Caldera

Hey All, OK, still learning... Admittedly I just made a new discovery which is an old discovery by this games standards. For me, this game always feels like it is tomorrow, but in reality it is last month. My apologies. I guess I was confused about the SPI and how it worked. I had thought that the SPI was simply a 3D data point saved into the onboard computer and then displayed on the HUD HMD etc. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't... Coolie Hat Forward Long --> Slave all to SPI This statement made me believe that it was true for all sensors. However, the TGP is exempt because the TGP will not slave to the SPI. More correctly, the SPI has been slaved to the TGP. Move the TGP --> Move the SPI Wax On <-- --> Wax Off I have no real proof of this, but I suspect that if the TGP waxes out then the SPI reverts to a steer point. My head hurts... Might explain why some stuff might miss for rooky clueless reasons. Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Mark Point Onward HO! Now I would like to discuss TGP modes. Something goes on that I do not fully understand. Please let me know where I write something incorrect. The default mode for the TGP is AREA and INR-A. You can manually switch to POINT, INR-P or just plain ole INR. The switch to INR-A and INR-P is an automatic function if the current mode is AREA or POINT respectively. Like wise, the switch to AREA and POINT is automatic if the current mode is INR-A or INR-P respectively The switch to INR is always manual. Additionally, the TGP will automatically switch to AREA or INR-A from INR. (I did not expect that to happen) Masking is what causes the TGP to shift to INR-A and INR-P. Unmasking is what causes the TGP to switch to AREA and POINT. I suspect that unmasking (fully or partially) causes the automatic switch from INR to AREA or INR-A. Is this correct? Caldera

Thanks Guys, Unfortunately, the vision in my right (dominant) eye is not always in a state of 100% unreadiness. This caused by my over worked and over fatigued ground crew. They never get a break from repairing my aircraft, much less performing the required maintenance. And because of macular degeneration. Working on it... I have not noticed this the boxed diamond before or since that event. The TGP artifact that I have noticed is similar, but the outer box is clearly dashed and looks different from what I have shown above. I will try to get some pictures. Caldera Edit: I found the diamond!

Thanks Guys, Yes, I need to have the TGP locked-on and the SPI set miles out or my chances of missing are 110%. I have to wonder "in DCS" is there a wake up timer or something like that? Where for example the first strike may be a surprise, but the second one they know that you are coming. If that is true I have not noticed it occurring. I miss allot, so any thing is possible. A fast moving convoy was what I am training for. The Hoggit training server likes to use them. Those vehicles stop for nothing and simply drive around (or over) fallen comrads. So putting a APKWS into the lead vehicle has zero effect on the convoy. I guess I need to try and crater a runway. I did not know that was possible. Caldera

Hey All, For what purpose would the MK-82AIR bomb be used for in DCS? I have been trying to learn how to deploy them mostly against moving convoys, attacking from low altitude. They can be difficult to deploy using CCIP as the targeting computer seems to want a steeper dive angle than is possible from low altitude. I end up releasing while pulling up and lobbing them in. Also, I am really exposed to ground fire. Caldera

Ziptie, Interesting, but now I am totaling lost. At the time of this snap shot I was flying away and the TGP was masked and / or probably recovering from a gymbal roll. The best I can remember, the TGP was staring at a piece of dirt some where LIS (Lost in Space). I have the feeling that its LIS was the SPI as shown on the picture. For sure, its LOS was not at the 30mm uranium depleted swiss cheese of a tank that I had just shot at. My head hurts and I am thinking that in this case ignorance is bliss... 504Blade, It is just about impossible for me to focus on much of anything out of cockpit (TrackIR) well enough to get the TGP to accurately move to it. But maybe, doing as you say will get me in the ball park or zip code for a target I think is near by. So I will give it a try. Thanks again, Caldera

Hey Guys, I took this snap shot. As you can see that there are two artifacts in the HMD. One of them is the SPI and the other one is a diamond with the box around it. Any one know what the symbology of the boxed diamond represents? The SPI is not at the location that I had placed it before my attack. It has moved to the nearby steer point. The SPI should be on the T-55 that I just shot at the location of the diamond. Only thing that I can think of is that I must have HOTAS flubbed some where mid attack and the SPI moved. With my HOTAS set-up that would be fairly difficult to do as the same thumb would have been holding the max zoom button down at the time. Although I don't remember doing that, I must have. Caused some weirdness in the HUD during the attack. Caldera

