Hello

A quick question please. Is there a way to protect the memory of the GTN750 so that a flight plan is not lost when power is lost?

I ask because I have recently bought the LES Saab 340A, and unfortunately power is lost when you start each engine (a bit weird to me), even though I am on ground power. This reboots the built in GTN530 GPS as well as the added GTN750, however the 530 doesn't lose the flight plan whereas the GTN750 does.

So I am asking whether there is some sort of .ini file tweak that will protect the flight plan memory, if only for a short period?

I know that I can save the plan, but I try not to do that when it includes SIDs, Stars, and approaches.

Cheers

Enter your flight plan then take the simple step of clicking on the "Menu" icon on the bottom bar of the GTN.  Then simple click "Store".  The flight plan is then saved to disk.  Note that you have (2) GTN's.  GTN_1 and GTN_2.  Most likely, as you appear to be a new user, your aircraft is configured with GTN_1.  Reason I mention it is that when you Store a flight plan you are explicitly saving it for the specific GTN you are using.  So though you save a flight plan say in GTN_1, it is not saved in GTN_2.  

In some aircraft you might find the ability to install (2) Reality XP GTN gauges.  A GTN 750_1 (or 650_1) and a GTN 750_2 (or 650_2).  You can also configure any particular aircraft to use _2 instead of _1.  Just recognize that what you save in one is not automatically saved in the other.  It requires separate entry, and Store(age).

Have you taken time to read the documentation?  It will supply a number of answers before you have the question....

Edited September 3, 20187 yr by fppilot

@fppilot

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I think that you may have misunderstood my question a little bit, or I didn't explain myself very well.

The aircraft comes with a default Garmin device, which I am not using (the 530).  If I were to use it, I would power up the aircraft and connect/use ground power. Without saving the newly created flight plan in the 530, I would then start each engine. As each engine starts power is temporarily lost and the Garmin 530 reboots, however even after the 2 reboots the flight plan remains intact, so I could then taxi away. So it's like the flight plan is held in non-volatile memory within the default Garmin 530 device.

Now with the Reality XP GTN750 in use (as GTN_1 (or GTN_2) master device), and the default Garmin switched off. If I do the same as the above, the rebooting of the GTN750 (as each engine starts) clears the flight plan.

I realise that the plan can be Stored (which I called Saved above), it just that when I add a new flight plan for the flight, I'd rather not store it because it will contain my pre-planned runways and procedures. Naturally it's better to Store a plan without procedures (which I could do). However I will store the plan with procedures if it is the only choice I have to avoid re-imputing data after the engines are running.

This is why I was wondering whether there happened to be a quick tweak (to an .ini file for example) that I could use to protect the flight plan during engine start.

In the end this isn't a big deal, I was just interested to know whether it's possible. After all this is just one of my aircraft, it just happens to be my latest purchase, and I've never known an aircraft to cut electrical power just to start engines, load shedding like air conditioning perhaps, but not this.

 

Cheers 🙂

Edit: Actually the more I think about, I think perhaps I should really be talking in the Saab forum, checking whether the system is being simulated as per the real aircraft. It's actually being powered (in the sim) from the Essential Avionics DC Bus, whereas the default GPS is on the Left Avionics switch. Losing an essential bus on engine start? It doesn't sound right

Edited September 3, 20187 yr by jumpjet
added edit

OK the real aircraft sheds these electrical buses during engine start, to protect the avionic instruments from power spikes. (From the devs).

So I guess I shall have to Store the plans anyway as a precaution.

Mods can close this thread if they wish

Thanks 🙂

 

Edited September 3, 20187 yr by jumpjet
grammar

57 minutes ago, jumpjet said:

So I guess I shall have to Store the plans anyway as a precaution.

Here is what I do for stored plans.  I Store the plans with just the major plan elements.  ex. Departure airport, Arrival airport, and the consistent legs of the route.  Based on active runways and traffic the Departure, Arrival, and Approach procedures may and often do vary.  So if you have the major plan elements in a stored plan, it is relatively easy to add in the variable elements after you are under a fully powered up state.

Also, have you found the RXP GTN's setup menu?  Shift + right click on the top border of the GTN. In FSX anyway. I am not an X-Plane user but there should be similar functions.  If you scroll down through the options you will find Power Source.  Set Power Source to Always ON and see if that does the trick for that aircraft.  The menu contains headings, so if you see a white right >, click on it to open up the available settings.   RXP GTN settings are aircraft  model specific.  They save to the particular model's "RealityXP.GTN.ini" file.

Edited September 3, 20187 yr by fppilot

11 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Here is what I do for stored plans.  I Store the plans with just the major plan elements.  ex. Departure airport, Arrival airport, and the consistent legs of the route.  Based on active runways and traffic the Departure, Arrival, and Approach procedures may and often do vary.  So if you have the major plan elements in a stored plan, it is relatively easy to add in the variable elements after you are under a fully powered up state.

Also, have you found the RXP GTN's setup menu?  Shift + right click on the top border of the GTN.  If you scroll down through the options you will find Power Source.  Set Power Source to Always ON and see if that does the trick for that aircraft.  The menu contains headings, so if you see a right >, click on it to open up the available settings.   RXP GTN settings are aircraft  model specific.  They save to the particular model's "RealityXP.GTN.ini" file.

That was it, thank you so much.

I'm glad that I picked up my new computer glasses 2 hours ago, I've had that setting menu open so many times, but embarrassingly didn't notice it was scrollable, so I had missed out on a bunch of settings, which also included the 'Always On' setting.

I've just tested it in the aircraft and everything is now tickety-boo.

Cheers 👍