Goflight Cold and Dark

[AK Mongo]

Has anyone found a neat way to turn off the displays for their Goflight modules for use when starting "cold and dark"?

I am starting and ending flights this way now, and would love to turn off the displays.

Thanks in advance!

Reid

[Steve A]

With the latest drivers my goflight modules are always off until i flick on the battery switch on the overhead then they all come alive, same as when i shut down.

[AK Mongo]

With the latest drivers my goflight modules are always off until i flick on the battery switch on the overhead then they all come alive, same as when i shut down.

Will do a driver check later. Are you using gfconfig to interface with fsx, or something else?

[AK Mongo]

I am using driver 1.93 build 20. Does that jibe with what you are using?

Master avionics and Master Battery are working in the default cessna 172 on the onscreen radio stack, but have no effect on the Goflight modules. (2x 166, 1x 46)

[Bjarne Horsbøl]

With the latest drivers my goflight modules are always off until i flick on the battery switch on the overhead then they all come alive, same as when i shut down.

Mine works too ! I use driver version 1.81 build 83 with FS9


Regards Bjarne

[AK Mongo]

Mine works too ! I use driver version 1.81 build 83 with FS9


Regards Bjarne

Is there anything you had to do to make this work, or did it just happen?
Mine definitely does not work with the drivers I am using.

[Steve A]

Thats what confuses me, i didn't do anything it just worked "cold and dark" i do know if i dont save the default flight completely shutdown the next time i start up the goflight modules are on, incidently im using 166 and 46 just like you so it should work.

[Bjarne Horsbøl]

I just start from cold and dark and my two 166 are off.
I also have two 45 but they stay on all the time, I guess that is because of the mode they are set to. One is set to AP mode and one is set to INST. mode.

[PDT 200]

FS9 or FSX by default have the batteries, mags, and avionics turned on when first loaded so too the Goflight mods will be lit up. To have them start up dark you will have to save the default flight cold and dark. Turn off everything and then save as default flight. After that everytime you start FS your GF mods should not be lit up.
Regards,
Brian

[Steve A]

Thats exactly what i wanted to say Brian but you explained it perfectly. ;)

[AK Mongo]

FS9 or FSX by default have the batteries, mags, and avionics turned on when first loaded so too the Goflight mods will be lit up. To have them start up dark you will have to save the default flight cold and dark. Turn off everything and then save as default flight. After that everytime you start FS your GF mods should not be lit up.
Regards,
Brian

I am doing that, and the GF panels start off dark, until I push any button on the module. Then they are on regardless of the state of the master avionics or batt switch. Is this the best I can expect, and does it match your experience?

[PDT 200]

Do you mean one of the buttons on the GF-166? Mine will display if I touch the COM1/2 button but will turn off if I push it again. Here are a bunch of pics starting when the computer is turned on and XP is up and running. Then when FS9 is starting up and then the menu page. Next is the AC loaded cold and dark. Finally the AC with the battert master, AltMaster, and Avionics all on.
Notice that during FS9 startup and menu the GF-166's are lit as is the MCPPro and the ATC mod.
Computer on:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1159387/ComputerOn.jpg

FS9 Startup:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1159387/FS9StartUp.jpg

FS9 Menu:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1159387/FS9Menu.jpg

Started AC cold and dark:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1159387/FS9StartedCandD.jpg

Power on:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-3/1159387/PowerOn.jpg

Regards,
Brian

[AK Mongo]

Great setup, Brian!

Still not working, but I have more specifics of what is happening and my setup.

I am currently using FSX accel, with the default C-172. All Goflight functions are programmed through the GF config software which is v1.93 build 20. Here is a chart of what is going on:

Action taken-Goflight response-Onscreen response

1.FSX started-All GF units are displaying information-N/A

2.Default flight started (cold, dark and unfueled)-All GF units go dark-N/A

3.Master Batt and Avionics turned on- GF Units remain dark-Onscreen stack lights up

4.Push any button on a GF unit-That unit lights up-N/A

5.Turn Off Avionics or Batt switch-GF units remain lit-Onscreen stack goes dark



There is no physical action I can take that will make the GF modules turn off, short of unplugging the USB.

Reloading the default flight, or resetting it does not turn the GF units off.


Here is more info:
GF-166 #1 Com1 left button-Com1/2 right button-Atc popup
GF-166 #2 Com2 left button-nav1/2 right button-adf/xpndr
GF-46 Inst-AP-DME1 and 2



Any thoughts on what people who are successful at this may be doing diferently? I notice Brian is using FS9. Is anyone using it successfully with FSX? Anyone programming functions through another method? i.e FSUIPC?