Hey, You could do it that way. Think about this: 0-20% --> Dead zone 20-40% --> Flap Up Button 40-60% --> Flap Up Button 60-80% --> Flap Down Button 80-100% --> Flap Down Button You could put the dead zone at your preference. It would also work at 40-60%. This is kind of the reason I chose to use that axis for landing gear and use HOTAS buttons for flaps. The P-51 has five stages of flaps and are used for combat maneuvering. The A-10C two stages and not so much. I love the big beefy handle for use with landing gear it just needs to flash... Caldera

Hey Guys, The A-10C has two down flap positions as imacken describes. They are I believe, 10% (half) down and 20% (full) down. Normally, one button press to go to 10% and two button presses to go to 20%. The exact opposite is true for raising flaps, but requires a different button. This can be a key press or a button press on for example a HOTAS. From what can I gather, imacken has programed his analog flap lever axis on his CM3 to act as as buttons. The Virpil software allows this to be possible. When mapped to the control binding in the game it acts just like a physical button press. This is pretty much exactly what I have done on my CM3 for raising and lowering the landing gear. In difference, I personally have a two buttons mapped on my HOTAS for raising and lowering flaps. I use a 4-way hat switch where fore and aft is speed brakes and up and down is flaps. Caldera

Thanks Guys, I played tonight on the Hoggit Training server and it was a much better experience. The difficulty was easy so it was a good start. A few things still weird. No one really talked on SRS and most were using the AI ATC who kept things under control. One person one time did answer my radio check. My head position got relocated. I left the server and came back and it was restored to my custom settings. Whenever I would shoot a missile the view would auto change to the F6 view. That was was pretty disorientating. True for AGM-65 or APKWS. zbiegu, I do not remember and for the life of me I can not find any server numbers. It was one of the "Through the Inferno" PVE servers. Caldera

Hey All, This is going to sound like some kind of whining. You all know, and I know that whining is not allowed. So this is not whining. I need some advice... I have been trying multiplayer and failing miserably. You know, the proverbial crash and burn, and burn some more, and then a whole training squadron of seagulls over flight dropping biological ordinance on target (which is me). The biggest single problem I face it seems is picking the right server to play on. Problem 1: Seems like there are 17,000 servers to choose from, with 16,983 of them having only one player in attendance. For some reason these ones seem like a bad choice to me. Problem 2: SRS seems really cool at times when it actually works. At other times it works like one of two these things. One thing is a radio station that plays music from a time period that is not the type of music that I might enjoy. The other thing is like the audio from some kind of covert operation spying on Mom and the kids during diaper changing time. Problem 3: This problem is off the chart annoying. Let me demonstrate--> Dodge 2-1 Sochi Tower request start-up Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Dodge 2-1 Sochi Tower OK I will standby Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Dodge 2-1 Sochi Tower OK 10-4 Copy Roger Wilco I GOT IT! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! ARGH!!!!!! Sochi Tower Wolfpack 1-1 NO! Sochi Tower Wolfpack 1-1 NO! Sochi Tower Wolfpack 1-1 NO! etc... etc... etc... Problem 4: Running over a pilot tied to a parachute that should not be sleeping on the taxi way in the first place. Problem 5: Getting buzzed by an F-14 traveling at warp 3 then crashing into a row of helicopters while trying to deploy photon torpedoes at a stealthed Klingon warship. My guess, the pilot probably just got done talking to the Sochi ATC. Hmm, maybe I should learn how to fly the F-14... Problem 6: Getting rear ended by an F-5 while parked short of the run way waiting to get clearance for take off after violating NO! do not start-up order and NO! do not taxi order. Let me demonstrate--> Dodge 2-1 Sochi Tower request take off runway 04 Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Sochi Tower Dodge 2-1 NO! Dodge 2-1 Sochi Tower OK I will standby F-10 view - In preparation for take off in violation of the NO! do not take off order - Tally flight of seagulls... CRASH! Problem 7: My RWR works extremely well, maybe too good. In the HAS --> Nails 29 Lock-up On the taxi way --> Nails 29 Lock-up On the run way --> Nails 29 Lock-up Wheels up --> Nails 29 Lock-up Target vector --> Nails 29 Lock-up There are no Nails 29 with in 80 nm --> Nails 29 Lock-up There are 17 other friendly aircraft between me and the existing Nails 29 --> Nails 29 Lock-up Engine failure due to seagull impact --> Nails 29 Lock-up Problem 8: My RWR is so confused with all the radar signals it detects. There are 29 friendlies. There are 29 hostiles. There are 21 friendlies. There are 21 hostiles. There are 14 friendlies. There are 14 hostiles. There are 18 friendlies. There are 18 hostiles. HELMET on FIRE! Venting through poop air separator is complete. Do have a nice day! Caldera

