Good afternoon!

I added a more generic topic, to limit the amount of topics to start. Hope that is OK.

First off a big thanks to mr. Herky for the massive amount of procedures he already created for A320, which makes achhieving my goal a lot easier!

I came acros those by accident while reading in this forum. Here is a link for those searching: https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=msfs+neo&CatID=root&Go=Search

Problem: The official Preliminary Cockpit Preparation procedure starts with Master 1,2...........Off. I have tried many things, but could not find if a command for this does exist or not and if it does, what the command would be.

Question: Is there perhaps a (not documented) function where user can flip a switch / push a button in sim and ask FO if he has a command for it? or is there any other way for me - besides asking here - to find out if a command exists? 

Thanks,

Daniel

As far as I understood MCE will be able to handle all the functions for which you find a command in the controls menu of MSFS. If there isn't a command in the MSFS controls menu, then MCE won't be able to handle this function - due to the current limitations of interacting with the sim.

So the custom functions the FBW team added to the A320 can't be handled by MCE at this time.

 

Please correct me if I got this wrong.

 

I solved this issue - or better worked around - by changing the commands in the flows to "notify" to remind me to do the action myself.

 

18 hours ago, danbaz said:

Good afternoon!

I added a more generic topic, to limit the amount of topics to start. Hope that is OK.

First off a big thanks to mr. Herky for the massive amount of procedures he already created for A320, which makes achhieving my goal a lot easier!

I came acros those by accident while reading in this forum. Here is a link for those searching: https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=msfs+neo&CatID=root&Go=Search

Problem: The official Preliminary Cockpit Preparation procedure starts with Master 1,2...........Off. I have tried many things, but could not find if a command for this does exist or not and if it does, what the command would be.

Question: Is there perhaps a (not documented) function where user can flip a switch / push a button in sim and ask FO if he has a command for it? or is there any other way for me - besides asking here - to find out if a command exists? 

Thanks,

Daniel

As Ralph9636 pointed out, both ASOBO default and FlyBywire A320 are fully supported.

Only about 3 or 4 items FO cannot manipulate in Flybywire. The IRU rotary switches, Ecam page selection, and another one I don't recall.

Start master isn't one of them and FO can perform a full start on his own, including rotating the start master and the start switches. When it occasionally fails on the FlyBywire, it only means the vey last mod version has made breaking changes and we need to adjust once notified about it.

You probably overlooked the documentation available via the Windows 10 menu

Start->Multi Crew Experience->AirbusA3XX_Commands.pdf

That document lists sommands specific to Airbus types only (A320, A330, etc)

There are other commands that apply to all aircraft and grouped by system.

This is how you check whether a speech command works.

With A320 Neo loaded in the sim and MCE running, Go to <Command> tab and click <Voxscript> button.

In overview panel, select the flow and click Edit.

In next script, click <Edit script commands>

You should then see all the tasks FO is expected to perform as part of the custom flow.

Select each and click <Test>

If successful, Fo should set the item as you instruct him.

If it fails, you may get a mesage at the top of the flight sim window stating "Command doesn't seem to exist, please try a different verbiage or check for typos".

This doesn't mean the command isn't there. It's just that it must be written the way it is expected in speech grammar.

Here is an example. You type "parkings brakes on" by mistake. You test and you get the message. You double check and see the mistake "parkings" with 's'.

Therefore just edit out the typos or sometimes try with dash like "anti-ice" vs "anti ice".and test again.

All simulated commands must be written in lowercase and digits written using letters.

"start engine 1" in script is incorrect. Only happens when you edit flows in Notepad. You need to write "start engine one" instead.

The good news, we make it our job to try to foresse every possible speech variation, therefore, there is far more than one way to tell FO to do something.

Here are just a few variations that would conttrol start switch for engine one.

start master engine one on/off

start master engine one open/close

start master one on/off

start master one open/close

open start master engine one

close start master engine one

Now, here is what very few people are aware of.

If none of the built-in speech variations comes to you naturally, you could educate your first officer to undestand what you mean by what you just said. In this case, you're going to use Voxscript as a translator. Teaching him to accept one of the commands you come up with as the built-in command you tie it to.

Let's say, I want to be able to say "toggle start master one forward". Feel free to use anything you want.

In Voxscript panel, click <New> and type "toggle start master one forward"

The command will be listed. At this point MCE and speech engine can recognize it, but FO doesn't have a cluse what you mean by that.

Select the newly created command and click <Edit>

In next screen enable "verbose" option so you can hear Fo's reply and click <Edit script commands>.

Unlike a normal script where you add multople commands in sequence in order to build a flow, in this case you only add a single command.

Choose one of the built-in commands I listed above, in this case "start master one on" and don't forget to save

That's it. You have now given yourself more latitude in terms of speech flexibility. And you can do that for any other item. If you are a non-native English speaker, you could even teach Fo to undestand the request in ANY language (German, Swedish, French, Spanish, Slang,etc🙂... (I kid you not)

.

