Cockpitsonic Fire Panel with Sim-Avionics

[low fidelity]

Hi all,

I'm having some difficulty interfacing my Cockpitsonic 'PnP' 737 fire panel assembly to Sim-Avionics (I think the 'PnP' concept only really extends to PM). I'm a relatively new builder (although long time researcher!) and don't think I have the right conceptual model of how this whole interface process works, which is why I'm finding it difficult to help myself using the manuals and data. Any advice/correction would be much appreciated.

I have the panel properly powered and hooked up to the PC via it's USB and I have the latest Cockpitsonic 737 driver installed (I have the driver set to use CS offsets). The driver program can 'see' the fire panel and when I throw the lights test switch the various annunciators illuminate, so I'm pretty certain it's not a hardware issue.

The problem is that FSUIPC won't recognise any button pushes or handle selections I make (I'm looking under the Buttons & Key Press tab). However, using the FSUIPC logging facility I can see that offset 5652 is being written to when I move the fire handles. Curiously all three fire handles use the same offset, the value written just changes depending on the positioning of them (so there's a lot of possible output values depending on the combination of handle positions). In Sim-Avionics I can also monitor this offset and see the value changing as I move the handles.

So, I opened up the FSUIPC I/O .INI in Sim-Avionics and edited the line to read "ENG_L_FIRE_HANDLE_PULL = 5652b0000100" hoping that when the fire handle went to a value of 4 it would send the 'pull=1' input to Sim-A. Unfortunately this causes absolutely nothing to happen! I've tried tying the offset to other switches but it still causes nothing to happen.

Do I have the wrong end of the stick here? Is this a fundamentally silly thing to be doing? Do I need to overcome my fears and enter the curious world of SIOC?

One thing which crossed my mind was that offset 5652 is outside the range reserved for Sim-A. In the server .INI (i think) I found an option to extend the range of offsets scanned so I set the upper limit to 56FF - but again this didn't appear to make any difference.

Any help, advice or slaps around the head would be much welcomed!

Cheers,

Maxreverse

[fordgt40]

Maxreverse

On the basis of trying the simplest things first and forgive me for asking. Have you enabled "Use Input offsets and Use output offsets" with the Main/Control panel of the Sim-Avionics screen?

David

[low fidelity]

Hi David,

I truly am an idiot! Indeed I had forgotten to check those two options in Sim-A. Sometimes you just need to go back to basics eh! Thank you so much for your help. I've managed to play around with the setup and now most of the switches are working nicely!

As with all things though this step forward has spawned new questions. Two in particular are stumping me right now;

1. I've successfully assigned offset values to the left and right 'FIRE_HANDLE_PULL' inputs in SA and these functions are working well. However when it comes to fire bottle discharging there's a slight complication. The Sim-A I/O config has space to assign these two offsets 'FIRE_BOTTLE_1_DISCHARGE' and 'FIRE_BOTTLE_2_DISCHARGE'. However, the panel itself has four possible handle positions, 'Discharge Bottle 1 into the Left engine', 'Discharge bottle 2 into the left engine', 'Discharge bottle 1 into the right engine' or 'Discharge bottle 2 into the right engine'. The Cockpit sonic driver assigns four different bit offsets for these operations, but in Sim-A I only have two inputs, one for each fire bottle. It looks as though I need to insert some extra logic before passing the values to Sim-A. Do you think this is the case or is there a better way around this within Sim-A? Again, is this where SIOC comes in?

2. Inputs seem to be working quite well now but outputs are a different matter! I'd like to have the fire handle illuminate when the logic in Sim-A triggers it to do so. I think I've found a line in the FSUIPC_I/O Outputs .INI within Sim-A but I have no idea what offset to assign or whether that's even the right thing to be doing (breakdown in my conceptual model of the system again!). I noticed that the light test on the panel only works when FS is running so I figured some data must be passing back and forth to control this? I ran the FSUIPC data logging whilst performing a light test but can see no evidence of offsets being written to in the log file. Any idea where I should be looking?

Again, thanks for you help. I'm a bit dim with this sort of thing but happy to learn.

Cheers!

[fordgt40]

but in Sim-A I only have two inputs, one for each fire bottle. It looks as though I need to insert some extra logic before passing the values to Sim-A. Do you think this is the case or is there a better way around this within Sim-A? Again, is this where SIOC comes in?

You are correct, there is extra logic required. I have no knowledge of Cockpitsonic drivvers and therefore do not know what is available to you Also, all SA can do for you is to let you know when there is a fire by you assigning an offset to ENG_L_FIRE= and link this to a switch to provide the "fire" trigger. Then monitor this offset for a "1" and then do whatever to light up the fire handle, can CS do this?

You mention SIOC, do you have any opencockpits hardware installed? If so and IF you can access the CS Fire Panel lights/switches through offsets then it might be that the logic can be coded in SIOC to link between SA and CS. Then when the fire handle is pulled, and SA being aware through using the ENGINE_R_FIRE_HANDLE_PULL= offset, all manner of wonderfull things happen through the SA internal logic eg the elec bus is tripped out, low pressure hydraulic system on that engine ceases, spar valves close, bleed air is closed etc etc and watch the autopilot crabbing the plane to keep on heading with only one engine!

David

[low fidelity]

Thanks for the advice David. No Opencockpits hardware as of now and no knowledge of SIOC or the CS driver. Sound like I have a lot of investigation and learning to do! All part of the fun and challenge though.

all manner of wonderfull things happen through the SA internal logic eg the elec bus is tripped out, low pressure hydraulic system on that engine ceases, spar valves close, bleed air is closed etc etc and watch the autopilot crabbing the plane to keep on heading with only one engine!

This is the dream! Hopefully I'll get there!

Cheers