Various struggles with MAVs and LMAV

[Sylosis]

There are a few things that I struggle with on the Harrier. 

First point, is it designed as intended that whenever you switch your SOI (for instance, activating the TPOD), your MAV gets unselected and whatever warm up (or should I say, cooldown) was going on goes to an halt? Considering the time you have to wait for your typical IR MAV on the Harrier, I often get screwed by switching sensor to check something and not realizing my MAV has therefore been unselected.  Is there anything I should be doing to prevent that and again, is this modeled accurately in DCS? The Harrier really behaved like that?

Second point, how do you manage to have your SOI appear on the MFD that you want. I am often looking through my TPOD on the right MFD and when I push the IRMAV Sensor Select switch, it'll take the place of my TPOD MFD instead of appearing on the left MFD. What am I doing wrong?

Third and last point, I can't get the sequence right for the LMAV. Sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't and I just can't understand why I can't use them consistently. I will do the following:
- 1: At the top of my EHSD, select LMAV and wait

- 2: Activate TPOD and make sure its laser is ready to lase.

- 3: Find target with TPOD, then Designate it.

- 4: Lase the target

- 5: Uncage LMAV

-6: Shoot

My issue is that 50% of the time, uncaging the MAV doesn't do anything. Is it that I have to wait the same "cooldown" time in between shots as well? Could be the explanation to my problem, I am just unsure this is required.

I have seen people not leaving the EHSD screen and actually selecting the LMAV from the Store page. Doing that, when they uncage it, the LMAV screen replaces the TPOD screen, but it seems the lasing is still in effect, so the tracker snaps the TPOD laser anyway. However I like having my TPOD on one MFD and the EHSD on the other, so up to now this is not a method I have been tried. 

Thanks for the help.

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Sylosis

[Ramsay]

16 hours ago, Sylosis said:

First point, is it designed as intended that whenever you switch your SOI (for instance, activating the TPOD), your MAV gets unselected and whatever warm up (or should I say, cooldown) was going on goes to an halt? Considering the time you have to wait for your typical IR MAV on the Harrier, I often get screwed by switching sensor to check something and not realizing my MAV has therefore been unselected.  Is there anything I should be doing to prevent that and again, is this modeled accurately in DCS? The Harrier really behaved like that?

TPOD and Maverick intergration is working as intended and as IRL - the TPOD was a ~2002 addition to the origrignal aircraft (initially only on the wing station) and the weapon/video system treats it as another weapon.

16 hours ago, Sylosis said:

Second point, how do you manage to have your SOI appear on the MFD that you want. I am often looking through my TPOD on the right MFD and when I push the IRMAV Sensor Select switch, it'll take the place of my TPOD MFD instead of appearing on the left MFD. What am I doing wrong?

It's a real life limitation i.e. the harrier can only display video from one "weapon" at a time, IIRC a software update allowed the TPOD feed to hot swap to the Maverick video, however you can't have both video feeds displayed at the same time.

16 hours ago, Sylosis said:

Third and last point, I can't get the sequence right for the LMAV. Sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't and I just can't understand why I can't use them consistently.

Without a track, it's hard to be sure - a gotta that often catches me out when returning to the Harrier from other modules is that selecting the TPOD i.e. before a reattack, will deselect the Maverick (as the TPOD is treated as a weapon) and often requires the Maverick to be selected a 2nd time - there are indicators as to weapon status, etc. but you need to remember to check for them.

Only the Maverick E2/L can be self-lased, the Maverick E cannot.

AFAIK the inability to self-lase the Maverick E was a OFP limitation - having both E and E2 Mavericks in DCS allows the earlier software to be modelled (in a limited way).

Edited August 12, 2023 by Ramsay

[Ramsay]

On 8/11/2023 at 6:43 PM, Sylosis said:

I will do the following:

- 1: At the top of my EHSD, select LMAV and wait
- 2: Activate TPOD and make sure its laser is ready to lase.
- 3: Find target with TPOD, then Designate it.
- 4: Lase the target
- 5: Uncage LMAV
-6: Shoot

My issue is that 50% of the time, uncaging the MAV doesn't do anything. Is it that I have to wait the same "cooldown" time in between shots as well?

Without a track, it's hard to be sure but typically you'll want to swap 1 and 2 i.e. Select the TPOD first and then the LMAV, IIRC doing it the other way deselects the LMAV (as the TPOD is treated as another weapon), hence why you might select the LMAV twice.

Checking this out in single player - I didn't have an issue firing the LMAV E2 but the TPOD's laser did once auto-safe and FPS dropped from a locked 60 fps to single figures when the TPOD target was masked (not something I've seen before).

Continuing my tests - I saw a desync at times between the LMAV HUD and MFD status, seemed like the next (caged) LMAV sometimes inherited the previous uncaged status i.e. the HUD showed a target lock, but the LMAV MFD (SSS forward long) didn't have it's full symbology and I needed to cycle the LMAV cage/uncage button to confirm a "good" spot track. All LMAV E2's were fired successfully and hit their targets.

Tested using DCS Open Beta Multi-thread 2.8.7.42718

Edited August 12, 2023 by Ramsay

[Sylosis]

On 8/12/2023 at 5:53 AM, Ramsay said:

TPOD and Maverick intergration is working as intended and as IRL - the TPOD was a ~2002 addition to the origrignal aircraft (initially only on the wing station) and the weapon/video system treats it as another weapon.

It's a real life limitation i.e. the harrier can only display video from one "weapon" at a time, IIRC a software update allowed the TPOD feed to hot swap to the Maverick video, however you can't have both video feeds displayed at the same time.

Without a track, it's hard to be sure - a gotta that often catches me out when returning to the Harrier from other modules is that selecting the TPOD i.e. before a reattack, will deselect the Maverick (as the TPOD is treated as a weapon) and often requires the Maverick to be selected a 2nd time - there are indicators as to weapon status, etc. but you need to remember to check for them.

Only the Maverick E2/L can be self-lased, the Maverick E cannot.

AFAIK the inability to self-lase the Maverick E was a OFP limitation - having both E and E2 Mavericks in DCS allows the earlier software to be modelled (in a limited way).

 

Thank you very much for the explanations. One thing I realize this weekend is that there is a chance I sometimes mistakenly install the E variant instead of the E2/L.
And the other thing I might very much to wrong is what you mentioned. It's very likely that I forget to re-select the MAV and not realize it got unselected.

But thanks a ton, your information was very detailed and clear.

On 8/12/2023 at 11:52 AM, Ramsay said:

Without a track, it's hard to be sure but typically you'll want to swap 1 and 2 i.e. Select the TPOD first and then the LMAV, IIRC doing it the other way deselects the LMAV (as the TPOD is treated as another weapon), hence why you might select the LMAV twice.

Checking this out in single player - I didn't have an issue firing the LMAV E2 but the TPOD's laser did once auto-safe and FPS dropped from a locked 60 fps to single figures when the TPOD target was masked (not something I've seen before).

Continuing my tests - I saw a desync at times between the LMAV HUD and MFD status, seemed like the next (caged) LMAV sometimes inherited the previous uncaged status i.e. the HUD showed a target lock, but the LMAV MFD (SSS forward long) didn't have it's full symbology and I needed to cycle the LMAV cage/uncage button to confirm a "good" spot track. All LMAV E2's were fired successfully and hit their targets.

Tested using DCS Open Beta Multi-thread 2.8.7.42718

 

I think I have also experienced the problem you just described. However I can't reproduce it every time. But thanks for the tests, it's interesting to see you also encountered a few issues.