LFR and other issues

[dggoofy]

Hi Milviz Team,

First, must say, your latest creation is just awesome. Night cockpit light is just great, with those big shadows.Thanks. LFR is a very nice add!

Now, like every new bird, there are some issues :

Cold and dark start : not all switches are OFF :

1. The fuel selector is on "OFF" but in fact Fuel is on both inside FSX. If you select LEFT or RIGHT then you go back to OFF, then ok, it turns OFF...
2. LFR ON/OFF Volume switch is not off. To get the LFR working I have to turn the button back to off and then swith it to ON.

About LFR : A very very nice way to fly back to the 40's. So great!

However, I got some issues.

- Dial number are not accurate enough. To set on 251 (Blythe freq) I read about 220 on the dialer! Freq 400 is a bit more right that written, etc..

- Start from 63CA. I'd like to fly to KBLH using the BLYTHE, CA Beam (freq 251). But I only get twillight sound. Wherever I am. I tried with El Centro : no problem I got a nice N -. -. -.. Tried with Riverside : same issue : only twillight sound.

So I opened Range.cfg, found YH line, and just changed this

YH,251,13.2,33.6088,-114.6558,100,347,80,167,267,BLYTHE CA,KBLH
with
YH,251,13.2,33.6088,-114.6558,100,350,80,167,267,BLYTHE CA,KBLH

And guess what : it works! I could fly from 63CA and find KBLH with 3.2 NM visibility thank to the LFR. Just great.

I tried to find any logic (rounded numbers, +90 between them or else) but did not find. So I did not investigate more, but hopefully it will help you to solve the issue.


Nice job guys.

Cheers

Daniel

[N4GIX]

Dutch will have to answer your questions/comments regarding the LFR, but I can at least tackle the fuel tank selector.

FSX and P3D both have always had the fuel tanks default to "BOTH" no matter what the loaded aircraft has selected. I'll try once more to force the tanks to be OFF on first C&D load, and on AUX when loading RTR.

[Dutch]

Hi Milviz Team,

First, must say, your latest creation is just awesome. Night cockpit light is just great, with those big shadows.Thanks. LFR is a very nice add!

- Dial number are not accurate enough. To set on 251 (Blythe freq) I read about 220 on the dialer! Freq 400 is a bit more right that written, etc..

- Start from 63CA. I'd like to fly to KBLH using the BLYTHE, CA Beam (freq 251). But I only get twillight sound. Wherever I am. I tried with El Centro : no problem I got a nice N -. -. -.. Tried with Riverside : same issue : only twillight sound.

So I opened Range.cfg, found YH line, and just changed this

YH,251,13.2,33.6088,-114.6558,100,347,80,167,267,BLYTHE CA,KBLH
with
YH,251,13.2,33.6088,-114.6558,100,350,80,167,267,BLYTHE CA,KBLH

And guess what : it works! I could fly from 63CA and find KBLH with 3.2 NM visibility thank to the LFR. Just great.

I tried to find any logic (rounded numbers, +90 between them or else) but did not find. So I did not investigate more, but hopefully it will help you to solve the issue.

Cheers

Daniel

Thanks for the kind words Daniel.

The radio frequency tuning is a problem. The tuner only has 100 steps around the dial. But that has to tune 200 different frequencies in the low band, and up to 700 in the high band!

In the low band each step is multiplied by 2, and in the high band, by 7.

Thus you can dial in frequencies 200-202-204-206-208 and so on in the low band, and 500-507-514-521 and so on in the high band.

The problem is, many ranges are on frequencies that fall between those steps.

So we use matching logic to find all transmitters within range of the user airplane, and match each one to the closest tuned frequency. This works most of the time. Even when two ranges are close together in frequency you can play with the dial to tune the other. For example, let's say we want 213KC. That's between steps 212 and 214. So tuning either 212 or 214 will get you 213, unless another range is on one of them. Say 212 is taken. So we tune 214 and get 213. The only place where this fails is if we are near three ranges on consecutive frequencies. One on 212, one on 213, and one on 214. In that case, 213 is untunable.

The matching logic is dicier in the high range where we step by 7 not 2.

We're currently discussing ways to allow the pilot to select the exact frequency he wants. But this must be done without making that crank, already hard to use, even worse.

My advice in tuning is to play with the dial and listen to the ID sequences. In most cases you can, with patience, get the range you want. This is actually pretty much how it was done in ye olde days.

