Some issues with the A330 in Voice control

[scotth6 74]

Hi,

I have been having some issues when using voice control with the A330.  Mostly minor.

Yesterday I was using the UK2 voice set, and today I was using the DE voice set, both in the same A330.  Yesterday I did not use the pre flight events, today I did use the pre flight events.

I noticed the same issues on both occasions.

First, there is no contact with ground crew.  I receive the initial contact from ground crew, but they do not respond again when I have replied with "Go Ahead".  They also do not respond at all if I call them, so I can not ask them to do anything like remove ground equipment.  I have UGCX installed, but I had not activated it prior to these issues.

Second, and I have noticed this issue on and off on several FS2Crew products, the F/O will sometimes respond to his own checklist items immediately, before I am given a chance to respond.  This only happens sometimes, and irregularly.  Today it happened on 3 items in the "Before start checklist to the line".  When I restarted the checklist, he did not do it the second time around.  He then did it again on a few items in the following checklist.  The flight attendant also skipped waiting for my response when asking to board passengers.

Cheers,

[byork 2,258]

1. Please provide more detail.

Which exact section from the manual are you referring to?

I suspect it's UGCX... as a test, try changing your UGCX profile for the a330 to 'menu control.'

Then we'll know.

 

2.Lower the sensitivity on your mic.  And keep your mic away from your speakers.  This is purely the result of the speech system detecting things on its own.

 

[scotth6 74]

On 1/1/2020 at 6:25 PM, byork said:

1. Please provide more detail.

Which exact section from the manual are you referring to?

I suspect it's UGCX... as a test, try changing your UGCX profile for the a330 to 'menu control.'

Then we'll know.

 

Hi Bryan,

I am referring to the Airbus Pro "Before Start Procedures" section, number 18 and 21.

I just tried again tonight. I set UGCX to "Menu Control" but things got even worse.  Just prior to the agent asking if it was OK to board passengers, at 18 minutes, I got the ground crew saying "OK captain, the ???? is removed and I'll see you on the left hand side with the pin"  Not sure, but I think that's the FS2Crew Airbus ground crew and not UGCX.  He repeated this line about 10 times and then the F/O said "Checked" about 5 times in 3 seconds.  I had not made any noises or commands.

However, with UGCX set to Menu Control the Airbus FS2Crew did recognise and respond to my voice in the Before Start Procedures section, numbers 18 and 21.

Cheers,

Edited January 2, 2020 by scotth6

[byork 2,258]

Are you trying to use the FS2Crew pushback that comes with the Airbus and UGCX at the same time?

I'm really not sure how you got ".... well see you on the left hand side with the pin"... if you didn't already trigger the pushback.

 

Me confused 😉

Anyone else ever get this?

 

 

[scotth6 74]

4 minutes ago, byork said:

Me confused 😉

 

Me too 😊

 

It was very strange.  The phrase was played a number of times, and the first one started about a second before the agent asked if she could start the boarding.  The first three or four times there was a gap of about 5 seconds between the recording playing, and then it played about 5 times in  arow, one after the other.  The F/O then started saying "Checked, checked, checked, checked....." until after another 10 seconds or so they both called it quits.  I continued on with the preflight and at the 2 minute mark (I think) the ground crew contacted me, I responded, and they responded back again.

I wasn't really using UGCX, as the first time I would actually "use" that, or start it up, would be after I have talked to the Airbus ground crew during the preflight, ie, I had not initiated the UGCX pushback tug to connect.

Cheers,

[byork 2,258]

Hmmm, let me know if it happens again.

If you can reproduce it, I can fix... but reproducibility is key.

 

[scotth6 74]

19 minutes ago, byork said:

Hmmm, let me know if it happens again.

If you can reproduce it, I can fix... but reproducibility is key.

 

 

 

Hi Bryan,

I am just in the process of doing that right now, and it is repeatable for me.  I have UGCX set to menu control, I am using the SD voice set for the FS2Crew Airbus, and I'm in the A330 (DragonAir).

I am running the pre flight, but I have "pushback required" set to "No".

When it reaches 18 minutes, the agent asks if she can start the boarding, and then immediately I hear the ground crew announce "OK Captain, the tug is removed and I will see you on the left hand side with the pin".  This time it only happened once.  I then answered the agent, and boarding started.  After a few more minutes I ran the departure brief.  Once the brief was completed, I got the "OK Captain, the tug is removed and I will see you on the left hand side with the pin" message three times in a row, followed by the F/O saying "Checked" three or four times in a row"  after that it settled down again and worked OK.  I am just running it a few times tonight and tomorrow with a few different settings to see if it is any particular settings or a conflict with UGCX.

