Poor Man's Autothrottle

[ark 1,288]

I have updated the autothrottle lua scripts and 2D popup gauges to work with Mach# as well as IAS in knots.

Each autothrottle script defaults to airspeed values in Knots below its crossover altitude, and in Mach# above its crossover altitude. The crossover altitude for the TurboJet and CRJ scripts is currently set at about 29000ft. For the TurboProp and C441 scripts it is set at about 24000, and at about 22000 for the MU2 script (crossover altitudes can be changed with a text editor). When a script is activated you will see

When climbing or descending through the crossover altitude the autothrottle automatically switches to Mach# or Knots, respectively. In addition, a key or button can be setup through FSUIPC to manually switch the autothrottle back and forth between knots and Mach# at any time.The corresponding A/T target speed displays when the script is running looks like this

 

The XML based 2D popup gauge looks like this

    or  

and defaults to knots below the crossover altitude and Mach# above the crossover altitude (which again can be changed with a text editor). You can also manually switch between Knots and Mach# at any time by clicking on the setting knob with the mouse's middle wheel button. Crossover altitudes are the same as for the Lua scripts above.

A zip file (AutoThrottleV3LuaScripts) with five autothrottle lua scripts and instructions (for turbojet e.g. Lear35A, turboprop, the Flysimware MU2 and C441, and Aerosoft CRJ aircraft) is available at

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg2rne92sctthd4/AutoThrottleV3LuaScripts.zip?dl=0

and a zip file (AutoThrottle2Dv3Popups) with five 2D popup gauges and instructions for the same aircraft is available at

https://www.dropbox.com/s/91xmgcfpg171ztg/AutoThrottle2Dv3Popups.zip?dl=0

Bug reports or suggestions always welcome.

Al

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by ark

[sho69607 29]

Thanks for making this! I have come across one issue though, is there a way to disable the script when using other aircraft? I am using FS2crew with the PMDG 747 and everytime I press "c" for the fs2crew actions it brings up the simconnect autothrottle window. I tried restoring defaults with FSUIPC but the script appears to still be active.

Edited July 6, 2020 by sho69607

[ark 1,288]

7 hours ago, sho69607 said:

Thanks for making this! I have come across one issue though, is there a way to disable the script when using other aircraft?

Short answer to your question is "yes".

Longer answer is..... to use FSUIPC Profiles, or simply pick a different key to activate the Lua script.

User Profiles is a FSUIPC facility that lets you make key, button and axis assignments Profile Specific, that is, the assignments will only apply to aircraft listed under (assigned to) a particular aircraft profile that you have set up. For example, I have a profile called Learjet35A which allows me to make key and button assignments that only apply to the Lear35 since I only have the Lear35 listed under that profile name. Profile names that you make up can be less specific, e.g., a profile called Bizjets, and assignments made specific to that profile will only apply to those aircraft which you have listed under that profile. For example, you could choose to have that profile only apply to the Lear35 and Falcon50.  Then when assigning a key to activate an autothrottle script for the Falcon50, say the c key from your example, you would check the little Profile specific? check box on the FSUIPC Key assignments window when making the assignment. Then the c key will activate the autothrottle script for the Lear and Falcon since they are both listed under the Bizjet profile, and I can 'reuse' the c key for a different purpose with an aircraft not in the Bizjet profile. See pages 19 and 20 of the FSUIPC User's guide for details on setting up and using profiles.

In the situation you describe, an alternative to using profiles would be to pick a unique key or key combination that is not used for anything else to activate the autothrottle script. Since c is used with fs2crew, maybe you could use Tab+c, or Shift+CLR+c, or F3, etc,  to activate the script. To remove a previously made FSUIPC key assignment, in the FSUIPC Key presses window, after pressing the key you want to remove, click the 'Delete this entry' button on the lower right side of the window, and then click OK.

Al

Edited July 6, 2020 by ark

[sho69607 29]

5 hours ago, ark said:

Short answer to your question is "yes".

Longer answer is..... to use FSUIPC Profiles, or simply pick a different key to activate the Lua script.

User Profiles is a FSUIPC facility that lets you make key, button and axis assignments Profile Specific, that is, the assignments will only apply to aircraft listed under (assigned to) a particular aircraft profile that you have set up. For example, I have a profile called Learjet35A which allows me to make key and button assignments that only apply to the Lear35 since I only have the Lear35 listed under that profile name. Profile names that you make up can be less specific, e.g., a profile called Bizjets, and assignments made specific to that profile will only apply to those aircraft which you have listed under that profile. For example, you could choose to have that profile only apply to the Lear35 and Falcon50.  Then when assigning a key to activate an autothrottle script for the Falcon50, say the c key from your example, you would check the little Profile specific? check box on the FSUIPC Key assignments window when making the assignment. Then the c key will activate the autothrottle script for the Lear and Falcon since they are both listed under the Bizjet profile, and I can 'reuse' the c key for a different purpose with an aircraft not in the Bizjet profile. See pages 19 and 20 of the FSUIPC User's guide for details on setting up and using profiles.

