PilotWatch - Fly safely when AFK

[Daniel Lange 1352906 5]

Perhaps it's not the best practice in terms of realism, but let's be honest; when flying in cruise we often tab out the game and watch Netflix, make dinner or wash some clothes. I bet most of you don't fancy ticking the option in the flight sim to hear sounds even when tabbed out, so you can engine roars on top of Netflix. So when will you know something fails? When you come back and your flight has respawned? As a small side project I've now created PilotWatch, it's a small program which communicates with the flight sim, and PMDG airplanes, to monitor for warnings on your flight.

PilotWatch is meant to be activated once you go AFK, else you'll probably get spammed by all kinds of warnings before you get to cruise. Once an warning is detected, it'll play a sound and send you a notification. Disable the alarm by opening the program.

The purpose of the program is not to encourage pilots to leave their seat for more than 30 minutes on VATSIM (according to Code of Conduct) or break similar rules on other networks. The tool is simply to give you an additional heads up if you're not currently actively monitoring your simulator.

Warnings monitored
737: Fire, Master Caution, Anti-ice, Hydraulic, Doors, Engine, Overhead, Cond, Auto-pilot, Auto-throttle.
777: Master Caution, Master Warning

Compatibility
FlightWatch is made to work with Windows 10 and Prepar3D v.4.2. Theoretically you should be able to use earlier versions of Windows, but this is not tested, let me know if it works for you! The supported version of Prepar3D is absolute, you will not be able to use it on any other version. Due to the nature of 64-bit in P3D, It will require too much double-up work to make this compatible P3D v1-3 or FSX. I'll however look into the possibility to support 4.0 and up later on.

Works with: PMDG NGX 737 and PMDG 777.

Download
Newest version: Beta 1
Install by placing the folder where you want, preferably outside Program Files folder.

Important installation note!
In order for FlightWatch to receive data, you must tell PMDG to broadcast it, and by default this is turned off. Go to your PMDG folder in P3D, then the plane you're going to use, and open Options.ini and add this line at the bottom, and save:

[SDK]
EnableDataBroadcast=1

Example where you find this file: C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\737NGX_Options.ini

Disclaimer
This is a very early version of the program, so I can't guarantee it'll cover all kind of warnings. If you do find bugs, crashes, or warnings which are not covered, let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to add them! Please help me test this! Once we get NGX perfected, I'll be easier for me to complete the other PMDG planes.

[vhufo 35]

Beg my ignorance to technology, but am i right in saying this sends a notification to your mobile phone?

 

If so, a great idea!

 

It just so happened the other day i was doing exactly as you speak, went away to fire up some lunch, came back to see my PMDG 737 just about to stall.

 

Somehow the landing gear deployed in the cruise, don't ask me how.

 

Anyway again great idea!

Edited May 24, 2018 by vhufo

[Daniel Lange 1352906 5]

8 minutes ago, vhufo said:

Beg my ignorance to technology, but am i right in saying this sends a notification to your mobile phone?

 

If so, a great idea!

 

It just so happened the other day i was doing exactly as you speak, went away to fire up some lunch, came back to see my PMDG 737 just about to stall.

 

Somehow the landing gear deployed in the cruise, don't ask me how.

 

Anyway again great idea!

Not quite (yet at least), it sends a notification on your computer, and plays an alert sound in loop. So if you've sound on speakers, perhaps you'd hear it when making yourself some lunch! To disable the alarm, simply open the program and it will stop.

I'll look into notifications on your mobile sometime in the future I think 🙂

[188AHC 2,138]

Will you be adding this to the Avsim library?

I ask because I tried your link and it was blocked.  At any rate  if you are offering this as freeware you should certainly add it to the library then all members will have access to it.

Thanks.

 

 

[kowen 64]

Blocked too.

This is a neat concept but will it work with GA aircraft? I'll be honest, I'll put a bird up and go outside and mow my lawn for a bit. Something like A2A AFK in which you can put in parameters such as distance, time, altitude, and emergency and it will pause the sim if the parameters are met. 

