Hi All,

I've been trying to script the rotary knobs for the remarkable freeware Fokker Friendship available on the ".to" site.

Particularly, the rotary knobs for the Heading bug, the Course bar (1 and 2) as well as the Autopilot Pitch wheel and various Auto pilot select functions with No success. 

I'm a bit of a hack when it comes to scripting and have various success with other aircraft but not having much luck with this one.

I'm trying to set it up for my Honeycomb Bravo Hardware.

Any guidance would be truly appreciated, also, if someone has had any success, if they would like to share it. would be even better.

Kind Regards T.

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by toucanair

I find some of those variables ...odd also. Particularly the HDG and VS knbs.

CRS is working with the defaul K Events. VOR1_OBI_INC/DEC, VOR2_OBI_INC/DEC

I'm guessing here: Heading isn't a selector, it is more like "hold and turn until you are going where you want to go, then release" ? So you would set the LVar to a value between -30 and 30 for the "amount" of left/right "turn" that you want to dial in (whatever that means - bank? rate of turn?) And then reset the variable to 0 when you are going where you are going. This would be best implemented as an Axis or a button with repeat, where the Up event resets the LVar to 0 )= no turn).

Pitch could be the same, just a different range (-46 to 46)

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

2 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

CRS is working with the defaul K Events. VOR1_OBI_INC/DEC, VOR2_OBI_INC/DEC

I'm guessing here: Heading isn't a selector, it is more like "hold and turn until you are going where you want to go, then release" ? So you would set the LVar to a value between -30 and 30 for the "amount" of left/right "turn" that you want to dial in (whatever that means - bank? rate of turn?) And then reset the variable to 0 when you are going where you are going. This would be best implemented as an Axis or a button with repeat, where the Up event resets the LVar to 0 )= no turn).

Pitch could be the same, just a different range (-46 to 46)

Yeah perhaps that could be it, however although the autopilot has the older style turn selector on the lower pedestal, it does also have a more conventional heading bug rotary dial on the main panel, centrally located just below the glareshield and thats the one I'm having difficulty with, as well as the autopilot pitch wheel (dial?) and getting them to animate and function via scripting.

Thanks for the headsup with the CRS VOR1_OBI etc, I'll give that a try and report back.

T 

Didn't see that heading selector? Is that a mod? I only downloaded the base model yesterday. But I only had little time, maybe I overlooked it.

The Heading Bug Selector Must've Become a Standard Avionics Fit in later Friendships, As Gaurant's modelled Fokker is a Mark 500 version which was a more modern F27 with the big cargo door fitted etc, So no, Not a Mod.

I remember this as I travelled a lot on these aircraft when I was younger.

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by toucanair
for disambiguity

Here seems to be the Lvars for HDG knob and bank knob. Just can seem to get the numbers correct to make it function. Specially HDG. Watching behaviors and AAO variables.

F275bgt_CRSHDG_Knob_Pos...........(HDG Knob)

f275_AP_Turn_Rotac........ (Bank switch/knob)

 

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Torkermax

3 hours ago, toucanair said:

The Heading Bug Selector Must've Become a Standard Avionics Fit in later Friendships, As Gaurant's modelled Fokker is a Mark 500 version which was a more modern F27 with the big cargo door fitted etc, So no, Not a Mod.

I remember this as I travelled a lot on these aircraft when I was younger.

Found the knob. This is actually quite easy. This aircraft has its own variable for the selected heading. Incrementing/Decrementing that variable moves the heading bug on the HSI:

INC:
(L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number) ++ dnor (>L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number)

DEC:
(L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number) -- dnor (>L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number)

Be mindful that this only changes the heading, it does not turn the knob! The animation has a different LVar (L:F275bgt_CRSHDG_Knob_Pos, Number), going from 0 to 100. This variable is ONLY for the animation, it doesn't have any effect on the heading bug. You could add this LVar to your script as well (and making sure that it stays between 0 and 100)0. Personally, I wouldn't do that - the important bit is the heading bug, not the knob. 

