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Autopilot trouble


testudine2002
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Sometimes autopilot works fine. Other times, I find myself having to hit altitude hold many times before it works. Sometimes clearing UFC first, and then trying again. It's not a very big deal, but I was wondering if I'm the only one with this problem. Are there perhaps conditions that AP won't engage maybe? Like speed or altitude?

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Make sure that your stick is not moving at all, especially in pitch, when you engage alt hold, otherwise it might not activate. Add a little deadzone to your axis. I have a deadzone of just 1, for example and it works, but you might need to add more, depending on your stick's play.

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I find that altitude hold only engages when vertical speed is close to zero. If you press alt hold I think it even arms that mode, but only activates once vertical speed is sufficiently small.

 

To rephrase that, you can't use the autopilot altitude hold mode to level out from a climb or descent. You have to level out manually and only then can altitude hold activate.


Edited by Luzifer
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Hello everyone! For me the autopilot of the F-18 has something wrong!!! Many times I happened to activate HSEL and BALT above 300 knots and at 25000 feet in level flight, it almost always does not activate! My "technical" solution (like a real simulation!!): move the stick slightly at random, here it activates again (!?!?). But after a while, it turns off and the plane goes where it wants! Then I try to reactivate it, but nothing, it doesn't reactivate anymore and I have to drive directly right ahead (very funny!). Since everyone, but I mean everyone, DCS World planes that have an autopilot, this works well, so why does ED not deal with this peculiar problem (which has always existed with F-18)?!?!

Hoping for a definitive solution, I greet you.

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Hello everyone! For me the autopilot of the F-18 has something wrong!!! Many times I happened to activate HSEL and BALT above 300 knots and at 25000 feet in level flight, it almost always does not activate! My "technical" solution (like a real simulation!!): move the stick slightly at random, here it activates again (!?!?). But after a while, it turns off and the plane goes where it wants! Then I try to reactivate it, but nothing, it doesn't reactivate anymore and I have to drive directly right ahead (very funny!). Since everyone, but I mean everyone, DCS World planes that have an autopilot, this works well, so why does ED not deal with this peculiar problem (which has always existed with F-18)?!?!

Hoping for a definitive solution, I greet you.

 

This is because hornet AP wont activate unless the stick is perfectly centred, a little bit of noise of miscalibration will cause this. Thats why wiggling the stick works: It pushes the stick into its actual neutral position.

 

When it turns off as you described you will still have to pull the paddle switch to disengage the AP mode.

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This is because hornet AP wont activate unless the stick is perfectly centred, a little bit of noise of miscalibration will cause this. Thats why wiggling the stick works: It pushes the stick into its actual neutral position.

 

When it turns off as you described you will still have to pull the paddle switch to disengage the AP mode.

 

In short, I will have to go crazy looking for a joystick setting that the F-18 likes to keep it (as he wants) straight ahead to activate the autopilot. A marvel of technique this plane. If I don't position him the way he wants, he doesn't activate the autopilot. And I believed (as it is for all the other simulated planes, among which the venerable F-14) that by activating the autopilot the plane adjusted to the settings I chose for him. F-18: a real step forward in aeronautics!!!!:lol:

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  • 1 year later...
On 5/21/2020 at 2:59 PM, testudine2002 said:

Sometimes autopilot works fine. Other times, I find myself having to hit altitude hold many times before it works. Sometimes clearing UFC first, and then trying again. It's not a very big deal, but I was wondering if I'm the only one with this problem. Are there perhaps conditions that AP won't engage maybe? Like speed or altitude?

<BALT> button, on the UFC, moves but does not lock on the altitude.  All other buttons on the UFC function normally. 

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I've had the same issue before, previously fixed it with a 2% dead zone, was having issues lately again, noticed my stick pitch had drifted to ~3%.

Recalibrated today, everything is hunky dory again.

I don't believe this is a DCS issue, there's a good chance it's your hardware, recalibration would be my first bet.

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11 minutes ago, gswindle said:

<BALT> button, on the UFC, moves but does not lock on the altitude.  All other buttons on the UFC function normally. 

Your stick has to be perfectly centred for it to engage. I've been asking ED for an option to loosen this engagement zone, but what we have is what we have.

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On 5/18/2022 at 11:05 PM, Swift. said:

Your stick has to be perfectly centred for it to engage. I've been asking ED for an option to loosen this engagement zone, but what we have is what we have.

or maybe just hardcode a tolerance of 5% stick action. from my personal experience, i doubt that the A/P engagement criteria are set so tight in the real thing anyway

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2 minutes ago, HILOK said:

or maybe just hardcode a tolerance of 5% stick action. from my personal experience, i doubt that the A/P engagement criteria are set so tight in the real thing anyway

Absolutely this!