The Airbus is being started in the "Turnaround" state.  I also just noticed that in the Airbus ground equipment menu on the MCDU, both external power and GPU are connected.  I am guessing that the Airbus is connecting one in the "Turnaround" state and FS2Crew is connecting the other.

When I ask for the external power to be disconnected, the ground crew DOES disconnect them both, which is good.  I wonder, as an addition, would it be possible for the voice command to the ground crew to include removal of all the Airbus ground equipment, such as cones and chocks?

 

Cheers,

Edited January 2, 2020 by scotth6

[byork 2,258]

I just tried to reproduce it.

FS2Crew Airbus was set to Voice.

UGCX was set to Menu Control.

I ran the Pre-flight events using the Turnaround State.

Pushback required was set to NO on the FSCrew Config panel.

 

Everything went perfect.

So it's a mystery 🙂

 

[scotth6 74]

4 minutes ago, byork said:

I just tried to reproduce it.

FS2Crew Airbus was set to Voice.

UGCX was set to Menu Control.

I ran the Pre-flight events using the Turnaround State.

Pushback required was set to NO on the FSCrew Config panel.

 

Everything went perfect.

So it's a mystery 🙂

 

 

 

OK,  thanks for checking anyway.  I have ran it and taken off a few times now, and it is just that rogue message that sneaks in, but apart from that everything runs pretty well.  Now I will have to check again if the Airbus ground crew will still communicate with UGCX set to voice.  So far I have had it set to menu, but then switched it back to voice for the UGCX pushback, and the pushback has been working well.

Another minor point I have noticed over the past few flights on the A330, the F/O does not seem to be operating the landing lights before takeoff, or when passing 10,000 feet, during climb or descent.

Cheers,

[byork 2,258]

Something may have recently changed with the Landing Lights with all the recent updates.

I'll check it and fix.

Have you spotted anything else?

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by byork

[scotth6 74]

Thanks Bryan,

No, I think it was just the APU (mentioned in the other thread) and the landing lights.

Cheers,

[byork 2,258]

Regarding the weird "push back pin" things, run the pre-flight events, but leave Hard Mute on so nothing said can affect the sim.

What happens then?

Edited January 2, 2020 by byork

[scotth6 74]

1 hour ago, byork said:

Regarding the weird "push back pin" things, run the pre-flight events, but leave Hard Mute on so nothing said can affect the sim.

What happens then?

 

I am just checking that now.  Give me a bit of time and I will report back.

There is also one other thing I have been noticing.  Upon initialisation of the FS2Crew pre flight events, when the Airbus is in in turnaround state, and is powered up, the F/O does something to turn the power off.  I think he switches off the external power switch(es) on the overhead.

 

Edit:  He does switch off the external power switch which is already on.  I suppose the pre flight needs to be done from a cold and dark state, and not a turnaround state.

Edited January 2, 2020 by scotth6

[scotth6 74]

I have just run through the preflight with HM set, up to the point where I answered the agent to start boarding.  This time, there was no ground crew announcement at that point.  I then skipped four minutes, ran the departure brief, and at the end of that I got five consecutive "checked" anouncements from the F/O, followed by the ground crew reporting they would see me on the left hand side with the pin.

I then ran it again after a sim restart, and this time I turned hard mute on even after I answered the agent to initiate boarding.  This time there were no rogue messages from the ground crew or rogue "checked" announcements from the F/O.  it seems that something is being picked up in my mic and intiating that ground crew message, but I'm not sure what that would be.  Strange too, that it always happened at the 18 minute mark and after the departure briefing.

[byork 2,258]

13 hours ago, scotth6 said:

I have just run through the preflight with HM set, up to the point where I answered the agent to start boarding.  This time, there was no ground crew announcement at that point.  I then skipped four minutes, ran the departure brief, and at the end of that I got five consecutive "checked" anouncements from the F/O, followed by the ground crew reporting they would see me on the left hand side with the pin.

I then ran it again after a sim restart, and this time I turned hard mute on even after I answered the agent to initiate boarding.  This time there were no rogue messages from the ground crew or rogue "checked" announcements from the F/O.  it seems that something is being picked up in my mic and intiating that ground crew message, but I'm not sure what that would be.  Strange too, that it always happened at the 18 minute mark and after the departure briefing.

If you can isolate it the weird checking issue let me know, I still can't reproduce it.  Maybe if you can reproduce it, you can send me your CVR log and maybe I'll see see something.

For external power being shut off when using a turn around state.... Works for me.  I think your problem is you forgot to set "EXT" on the FS2Crew Config Panel in the PWR/AIR option prior to running the Pre-Flight evetns.

Landing lights I've fixed in the 330.

If you want to test it, let me know.