Heres an oddity that I have been struggling with. I have a fully customised panel in XML to start a helicopter engine, not referencing any sounds etc, just normal engine sounds as per the sound.cfg. I also use Doug's XML Sound gauge for switch clicks etc.During the engine start sequence, If I hit the Q key to silence engine sounds, it kills the entire start sequence and the engine dies. This has occurred ever since I commenced this project, and is NOT related to Dougs gauge, but somehow to the XML variables. I have no calls to the sound kill in any of my gauges, and have changed all variable to L vars ( as per Robs post) to minimise any cross contamination that may have been resetting G Vars to O for whatever reason.Stumped !! Any Ideas?Steve

Hi Steve,If I remember correctly I helped you out some time ago with an engine startup gauge using Dougs sound gauge, right ??I did some testing myself, but I strongly doubt this has anything to do with XML by itself.I tried this with the default 747 (all XML), but toggling sound on/off has no effect on the startup sequence (using starter events and the A:General eng1 starter variable).Nore does toggling sound off/on affects any of my G:Var or L:Var variables.So it must be a problem somewhere else I'm afraid...Maybe specific for a helicopter ??Cheers, Rob

Steve,Point: When you hit Q, what happens to the sound while the engine quit, is it still audible or turns off also? I would take a look at the keys assignment menu, if there is a Q in the "engine auto shutdown", it will kill the engine but you will not lose the audio.Hope this helps,Tom

Hi GuysChecked key assignments, and Q is only allocated to sound on/off.Removed Dougs sound gauge, same problem.When Q is pushed, engine sounds cease, but the entire start sequence also ceases. This is NOT a standard start sequence, as it relies on timers and other fudges to emulate a real 206 start sequence, so I was wondering if my problem could be attributed to the sim itself "grabbing" input from the keyboard, pausing when it sees a key push, and somehow throwing the timing sequence out of whack?I also changed all the G vars to L vars, as per Robs post,hoping that might fix the problem and it also (still) kills the start sequence if I switch from 2D to 3D cockpit during the start sequence. Maybe the issues are related?Steve

Steve,Did you see Rob's post about Key_Events and the XML stack? I'm wondering if this might be your problem, particularly seeing as changing views also seems to cause a problem. Can you determine if ANY Key_Event, outside of the ones you are using in the start sequence, will cause the problem?Doug

DougGreat question.I just tried it with the L key (lights) and it did indeed kill the sequence. So it seems ALL keyboard inputs kill my start sequence. Hmmmmmmmm any hints on the fix??Steve

Well... One thing that comes to mind - if you are using 'Increase Selection' or 'Decrease Selection' events in your gauge, the event from the keyboard may be breaking the connection between what was selected and what you are doing to the selection.Try throwing the Event Logger on the panel and have a look at the outputs, both with and without keyboard intervention.Doug

Now this is where I sound totally dumb......."event logger"??

Sorry... It's a gauge I uploaded here a while back. I believe the name of the archive is 'event_logger.zip' It will create a log file of all the Key_Events that occur while it is active. It will also log the parameters passed with the event commands.Actually, you can get the same thing from FSUIPC. Go to the Logging tab in the FSUIPC menu and select FS Events. The output will be in the modules folder, in a file called fsuipc.logThe aim, in either case, will be to see if the events triggered from keyboard input are messing up the parameters passed with the events your gauge is triggering.DougEdited for spelling...

Thanks Doug !!