Keyboard Shortcut for toggling L Gen & R Gen

[TasKiNG]

Hi
I have just been bitten by the cockpit building bug and am in the planning stage. I will be basing my cockpit on a Learjet 45 and want to make the controls as accurate as possible. I have been through all of the checklists to check that a keyboard key can be assigned to all of the required controls but I am struggling to find a way of assigning keys to toggle the Left and Right Gen switches. I have scoured the forums and cant see anyone else with this problem so its probably something that I have overlooked.

I an running FSX with SP1 and FSUIPC (4.25 i think ) and using the Learjet 45 aircraft.

Any help getting these Left and Right Gens to toggle from the keyboard would be appreciated

Thanks

Dave

[Peter Dowson]

I an running FSX with SP1 and FSUIPC (4.25 i think ) and using the Learjet 45 aircraft.

The current supported version of FSUIPC4 is 4.30.

Any help getting these Left and Right Gens to toggle from the keyboard would be appreciated

I don't know the Learjet model, but the controls for those might be "Toggle Alternator1" and "Toggle Alternator2". Historically FS has used the terms "generator" and "alternator" interchangeably.

If the controls react to mouse clicks there are two other things you can try:

1. Enable FSUIPC's event logging, then click the controls. The log may then show the name of the relevant FS control.

2. If that produces no results, there is a (rather small) possibility that the new Mouse macro facilities in FSUIPC might work. Please check the (latest) FSUIPC4 user guide for details of this.

Regards

Pete

[Tomlin]

Hi Dave

Here's some info that you will find as a surprise, but delightful.

In the Learjet 45, the GEN switches are there only for 2 purposes:

1) If the aircraft is being supplied Ground Power and the GEN switches dont come on upon engine start

2) An in-flight issue warrants the need to bring the GENs back online again.

This can be found in the Training Manual.

What makes this a delightful surprise you may ask? Well, when you start each engine, the generator for that engine comes online automatically!

So, you can simply recreate the way the real airplane does by doing the following:

Program a button via FSUIPC to do an AutoStart for ENG 1 and then program a 2nd button for AutoStart on ENG 2. It's important to choose AutoStart because that is the function that causes the GEN L and GEN R to come online after reaching a certain N1 %.

Regarding toggling this from a keyboard, Im not sure what to tell you but if you have a yoke or other input device, this is pretty straigtforward. Im sure to assign it a key command would be just as easy too.

Best of luck, and it's good to have another L45 builder around.

[TasKiNG]

Thanks Pete & Tomlin,

Pete - Toggling Alternator 1 & 2 worked great and toggled Lgen & Rgen.

Tomlin - Great info, Just had a look at your site, some good info and your sim is looking fantastic. I'll post updates about how my sim is going as I build it.

Cheers

Dave

[Tomlin]

Great, now that you have got it working, you may want to consider making it work more like the real deal one day (without actually turning the GENs on manually )if you care to. I'd be glad to answer any L45 questions!

[P1IC]

If that produces no results, there is a (rather small) possibility that the new Mouse macro facilities in FSUIPC might work.

Pete,

I was hoping that this new feature you have introduced might allow any mouse action to be macroed to provide an FSUIPC action. (I know your reasons for developing it, and this isn't a criticism at all! ).

Is the full story in the docs? What might make this not work, and why is there only a "rather small" possibility that it will work in this case?

[Peter Dowson]

I was hoping that this new feature you have introduced might allow any mouse action to be macroed to provide an FSUIPC action.

What does that mean? Replace Luciano's "Key2Mouse" you mean, and operate the mouse itself? I won't do that.

Is the full story in the docs? What might make this not work

Make what work, exactly? The use of the mouse is wide and varying. What aspects of mouse operation are you considering might be accomplished differently?

... and why is there only a "rather small" possibility that it will work in this case?

Because there don't appear to be many default cockpit controls which are internally programmed in a way I can trap and replicate. If they were all programmed using C/C++ and following the panel SDK guidelines and using the SDK macros, then my system would work well.

Unfortunately a lot of the Microsoft-programmed stuff doesn't use the system they provided to add-on programmers, and either I cannot trap the action or I can trap it but not reproduce it without emulating a mouse and therefore knowing screen positions AND having FS believe the appropriate gauge is visible in that position even if it isn't.

I have made representations about panels with mousable areas to Microsoft on several occasions. It should be automatic that any such facility also provides an assignable control to do the same job. I don't know if they'll ever change the system to enforce this, and with the move away from C/C++ programing to XML I doubt much of my Mouse Macro facility will work in future cockpits either.

Regards

Pete

[P1IC]

Make what work, exactly?

Oops. I have clearly misunderstood your enhancement (said the actress to the Bishop ). I had thought, purely from reading some posts about this, that you had built a routine which somehow encoded previously executed mouse actions on panels which are currently hidden, to produce a keystroke or similar result, so that that mouse action could be envoked on the hidden panel via a keystroke or joystick button.

I now see that I was wrong, and that that is impossible. Sorry.

[Peter Dowson]

I had thought, purely from reading some posts about this, that you had built a routine which somehow encoded previously executed mouse actions on panels which are currently hidden, to produce a keystroke or similar result, so that that mouse action could be envoked on the hidden panel via a keystroke or joystick button.

Not quite. The mouse macro creation sequence detects what action inside a Gauge is occurring when the mouse is used on one of its switches or buttons, then provides a "macro" in a file which can be used in FSUIPC's Buttons or Keys facilities to do the same thing without the mouse and without the gauge necessarily being visible.

The Macro facility itself is a way of adding new or complex controls to FSUIPC's repertoire for either button or keypress assignment, or even axis assignment. It is an existing facility to which this mouse capability has recently been added.

Regards

Pete

[P1IC]

Not quite. The mouse macro creation sequence detects what action inside a Gauge is occurring when the mouse is used on one of its switches or buttons, then provides a "macro" in a file which can be used in FSUIPC's Buttons or Keys facilities to do the same thing without the mouse and without the gauge necessarily being visible.

The Macro facility itself is a way of adding new or complex controls to FSUIPC's repertoire for either button or keypress assignment, or even axis assignment. It is an existing facility to which this mouse capability has recently been added.

Regards

Pete

OK, Pete, thanks. I understand now. Very neat!