solved Probably doing something wrong, big alignment issues between steerpoints, sensors and displays

[jubuttib]

Heya, thought I'd post this to ask before I start submitting bugs: I've probably missed some update note that explains what changed and how, but I'm currently struggling with massive differences in where things are, where my sensors point towards, and where the boxes show up on in my HUD and especially HMCS.

The main problems so far:

1. Steerpoints set in ME are pretty much where they should on the HUD, but they're usually nowhere near the same place on HMCS

2. HMCS overall seems to disagree with HUD on where things are, and HMCS shows for example the octagon box around a datalink marked friendly plane (usually) way above where the actual plane is, and when trying to aim AIM-9Xs with my head, I usually need to put the diamond indicating where the missile seeker is looking below the target to actually get tone.

3. TGP looks at the correct spot when slaved to the steerpoint, but the HUD shows it being wildly off target, and HMCS disagrees with HUD

4. If I lock a target with the TGP and use smart munitions (JSOW, JDAM, WCMD...), they hit where they should. If I lock a target with the TGP and use dumb munitions with CCRP, they hit where the HUD shows the TGP to be looking, not where it's actually looking. If I slew the targeting box on the HUD to where the target is, my bombs hit roughly there, but the TGP view shows it's not looking anywhere near there.

5. If I lock up a target with the TGP, then make that into a markpoint, there's pretty much always a significant, but not massive difference between where the TGP was looking, and where it looks when you slave it to the markpoint.

I've been using the startup method outlined in Chuck's guide for a good while now, and it's probably badly out of date. For aligning the INS I just flip up to Align - NORM, double check the co-ordinates vs. F10 map (with the correct decimal format) and let it align until I get 10 and the RDY is flashing, then I go to NAV. No HMCS or TGP alignment is involved in the process, are these necessary? I do know about the Maverick and TGP boresighting, and that I can do OK, and get OK results.

[razo+r]

Yes, you have to align the HMCS on a cold start if you want it to be accurate. 

TGP can't be aligned in DCS. But make sure to use CZ more often. Cursor Zero removes the offset that I assume you are experiencing. 

[BIGNEWY]

please include a track replay example showing the issue. 

also check the mission year is not prior to 1996 for pre GPS era 

[Charly_Owl]

Check the Mudspike guide on pages 105 to 108. HMCS alignment is required.

[jubuttib]

Marking razo+r's post as solution, since it was a full or partial one to a few issues.

4 hours ago, Charly_Owl said:

Check the Mudspike guide on pages 105 to 108. HMCS alignment is required.

You are of course entirely correct, thinking back I must have been making my startup list as a combination of your guide and Wag's old old video, or something like that, and whiffed on the HMCS.

Figured out what was going wrong, and it was pure mea culpa:

1. This was sorted out by HMCS alignment.

2. This too.

3. This took a few more tries, but I finally figured out that I was being an idiot, and didn't take "either enter or confirm" to mean I literally had to go through the lat, long and alt, and hit ENTER on them to confirm, I just checked that the numbers were correct, and if they were I didn't do anything else. So I was getting degraded alignment, ugh. Actually confirming them with ENTER solved this.

4. Same solution for this, the CCRP guidance is given by the plane, not the TGP, so degraded guidance was causing this to be off. If I manually put the box on the HUD to where I wanted to hit, it compensated for the issue.

5. This was a combination of the solution to 3. and also the Cursor Zero function.

Many lessons learned, thanks for the help!

Edited October 20, 2022 by jubuttib

[rob10]

3 hours ago, jubuttib said:

Figured out what was going wrong, and it was pure mea culpa:

Many lessons learned, thanks for the help

Good for you coming back with this post.  Likely someone in the future will do the same things and your post will help them figure it out.