pdmarsh

As some might have noticed, ArturDCS has added DCSFP support for the Logitech Heavy, or Farming, Equipment Side Panel. Even though this panel can be programmed directly in DCS, the ability to use DCS-BIOS commands adds great functionality. I designed an overlay for the Side Panel that can be made with a 3D printer or, if you are familiar with SketchUp, the design file can be used to make a simple paper overlay with button assignments. Here is a link to the 3D print design on Thingivrese: Heavy Equipment Side Panel Overlay The download files on Thingiverse include both the 3D print files and the SketchUp design file. Thanks, Paul (a.k.a. Skeeter)

Thank you, RustBelt. I appreciate the feedback. Yeah, this deck would be pretty tough to run on anything smaller than a 10" or so tablet. Paul

For those unfamiliar with MATRIC, it is a utility that allows you to send keyboard commands from a smartphone or tablet to your PC. I have moved the entire Jester menu (referred to as a "deck") to this app. Long keyboard command strings, or numerous head-turns and clicks, have been reduced to a few presses of the tablet screen. A good example is "Scan Altitude at Distance." Seven keyboard commands, or seven head rotations and clicks, have been reduced to two presses of the tablet screen. Similar reductions are in the areas of entering lat/long waypoints, tuning the radio and so on. Here is a short video of the app in action. It goes by quick, but you can see tablet screen presses and what's happening in the cockpit: Jester in MATRIC In order to do this, I had to list all Jester command strings in a spreadsheet. Here is a link to that file: Jester Menu in Excel Spreadsheet Link to MATRIC website: MATRIC Link to Jester deck on MATRIC: Jester Deck Below are some screenshots. I hope this will prove useful to some F-14 pilots. Thanks, Paul (a.k.a. Skeeter) P.S. -- If you are using TrackIR, or similar, and head movements to make Jester selections now, you will have to disable this feature in the "Jester AI Contract" list within the F-14 "Special" settings. Otherwise, erroneous selections get made as this app goes through its macros.

To Moderator -- Please move this post into the F-14 forum. I can't seem to delete and repost this myself. Thanks, Paul

To the best of my ability I have broken out the entire F-14 Jester menu into an Excel spreadsheet. This file in-and-of-itself might be useful if someone wants to quickly find the required keystrokes for any given command and create a macro. However, my ultimate goal is to move the Jester menu to a tablet PC using a utility called Matric (http://www.matricapp.com). This will take some time, so I wanted to at least post the spreadsheet for now. In any given row, the keystroke string begins with either an "A" or "LCTRL-*." Anything preceding that is descriptive. Some commands can't be pre-programmed in a macro as the final keystroke could be dynamic, e.g. preset radio channels. In those cases, one would have to use the Jester menu manually for that final command (i.e. a macro could be used to get to that point quickly). Overall, I think the spreadsheet should be self-explanatory, but please ask if anything isn't clear. Download link: Jester Menu I hope this is helpful. Paul

Thanks AlaskanGrizzy, you're probably right. I can work around this for now. Hopefully ED will have a fix in time. Kneeboard Builder is a great utility. Thanks for the time you put into it. Paul

Thank you for the response, but it's still not working. I did everything you suggested, and a full, or long, DCS repair and still no go. The kneeboard with images and the empty frame still appear on different monitors. One thing to note, if I don't create a custom profile after doing the clear and repair, the kneeboard gets stuck to the lower right of the monitor. I can't move it. I have to create a new profile move the kneeboard from that lower right corner. At the point, I will see both the kneeboard and the empty frame, all moved to the left.

I installed the latest version and the program will now open. However, in-game the kneeboard appears in one area of the screen and an empty frame with the kneeboard controls appears on another area of the screen I can move both by clicking on the frame and dragging, but not by clicking on the kneeboard (the part with the pages showing). I am running multiple monitors, so the kneeboard images appear on one monitor and the empty frame appears on another monitor. See attached screenshot. You will have to enlarge the image to see the empty frame just over the HUD. Thanks, Paul

I have been experimenting with the JTAC mod and found that I can't get a ground-based HMMWV to call out a target when using an FM channel (28 & 30 tested). However, I can get an HMMWV to call out its target when using an AM channel (124 in my case). I was careful to make sure I was on the correct radio in-game when testing. I made sure the HMMWVs had LOS on their targets. Also, I can't get an airborne JTAC (Reaper) to work at all, whether on AM or FM. Should airborne JTACs work with this mod? The issue with the HMMWV is not really a problem, but I would like to be able to use airborne JTACs if at all possible. Thanks, Paul

False alarm--I figured it out. Thanks.