 

 

Thank you both for your extensive responses

Great to hear the flybywire A320 is fully supported.

I did find and have read the AirbusA3xx document, but think I got confused by the knob being refered to in Sim as "engine one master". The phrases you mentioned are not listed in the mentioned PDF. The 9 found with the word "master" all seem to refer to the mode selector knob.

The commands you provided do work (of course!) and thanks for the "translator" explanation. I would change to engine one master and engine two master. The FO refers to these switches as Fuel Lever Engine One. I hope the translator command will make him also refer to these the same way then. Will test.

 

34 minutes ago, danbaz said:

Thank you both for your extensive responses

Great to hear the flybywire A320 is fully supported.

I did find and have read the AirbusA3xx document, but think I got confused by the knob being refered to in Sim as "engine one master". The phrases you mentioned are not listed in the mentioned PDF. The 9 found with the word "master" all seem to refer to the mode selector knob.

The commands you provided do work (of course!) and thanks for the "translator" explanation. I would change to engine one master and engine two master. The FO refers to these switches as Fuel Lever Engine One. I hope the translator command will make him also refer to these the same way then. Will test.

 

You're welcome.

To get a custom eply on the custom command, disable "verbose" option and add a <Notify> statement right after the built-in command.

Good catch though and maybe in this specific case just easier to change the reply for all the buses to "start master" in the main software.

There are so many supported complex planes (46 of them. Some with SDK, others without) that oversights like that happen. That includes documentation that is almost always out of date, as speech commands are added, left, right and center over the years.

So, tanks for bringing it up.

 

7 hours ago, FS++ said:

Only about 3 or 4 items FO cannot manipulate in Flybywire. The IRU rotary switches, Ecam page selection, and another one I don't recall.

Actually there are many more custom functions of the FBW A320 (at least the custom FBW dev version, which I exclusively use) that MCE cannot handle properly at the moment. Seat belt signs, external lights and autobrake to name just a few.

I'm fine with that and I'm not criticising it.

 Obviously the FBW A320 is a fast moving target with a new dev version literally every day. It wouldn't make sense for MCE to try to catch up with that. What works today might be broken tomorrow and vice versa. For example most recently MCE cannot handle the APU Start and APU Bleed any more which previously worked fine. On the other hand the weird COM frequency setting which worked somehow in the background without showing in the cockpit was solved with a recent update of the FBW A320, the COM frequency is set as usual now.

I'm sure when things will have settled down a little with the FBW development a few months ahead, MCE will quickly catch up and really fully support it.

 

49 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

Actually there are many more custom functions of the FBW A320 (at least the custom FBW dev version, which I exclusively use) that MCE cannot handle properly at the moment. Seat belt signs, external lights and autobrake to name just a few.

I'm fine with that and I'm not criticising it.

 Obviously the FBW A320 is a fast moving target with a new dev version literally every day. It wouldn't make sense for MCE to try to catch up with that. What works today might be broken tomorrow and vice versa. For example most recently MCE cannot handle the APU Start and APU Bleed any more which previously worked fine. On the other hand the weird COM frequency setting which worked somehow in the background without showing in the cockpit was solved with a recent update of the FBW A320, the COM frequency is set as usual now.

I'm sure when things will have settled down a little with the FBW development a few months ahead, MCE will quickly catch up and really fully support it.

 

Thanks for the update.

I suggest you let FlyBywire guys know that some things they are doing are for the good and others aren't so helpful.

It did make sense when they added IRU rotary switches and Ecam pages as ASOBO didn't bother with these . They later added no smoking and seat belt signs, and they should be using these in the mod because they are exposed by the SDK.

Autobrake also worked. Don't understand why they would need to change that.

 

Autobrake is a strange one. MCE can set Max, but not Off, Low and Med.

Anyway I think it's best to let the FBW guys do their thing for now (they seem to have lots of things in the pipeline), wait till it settles down a bit and then revisit the MCE interaction again in a few months.

Apart from that maybe you could contact them to make them aware of the issues MCE has right now. It seems they are quite open to collaborate with other devs.

 

Thanks for further feedback received. Will try the custom response.

Today I have installed the latest stable version of the A32NX mod for my testing.

Still at the beginning of the preliminary cockpit preparation steps:

Wipers - FO can respond, but does not see them as a left and right  set, he cannot move the knobs to a different position. My command: left wiper off (I put it in slow first to check)

Battery - Seems he cannot push the buttons, he asked me to push them. My command: battery one auto

This brings me back to my initial question, but I do understand that the functionality is not there currently and I am not blaming, just thinking out loud. Would it not be great if the user could twist a knob / push a button a few times and the FO would chime in asking if I am doing alright and can stop messing with the e.g. left wiper selector button etc. When he does recognize I am moving a knob and he does not know which one it is, it would be also great if he could say so, which would save the user then time as no further troubleshooting is needed. Brilliant would be if he would then ask if I think it would be a great idea to send an email to MCE support to report the issue, which he would do then of course with all required info. Anyway that is me always looking make things easier 🙂

Edit: For wipers/battery - same is true for the default Asobo A320

Edited March 7, 20215 yr by danbaz
Added additional info

On 3/7/2021 at 12:55 PM, danbaz said:

Battery - Seems he cannot push the buttons, he asked me to push them. My command: battery one auto

This is a bug in Asobo software.

