Why a gauge should work on a plane and not on another one?

[kelticheart]

A good day to everybody!

This happened to me so many times in the past that I decided to ask your opinion about it.

What record in the airfile, or any other entry in the aircraft.cfg, may prevent a gauge from working properly?

I am just doing some spring cleaning and installing airplanes that I never had the time before to install. I am doing it with Italian Regia Aeronautica planes, where I replace all German gauges in their panels with the new Italian instruments, developed for the latest uploads.

Well, tachometers 1, 2 & 3 from MVG3d's collection work just fine on any multi-engined aircraft I have tried them with. They work fine in all of the Savoia Marchetti's and Cant tri-motors, all of the twin-engined planes like the Fiat BR20's and the Caproni's, no problems anywhere until I hit the Breda Ba88 made by William Dickens, a.k.a. Bismarck13.

In this twin-engined aircraft MVG3d's tachometer #2 works fine, while in #1 tachometer the needle goes all the way to the end of the dial and remains stuck there as soon as the engine is started.

I did find in the past strange things like a multi-engined plane defined in their airfiles with just one engine, or air-cooled engines defined as water-cooled or viceversa, tricycle undercarriages defined as tail-draggers, but not in this case.
Anyway, I went in and edited anything I thought could have caused the gauge malfunction without getting any positive result. The needle in #1 tachometer still turns all the way to the end of the dial and stays there. Not only, the fuel gauge, which works perfectly anywhere else, shows constantly 100% empty tanks.

I tried other tachometers for #1 engine and other fuel gauges, they all work fine! Unfortunately, none of them are Italian gauges.

Why a gauge should work on a plane and not on another one?

Cheers!
KH

 

[Sarg Willy]

Hi Kelti , Don,t know if this will help your problem , but Cfs-2 , will read at least 2 other air files , Fs- and -Cfs-1 to name a couple , and as we know Cfs-1 twin engine air files , start both engines at the same time , Looking at someone,s supplied air file , is hard to tell which of the former listed air files , he may have used , that causes your gauges to malfunction , Normally I check for clues , in the air file ,, Fs-98 engine torque values , predate Cfs-1 files , and next I look for 302- fuel quantity - and another clue is , 1003 Fuel Location , , The last 2 I remove ,

if the air file has Fuel tank location,s listed 525--535,, then 1003 is not needed ,,

-- Some model files were not compiled correctly ,, as an Example Silvia,s
Bf110 starts the right side prop and then the left one !!

Did you try replaceing Tack 1 , with Tack 3 , in case it was compiled wrong ?

Try replacing the air file from a like plane ,

Dap gauge too close to afected gauges
// temp removal of other conflicting gauges


I guess while I,m discussing gauge problem,s , I ran into a strange one ,
with Yas MkII -- Throttle decrease with altitude climb ,, at 14,000 ft the throttle was at 80 % holding the key for 100 % caused throttle lever to oscilate back and forth ,, and cuts power for climb , wasn,t cfs-1 throttle issue as the Hellcat sub in did the same thing ,,
Turn,s out the Vc-- listing was Hawker.gauge_!Airspeed ----(568-Kb)
Displayed Ok in Vc , but either mine is corrupted or incompatible with
any throttle used --- Swaped out for Hurricane_1! Airspeed ,, fixes the throttle control issue and I can now reach the heavan,s

 

[Allen]

Tachometers that have the needle goes all the way to the end of the dial and remains stuck are from the engine rotation as listed in the aircraft.cfg.

 

[kelticheart]

HEY!!!!

Tachometers that have the needle goes all the way to the end of the dial and remains stuck are from the engine rotation as listed in the aircraft.cfg.

Allen,

I think you put me on the right track! This model comes with counter-rotating props/engines, which I don't know if it's historically correct or not.

Anyway, I did notice in its aircraft.cfg an entry for prop rotation =1 and one =-1. I'll delete this entry.

At this point I can't help but asking myself: should stock P-38 tachometers work correctly in this case?

Thank you, Allen!
KH

 

[Allen]

The stock 38's work fine for CW and CCW props.

 

[kelticheart]

Right on the nail!

Hi Allen,

deleting the CW and CCW entry in the [propeller] section of the aircraft.cfg brought everything back to normal.

I still haven't figured out why the MVG3d fuel gauge doesn't work here, while it works perfectly in every other 2d panel I placed it, but it's already a big improvement!

Thank you again.

Cheers!
KH

 

[dvslats]

Fuel Gauge

Hi KH,

I just did a little experiment and it worked on my set-up. Hope it works on yours.

Open the air file (AirEd) and remove entries 525 and 526. These are left main tank and right main tank respectively.

These need to be replaced with entries 531 and 532. center tank 1, center tank 2.
You can find these in the stock F4U1A air file.

Make note of the offsets and fuel quantities from 525, 526 so these can be entered into center tank 1 and center tank 2.

Hopefully your fuel gauge should function. It did on mine.

Fingers Crossed,
Dave

 

[kelticheart]

Hey....!

Hi KH,

I just did a little experiment and it worked on my set-up. Hope it works on yours....Fingers Crossed,
Dave

Thanks, Dave!

I went for a rougher 'cut-corner' type of solution: I replaced MVG3d's gauge with the stock CFS1 Bf109 fuel gauge which I translated in Italian. I had renamed it 'ITA_Bf109.gau' and it's included in both MVG3d's M.C. 205 and Quai/D'Attomo's Fiat CR.32 conversion packs.
It was my first gauge translation attempt, due to the bad lack of WWII Italian gauges for CFS2 at the time. I contains all engine and fuel gauges with Italian labels.

At any rate, your solution is very interesting and I'll certainly try it out this weekend. Since I am always curious to know why something that usually works stops working in CFS2, let me ask you, have you discovered why the lateral L/R tanks do not work in this model?

B.T.W.: another Regia Aeronautica model from William Dickens' workshop has the same fuel gauge problem. It's the Imam-Ro57.

There's an added value to this cleanup and archive work I am doing these days. Each time a model needs a new prop disc, I replace it and save it in the prop disc library I have been compiling since the end of last summer.

Cheers!
Stef

 

[dvslats]

Let me ask you, have you discovered why the lateral L/R tanks do not work in this model?

Hi KH,

Technically, no I do not. I have notes saved from over the years and one from Moparmike.

(Moparmike)

It usually happens with FS98-gauges being used with an FS2000&up-airfile, or vice versa. It also may be due to some missing sections from the airfile.

Fs98 airfiles use a different type of "engine" in the airfile...and some of the token variables that read the operating parameters are different...that's why some gauges work but some don't.

Thats about all I can tell you.

Dave

 

[kelticheart]

Hi KH,

Technically, no I do not. I have notes saved from over the years and one from Moparmike.



Thats about all I can tell you.

Dave

It worked!

Cheers!
KH

 

[dvslats]

Glad the gauge is working for you KH.

So it's probably one of those "token variables" that the fuel gauge was designed to read.
It can be a real guessing game sometimes.

Till Later,
Dave