Crash, If you get back to this thread... You lost me a little with this statement. Are you trying to say that the Arduino Mega is not a good choice to use with MMJoy2? And I should select boards with the at90usb646 at90usb1286 atmega32u4/5V processors? Thanks Again, Caldera

Thanks Guys, I am not sure any link posted above really works for what I have in mind. I have read the AvoidErrors link several times. The istv.com link would would work but I think that all the generic joystick controllers would have the same name, just as they do now. Maybe I am already transitioning to Arduino... I am guessing Arduino boards can be named / re-named at the firmware level? For the time being, my box is working as designed and I am pretty happy with it. Allot of my switches are maintained contacts and the Zero Delay can report 12 on inputs simultaneously. I am using several On-On and On-On-On switches. I choose not to use rotaries due to their larger size and expense. The Arduino Mega is the largest digital input capable board that I found after a quick search. It has 54 digital input pins. I wonder how many always on digital inputs can it handle? Caldera

Hey all, As in the title, does anyone know how to do this? Or send me a link for referal? My first button box project of this sort. I am using Zero Delay cards for the ease of installation and set-up. I am only using the 12 digital inputs per card. There are six such cards in my box. I have made the box intentionally generic so that it was not specific to any one aircraft. DCS provides the unique Hardware Key (HKey) so I have managed to get it all set up for the switches that I wanted for the A-10C (took a couple of hours) to operate correctly. But I would like to set up unique names for each card to make that process easier. Windows also seem to shuffle them around a bit on reboots so I had to do a few reboots to establish the order that was stable. The cards are listed in the Device Manager as HID - Compliant Game Controller. So finding these values in the Registry can be confusing enough. Even at that, I am unsure exactly which variables in the Registry to edit. Is this even a possibility? Thanks in advance, Caldera

My bad, From my quick testing, there is not allot of difference. Using TO TRIM the stick seems to center faster than using Trim: Reset but the result is the same. The stick ends up being centered. I guess I should test TO TRIM while I am in flight. That, I have not done. I used trim reset fairly often when I was flying in either of the P-51's, usually right after take off. I didn't think it was very realistic. I could be wrong. Even IL-2 has trim reset... Caldera

Thanks all, From the sound of it I did not read the manual well enough, put that on my list of flubs. I have gotten into a bad habit of not reading the manual well because I keep stumbling on discrepancies. Sierra, I never at any time questioned the flight model. If it sounded to you like I did that, it was not intentional on my part and my apologies. I simply was a little bent on what TO TRIM was supposed to be doing in the DCS A-10C. I often put myself in the seat as my very own test pilot just to see what happens. For the rest, maybe you should look into the 8 Israeli F-16's who managed to drop a few bombs on an Iraqi nuclear reactor flying 99% of the way at less than 100 feet so overloaded with fuel and ordinance that they could barely get off the runway. And about how they refueled hot once more after taxiing out to the runway. And how they also dropped their multiple external fuel tanks from 100 feet somewhere in Saudi Arabia while still being laden with bombs (I believe at least a couple did not go off). Pretty much none of that is found in the F-16 manual any where is what I am guessing. What a hoot that flight was! Caldera

Yurgon, Thank you! Others, Because mostly these are practice sorties, I have been taking off anywhere from 70% to 110%. Lately closer to 110% (or more). I am sure I have allot of extra drag also. The bird feels really heavy at 110% and the extra nose heavy trim confused me. From the start, I was convinced that in a simulation the trim being set to any thing other than neutral was entirely normal for the initial spawn into the game. I had some misconceptions about what TO TRIM actually did. With SAS, I was thinking that it was some what like a mechanical take off trim configuration that is set according to a few variables including take off weight being one of them. My thinking, if the initial trim is already set at neutral then TO TRIM must do something else... Approximately 91% of my time in DCS has been in the A-10C and with 8.954678954389007% in the P-51D. Are there aircraft in DCS where the trim starts out as any thing other than neutral for the initial plop into the game? I guess the thing for me to do is check that trim is neutralized and then set it to my preferences based on experience prior to take off. Either way not a big deal really as it is just as easy to trim out in the air. Thanks again, Caldera