Hope this helps.
Dutch

[kaosfere]

I was posting to confirm the "dial inaccurate" issue based on some of my own observations, but while I was taking some pictures, Dutch responded. That makes sense, and I'm happy with there being some "fuzz" in the system. Having used entirely analog radios in the past, I know nothing on them was ever precise!

However, one additional issue I see, unless I'm misunderstanding things, is that the high/low band switch is reversed. Parked at PWK, this is what things look like when I have 574CG tuned in (ultra-widescreen pics, you may need to widen your browser window, sorry):



And here is 215SN:



Or am I reading things wrong?

(I can also confirm having to switch the set off and on again to get it to warm up.)

One thing more: Would you be willing to document the format of the ranger.cfg file, or at least add the WW2 Asian RR stations so we can fly "the hump"?

Minor issues aside, this is a really cool piece of work. Thanks!

[Dutch]

I was posting to confirm the "dial inaccurate" issue based on some of my own observations, but while I was taking some pictures, Dutch responded. That makes sense, and I'm happy with there being some "fuzz" in the system. Having used entirely analog radios in the past, I know nothing on them was ever precise!

However, one additional issue I see, unless I'm misunderstanding things, is that the high/low band switch is reversed. Parked at PWK, this is what things look like when I have 574CG tuned in (ultra-widescreen pics, you may need to widen your browser window, sorry):

(I can also confirm having to switch the set off and on again to get it to warm up.)

One thing more: Would you be willing to document the format of the ranger.cfg file, or at least add the WW2 Asian RR stations so we can fly "the hump"?

Minor issues aside, this is a really cool piece of work. Thanks!

No, you're reading things right. The band selector was reversed.

I'm happy to report that all three issues here will be resolved in the SP coming up very, very soon. Exact frequencies in the 200-400 and 500-700 range can be tuned.

The issue Daniel reported with having to change 347 to 350 is fixed and works correctly with 347 now. Actually anytime leg 1 bearing plus the mag var added up to exactly 360 all you'd get is an on-course signal where-ever you are. (A constant on-course regardless of position is the system saying it can't figure something and and is punting. Sort of an aural error message. There is a "Ranger.log" file in the root of your flight sim that contains some details about errors and operations of the range system if you want to dig in that far.)

And the band selector is no longer reversed.

Stay tuned for these fixes and others...

Dutch

[Dutch]

One thing more: Would you be willing to document the format of the ranger.cfg file, or at least add the WW2 Asian RR stations so we can fly "the hump"?

Take a real close look at the ranges in the .cfg

But here is the format:

There are 12 comma-separated parameters. All are required for each range except for the last one. One range per line.

1) The two or three letter ID - this will create the Morse code ID. No numbers or symbols allowed.
2) The frequency. Must be between 200 to 400KC, or 500 to 700KC to be tuned in the Bobcat.
3) Magnetic variation (very important!)
4) Latitude in decimal
5) Longitude in decimal
6) Range of signal in nautical miles
7) Leg 1 (1-360) - "Northern"
8) Leg 2 (1-360) - "Eastern"
9) Leg 3 (1-360) - "Southern"
10) Leg 4 (1-360) - "Western"
11) Name of the range. Text with NO COMMAS. Keep it short.
12) Airport associated with the range (optional)

Dutch

[kaosfere]

Ah! Those beacons are already in there! I could have sworn the ones I searched for weren't, but maybe I'm just a dummy.

Thanks for the information, anyway!

[N4GIX]

Incidentally, there is now a Tooltip that will display the precise frequency tuned.

[dggoofy]

The issue Daniel reported with having to change 347 to 350 is fixed and works correctly with 347 now. Actually anytime leg 1 bearing plus the mag var added up to exactly 360 all you'd get is an on-course signal where-ever you are. (A constant on-course regardless of position is the system saying it can't figure something and and is punting. Sort of an aural error message. There is a "Ranger.log" file in the root of your flight sim that contains some details about errors and operations of the range system if you want to dig in that far.)

OK... Thanks! Staying tune on right SP freq!

The problem wih dialer accuracy is not to find the freq. For me it is just perfect like it is : turning the button and search for a sound is very amazing. The problem is that the numbers written on the dialer are far away from the freq.

In fact it should be like shown in the attached image (I only changed low freq 200-400) :
220 replaced by 230
280 by 300
320 is ok
380 replaced by 270
etc.

Cheers

Daniel