CLS A330/340 panel issues

[MaddogK]

I've been slowly transitioning my flight sim 2004 over to a newer pc running win7/x64, and reinstalling some of the older payware stuff I used to fly irregularly and am having some serious panel issues with the CLS A330/340 airbus with servicepack 4 installed. I cannot get the engines started without pressing the autostart key combo (ALT-E).

With the APU running I simply cannot power the ESS bus to enable the starters AND the bleed page will NOT show and pressure to the engines from the APU even tho the APU bleed valve is open as well as the engine valve.
I tracked the ESS problem back to a missing Battery master entry somewhere in the gauge XML files. I can power the ESS bus from the APU ONLY if I turn the battery switches on from the startup Cessna before I change to the Airbus aircraft, but weirdly BOTH engines can be manually started WITHOUT APU assist.

I can only assume win7/x64 is causing these issues as I've never seen a Ken Mitchell panel so poorly written. Has anyone else seen these problems, or know of a fix ?

 

[Bjoern]

Most add-on aircraft inherit systems properties from the default flight, so if your default is cold&dark in the Cessna and the add-on aircraft doesn't account for that or offer an appropriate control, you're screwed. Most common offenders are avionics switches, battery switches and mixture settings (yes, also for jets). So either assign keyboard controls to these systems to have a workaround key combo, do not use a cold&dark default flight or write a simple gauge to add to the panel that checks for these properties and adjusts them if necessary.

 

[MaddogK]

Most add-on aircraft inherit systems properties from the default flight, so if your default is cold&dark in the Cessna and the add-on aircraft doesn't account for that or offer an appropriate control, you're screwed. Most common offenders are avionics switches, battery switches and mixture settings (yes, also for jets). So either assign keyboard controls to these systems to have a workaround key combo, do not use a cold&dark default flight or write a simple gauge to add to the panel that checks for these properties and adjusts them if necessary.

I assumed as much, and after a complete auto powerup (ALT-E) and shutdown everything works as it should. I just can't figure out how or why a commercial product would release with such a glaring error, and not patch it. Heck, I cannot even get the APU generator to output unless I toggle the battery switch ON before selecting this aircraft.

 

[Tom Clayton]

Once you have the plane in a workable cold/dark status, move it to a favorite parking spot/starting point and save the flight, but don't make it default. Changing the default flight to something other than a default aircraft can have "interesting" consequences when starting up other planes.

If you want to start from another location/time, you can change that after you hit the "Fly Now!" button.

 

[Bjoern]

I just can't figure out how or why a commercial product would release with such a glaring error, and not patch it.

Admittedly yes, even with the solution being as simple as follows:

<Gauge Name="Standard Toggles" Version="1.0">
<Element>
<Select>
<Value>
<!-- Elements can be enabled/disabled by turning them into comments (see opening and closing tags left & right) or deleting them -->
(G:Var1) 1 < if{
(A:AVIONICS MASTER SWITCH, bool) ! if{ (>K:TOGGLE_AVIONICS_MASTER) }
(A:ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY, bool) ! if{ (>K:TOGGLE_MASTER_BATTERY) }
(A:GENERAL ENG1 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE1_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG2 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE2_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG3 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE3_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG4 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE4_SET) }

10 (>G:Var1) }
</Value>
</Case>
</Select>
</Element>
</Gauge>

Put into an empty text file, save as "Autoconfig.xml", put into a folder named "Autoconfig", put said folder into aircraft's "panel" folder, add the following line to the panel.cfg and you're done.

gaugeNN=Autoconfig!Autoconfig,1,1,1,1

This will switch on the battery and avionics and will adjust the mixture levers if:
- the airplane is loaded
- all switches are NOT on


You can use this for all aircraft that don't play well with cold & dark default flights.

 

[MaddogK]

Admittedly yes, even with the solution being as simple as follows:

<Gauge Name="Standard Toggles" Version="1.0">
<Element>
<Select>
<Value>
<!-- Elements can be enabled/disabled by turning them into comments (see opening and closing tags left & right) or deleting them -->
(G:Var1) 1 < if{
(A:AVIONICS MASTER SWITCH, bool) ! if{ (>K:TOGGLE_AVIONICS_MASTER) }
(A:ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY, bool) ! if{ (>K:TOGGLE_MASTER_BATTERY) }
(A:GENERAL ENG1 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE1_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG2 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE2_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG3 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE3_SET) }
(A:GENERAL ENG4 MIXTURE LEVER POSITION, percent) 25 <= if{ 16383 (>K:MIXTURE4_SET) }

10 (>G:Var1) }
</Value>
</Case>
</Select>
</Element>
</Gauge>

Put into an empty text file, save as "Autoconfig.xml", put into a folder named "Autoconfig", put said folder into aircraft's "panel" folder, add the following line to the panel.cfg and you're done.

gaugeNN=Autoconfig!Autoconfig,1,1,1,1

This will switch on the battery and avionics and will adjust the mixture levers if:
- the airplane is loaded
- all switches are NOT on


You can use this for all aircraft that don't play well with cold & dark default flights.

TY sir, I've been going thru the gauge xml's for the "K:TOGGLE_MASTER_BATTERY" toggle but it doesn't seem to exist. For now a simple 'shift-M' before switching on the panel battery circuits seem to be the fix, but I'm going to look at Ken Mitchells freeware Airbus panels to see if he had a toggle hidden in another panel before I attempt to fix this. I also want to fix the missing APU generator button that doesn't light, and the APU bleed system that has no function other than eyecandy. I got the missing panel sounds working last night. Looks to me like the CLS A346 addon that I didn't install might be the problem, as SP4 seemed to rewrite the sound.ini file to point to a file that doesn't exist unless the A346 is installed, that the A330/340 is now supposed to be using. shrug.