I'm afraid I have to ask for a spoiler regarding this mission (9). After I fly to the area of the enemy camp I'm told to fly no further. I stopped and went into a hover. Then nothing. I realized I was a little further than 10 km away from the markpoint (066), so I started to approach it at a slow pace. I had not yet detected the enemy camp. Next thing I knew, I'm getting shot down by manpads. Was I supposed to wait in hover for a command to attack after being told to stop? Thanks.

Thanks for looking into this. Paul

I was not able to get a "Mission Complete" with this mission (Mission 7, First Luck). I did everything as instructed as far as I know. After picking up the package, successfully, and dropping it off at the plant where the green smoke was, and within the landing circle, I did not get a notice that said the package was successfully dropped off. Nevertheless, I flew back to my starting point, well outside of the trigger zone noted in a post above, but never got the message complete notice. I ended the mission and checked the logbook.lua file. I was given a 60% completion. I guess this is just FYI as I will move on to the next mission. However, if I did something wrong, it would be interesting to know what that was. Thaanks, Paul

Just a quick note of apology for being overly critical of this campaign. I am enjoying flying the missions and learning a lot as I go along. In fact, I'm about to go move some cargo right now. Thanks, Paul

@szadok -- I can't speak for ArturDCS, but I seriously doubt we'll ever have FIP support for DCS. It's a very difficult thing to do and we never were able to get it working properly. With regard to the PZ70 panel, it's also unlikely to get LED control. Regarding turning off all LED displays and or lights, as on the Switch Panel, I use the Logitech test utilities. When you run these, the LEDs go through a test pattern. When you close the utilities, the panels go dark. I hope this helps. Thanks, Paul

I have made some interesting observations with regard to the functionality of beacons in this campaign. First, if the beacons don't work, it's not a fatal flaw. You can still fly the missions successfully with other aids. Second, I don't know if what I have found is an issue with campaign mission files or with DCS World. I am on Mission 11 and initially neither the FARP Otkritka nor the Fort 4 beacons would work for me. I was in DCS OpenBeta. I'll ask that you take my word that I had the radios set up properly for both cases. Next, I opened the mission in Mission Editor and made a single change. As you can see in the image TheBorder01, the FARP beacon modulation defaulted to AM. I set this to FM as seen in image TheBorder05 and launched the mission. Now, both the FARP and Fort beacons worked. In the image TheBorder02 you can see (I hope as it's a dark image), the channel is set to 2 for the FARP and the green light is on. The R-828 was powered up, but set for communications, not compass. In the image TheBorder03 you can see that the channel is set to 1 and the green light is on. In this case, I have the R-828 channel set to 4 and set to compass as you can see in image TheBorder04. I am now seeing the Fort 4 beacon. And now something interesting happened. I backed out of Mission Editor and flew the mission as part of the campaign. The radios still worked. I was not able to save the mission file from the editor, so a code change was made somewhere that carried through. I repeated this exact same scenario in the stable version of DCS as well. And a final interesting point. As it happened there was a Beta update yesterday. When I flew Mission 11 as part of the campaign and from Beta, the radios no longer worked. Whatever change I initiated in Mission Editor before was reset by the Beta update. There is something odd going on with the beacons. I hope this helps. Thanks, Paul P.S. -- I deleted the previous post from yesterday as I wanted to do more testing before that post was widely read. P.P.S. -- I noted above that it was the FARP beacon that defaulted to AM. The Fort 4 beacon was already set to FM.

