PM updates and a question for "proof of concept"

[pap]

Hello to all!
Everybody knows the situation of pm and there public updates especially for non B 737 types. I build a 747-400 cockpit and especially the lower Eicas with the synoptic for Gear, electric, Fuel and so on, is in an early stage of developing, and no further steps were published in this point.
But because of my business load I am not able to write the complete lower Eicas for myself as a new program.
While working for one of my customer, I think I found a way just in the middle of “writing a complete new lower Eicas” and “accepting the situation as it is”. In the actual developing environment Visual Studio, I (and every other programmer) am/is able to build transparent forms. The form background is transparent, everything drawn or written on the form is visible. If this form is positioned over the original pm GC, you can see pm GC synoptic page + the things drawn or written on the new application. A public free library for accessing FSUIPC Offsets is available, so I did a first quick and dirty test (not ready as you can see in fuel picture, no parameters in file to make it universal for other screen sizes and rotations and so on) and was surprised how fine this work (for me..).
I attach 2 pictures, the first is a very simple synoptic the gear. Orginal Pm displays Open, close and transit of the gear correct, but no brake temperature is displayed. So the overlay calculates brake temperature (1-9) and color, and displays this in each tire. (OK at the moment in the “quick and dirty phase” no calculation is done, just static values are used )
The second picture is the fuel synoptic. Enrico changes this 1.5 years ago for me, so I think it is working for normal flight situations. But it is not working e.g. for fuel dump situation. So I tried a few lines (as mentioned before it’s not ready!!) depending on the fuel jetson switch´s offsets and I am able to display the missing parts here.
In both situations I only draw additional elements to the original pm GC. It is also possible to hide some parts of the original pm GC and write/draw other information on this position. I always tried to find a way to simulate cabin pressure lost non normal procedure. One part here is that in the upper Eicas the CAB Alt have to be set to a value aprox. Flight level. But the displayed CAB Alt is calculated by pm (maybe in the GC direct) so that overwriting the offset for the CAB Alt. didn’t work. (Cab Alt. flipping around my set value and the calculated value from pm) So I tried to draw a black rectangle (not transparent) over the part of the upper eicas where the CAB Alt is displayed, and on the black rectangle I write another offset which is my Cabin Altitude.
If one synoptic page is written complete new, I set the form for this Page (depending on Offset 4F4) to not transparent, and this Page is complete new.
One disadvantage is that the PC has to deal with one more program, using aprx. 35-40 MB of main storage, but most of lower Eicas is slow graphic, changing only a few times a second so the extra load isn’t very bad.
I want to ask you for a public “proof of concept” on this Idea, and hope for some comments.
Best Regards from Austria
Peter

[michelmvd]

Hey Peter,
As Enrico stated very clearly to me, there wasn't any plan to work on the B744 in the near futur (due to the new PM strategy), it would certainly be a great help for the B744 cockpit builders to continue their projects. At least already in the EICAS region.
I also try to start learning with very simple things, the PMSystem logic code, in order to expand the possibilities and to correct the B744 simulation.
Thanks a lot for your efforts. One question is coming up, I suppose the change is of EICAS pages is done by the same commands as within PM lower Eicas?
B. rgds
Michel

[Peter Dowson]

Hello to all!

Hello Peter.

I am catching you here (as well) in case you are not regularly scanning my Support Forum. Remember you asked for Flaps axis disconnection facilities?

I have implemented both Flaps and spoiler axes disconnection facilities in an interim version of FSUIPC (and FSUIPC4), but I have not had time to test them properly. If you would like to download the updates and try them, letting me know, I'd be grateful. Thanks.

These are the links:

http://fsuipc.simflight.com/beta/FSUIPC4221.zip
http://fsuipc.simflight.com/beta/FSUIPC3781.zip

The implementation details are:

The facilities to intercept axes so that they can be applied through external algorithms (such as fly-by-wire) are extended further to include the Flaps (AXIS_FLAPS_SET) and the Spoilers axis (AXIS_SPOILERS_SET). For these there are additions to offset 341A and two new offsets as follows:

341A 1 byte Additional axis inhibit flags:

2^2 = Flaps
2^3= Spoilers

This byte is cleared after about 10 seconds to safeguard axis operation against a crashed application. To sustain the interception, therefore, the value needs to be refreshed every few seconds.

3412 2 bytes Spoiler axis input value. Copy this to 0BD0 for normal brake action
3414 2 bytes Flaps axis input value. Copy this to 0BDC for normal flaps action

Hope this is clear enough.

Regards

Pete

[pap]

Hi Pete!
I transfered this to your forum, and in conjunction with my overlay idea this will open nice features for altn flaps non normal procedures. (altn flaps synoptic on 744 in upper eicas)
Thanks again
Peter
Austria

[Peter Dowson]

I transfered this to your forum, and in conjunction with my overlay idea this will open nice features for altn flaps non normal procedures. (altn flaps synoptic on 744 in upper eicas)

I replied to your reply there too.

Looks like there's a lot more work needed. We need to clarify things.

Regards

Pete