Deadzones are poison for precise flying like AAR or tight formations anyway.

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1 hour ago, HILOK said:

or maybe just hardcode a tolerance of 5% stick action. from my personal experience, i doubt that the A/P engagement criteria are set so tight in the real thing anyway

Yeah NATOPS doesn't mention anything about the stick having to be centred for AP engagement. All it specifies is that roll angle must be less than or equal to 70 degrees and pitch angle less than or equal to 45 degrees.

But regardless of what the real jet does (although I still maintain the above), in DCS we dont have the real jets stick. So compensations must be made, and the required compensation here is to allow an AFCS engagement deadzone, separate to that of the normal stick.

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"Lateral stick displacement greater than 0.5 inch causes the autopilot to decouple from the steering mode"

i suppose that would also apply to lateral A/P engagement tolerance. i.e. above 0.5" lateral modes won't engage. although this doesn't necessarily transfers to longitudinal modes, it may be a hint to the general ballpark we're looking for.

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23 hours ago, HILOK said:

"Lateral stick displacement greater than 0.5 inch causes the autopilot to decouple from the steering mode"

i suppose that would also apply to lateral A/P engagement tolerance. i.e. above 0.5" lateral modes won't engage. although this doesn't necessarily transfers to longitudinal modes, it may be a hint to the general ballpark we're looking for.

0.5 inch is already a lot bigger than what we have in DCS

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Yes, this is a problem now, and it has appeared in recent patches. Previously, everything worked perfectly, it was only necessary to maintain the angle of attack within the required limits. Now tiring dances with a button and a permanent Master Caution scoreboard.

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  • 8 months later...
On 5/27/2022 at 9:59 AM, vitdor said:

Yes, this is a problem now, and it has appeared in recent patches. Previously, everything worked perfectly, it was only necessary to maintain the angle of attack within the required limits. Now tiring dances with a button and a permanent Master Caution scoreboard.

Are people still having trouble with this? I sure as hell am.  It seem like when I am flying straight and level, I am still getting a master caution when trying to enable the BALT.  I have not tried letting go of the stick yet or adjusting the dead zone.  I will do this today.  I do not remember what patch started this, but this was not a problem in the past.  98% of the time I try to to enable BALT hold, I get a master caution and it will not enable.  Very frustrating.  

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  • ED Team

please include a track replay showing an issue so we can take a look

thanks

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4 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

Are people still having trouble with this? I sure as hell am.  It seem like when I am flying straight and level, I am still getting a master caution when trying to enable the BALT.  I have not tried letting go of the stick yet or adjusting the dead zone.  I will do this today.  I do not remember what patch started this, but this was not a problem in the past.  98% of the time I try to to enable BALT hold, I get a master caution and it will not enable.  Very frustrating.  

You need a perfectly zeroed dead zone. Open your Y Axis tuning and move your stick forward and back then return to center. There are two “input” and “output” numbers. If when you return your stick to center there’s any number other than zero in output you have to bump up your dead zone. This is a work around but a terrible one because as others have said, this makes formation and AAR flying awful. Dead zones suck and ED really needs to implement a QOL fix or separate “autopilot engagement” only special dead zone. It’s a terrible compromise that we have to choose between having the AP be usable or being able to AAR. 

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2 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

please include a track replay showing an issue so we can take a look

thanks

Working on the track now BigNewy.  It will take a minute to export.  Going to throw this video up in the patch section as well.  Ironed out the new OpenVR issue with PimaxXR.  Runs GREAT.  Better than SteamVR did before.  You will see the issues I am having with the BALT hold when I get the video up.

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9 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

please include a track replay showing an issue so we can take a look

thanks

BigNewy,

As promised here is the track I uploaded today.  I flew this morning and had the same issue again with the BALT AP.  For reference, my hands were off the stick and there was no movement when I was getting the master caution when trying to activate the BALT AP.  The video shows my issue pretty clearly.  I also time stamped the video for ease of locating where I am having trouble in the flight and you can bounce right to it.  11:00 minutes in it does not work and I finally get it activated at 11:40.  If this is user error and I appear to be doing something wrong, please let me know.  I only started noticing this a while back several patches ago (not sure how many back).  It never use to give me this problem.  One of the guys I fly with is experiencing the same issue when he fly's the Hornet.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I have not adjusted curves or dead zones.  I typically avoid that if at all possible.  

 

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  • ED Team

Hi, thank you for the video, but if possible we need a track replay, when you exit the mission you can save the track during the debrief screen. 

if possible use the air start instant action free flight mission and try to reproduce. 

we will then be able to see what is happening and check the controls indication and take control of the track if necessary 

thank you

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