[Bjarne Horsbøl]

"Here is more info:
GF-166 #1 Com1 left button-Com1/2 right button-Atc popup
GF-166 #2 Com2 left button-nav1/2 right button-adf/xpndr
GF-46 Inst-AP-DME1 and 2 "

Gf-166 # 2 should be NAV1 in Main avionics function in GFconfig. (maybe you just typed wrong here in the post ??)

Regards
Bjarne

[PDT 200]

OK then, I just fired up FSX and I can see what you mean:o All 3 of my GF-166's and the MCPPro are lit up even though the Battery master is off. Instruments on the monitor are off but not so the GF stuff. I guess I never noticed it before because I turn the battery on fairly soon after the aircraft loads. As a side note I'm still using GF version 183. I never updated to 193 because, If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!
Thanks for the compliment on the sim.
Regards,
Brian

[mounty]

Hi,

I use FS9 and have a few GF modules. I set my PMDG 737 up in a cold and dark start by using the Cessna first and then switching everything off, then changing to the 737. I saved this flight. When I start FS up, and select the flight, the GF modules first light up and then go out once the flight is ready on screen, until I turn on the Battery switch, then the modules come to life. The exception is the GF MCP Pro which stays lit but doesn't show any digits until I turn the battery on. It has always worked this way and I don't know if FSX is different. I think you have to make sure that all the switches are off in the 737 before you save the flight and exit FS. Then when you open FS again, select the flight you saved and it should give you a cold and dark status.

Rob

[AK Mongo]

So this may be something implemented in fs9 but not fsx...

I have an email in to GF tech support looking for help, but so far it has been 4 days without a response...

[AK Mongo]

Ok friends...I did it!

Not sure how...but I did!

So here is what I did....

1. Downloaded latest FSUIPC
2. Opened up the LUA library file that it installed:
c:/program files/microsoft games/fsx/modules/fsuipc documents/unzip lua library
3. put the lua file called GFdark into the root of the modules folder
4.Started FSX, in FSUIPC buttons and keys, I assigned a key to the lua gfdark command.

Now I can load my default cold and dark flight, push the key assigned to gfdark, and the small program runs to check for Master battery, master avionics, electrical voltage <16v and electrical failures, and does the corresponding action to the GF displays. It was all already in there, but somehow despite hours of webcrawling I could not find anyone who had posted instructions on making it happen.

Was hard headed about asking for help from Mr. Dowson, because I hate being told to RTFM.

Now if I could figure out how to make the LUA GFdark command execute on initialization of FSUIPC without using a keyboard command, I will be a happier man.

Any FSUIPC super-geniuses out there know if that is possible, and if so, how?

BTW, I did RTFM, just did not have the literacy to understand 90% of what I saw, so I hope this makes someone else's life easier...

[Bjarne Horsbøl]

Hello Mongo !

WELL DONE ! :D You solved your problem yourself...
and I am sure this makes someone else's life easier...

I know the fear of "being told to RTFM." specially if you have RTFM 10 times but have some questions to understand the M.

I use FS9 with FSUIPC and I have no problems with Goflight- cold and dark. So my experience was no help to you..

How did you get the glue to solve the problem ?

I am SURE you will find a solution to "LUA GFdark command execute on initialization of FSUIPC without using a keyboard command"

Thank you on behalf of other FSX/goflight users for posting your solution.

[AK Mongo]

I had to break down and ask for Pete's help in his support forum. It was a very easy fix. The instructions are quoted below:

"As documented in the Lua documentation (see the FSUIPC documents folder inside your FS Modules folder), the Lua files automatically loaded are ipcInit.lua, which is run right at the beginning of FS, before anything is loaded, and ipcReady.lua which is run when FS is ready to fly. Use the latter. You can either rename your file to ipcReady.lua, or, probably better for future expansion, have an ipcReady.lua file which runs any others you wish, via one statement for each like:

ipc.runlua("GFpower.lua")

Pete"

I renamed my gfDark.lua file in c:/program files/microsoft games/fsx/modules/ to ipcReady.lua . Initially this did not work as I may have filetypes hidden in Windows XP. Dropping the .lua suffix in the name solved it.

Have not set up the file per Pete's recommendations about future expansions, as I did not thoroughly understand how to do what he explained. Will tinker with it for curiousity and report back my results.

Reid