It affects only the 747 and A320 Neo. All other planes respond to default battery state variable.

In fact, even the Asobo keyboard settings command (which isn't what we use) doesn't toggle battery with those 2 planes when it should.

It's enough of a nightmare for FO to work out whether they are OFF, so he can at least ask you to switch them on when it should be s straight read of a single variable. He can switch them off though (don't ask why toggling the switches only works one way)😟.

On 3/7/2021 at 12:55 PM, danbaz said:

This brings me back to my initial question, but I do understand that the functionality is not there currently and I am not blaming, just thinking out loud. Would it not be great if the user could twist a knob / push a button a few times and the FO would chime in asking if I am doing alright and can stop messing with the e.g. left wiper selector button etc. When he does recognize I am moving a knob and he does not know which one it is, it would be also great if he could say so, which would save the user then time as no further troubleshooting is needed. Brilliant would be if he would then ask if I think it would be a great idea to send an email to MCE support to report the issue, which he would do then of course with all required info. Anyway that is me always looking make things easier 🙂

 

Believe it or not, it's already implemented in MCE for FSX & Prepar3D.

You could tell the simulator to notify you when an event fired. Say when user switches engine anti-ice on at very high temperatures. FO could suggest it's not really standard operation, or even detect when user is fiddliong with COM radio dialling so that if you ask FO to dial a freq and he finds out you're doing it, he'll tell you "stop mocking about. Either you do it or it's my business.

In MCEFS Asobo appears to have removed that capability (which has a slight performance cost). It can even notify you when joystick axis has moved by the tiniest bit.

Here is an example, with Fo taking his job too seriously on a Cessna.

Notice on touch and go, when user thinks it's OK to use the F6 key to retract the flaps a bit. FO shouts at hiim "It's my job to do that"😀

There is a lot more than meets the eye in this app built over more than a decade..

<media> 

</media>

Edited March 9, 20215 yr by FS++
typos

Sorry for slow response and thanks for sharing. One grumpy FO! He is definitely paying attention. Does he know where in the flight sim world he is? He could be a flight instructor if he brightens up a little 😊.

When I say: "which button is this", and I then push it, is he then able to tell me which one it is? 

My project has slowed down a little... My rig broke down.

 

 

On 3/11/2021 at 7:45 PM, danbaz said:

When I say: "which button is this", and I then push it, is he then able to tell me which one it is? 

 

 

No such thing implemented.

 

Understood. Thanks.

Hello Gerald,

I am finally back to working on a realistic voxscript for the FBW A320 NEO. Today I have spent some hours to compile an overview of what does and what does not work. 

In below table I show commands given and the result. For the ones where the result was not "ok", pls can you help by providing the correct command for the action? Do I understand correctly that even if FBW did something that the switch won't move, MCE should still understand what I am trying to do? That would be a cue to understand where the problem originates.

For lights, ideally the brightness should be relative to the amount of light from outside, but an increase some, increase medium, increase fully or maximum would be good to work with.

I have added the complete PNF preliminary cockpit preparation procedure (excl APU), so battery and wipers are mentioned again.

Appreciate the help already. Hope it was worth my time.

 

Kind regards / Daniel

 

Command given	Result
start master one off	ok
start master two off	ok
gear down	ok
windshield wipers off	command accepted, switch not moved does not recognize left and right
battery on	FO asks Cap to push the two switches does not recognize left and right
external power on	ok
ecam show electrical	command accepted, switch not moved
glareshield brightness increase	command accepted, switch not moved
panel lighting brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
pedestal lighting increase	command accepted, switch not moved
right weather terrain brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
right navigation display brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
right primary flight display brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
upper ecam brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
lower ecam brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
overhead subpanel brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
standby instrument display brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
right main panel floodlight brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
panel lighting brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
flight director display brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
right flight management guidance computer brightness increase	FO does not understand this command
parking brake on	ok
flaps up	ok
spoilers retract	ok
window heat auto	ok
crew oxygen supply auto	command accepted, switch not moved
emergency exit lights armed	command accepted, switch not moved
all fuel pumps on	ok
cross bleed auto	command accepted, switch not moved
ecam display pressurization	command accepted, switch not moved
ecam show recall	FO does not understand this command
ecam show doors	command accepted, switch not moved
ecam shows hydraulics	FO does not understand this command
ecam shows engines	FO does not understand this command