Thanks guys I appreciate your time. If I got this right, the TO TRIM button basically does the same thing as the key bind Trim: Reset? Caldera

Hello, It has happened to me also. Caldera

Hi Lange, The refueling door? Yeah... The manual says that if you are connected then disconnect it needs to be reset. What that actually means I do not know. Because the manual... Draconus suggested that I map it to my HOTAS and reset it if I disconnect, which I do / have done. Out of the blue BOBO still has a habit of disconnecting me the with annoying "Return to Pre-Contact". I notice it happening to me mainly just after I make contact (twice yesterday). I have been working on my twitch and it is getting better. The closer to the tanker I get the greater the relative motion. I have to really fight my natural reactions. I have been training to be able to refuel other aircraft eventually. I am talking about the basket feeders. So after I refuel I have been trying to place my nose right up to either of the tanker's outboard engine cooling air exhaust nozzle (I think that is what it is) and to reduce my twitch. The relative motion from this position is extreme. But ahh, the joy of an immortal tanker. Right before both my wings fell off! Caldera

Hey All, OK... I had assumed that SAS Take Off Trim been already activated for a runway/warm mission start. True or False? If TO TRIM has been activated and then I manually trim does this actually have any effect on aircraft trim? For runway/warm mission starts I have learned to keep the Gun Control in SAFE as PAC seems to cause some pitch down trim. But, none the less as soon as I lift off the nose feels really heavy. Climbing out, I would typically turn on PATH HOLD at around 200 knots letting the flaps automatically retract. The nose just falls out of the sky if I do not apply quite a bit of nose up trim before I do that and PATH HOLD will not stay engaged. Maybe I have a misconception (again) as I had thought that activating TO TRIM was supposed to make the nose lighter for take off. True or False? Would SAS TO TRIM be a designed to compensate for a specific take off weight or density altitude? Thanks again, Caldera

OK sorry

Hello, I made another video mostly to illustrate that BOBO seems to be behaving today. At one point I was told to "Return Pre-Contact". It was right after my first try where I had un-intentionally left the refuel door closed. I was way out of wack and it did not surprise me when I was given that command. I also noticed that when I got the tanker back up on the radio there were was another option other than Abort Refueling. That option was Ready Pre-Contact. Yeah! More success less failure I hope the comments by others and my video help others and I am not wasting my time. After I learned to make contact the problem was maintaining some point of reference on the tanker so that I could maintain the correct position. Generally during my practice for a long time, I was too low. If I only see the bottom of the tanker I am too low. From that position my only reference is the length of the boom and the refueling lights on the nose of the tanker. It is very hard to maintain speed because a loss of altitude or a loss of speed visually appear about the same. The problem is that a loss of altitude actually increases speed. So from there the wobble starts. I couple of times in the video I held the correct reference point(s) on the tanker. In the video while I am connected notice the more or less triangle shaped blue sky just above both wings of the tanker. This is the area of view under the cockpit frame and on top of the wings of the tanker. I try to keep the two blue areas about the same size. This reference point view places me at much better position to maintain contact with the boom. I generally maintain that visual reference and also try to maintain the boom in the green zone of its length. This reference point provides excellent altitude and side to side recognition and control. My comments: My first attempt I forgot to open the refueling door I sped up video a couple of times to save time My second attempt I was too low and when I actually made contact it surprised me I had some flubs with resetting the refueling door I got to fast (impatient) and had to use my air brakes I got to fast and rammed the tanker (Should have aimed for BOBO's control booth and then fire walled the throttles!) Best to re-trim at a safe distance behind the tanker I do not modify my control curves to refuel I have always used my combat curves Caldera

Hello, I use the flaps lever for landing gear. Caldera

scoobie, I have no point of reference for "I swear something was just different than normally." as I am learning AAR for the first time. Caldera

Hey all, It has not happened to me since I started placing the TGP in INR mode if I think that it will be totally masked. In fact, of late I have almost exclusively been using INR mode even over POINT mode. As POINT mode tends to jump to jump off my target to trees and buildings usually at the worst time. I am having better luck. For some reason it seems that if the TGP jumps off of the SPI it call pull the SPI with it. Caldera