Beechcraft Baron

[Philipei 0]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a setting in the P3Dv4 control assignment options or in FSUIPC5 to enable mapping of the LO (intermediate) setting on the Beechcraft Baron 58 to a panel button or the keyboard? I can toggle both pumps, or either individually,  from OFF to HI  - mapped to a button on a panel using FSUIPC, but I can't find any way to select LO (other than with the mouse, which I want to avoid as much as possible). There only seems to be one option in the FSUIPC list (Fuel Pump) and also only one option in the P3D controls - ON or OFF, both giving HI for ON. Or, if LO is set with the mouse then  the assigned button/key will toggle between OFF and LO, but exclude HI. Any suggestions would be much appreciated,

Philip McComiskey

[Olympic260 415]

16 minutes ago, Philipei said:

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a setting in the P3Dv4 control assignment options or in FSUIPC5 to enable mapping of the LO (intermediate) setting on the Beechcraft Baron 58 to a panel button or the keyboard? I can toggle both pumps, or either individually,  from OFF to HI  - mapped to a button on a panel using FSUIPC, but I can't find any way to select LO (other than with the mouse, which I want to avoid as much as possible). There only seems to be one option in the FSUIPC list (Fuel Pump) and also only one option in the P3D controls - ON or OFF, both giving HI for ON. Or, if LO is set with the mouse then  the assigned button/key will toggle between OFF and LO, but exclude HI. Any suggestions would be much appreciated,

Philip McComiskey

Phillip,

 

You have posted to the PMDG forum. This is a question for the P3D general forum. I have transferred your post there

[onebob 125]

Hi Phillip, welcome to the Prepar3D forum, just checked it out, there appears to be only two positions in the 3d panel, however you are able to toggle through to all three in the 2d panel,

bob

[Philipei 0]

Thanks Bob, I'll have a look at that,

Philip

[Philipei 0]

Thanks Bob,

I had a look at that. Actually, I find that I am using the 2D panel for instruments. I have 4 monitors in an enclosed cockpit set-up; 3 monitors for external views - front and both sides -   I use virtual cockpit views for those 3 views - suitably adjusted and orientated to create the desired effect. The 4th monitor I use for instruments and populate it with undocked 2D windows of various instrument clusters, one of those being the 2D version of the main panel. As you point out on that version the fuel pump can be toggled through off / lo / hi, but I can only map off / lo  or off / hi through a key or button. I can't find a way to map the 3 positions off/lo/hi through a key or button. I have to use the mouse to toggle the 3 positions. Perhaps there is no other way.

I have also run into a puzzling phenomenon in relation to starting the BB58 from D&C. If I could pick your brains on that issue too I'd be most grateful. Let me know if that would be okay. 

Philip

[onebob 125]

2 hours ago, Philipei said:

have also run into a puzzling phenomenon in relation to starting the BB58 from D&C. If I could pick your brains on that issue too I'd be most grateful. Let me know if that would be okay. 

Hi Philip, Haven't used the default  Baron for a long time but ask anyway, if I can't help I sure someone else can,

bob

[Philipei 0]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for that.

First - you say you don’t fly the default Baron any more - is there a buy-in Baron option you could recommend?

I have the PMDG 737NGX for P3Dv4 but have only dipped my toe in that so far, although  the default 737 in FSXSE has been my favourite aircraft for the past couple of years. Any more complex 737 seemed pointless to me with FSXSE because of the OOM problems I was already doing battle with. I am using ORBX scenery including ORBX EU and have ORBX IRL too, but that was virtually unusable with the the 737 in FSXSE because of OOM issues.

But P3Dv4 and the 64 bit world changes everything - I think it is magnificent and opens all sorts of doors to better mirroring reality. ORBX IRL works beautifully with P3Dv4 and  OOM is no longer an issue - there are lots of other issues, but that’s all part of the fun.

 

Now, the BB58 puzzling issue I mentioned has to do with the Fuel Selector positions.

As you know, each fuel selector has three positions - OFF, ON and CROSSFEED. There is no way to map these positions to any keyboard key or any panel button using the control assignment options in P3Dv4, that I can see. They can be mapped through FSUIPC which gives the options “fuel selector off” , “fuel selector centre” and “fuel selector right” for the L/H engine settings: Fuel Selector OFF / ON / CROSSFEED; and “fuel selector 2 off” , “fuel selector 2 centre” and “fuel selector 2 left” for the R/H engine settings:  Fuel Selector OFF / ON / CROSSFEED.

So I mapped these positions for each selector to 6 different keys on the keyboard having made sure that none of these keys were already assigned through P3Dv4 control options to anything else, or if they were,  first deleting such assignments.

Having done that and having shut everything off and turned the fuel selectors to OFF, I saved the Baron parked, dead and cold. I  assigned everything that I could to mimic RW conditions (I used to do a bit of RW flying years ago - so I am trying to revisit that type of situation - health prevents the obvious solution).  

So I open the scenario and go through the checklist and come to “start”, dealing with one engine at a time. The checklist naturally includes turning the fuel selector to ON. I go through the correct procedures re Electrics,  Sufficient Fuel, Prop, Mixture , Throttle, Fuel pump on and off, crack throttle etc, then using a mapped key I turn the starter/magneto switch clockwise to “start”, and hold,  - but the engine won’t start. It will turn, but it won’t start. It turns merrily, but no smoke - not a splutter.

(It will start, from D&C,  if I use Ctrl + E which is “auto start”, and auto-start, as part of the starting procedure, selects ON for the fuel selector too. But I don’t want to use auto start. The engines will start will start from any crazy settings configuration using auto start, which is not anything like the RW.)

Experimenting,  I tried other options with some very puzzling outcomes.

