (A:Circuit general panel on, bool) and (A:Turb Eng1 N1,percent) 45 > and if{ (>K:TOGGLE_STARTER1) 0 (>L:Starter1v,bool) }</Value>
      </Select>
   </Element>
   <Mouse>
      <Cursor Type="Hand"/>
      <Click>(L:Starter1v,bool) ! (>L:Starter1v,bool) } 1 (>L:Switch_Sound,bool)</Click>
   </Mouse>
</Gauge>

I would be very interested to know what in the code produces switches which do not move however. here is another example from the same panel.. This pitot switch clicks up and down normally and turns the pitot on and off in the sim:

<Gauge Name="Pitot Icing Switch" Version="1.0">
   <Element>
      <Select>
         <Value>(A:Pitot heat,bool)</Value>
         <Case Value="0">
            <Image Name="Switch_off2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
         <Case Value="1">
            <Image Name="Switch_on2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
      </Select>
   </Element>
   <Mouse>
      <Help ID="HELPID_GAUGE_PITOT_HEAT_SWITCH"/>
      <Cursor Type="Hand"/>
      <Click Event="PITOT_HEAT_TOGGLE"/>
   </Mouse>
</Gauge>

But the two icing switches next to it do not move at all, they are again 'frozen' solid (and they should move when you click on them - they used to in fact, as I have them marked as doing so in a panel document I made a couple of years back). Yet the code is almost the same as the above (working) pitot switch. This is the one for prop deicing:

<Gauge Name="Prop Icing Switch" Version="1.0">
   <Element>
      <Select>
         <Value>(A:PROP DEICE SWITCH, bool)</Value>
         <Case Value="0">
            <Image Name="Switch_off2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
         <Case Value="1">
            <Image Name="Switch_on2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
      </Select>
   </Element>
   <Mouse>
      <Help ID="HELPID_GAUGE_DEICE_SWITCH"/>
      <Cursor Type="Hand"/>
      <Click Event="TOGGLE_PROPELLER_DEICE"/>
   </Mouse>
</Gauge>

Nor do any of the Aux Fuel Pump switches move, either:

<Gauge Name="Fuel Pump1" Version="1.0">
   <Element>
      <Select>
         <Value>(A:GENERAL ENG1 FUEL PUMP SWITCH,bool)</Value>
         <Case Value="0">
            <Image Name="Switch_off2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
         <Case Value="1">
            <Image Name="Switch_on2.bmp" ImageSizes="37,74"/>
         </Case>
      </Select>
   </Element>
   <Mouse>
      <Tooltip ID="TOOLTIPTEXT_ENG1_FUEL_PUMP"/>
         <Help ID=""/>
      <Cursor Type="Hand"/>
      <Click>TOGGLE_ELECT_FUEL_PUMP1</Click>
      </Mouse>
</Gauge>

(Does anyone who who has this Dash-7 installed be kind enough to check all this?).

 

I can't seem to fix the deice and pump gauges in the way I managed to fix the ignition switches... Is there some other factor other than the xml code that is stopping these switches from moving?

 

M.

[N60JBravo 27]

What sim are you using?

 

Which version of this plane are you using?

[martinlest2 58]

FS9..

 

I don't think that the version of the panel I am using at the moment is the same as the one I had before, which worked fine. I just noticed that in the overhead panel bitmap, the DC Generator switches are 'on' when up and 'off' when in the down position. I have screenshots of the panel when it was working properly, and that is reversed. I can't see mkore than one version available.

 

This gets odder and odder....

[martinlest2 58]

... there is also a Structure Deice switch, whereas in the screenshot I took a few years back, there is no such switch on the overhead panel, just the pitot and Prop deice.

[N60JBravo 27]

I downloaded dash7c1.zip and installed it in FS9.

 

Engine starts as advertised in the startup procedure screenshot.

 

The four switches on the overhead that are above the fuel gauges are actually fuel switches, not ignition switches.

 

I found no XML in that download that matches your OP.

 

Since I have no idea what you are actually using I can't be of more help other than to suggest a default flight conflict or a controller conflict.

 

regards,

Joe

[martinlest2 58]

Thanks Joe. As I say, I am totally confused about this - I have been abroad some years and in the interim haven't flown the Dash-7, so I have no memory now of panel versions I might have used. My earliest backup, from 2013, has the panel just as it is now, so my screenshots of an earlier (or at least, different) version must have been made well prior to that.

 

I have managed to replace all the frozen switches with others, so they all move at least now, though the two deicing switches are now just dummies, with no function. Best I can get at the present time.

 

Thanks again for trying it out.

 

Martin

[N60JBravo 27]

OK, recently this plane (originally built for FS2k2) was converted for use in FSX. The same group updated the plane for FS9. I believe this is what you are trying to now use.

 

I found the new FS9 version at flightsim.com, file name- dash7pkg9.zip.

 

In that package I found gauges that match the XML you posted in the OP.

 

The K event and tooltip in that gauge are new to FSX which is why they don't work in FS9.

 

As Paul Harvey used to say, "...and now you know,...the rest..of the story."

 

regards,

Joe

[martinlest2 58]

I am using the aircraft and panel in dash7pkg9.zip, for FS9, yes. You say that there are some features of the gauges in there that do not work in FS9 though? I wonder if I was originally using the FS2002 version (that was the version of FS I started using some 15 years ago)?? Not sure about that, but whatever version I originally used in FS9 was fine, with all the switches working (although, as I mentioned above, not all the switches are exactly the same, according to screenshots of the panel I took at the time and saved, as those in the current a/c).

 

I assume then, that having installed dash7pkg9.zip into FS9, you have the same issue with frozen switches? I have managed to replace them all with working alternatives, and substituted the Dash-7 bitmaps so they look the same. Only the prop and structure ice switches don't work now, and I have substituted dummies (again, as I said somewhere above).

 

Thanks again for looking into this Joe.

 

Martin