In the situation you describe, an alternative to using profiles would be to pick a unique key or key combination that is not used for anything else to activate the autothrottle script. Since c is used with fs2crew, maybe you could use Tab+c, or Shift+CLR+c, or F3, etc,  to activate the script. To remove a previously made FSUIPC key assignment, in the FSUIPC Key presses window, after pressing the key you want to remove, click the 'Delete this entry' button on the lower right side of the window, and then click OK.

Al

Ok thank you

[sho69607 29]

One more thing, it appears the autothrottle red text display at the top keeps flashing at the top of the screen. Is there a way to hide the green text bar? If I right click and try to close the window it wont close.

[ark 1,288]

11 minutes ago, sho69607 said:

One more thing, it appears the autothrottle red text display at the top keeps flashing at the top of the screen. Is there a way to hide the green text bar? If I right click and try to close the window it wont close.

No, you can't hide the green bar as the script is currently coded. Why is it flashing? Is it because some other info is being displayed in the same location?

Al

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by ark

[sho69607 29]

No it is just the screen that shows the autothrottle is enabled. I thought it was a warning at first, but the script is working correctly. The only thing that is displayed above it is the p3d taskbar. 

[ark 1,288]

27 minutes ago, sho69607 said:

No it is just the screen that shows the autothrottle is enabled. I thought it was a warning at first, but the script is working correctly. The only thing that is displayed above it is the p3d taskbar. 

Well, that is strange. I don't know why it would be flashing.

How fast would you guess the flashing is -- how many times per second?

Does the whole green bar flash on and off, or just the autothrottle info on the green bar?

Did you try resizing and dragging the green bar to a new location as mentioned in the setup instructions?

Have you changed any of the script's parameters?

Are any other programs running that might be using the green bar?

Does the flashing happen with more than one aircraft?

What sim are you using?

Sorry for all the questions, but would like to see if we can figure out what is going on.

Al

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by ark

[sho69607 29]

20 minutes ago, ark said:

Well, that is strange. I don't know why it would be flashing.

How fast would you guess the flashing is -- how many times per second?

Does the whole green bar flash on and off, or just the autothrottle info on the green bar?

Did you try resizing and dragging the green bar to a new location as mentioned in the setup instructions?

Have you changed any of the script's parameters?

Are any other programs running that might be using the green bar?

What sim are you using?

Sorry for all the questions, but would like to see if we can figure out what is going on.

Al

 

I am on p3dv5, the whole bar itself starts flashing, its hard to tell how many times per second but it is very frequent. I tried dragging it to the top of the screen, but the flashing continues. No other programs using the green bar. This appeared specifically in the Falcon 50.

[ark 1,288]

4 minutes ago, sho69607 said:

I am on p3dv5, the whole bar itself starts flashing, its hard to tell how many times per second but it is very frequent. I tried dragging it to the top of the screen, but the flashing continues. No other programs using the green bar. This appeared specifically in the Falcon 50.

OK, thanks for the info.

I have had some display flashing issues with a number of different programs with P3Dv5. It seems to be random, sometimes starts right away, and other times all may be well for quite a while, and then the flashing starts. In my case the flashing is very fast, almost like a fast vibration, and so fast it makes the display hard to read at times.  I think this is a P3Dv5HF2 bug of some kind because it doesn't happen in P3Dv4.5HF3.

I assume you are using the turbojet autothrottle script. Since you have the Lear35, see if you get the same flashing with the Lear.

Also, do you have a different version of P3D installed to try?

Al

[sho69607 29]

16 minutes ago, ark said:

OK, thanks for the info.

I have had some display flashing issues with a number of different programs with P3Dv5. It seems to be random, sometimes starts right away, and other times all may be well for quite a while, and then the flashing starts. In my case the flashing is very fast, almost like a fast vibration, and so fast it makes the display hard to read at times.  I think this is a P3Dv5HF2 bug of some kind because it doesn't happen in P3Dv4.5HF3.

I assume you are using the turbojet autothrottle script. Since you have the Lear35, see if you get the same flashing with the Lear.

Also, do you have a different version of P3D installed to try?

Al

Yeah what your are describing is exactly what is happening. I'll try out the Lear and see what happens. I don't have p3dv4 installed currently, but I am sure this is probably related to v5 somehow.

[ark 1,288]

5 minutes ago, sho69607 said:

Yeah what your are describing is exactly what is happening. I'll try out the Lear and see what happens. I don't have p3dv4 installed currently, but I am sure this is probably related to v5 somehow.

OK, thanks. I will look into how I might modify the autothrottle script to work around this P3Dv5 problem.

Al

 

[sho69607 29]

2 hours ago, ark said:

OK, thanks. I will look into how I might modify the autothrottle script to work around this P3Dv5 problem.

Al

 

Awesome thanks

[ark 1,288]

1 minute ago, sho69607 said:

Awesome thanks

PM me an email address and I'll email you a script to try.

Al