If I begin again, from D&C and turn the selector from OFF to CROSSFEED (instead of to ON), using the key to which I had the CROSSFEED option mapped, the engine will start. The same applies to the second engine. With the selector keys mapped in that way the engines  will only start with the  selectors at CROSSFEED.

Having started the engines at CROSSFEED, (having selected CROSSFEED using the mapped keys), if I then turn either selector back to ON, (again using the mapped keys) the engine(s) will immediately stop !

If I fly the aircraft with the selectors at CROSSFEED it performs fine, even when thrown about a bit, although the POH warns strongly against  using CROSSFEED in flight except in crisis situations.

On the off chance that the keys involved were doing something in the background that I was missing, I remapped the ON position for one engine, to a totally different key, which I borrowed from another assignment, so I absolutely knew it was not mapped behind the scenes to anything to do with  the engine, and using it to turn the selector from CROSSFEED  to ON, the engine still stopped.

The really puzzling thing is, if I use the mouse, instead of the key,  to turn the selector from CROSSFEED to ON, the engine stays working fine !

So my current solution is. I have deleted all 6 keyboard assignments for the fuel selectors. I start the scenario D&C with the selectors OFF  and use the mouse to turn them on, and now the engines start fine. I don’t really like using the mouse, but I may have to live with that.

Why the mysterious outcomes using mapped keys? Any ideas?

Thanks for taking the time to read all that.

Philip

[onebob 125]

Will get back to you on this Philip, will have another look.

bob

 

[Philipei 0]

Thanks very much Bob. Needless to say, no rush. Much appreciate your taking the time,

Philip

[onebob 125]

12 hours ago, Philipei said:

Thanks very much Bob. Needless to say, no rush. Much appreciate your taking the time,

Philip

Hi Philip, did the same key assignments as you, I used 'I' & 'O' ( after deleting duplicate in P3D) and got the same results. Engines will not start, and what's odd is that the 'key assignment's appeared to be recognised and that when used shuts the engines down.

Did look at the original controls for FSX and there were no key assignments listed for fuel selectors. It may be that nothing was hard coded into the original default airplanes like the Baron.

As you say the mouse works so that's the way to go.

You may have to delete the ones you have used, also check in the FSUIPC5.ini file (in the Modules folder) and delete if any are still present.

As to your question re

12 hours ago, Philipei said:

is there a buy-in Baron option you could recommend?

Milviz do a b55-b58 series buts its not been updated for the Prepar3D v4 , so lets hope they will in the near future.

bob

 

[Philipei 0]

Thanks for going through that Bob. It's reassuring to know that I'm not losing my mind (yet). There must be some sort of coding conflict going on in the background. Anyway, the mouse is fine. I was just puzzled as to why the mapping wouldn't work.   I know it's impossible to eliminate the mouse altogether, and I suspect when I move on to the PMDG 737 that I'll be using it a lot.

I have cleared the assignments from FSUIPC and will have a look in the ini file as you suggest. I didn't think of that.

I'll keep an eye out for the  Milviz v4 version of the BB58.

Thanks again Bob,

Philip

[onebob 125]

4 hours ago, Philipei said:

There must be some sort of coding conflict going on in the background.

Hi Philip, just had another go with the FSuipc5 ver 5.124 and it appears to be working, I used same keys I & O and used fuel selector 'left ' and fuel selector 2 'right'

bob

[Philipei 0]

Thanks Bob, 

I'll have another look at it - I must check my version of FSUIPC5, but I'm assuming it is the latest as I only bought it a few weeks ago.

On my settings, the option in FSUIPC that I was using for "ON" was "fuel selector centre", which seems to mean the selector in it's centre position, which is ON. When I map that and press the key the fuel selector tap rotates to the centre, which is ON. When I map the key, for example, for the left hand tank, to "fuel selector right", when that key is pressed the tap will rotate fully to the right, which is "CROSSFEED" and the engine will start, and for the right hand tank "left" will rotate that tap fully to the left, which again is CROSSFEED and that engine will start. But neither engine will start with the the selectors chosen to centre, which is "ON". Is your "left" and "right" rotating the taps to ON or to  CROSSFEED?

Overall I am continuing to explore FSUIPC's options - it's undoubtedly a brilliant piece of software. Last night I remapped the elevator control on the BB58 to FSUIPC and using its "slope" option was able to quieten the sensitivity to very like RW feeling - the P3Dv4 elevator sensitivity, even with the sensitivity turned  down to 10, was hair trigger and I doubt if it's anything like how it might feel in reality.

Philip

 

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Philipei

[onebob 125]

2 hours ago, Philipei said:

Overall I am continuing to explore FSUIPC's options

Thanks for getting back, Just had another go,

this what it ends up in the fsuipc5.ini file :-

 

[Keys]
9=73,8,65957,0  -{I: Press=FUEL_SELECTOR_LEFT }-
11=79,8,66519,0  -{O: Press=FUEL_SELECTOR_2_RIGHT }-
13=73,9,65955,0  -{shft+I: Press=FUEL_SELECTOR_OFF }-
15=79,9,66516,0  -{shft+O: Press=FUEL_SELECTOR_2_OFF }-

not sorted cross feed out yet

I moves left tank to on

o moves right tank to on

shift I turns fuel off in left tank

shift o turns fuel off in right tank.

just a thought are you confirming the selection.

haven't got back to re-assigning the controls in fsuipc5 yet. but thanks for the elevator info on the baron.

bob

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by onebob

[Philipei 0]

Yep, I am confirming the selection - I must be missing something else - I haven't looked in the fsuipc5.ini file; I haven't really done much  "in-file" adjustments - but I guess it's time I took a look at that end of things. I'll experiment over the next few days. (I'll make a back-up file first).

Thanks again Bob.

Philip