Issues with SPI+HUD, COMMS Menu and MGRS Grid

[NightstalkerNOR]

Hey, I seek help in trying to solve some issues with the A10C Simulator. I have tried to explan them as best as I can, but I might have come with too much info. Please do ask if something is unclear.

 

My configurations with HOTAS, and Keyboard settings within the sim have not been changed in a while (around a month), and the issues occurred, without me making any, just in the last two or three days. It was working perfectly before.

 

 

1. When finding a target with the TGP, and assigning it as SPI with the TGP as SOI, the TGP "diamond" in the HUD moves over to the position of the waypoint in the HUD. However, if flying straight towards the SPI assigned TGP so that it should show in the HUD, the TGP "diamond" disappears, leaving no clue in the HUD to where the TGP is looking. Imagine a situation where you have assigned a target as SPI through the TGP, you steer towards it, but as soon as the TGP diamond is supposed to show in the HUD revealing the target infront of you, it disappears and then leads to using the "Mk1. eyeball" to recover the location of the target

 

 

The funny thing here is that the TGP is still looking at the same target in the MFCD, but there is no way to know where, since the TGP diamond is gone. It is possible to reset the situation by setting the TGP in standby mode, or make it look forward without being locked to a target.

 

 

Notice that the red circle shows TGP Diamond, Blue circle shows the waypoint, Orange box shows target in Right MFCD

 

 

Notice here that the TGP Diamond (RED) has replaced the Waypoint box (Blue), but that the TGP is still looking at the same target.

 

2.

The second issue I would like to bring up is the comms menu. Same as the previous issue, this was working perfectly before two or three days ago. Suddenly the comms menu will not show, not through the keyboard, nor the joystick. I have tried to make all assignments go through HOTAS, and also reassigning the keyboard settings, but no response, making the use of JTAC, wingmen or similar impossible.

 

3.

When flying some missions, for example OP Bactria or similar ( excellent mission! ), you will recieve coordinates underway which you have to add into the CDU. The MGRS coordinates may look like this: MN 68779 19146. However, when typing this into the CDU I get no waypoints showing in the TAD, but the HSI indicates that the WP is over 999 miles away, meaning that the WP has been entered into the CDU, but is not within the map itself.

 

The problem is as mentioned that the coordinates are entered properly, and this worked earlier, and still work with others that I know, but now they are way off with me, and do not show in the TAD and I do not know why.

 

I checked the map and the MGRS coordinates around the whole map using F10, and I found no such coordinates beginning with "MN". The strange this is that this worked before, but not now...

Edited January 4, 2013 by NightstalkerNOR

[Rongor]

1. Please provide the non compressed screenshots. I can hardly see a thing...

and: what exactly did you do between those two screenshots?

 

2. no idea so far, secrets about this may hide deep in your controls settings, You dont need to assign everything new. Simply go into the controls menu, select A-10C Sim and test your communications button.

 

3. These were sort of UTM coordinates of the MilitaryGridReferenceSystem. UTM data is in a complete different format than LATitude/LONgitude data. Enter UTM coordinates in UTM and Lat/Lon in L/L mode...

I highly suspect you entered these MGRS values like they were L/L, leading to a quite distant Lat/Long waypoint far away (N68°07,79' E019°14,6' or similar, for example)...

I tried this myself with your coordinates and it worked just fine:

1. Press the LSK R9 to switch from L/L to UTM

2. Enter "MN6877919146" into the scratchpad and press LSK L9

EDIT: 3. Enter 38T into the scratchpad and press LSK L7

4. Done...

Switching back to L/L with LSK R9 reveals the LatLon coordinates

 

I did this on the ground at Batumi Airport. The MGRS position entered for grid zone region 37T is 357 NM away, bearing 328 to the northwest by north

As we learned by the 3th post, grid zone region 37T is wrong. You will get the correct position when entering the correct grid zone region 38T as described above in step 3

Edited January 4, 2013 by Rongor

[Tholozor]

Something else to consider regarding the MGRS coordinates is that they might lie in a different spheroid. Georgia extends between 37T and 38T, so you might need to change it on the CDU.

 

Dragon put up a nice picture here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1143205&postcount=3

[Maachine]

simple comms isnt working for me either. not sure why, it works on the joystick when i map it. i do have the option selected as well. would love to find out why if anyone has any suggestions.

[Rongor]

Something else to consider regarding the MGRS coordinates is that they might lie in a different spheroid. Georgia extends between 37T and 38T, so you might need to change it on the CDU.

