AH-1W Super Cobra released [StarGate]

[WarHorse47]

I am blocked as well. How do they think they can continue this policy of silencing any criticism, and still hope to sell any future releases? I know zip about running a business, but it seems to me that Stargate Studios is using poor judgement here. NC

So now we know the three who commented on FB.

I don't think the comments were even criticism. We were just asking about the status of the promised service pack for the AH-1W in light of their statement on the change in business direction.

Their website still indicates the Service Pack is coming soon!. Unfortunately that was posted last December. Since then I politely asked them about the status in an e-mail, but never received a response.

Sure be nice to know why.

 

[strikehawk]

Looks like their FB page has been taken down. As for their "customer service", it's been crap for years and following the release of the UH-1Y they shut down their forum. I sent an email about that birds high fuel consumption and the fix that was made with help from members of Hovercontrol. I also told them that they can use it without having to compensate anyone for any update that they had planned. Never used it and they never responded to me, at least tell me thanks or Fk off but don't ignore me. The Cobra was not the only bird that they made that the promised fixes failed to appear.

My regret is that the Cheyenne will never get built, that's what I was waiting for.

 

[YoYo]

Shame for this "producer" (from Area51 too). I never will buy any product from their site from new name of this developer. The kindergarten.

Its a example of disrespect for customers in whole world, incomprehensible in modern time.

Bye Stargate an take my money in your dark places...

 

[malibu43]

I have a decent working HUD at this point, and permission from the original author to share it. I will post a beta version to this thread for you guys to try out in the next couple of days.

I started looking into the issue of the non-working gauges and the nav radio. I'm totally new to this stuff and just learning as I go. As far as the gauges go, I noticed that the Stargate Cobra's aircraft.cfg file defines the engines as engine_type = 5, which is a turbo-prop. The AlphaSim Cobra, on the other hand, defines the engine_type as 3, which is "Helo-turbine". I didn't have time, but later I will change the Stargate Cobra to type 3 to see if/what that might change. I looked through the actual gauges themselves, but didn't notice anything that looked incorrect. Again, I'm totally new to this, so someone who knows what they're doing might want to take a look as well.

I also noticed the AlphaSim Cobra defines just one engine, and just duplicates the gauge readings. That could be another option to try for the Stargate Cobra. It may get the gauges to look right, but I have no idea what else it actually affects.

I haven't seen anything obvious with the nav radio yet.

As far as the electrical issue goes, there are quite a few values different between the Stargate and Alphasim versions. I noticed Stargate has generator_alternator_voltage=26, where AlphaSim has 28 (which I think is what it usually is supposed to be). Changing that value might be worth a try, plus all the AlphaSim systems seem to have a much lower MaxAmpLoad value (3 or 5 instead of 15 or 20). I'm not sure if that is the max amps that particular system can handle, or the max amps that that system will draw. To top it all off, AlphaSim has electric_always_available = 1, which means that system may not work and it just needs to be told to be on at all times...

Like I said, I'm totally new to this and kind of having fun digging in and learning. But if someone who knows more wants to take a stab at things or point me in the right places to look, it would be appreciated.

 

[malibu43]

Nav Radio Fix:

In the aircraft.cfg, find these lines:

[Radios]
// Radio Type=availiable, standby frequency, has glide slope
Audio.1=1
Com.1=1, 1
Com.2=1, 1
Nav.1=1, 1, 1
Nav.2=1, 1, 0
Adf.1=1
Transponder.1=1
Marker.1=1

and change it to:

[Radios]
// Radio Type = availiable, standby frequency, has glide slope
Audio.1=1 
Com.1=1 
Com.2=1
Nav.1=1, 0, 1 
Nav.2=1 
Adf.1=1 
Transponder.1=1 
Marker.1=1

After making this change, my Nav radio works fine (and is linked to the new HUD!). Credit goes to Alphasim/Hovercontrol for having the correct entries in their AH-1W .cfg file.

Oil Temp Gauge
As far as the Oil Temp Gauge goes, I looked through .xml files and .cfg files and compared to other aircraft/helicopters until my brain was fried, and I just can't figure out why the Eng 2 gauge doesn't register. I've posted about it in the panel design subforum, so we'll see if I can get any help. In the meantime, you can go into panel.cfg and do a search for "OilTemp2", and simply change it to OilTemp1. The gauge in the cockpit will at least look right, even if it's not the correct reading.

I'll post the HUD files later today, hopefully...

 

[WarHorse47]

Wow. Great work (and sleuthing) Malibu43.

 

[simulloyd]

Eng 2 does not exist for this helicopter despite the fact that 2 engines accurately are modeled graphically.

Yesterday I set up a few engine failures in the FSX menu.

Only one engine was available to fail.

I changed Number of Engines from 1 to 2 and all that does is produce a new column in the failure menu designated Engine 2. You can select fail on every component for Eng 2 and engine 1 will keep running.

Also when looking at the Aux fuel pump switches you will see that Eng 1 is in the off position while Eng 2 is in the on position. These switches actually control fuel flow.

