Cont. electrical logic

[buoyant egret]

Continuation to electrical logic discussion

@open mason So I don't really understand anything in that article

The thing is that i need a light to come on only when my battery switch is on and never else

[open mason]

the basic logic with everything in MobiFlight is, that we always treat the simulator as the source of "truth".

so a switch sets the battery switch on in the simulator

and we create an output config that reads the battery state back

[buoyant egret]

Right

[open mason]

in this way all possible sim failures or other factors like drained battery will work

[buoyant egret]

Got it

[open mason]

what sim is this?

[buoyant egret]

MSFS2020

[open mason]

and what aircraft?

[buoyant egret]

DA42 by COWS

[open mason]

ok so there are a few layers to this

first we need to have the battery state

so that we read it from the sim and it is 1 when the battery is on and 0 when it is off

also, alternator also usually supplies power so this can get complicated unless we find a sim variable that does the work for us

one possibility is to test Microsoft / Generic / CIRCUIT GENERAL PANEL ON

and try if that reacts also in COWS

[buoyant egret]

So how do I open a menu for these?

[open mason]

it usually works

so what do you have so far?

[buoyant egret]

Nothing, I don't know how to open a menu for the battery state

like, how do i add the battery state value

[open mason]

ok, it will be helpful to watch the "getting started" video on youtube, but lets see

select the output configs tab

and click the empty line to add "battery state"

then click the edit on the right edge

[buoyant egret]

Got it

Hold on

[buoyant egret]

Right where do I go from here

[open mason]

it pops up a dialog

[buoyant egret]

oh so just like connecting a switch? got it

[open mason]

select simconnect (MSFS) to read from msfs, and usually the Generic aircraft events work for most planes

just like ocnnecting switch but for output yeah

[buoyant egret]

Okay it's done

[open mason]

then test it

[buoyant egret]

press OK right?

[open mason]

yeah

save your file of course like always

[buoyant egret]

Right

[open mason]

and press "run" and test if you get a value on "Flight sim value" column

[buoyant egret]

So i test if the value works now?

[open mason]

yeah

[buoyant egret]

Okay

Hold on

[open mason]

we need to have it working first or nothing else will really work 🙂

but basically this is like a led indicator

but we just dont define a led output for it

I mean we could but we dont need it

we just want the value

[buoyant egret]

Just an output value from the sim got it

[open mason]

so CIRCUIT GENERAL PANEL ON should usually work unless the plane vendor has created a fully custom logic for everything

[buoyant egret]

By the way COWS has an LVAR list if this one doesn't work

[open mason]

yeah that is good to know too

so that would be another option

and maybe even better then

but lets see once you have something that reacts to the panel power state

it might be even better since it might have some custom logic for the Diamond's backup battery etc

not sure how the DA42 electrical system is exactly wired

[buoyant egret]

Yes it does work

Circ general panel on works

[open mason]

ok good

so if you wanted to make your gear indicators only work when panel has power

lets open one of them

[buoyant egret]

Alright

[open mason]

and open the modify tab

[buoyant egret]

Right i have the right gear led edit tab open now

Okay

[open mason]

click "add reference"

[buoyant egret]

And battery state?

[open mason]

so yeah, whatever you named it, select it

now this means # represents the value of your battery state config

[buoyant egret]

so # = 1?

if it's on?

[open mason]

yes it is 1 if it is on

and 0 if it is off

now add modifier -> Transform

and you can likely see what we are after

$ is our gear state for the led, we multiply with # so it is either $*1 or $*0

[buoyant egret]

Ohh

[open mason]

so config references let you bring other values into your configs

[buoyant egret]

Right

So how do I test it now?

[open mason]

close it

with OK

if you turn battery off, your led should turn off

because the multiplication of anything x 0 is 0

[buoyant egret]

It does work indeed

[open mason]

so when the batt variable turns 0, also the led transform results in a 0

[buoyant egret]

You helped me to understand config references now too

[open mason]

yeah, also if you have the gear leds in PWM enabled pins

you can also use config references to dim your panel lights

[buoyant egret]

No dimmer for gear indicators in DA42 afaik

[open mason]

ok then it is not a big deal, but for cockpit lights if you have other leds or flood light etc

you can read the panel light dimmer value from sim, and use Interpolate modifier to make it 0-255 range and then use that in the transform to set the brightness if you want

but one thing at a time 🙂 config references are pretty useful for a lot of things

[buoyant egret]

Very useful indeed, been looking for this, i think i can apply this to different things myself now too?

[open mason]

yeah

[buoyant egret]

Thank you Tuomas very helpful

[open mason]

you're welcome

[buoyant egret]

Nevermind, found a solution...