 

 

4 hours ago, toucanair said:

The Heading Bug Selector Must've Become a Standard Avionics Fit in later Friendships, As Gaurant's modelled Fokker is a Mark 500 version which was a more modern F27 with the big cargo door fitted etc, So no, Not a Mod.

I remember this as I travelled a lot on these aircraft when I was younger.

For the "Virage" knob I would bind "L:f275_AP_Turn_Rotac, Number" to the same axis as the Ailerons, Axis min = -30 Axis max = 30, Rounding = Int; and implement a Combo button that switches between both. Know what I mean? While you hold down the button, the Aileron axis moves the Virage knob, and when you release the combo button, it will control the ailerons. 

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

Ahh, Awesome.

"INC:(L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number) ++ dnor (>L:F275bgt_hdg_sel, Number)" Yes! of course, that would be it.

thank you for this, how silly of me lol.

The course bar rotary for the HSI/OBI worked as suggested too, I was overthinking that one.

 

 

Do you per chance, have any thoughts on the Pitch Wheel for climb and Descent, its on the Autopilot panel, I could not figure that one out.

 

One other thing I'm trying do as well, is the animation for the Elevator Trim Wheel, its Coded too, oddly enough.

 

 

 

Everything else, other than the above, was easy to configure and works well.

 

T

1 hour ago, toucanair said:

Do you per chance, have any thoughts on the Pitch Wheel for climb and Descent, its on the Autopilot panel, I could not figure that one out.

I think that one is again of a turn-and-hold type, like the Virage? Best suited to an axis - see my post above about the virage.

You could assign the alierons and the elevator to your joystick/yoke axis - then create two additional assignments for Virage and the Pitch Wheel, entering the appropriate variables and setting Axis Min, Axis Max and Rounding "just so" they fit the control in the cockpit. Then add a (=the same) Combo button to all four of them, with "Suppress axis" activated for aileron and elevator.

The general idea is that you use your primary flight controls for ailerons and elevator when the button is not pressed - and when you press it, you control Virage and Pitch wheel. I would also create an additional button assignment for the Combo that does nothing on the down event, but sets both the AP Lvars to 0 when you release it - so they get centered automatically when you go back to PFC.

Mind you, this is all theory, I haven't tried this - I don't have a lot of time at the moment.

Here is a template, set up like I described, on a simple joystick. It also includes scripts for an animated trim wheel.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2w5p5cvmk0ivcch6kx79m/F27Stuff.tmpl?rlkey=plriv8kec7bstikg3usft96ey&dl=0

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

Script AP VS wheel:

VS INC

(L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number) ++ dnor (>L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number)

VS DEC

(L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number) -- dnor (>L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number)

14 minutes ago, Torkermax said:

Script AP VS wheel:

VS INC

(L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number) ++ dnor (>L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number)

VS DEC

(L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number) -- dnor (>L:F275_AP_Pitch_Wheel, Number)

Are you sure of that?

The "dnor" (degree-normalize) operator makes sure that a number is in line with the degrees on the compass rose = that the value stays between 0 and 359, rolling over at the edges. The pitch wheel axis travels between -46 and +46, that doesn't really go together IMHO.

So Awesome for this advice, thank you. Can I just save that template as an .xml file and then import it perhaps?. 

your support, as always, is Teir 1 Excellent.

5 hours ago, toucanair said:

So Awesome for this advice, thank you. Can I just save that template as an .xml file and then import it perhaps?. 

your support, as always, is Teir 1 Excellent.

Just download (top right corner of the Dropbox Window is the download button - on the following dialog click on the text at the bottom "Or continue with download..." ), then import it.  No need to rename, Template files are called .tmpl (yes, internally they have an XML structure - doesn't mean that I have to call them .xml)

Edited December 1, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI