Need help with lighting on a modified 172 panel

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

I don't seem able to post this in the X-Plane forums, so I figured I'd see if anyone here could help me..

 

I got sick of not having a proper DME in the 172, so I decided to add one with PlaneMaker. While I was there, I figured I'd replace the radios with ones that had standby frequencies, and add a second ADF radio, also converting the ADF gauge to a slaved, dual-needle one.

 

I managed to convert the radios from red to amber by copying over the right cockpit bitmap files and modifying the colours in the bitmap for the DME, and everything is functional. However, the backlights don't line up on the COM and NAV radios which makes them look funny, and ADF2 doesn't have one at all, nor does the DME. Also, the new ADF gauge's lighting is terrible to the point of being unusable in low light.

 

Could anyone point me in the right direction to fix this? This is my first attempt to do anything with PlaneMaker, and what I've read in the X-Plane forums isn't helping me much.

 

[Tony Koch]

I am no expert but I have spend hours experimenting with instrument panel modifications. There is a difference when the panel png file is in the root aircraft folder or in cockpit>-PANELS- folder. If it's the former, instruments are "transparent" – only the working bits will display and you are dependent on the underlying png for "appearance". If the panel png is only in the -PANELS- folder, what you place in PlaneMaker is what you see. It seems to be one or the other - you cannot combine the two methods.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

I think I have it sorted out. The backlights are found in cockpit/generic/panelnight_LIT-1.png. Just had to duplicate and move some of the lit areas around. For the ADF, I had to change the lighting in PlaneMaker for that object to additive.

 

The only minor issue left is that the ADF1 radio and AP digits are brighter than the other radios, but I can live with that for now. At least it's usable at night again, making for a pretty sweet little IFR trainer if you like the stock 172.

 

Still a few tweaks left for me to make, but if anyone wants a copy, let me know. Here's what I modified:

 

Changed NAV/COM radios to ones that have standby frequencies

Added ADF2 radio

Added DME

Changed static ADF to a gyro-slaved, dual-needle ADF

Moved the AP flight director knob to below the DME.. who uses the AP on a 172 anyway?

 

[Charan Kumar]

.. who uses the AP on a 172 anyway?

What , r u kidding me...how can u fly an acft...j/k, it isn't fun that way Nice job on the panels, I have only messed with the heavy tins not the lil' guy, but never ever messed with lights...I can see it can be pretty rewarding...Cheers on the nice work!!

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

What , r u kidding me...how can u fly an acft...j/k, it isn't fun that way Nice job on the panels, I have only messed with the heavy tins not the lil' guy, but never ever messed with lights...I can see it can be pretty rewarding...Cheers on the nice work!!

Please not that this isn't directed at you personally, as I've never seen you fly..

 

How is pushing a few buttons, sitting back, and not touching the yoke fun? I want to fly a plane, not watch a video of a plane flying itself. To be honest, I don't really see the allure of trans-oceanic flights where you sit back, have a coffee (or several pots by the time you get there) and just watch things unfold, but to each their own, I guess.

 

This kinda goes along with the "Why can't VATSIM pilots track radials" topic, but I'm often surprised at how many people begin their flight education (in flight sims, of course) by simply jumping in an airliner and pushing buttons, letting the autopilot do everything – without learning to, you know, fly first.

 

I don't know of any real life pilots that started their careers in a big plane without first learning the basics, and I hope I don't meet any

 

I'm not trying to disparage people who fly airliners well or who learned the basics first (which in my experience as a controller are both the same). I'm just wanting to pay my dues first and build my way up, so that when something fails or the AP disconnects or a controller gives me something to do that wasn't in my flight plan, I still know what's happening and how to take positive control.

 

Seat-of-the-pants flying is more inspiring, challenging, and fun, for me at least.

[Charan Kumar]

Hi Jordan, that was tongue-in-cheek very badly put forth. read j/k as "just kidding"...and I meant the same thing u did, just in very few words. What I was trying to say is "it isn't fun flying with buttons and A/P alone"...I totally enjoy flying /A in the CONC (A/P [Mod - Happy Thoughts]isted definitely) with not one waypoint loaded in the INS unit (No GPS on the plane). And of course, so far X-Plane has only been used for my GA flights, and that's where my panel messing has come in as I want the same too, two NAV, DME and ADF so that it can be flown without the GPS at all.

 

if you do upload the panel, kindly let us know, I do use the piper archer mostly but a Cessna with such nice lighting and all the radios would be a welcome addition to the hangar....cheers!!

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

Hi Jordan, that was tongue-in-cheek very badly put forth. read j/k as "just kidding"...and I meant the same thing u did, just in very few words. What I was trying to say is "it isn't fun flying with buttons and A/P alone"

Heh.. I thought you meant it wasn't fun flying without them But as I said, this wasn't directed at you, just me wondering in general why pilots using the AP solely is so pervasive. I had a pilot the other day fly a STAR to my airport without descending, at FL290 all the way until he was directly overhead, at which point it circled the field for about 15 minutes. Pilot was obviously asleep, or not even near his computer. What's the point of that?

 

if you do upload the panel, kindly let us know, I do use the piper archer mostly but a Cessna with such nice lighting and all the radios would be a welcome addition to the hangar....cheers!!

All that lighting is already there in the default C172. I just changed a few things and had to tweak a couple backlights, but that's what the stock 172 looks like at night. It really is my favourite plane in X-Plane so far - useful 2D panel, and still flyable in 3D, too. And it's just slow enough of a plane to learn to fly arrivals without things happening too fast

 

Here's the file, which may be a little big due to some unnecessary bitmaps from my trying to figure out how best to do a few things: http://media.krushen.com/Cessna%20172SP%20tweaked.zip. I'll try removing them one at a time until it's pared down to a minimal set, but they shouldn't affect much in the meantime.

 

I sometimes have issues with the frequencies not sticking when I switch to the standby freq. Let me know if you see that happening too.

[Charan Kumar]

Cool, tks. I will let you know how the radios pan out.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

Cool, tks. I will let you know how the radios pan out.

Yeah, they don't work properly. Occasionally, when hitting the standby flip-flop, the frequencies change on me. I have no idea why.

 

This actually makes it less usable than the stock panel now, 'cause you can't even reliably enter a single frequency, seeing as you have to enter it in the standby position then toggle it over.

 

I've removed the download for now, until I can figure it out. I'm sure it's something to do with dataref buggery, but the stock radios in PlaneMaker don't list any datarefs for the default radios, so I'm not really sure what to do. I'll examine some other planes and see what I can come up with.

[Charan Kumar]

I use a Go-Flight module, so I was going to see how it worked from the panel vs. thru the GF module. I do have the download already, so I will give it a shot anyways!!

[Charan Kumar]

Jordan, working the radios from the GF modules did not pose any problem. I interchanged them a lot had no problems whatsoever in a 20 mt flight. COM1/2 NAV1/2...I did not check the ADF though.

 

Something else is wrong on my sim, the acft kept flapping around like crazy, and the TrackIR is completely messed up.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

Jordan, working the radios from the GF modules did not pose any problem. I interchanged them a lot had no problems whatsoever in a 20 mt flight. COM1/2 NAV1/2...I did not check the ADF though.

 

Something else is wrong on my sim, the acft kept flapping around like crazy, and the TrackIR is completely messed up.

Just with this plane? For me, the flight characteristics feel the same as the default one. Seems like what I thought would be a slight modification is turning out to be a royal PITA..

 

I'm still getting the weird radio behaviour, as seen here: http://media.krushen.com/flip-flop-weirdness.mov, but only with these specific radios.. if I use others, it works fine. That makes me think that it's a bug in this particular radio interface (more specifically, the flip-flop button), and not in the plane itself, at least.

 

In any case, I'm just going to wait to hear back from the X-Plane devs, and try not to waste too much time messing around with it for now.

 

Thanks for your help testing it.

[Charan Kumar]

Since I was using the GF modules I didn't click on the panel itself to see if the STBY switch posed any problems. Anyways I was too busy trying to keep the acft in the air. An no, it doesn't happen to this acft alone, happens with all acft, the slower ones. I have to recallibrate all my joystick settings again I guess.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

Since I was using the GF modules I didn't click on the panel itself to see if the STBY switch posed any problems. Anyways I was too busy trying to keep the acft in the air. An no, it doesn't happen to this acft alone, happens with all acft, the slower ones. I have to recallibrate all my joystick settings again I guess.

Ok, thanks for that. I'm still new to PlaneMaker and was hoping I didn't mess up the flight dynamics of the aircraft while I was messing around with the rest.

 

Now if the X-Plane guys would only get back to me regarding emails from the forums not working, I may be able to post there sometime and sort this out.

 

How is the GF radio module, BTW.. is it worth it? I find the interface for setting the transponder kind of silly, but for radios, it's tempting.

[Charan Kumar]

I have a few of them, so the combo makes them worth it. Especially for XPlane, I have no use for mouse, all of them are controlled through the combo of GF modules I have. Once in a while I have the need to turn OBS2, but I usually only use NAV2 for DME.

 

That being said, I got all these modules barely a few weeks before Saitek came out with theirs. I would have certainly gone with them if they had even come out a bit earlier (I hope Nick doesn't see this ). I believe most of them have drivers for XPlane, I know the switch panel does.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

That being said, I got all these modules barely a few weeks before Saitek came out with theirs. I would have certainly gone with them if they had even come out a bit earlier (I hope Nick doesn't see this ). I believe most of them have drivers for XPlane, I know the switch panel does.

Actually, yeah, I was thinking of the Saitek one as far as the weird transponder setting goes. I'm eyeing their yoke, though.