Hovering mouse over these switches will actually read


#1 Fuel Tank Selector (Center) and #2 Fuel Tank Selector (All)

When I moved #1 Fuel Tank Selector On position

a.) everything shuts off
b.) Gas Producer gauge for Eng 1 moves from abnormal operating range to normal range while Eng 2 gauge remains unchanged but in the green.

Rotor RPM gauge is also dead. NR and NF needles never move to normal range and when mouse over this gauge I see a label for Direction Indicator with no corresponding xml.

The real mystery is the Turbine Outlet temperature Gauge - Face on gauge reads in Celsius but values are in Fahrenheit and begin at 1009 F at lowest collective setting and rise in relation to adding power up to about 1312 F before the skids come off the ground.

Item values in the xml files need to be revised.

Within Ah-1W.air
Line 101 Normal Model File=Bell_206B_JetRanger_n

 

[malibu43]

Thanks, simulloyd.

Eng 2 does not exist for this helicopter despite the fact that 2 engines accurately are modeled graphically.

Yesterday I set up a few engine failures in the FSX menu.

Only one engine was available to fail.

I changed Number of Engines from 1 to 2 and all that does is produce a new column in the failure menu designated Engine 2. You can select fail on every component for Eng 2 and engine 1 will keep running.

So where are the actual number of engines really defined? I'm using AAM (aircraft airfile manager) to look in the air files, and that tells me that the cfg file defines number of engines (which is 2 for the SG AH-1W). Setting things to 1 engine and just duplicating gauges (like the Alphasim/Hovercontrol AH-1W) might simplify some of the weird gauge issues. There are other gauges (other than OilTemp) that point to Eng2...

Also when looking at the Aux fuel pump switches you will see that Eng 1 is in the off position while Eng 2 is in the on position. These switches actually control fuel flow.

Hovering mouse over these switches will actually read


#1 Fuel Tank Selector (Center) and #2 Fuel Tank Selector (All)

When I moved #1 Fuel Tank Selector On position

a.) everything shuts off
b.) Gas Producer gauge for Eng 1 moves from abnormal operating range to normal range while Eng 2 gauge remains unchanged but in the green.

So far I haven't seen any way to change/edit what events animated switches are linked to. Is this something that is defined within the VC model, or is it editable?

Rotor RPM gauge is also dead. NR and NF needles never move to normal range and when mouse over this gauge I see a label for Direction Indicator with no corresponding xml.

Not sure what to do about that one. The RPM Indicator.xml looks to be OK. And, you are correct there is no Direction Indicator in either the panel.cfg or .cab files.

The real mystery is the Turbine Outlet temperature Gauge - Face on gauge reads in Celsius but values are in Fahrenheit and begin at 1009 F at lowest collective setting and rise in relation to adding power up to about 1312 F before the skids come off the ground.

Would that be the "Bell_206B!Turbine Temperature" gauge or "Right Ext Temp" and "Left Ext Temp" gauges?

Item values in the xml files need to be revised.

Within Ah-1W.air
Line 101 Normal Model File=Bell_206B_JetRanger_n

AAM also tells me this variable is no longer used.



Hmmm... Lot's more stuff to look at, but I'm not sure if/when I'll have time, or if I am even capable of fixing some of these things.

edit - the more I think about it, it probably makes more sense to just switch to the .air file from the Alphasim/Hovercontrol Cobra, and then copy the appropriate engine data from the .cfg file as well. Then I'll know I'm starting with a decent helicopter flight model and it's just a matter of pointing gauges to the right place.

 

[malibu43]

Well this certainly makes a big difference...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...g-turbine-heli&p=871123&viewfull=1#post871123

The format of the gauges is all mixed between FS9 and FSX. Knowing that, I'll have to take another closer look.

 

[WarHorse47]

I've removed some more of the F/A-18 specific stuff from the HUD, and changed the waterline symbol to a gun cross. Also, the HUD now powers on and off using the switch. I'd like to get the brightness switch to work, but I need to do more digging/research to figure out how to make that work the way I'd want it to. I'm going to email the original author of the addon later to see if I can get permission to share my changes.

I'm curious if you made any progress on this. Are you thinking about creating an updated cab file? Will you be providing the panel changes for the switches?

 

[malibu43]

I'm curious if you made any progress on this. Are you thinking about creating an updated cab file? Will you be providing the panel changes for the switches?

I'm going to upload a "phase 1 patch" hopefully later tonight. It will include the HUD, Nav radio fix, and switching the Cobra to "single engine" to get the gauges to at least look right during flight.

VC switches are another story. I'm not even sure at this point if those can be fixed. If they can, it may take me a while to figure it out...

 

[WarHorse47]

Sounds good. I've added the updated HUD and nav fixes.

My notes show three, maybe four, gauges out of whack.

1. Eng1 Rotor RPM drops off after startup instead of increasing

2. Eng2 Oil Temp Gauge has no change

3. Rotor RPM never goes above 80%

I also recall somewhere losing electrical after a few minutes of flight and had to start with another helo before switching to the Cobra to avoid that.