[Captain Kevin 586]

Nice thing about multi-monitor setups is that if I want to do something else, I can easily do it on another screen. Though lately, since I mostly do live streams of my flights, this generally won't happen.

[Daniel Lange 1352906 5]

Sorry for the unavailable link, not sure what happened there. Here's a new download link which works 🙂 

 

11 hours ago, 188AHC said:

Will you be adding this to the Avsim library?

I ask because I tried your link and it was blocked.  At any rate  if you are offering this as freeware you should certainly add it to the library then all members will have access to it.

Thanks.

 

 

Unfortunataly the AVSIM Library rules state that "Prior to uploading your file, please make sure you have completed a thorough beta testing period in order to assure your file is worthy of uploading.", and as this is so to speak the first release of beta, it won't comply with the rule. I'll surely upload it to the library once the tool is in a more tested and finished state!

 

11 hours ago, kowen said:

Blocked too.

This is a neat concept but will it work with GA aircraft? I'll be honest, I'll put a bird up and go outside and mow my lawn for a bit. Something like A2A AFK in which you can put in parameters such as distance, time, altitude, and emergency and it will pause the sim if the parameters are met. 

Check above for new working download link.

For now it only works with PMDG 737 and 777. I've looked into A2A a bit when you mentioned it, but I did not find any SDK (Development kit) which could provide the information the tool needs in order to alert you. Theoretically you can use the tool, and click on PMDG 737 (even when flying other aircraft), and it will at least warn you about stall and overspeed, unfortunately that's often a bit too late to intervene.

[kowen 64]

2 hours ago, Daniel Lange 1352906 said:

Sorry for the unavailable link, not sure what happened there. Here's a new download link which works 🙂 

 

Unfortunataly the AVSIM Library rules state that "Prior to uploading your file, please make sure you have completed a thorough beta testing period in order to assure your file is worthy of uploading.", and as this is so to speak the first release of beta, it won't comply with the rule. I'll surely upload it to the library once the tool is in a more tested and finished state!

 

Check above for new working download link.

For now it only works with PMDG 737 and 777. I've looked into A2A a bit when you mentioned it, but I did not find any SDK (Development kit) which could provide the information the tool needs in order to alert you. Theoretically you can use the tool, and click on PMDG 737 (even when flying other aircraft), and it will at least warn you about stall and overspeed, unfortunately that's often a bit too late to intervene.

Daniel, 

Rgr, understood, will try it out tonight. 

Don't think you would need the A2A SDK, but something simple like pause (or alert) if the altitude went below X or pause if distance and/or time exceeded X. A2A has an emergency parameter so I am thinking that the sim will throw that event. Another parameter would be extreme variations in VSI as well. 

[Daniel Lange 1352906 5]

1 hour ago, kowen said:

Daniel, 

Rgr, understood, will try it out tonight. 

Don't think you would need the A2A SDK, but something simple like pause (or alert) if the altitude went below X or pause if distance and/or time exceeded X. A2A has an emergency parameter so I am thinking that the sim will throw that event. Another parameter would be extreme variations in VSI as well. 

That's correct, watching the aircraft altitude will not require any external SDK's as it's already in standard P3D. However the only alerts I found in the standard P3D SDK is stall and overspeed. Other cautions/warnings are usually only received through the manufactures' SDK, if there's any. If you've any documentation for A2A parameter you mentioned, that'd be great; then I can check it out as I did not find anything specific when I searched.

However, good idea about creating possibility to watch altitude, VS and perhaps distance/time! That would probably make more GA-pilots happy, and not depend on specific aircrafts like PMDG! I'll look into implementing something like that for the next version.

[kowen 64]

Pause is the key. Use case: last night I was flying the Carenado 208 on a 2-hour leg. Typically, I stay at my computer and do other things, but the little girl comes in and could not sleep. It took a bit, but I got her back asleep but when I got back, I completely overshot the airport. I would have been nice to put in the length of my trip and have it pause.