@=RAF=Armen -- Thank you for getting back to me. I appreciate it very much. I believe I have found the source of confusion. In the attached image from a page in the briefing, it appears that the beacon name and call name of the FARPs are interchanged. Through testing, I found that FARP Podkova is on ARK-UD station 1 and FARP Otkritka is on station 2, the opposite of how it would appear from a quick glance of the image. Also, I believe in one of the early missions there is a message that tells you what ARK-UD station to tune to. The message might have pointed to the wrong station, but I don't know for sure. I hope this helps. Also, I didn't mean to imply that generator failures are a bug in the missions--sorry for that. This aircraft does take some tender loving care to fly and can't be thrown around in the sky like a HUEY. I do get that. Thanks again, Paul

I managed to complete Mission 8, Radio Hunting, but only after a great deal of experimentation, and the triggers still don't seem to make a great deal of sense. The only thing I did differently to get the mission to progress was to circle the enemy encampment much lower after telling the Hinds to soften them up. I also kept the Hinds in sight using Shift/F10 labels. Eventually there was a message that the Hinds were going to land. I circled around and followed the Hinds for some time, but nothing. They did not attempt to land. Finally, I thought maybe I was supposed to land, so I did. Only then did I get a message from the Hinds that they landed (but they hadn't) and that I needed to land to pick up half of the insurgents. Since I was already on the ground, I waited. Nothing. I took off and landed again. Then I finally got the note where I (Commander) said to embark. As I took off, only then were the Hinds landing themselves. In spite of repeated generator failures, I made it to Podkova (sp?) and landed, thus completing the mission. With all due respect, it just shouldn't be this hard. This is not an arcade game where you are expected to simply play over and over until you figure things out. I'm sorry to be critical, but this is a paid-for campaign and I expect better. Little things matter. Some given directions are wrong, e.g. east vs west, assigned altitudes are wrong, e.g. 3,000 meters vs 1,000 meters, directional beacons don't work. I know this campaign has been out there for a while, but it continues to be sold on the ED web site. If the author has moved on to other things in life, the campaign should be taken down or moved to the User File section as a freebee. There is less expectation there for missions to be perfect and/or supported. Again, I'm sorry, but I'm frustrated. Sincerely, Paul

This mission (8, Radio Hunting) continues to appear to be broken. I have flown it a number of times and the Hinds disappear. There is some shooting at the enemy, but then nothing more. I have tried simply circling lower and lower waiting for more things to happen, then simply landing by the enemy, but nothing. No Hinds at this point, no progress. @=RAF=Armen -- Would you please let us know if this is indeed still a bug and, if so, when we can expect an updated mission? Thank you, Paul

@=RAF=Armen -- Were you able to confirm this issue and, if so, will there be an update soon? Thanks, Paul

Problem solved. My bad for not being more familiar with the aircraft. This is a hot-start mission with anti-ice on by default. Once I turned that off I had no more generator failures. Paul

So far, I have not been able to complete mission 6 due to constant generator failures. It's particularly bad after picking up troops at the burning house. The only way I got passed that point was to remove all weapons and reduce the fuel load at the start of the mission. However, without weapons you can't actually complete the mission for credit, it seems. I don't know why this particular mission has this problem while the others do not. I don't think the aircraft is any heavier in this mission than in other missions with a weapons load. Could the atmospheric conditions be different? If anyone has any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong, it will be appreciated. Thank you, Paul

@John--In the attached screenshot you can see that the Mobile Command Post has been given an Advanced Waypoint Action to perform a command to set a frequency. Since this action had already been set up in this mission (#4 of The Border Campaign), I had to click on the action and then click "Edit." Once in that screen, you need to give the beacon some power, i.e. wattage. I really don't know what would be a realistic wattage to give, but I read that in the real world that an ADF beacon with 2000 watt power would be considered having a high wattage. They can go as low as 10 watts, I think. I don't know how well ED has modeled beacon behavior with regard to signal strength, distance, masking and so on. I hope this help. Paul

I was surprised that I was able to open and edit the mission files, but I now see they can't be saved. Any chance of having the campaign files updated and a new version made available? Thanks, Paul

I discovered the issue. I opened a few of the mission files and saw that some, if not all, of the location beacons have no wattage assigned. Maybe these got removed due to DCS World updates. In any case, in mission four I added 5,000 watts to the radar outpost beacon and the ARK-UD worked as it should. I don't know if modifying these missions myself will affect the campaign aspect of the total package, but I'll give it a try. Thanks, Paul