Is that pretty much what you've captured?

 

[malibu43]

Sounds good. I've added the updated HUD and nav fixes.

My notes show three, maybe four, gauges out of whack.

1. Eng1 Rotor RPM drops off after startup instead of increasing

2. Eng2 Oil Temp Gauge has no change

3. Rotor RPM never goes above 80%

I also recall somewhere losing electrical after a few minutes of flight and had to start with another helo before switching to the Cobra to avoid that.

Is that pretty much what you've captured?

The HUD will be the customized 3rd party one that's conformal to the outside world, so that is something you don't have yet.

My default flight is with the engine running, so I haven't experienced any of the issues that happen "after startup yet." I can copy some variables from the Alphasim config that might resolve the loss of electrical issue. But otherwise I haven't looked into that.

Something is really porked with the RPM gauge, so that'll be another bigger issue to tackle. For now, I've subbed in the Bell 206 gauge and it seems to register correctly. The OilTemp2 gauge just matches OilTemp1 now, since I've converted the chopper to single engine.

 

[malibu43]

SGS AH-1W Fix Pack 1 (beta)

Here is the first pack of fixes.

This is kind of a beta. I'm relying on you folks for some feedback. It includes:

1. HUD (originally by Scott Printz and Jivko Rusev for the F/A-18, tweaked for the AH-1W by me). It is just meant to look like a plausible HUD and doesn't represent a real AH-1W HUD. It is conformal to the outside world as long as your eyepoint doesn't change. It needs to be turned on via the switch below and to the left of the HUD like the default HUD did.

2. aircraft.cfg file modified
- use only one engine
- radio entries adjusted to allow nav radio to work
- eyepoint adjusted to allow new HUD to work
- Alternator Volts corrected to 28
- (I think that's it...)

3. Panel.cfg modifed
- to use new HUD
- to use gauges that only reference Engine1 (since there is only one engine now)
- reference Bell206B RPM gauge until someone can figure out how to get the AH-1W one to work.

Back up your old files first! Let me know what you think!

 

[WarHorse47]

Good job.

Nice to see the gauges work.

After a few minutes of flight, I did encounter a partial electrical failure. I lost the HUD, Artificial Horizon, and Rotor % RPM and no switches would bring them back.

In comparing the [electrical] section with that of the Area51 Viper, I noticed a couple differences and made the following change to the Cobra.

//electric_always_available=0
//engine_generator_map = 0,1,1

electric_always_available = 1
engine_generator_map = 1,0

Seems to work fine now.

The only other thing I would look at would be to add a VC Camera view for the switches under the collective. They are hard to see and access when sitting on the ground, and tricky to get at when in flight.

Thanks for the tweaks.

 

[malibu43]

Good job.

Nice to see the gauges work.

Thanks!

After a few minutes of flight, I did encounter a partial electrical failure. I lost the HUD, Artificial Horizon, and Rotor % RPM and no switches would bring them back.

In comparing the [electrical] section with that of the Area51 Viper, I noticed a couple differences and made the following change to the Cobra.

//electric_always_available=0
//engine_generator_map = 0,1,1

electric_always_available = 1
engine_generator_map = 1,0

Seems to work fine now.

The Alphasim Cobra has electric_always_available=1 as well, and that was going to be my next step if changing the voltage didn't work. Glad we can scratch the electrical failures off the list.

The only other thing I would look at would be to add a VC Camera view for the switches under the collective. They are hard to see and access when sitting on the ground, and tricky to get at when in flight.

Thanks for the tweaks.

I was actually thinking of trying to find/adapt/create a 2D pop up panel for engine and fuel controls, since the switches in the VC are mislabeled and don't seem to function correctly (and there's nothing we can do about that). A custom camera view is another option that should be too hard to try.

 

[malibu43]

Good job.

...

After a few minutes of flight, I did encounter a partial electrical failure. I lost the HUD, Artificial Horizon, and Rotor % RPM and no switches would bring them back.

...

A follow up question - Are you doing Ctrl+E starts when you experience this, or are you going through some sort of manual start-up procedure? I just want to make sure I'm following the same steps if we're going to try to find ways to resolve some of these issues. I flown around for some time after starting the flight with my engine running (due to my saved default flight) and haven't experienced any electrical failures.

 

[big-mike]

I don`t have this electrical failure.
Thank you for the tweaks,malibu!.
Can one do something with the scratched canopy?
Mike

 

[WarHorse47]

Never thought about my startup sequence till now.

I go back and forth between Ctrl+E and Ctrl+Shift+F4. Both work. I think I still have to turn on the generators with the later.

With no manual or recommended startup sequence, I go with whatever works.

 

[malibu43]

Another idea I just had would be to repaint the VC panel where all those switches are so that they are actually labeled with what they do. They won't match the real cockpit, but it might help prevent issues like trying to turn on an Aux Fuel pump and actually shutting off fuel flow to the engine.