cannot repoduce and missing track file Can't use datalink in F-16C Red Flag 21-1 campaign (mission 1)?

[M-Flux]

Hi,

I'm having trouble setting the datalink in the Red Flag 21-1 campaign. I have both the GPS switch and MIDS LVT on. On the DLINK DED, NET STATUS page I tried toggling "GPS TIME" between on and off as others have suggested, but did not seem to help either. SYNC says "FINE", NTR is OFF. Though the "TIME" itself under "NET STATUS" stays empty (is that expected?). Also the HSD says "XMT: TNDL". And the TNDL STN page seems to list other flight member track numbers. However on the HSD I see no other aircrafts in this campaign.

I'm probably missing something obvious, quite new to datalink. Thanks for the help!

[skywalker22]

Did you do a cold start? If so, when did you put the MIDS LVT switch to on? You must only put it to on, when GPS alignemnt is done, you see that by pressing the button 6 (TIME) on the IPC, and in the left upper corner must be written GPS SYSTEM (if there is no GPS the alignment is not done yet). 

[Furiz]

On 3/29/2024 at 12:05 PM, M-Flux said:

Hi,

I'm having trouble setting the datalink in the Red Flag 21-1 campaign. I have both the GPS switch and MIDS LVT on. On the DLINK DED, NET STATUS page I tried toggling "GPS TIME" between on and off as others have suggested, but did not seem to help either. SYNC says "FINE", NTR is OFF. Though the "TIME" itself under "NET STATUS" stays empty (is that expected?). Also the HSD says "XMT: TNDL". And the TNDL STN page seems to list other flight member track numbers. However on the HSD I see no other aircrafts in this campaign.

I'm probably missing something obvious, quite new to datalink. Thanks for the help!

This seems to be bad alignment,

 

did you do Stored or Normal alignment? if Normal you need to confirm coordiantes in first two minutes of the alignment,

also aircraft can not move, not even rearm cause it may shake the jet and fail the alignment.

 

anyway, post a track of this happening so we can see whats going on.

Edited March 31, 2024 by Furiz

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

please post a track replay example if possible 

it could be incorrect alignment or other aircraft not airborne yet? 

thank you 

[M-Flux]

Hi and thanks for the feedback everyone!

I think I could figure out my issue. I was using stored heading INS alignment and tried to follow one of the many super useful tutorials from Wags: 

I guess what I did wrong all the time was moving the INS alignment switch from NORM to NAV too slowly... And I didn't notice that the alignment in the DED changed from .../10 to .../98 again...

As can be seen in the track file, I did it wrong initially there. And on second try, when switching from NORM to NAV more quickly it stayed at .../10 - and datalink magically started to work immediately :D.

PS: Btw. also saw all these many, great updates and fixes for the F-16, including datalink in the recent patches for DCS. Many thanks for that, too! (though I think that was not related to my issue, had retried before and then after the update, my issue was a user error, I think).

f16-campaign-mission-01-3.trk

Edited May 2, 2024 by M-Flux

[Nedum]

Hi,

 

did I understand you right, you start your alignment with STOR HDG? How long do you stay on NORM before you switch to NAV, if you move the switch from STOR HDG to NORM?

I could misread the original papers, but if the alignment was shown as OK, you have to switch to off position before you can start a NORM or any new alignment after that. So, it shouldn't matter how long you need to switch to the NAV position and how long the switch stays in the NORM position if the alignment was completed. It would be a hell of a stupid design to start a new alignment if you stay X seconds, which can only be felt, if you have already done a full alignment.

But if there is a time period we have to move the switch out of the NORM position to NAV, to not start a new alignment, it would be nice to know how long this time period is. Couldn't read anything about a time period for this behavior in the Viper Guide.

So the question is, how long can we stay in the NORM position before a new alignment starts, if we have already done an alignment to the end (Align done/ok and ready to switch to NAV) and have to move the switch through the NORM position to the NAV position?