 

Generally yes. In this case, he got the square identifier MN. Square identifiers don't duplicate in adjacent grid zone regions. MN is either within 37T or 38T. Maybe he also got the grid region and just didn't provide it to us. Checking the theater map http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/documentation/tc-1/ we learn MN is located inside 38T. Unfortunately the CDU doesnt check this plausibility

 

So I misplaced my waypoint and NightstalkerNOR will also have to enter 38T via LSK L7

Thanks Tholozor!

Edited January 4, 2013 by Rongor

[NightstalkerNOR]

Hey and thanks for your responses.

 

 

1. Please provide the non compressed screenshots. I can hardly see a thing...

and: what exactly did you do between those two screenshots?

 

2. no idea so far, secrets about this may hide deep in your controls settings, You dont need to assign everything new. Simply go into the controls menu, select A-10C Sim and test your communications button.

 

3. These were sort of UTM coordinates of the MilitaryGridReferenceSystem. UTM data is in a complete different format than LATitude/LONgitude data. Enter UTM coordinates in UTM and Lat/Lon in L/L mode...

I highly suspect you entered these MGRS values like they were L/L, leading to a quite distant Lat/Long waypoint far away (N68°07,79' E019°14,6' or similar, for example)...

I tried this myself with your coordinates and it worked just fine:

 

1. Press the LSK R9 to switch from L/L to UTM

2. Enter "MN6877919146" into the scratchpad and press LSK L9

EDIT: 3. Enter 38T into the scratchpad and press LSK L7

4. Done...

Switching back to L/L with LSK R9 reveals the LatLon coordinates

 

I did this on the ground at Batumi Airport. The MGRS position entered for grid zone region 37T is 357 NM away, bearing 328 to the northwest by north

As we learned by the 3th post, grid zone region 37T is wrong. You will get the correct position when entering the correct grid zone region 38T as described above in step 3

 

 

1. See if these images work.

 

 

This situation is as it should be. I have not yet assigned the target as SPI so that I can drop CBU, guided or unguided bombs onto the target, but I have identified the target with the TGP and are ready to assign it as SPI.

Here you can see the where the TGP is looking with the Diamond indicator slightly down to the left from the middle of the HUD. The waypoint "box" is slightly up right from the middle of the HUD.

 

 

The target through the TGP is assigned as SPI. The TGP Diamond then quickly repositions itself to where the Waypoint box was previously located. The TGP is still looking at its target, but the TGP Diamond now indicates that the TGP is looking somewhere else. If this was first engagement of the target, meaning I would not know their geographical placement and no smoke from destroyed vehicles, I would now believe that the target is placed to the right of me, leading to a right turn.

 

 

You can still see that the TGP is looking at its target, but that the Diamond in the HUD indicates that the TGP viewpoint is to my right.

 

 

When reaching the point where the Diamond reveals the location of the target in the HUD, the diamond disappears, and jumps over to the left, now indicating that the target is to my left. Turning left towards the diamond indicator results in the same as above that the target is supposed to be revealed but instead it jumps to the right, indicating the target is to my right.

 

.

 

 

2. I've tried checking my COMMS controls through the settings, and they are recognized, however they do not work within the sim itself.

 

3. What you describe with the L/L and MGRS was also my first thought. Also the 37T /36T/38T have been checked. They are both as they should be, and I have followed an example video on youtube to the letter. The video describes the exact same situation on the mission OP Bactria, with ground forces giving coordinates that start with MN and 10 digits, so it is fairly easy to check and double check my own and the instructors inputs in the CDU.

The thing is that it worked for me previously, but now I end up as explained in the original post, with the waypoint beeing indicated to be over 1000 nm away, and not able to find anything near MN in the F10 map, only XY, ZX EZ and so on.

Edited January 4, 2013 by NightstalkerNOR

[Rongor]

1. looks strange so far. The HUD tells us the TGP was slaved to the steerpoint but the TGP MFCD obviously says that this did not happen.

The HUD presenting SPI and TDC at the waypoint of course will give you jumping icons when reaching the waypoint. But even the distances shown in the TGP to the target and in the HUD to the steeringpoint appear to be the same. The only difference is the 90 degrees angle.

Unfortunately the TAD MFCD is no longer visible and the picture is still blurry from compression. Simply upload the original screenshots, dont reduce them.

2. The action "Communication Menu" is configured "\" by default. I dont know norwegian keyboard codepages, but in Germany I have to press "#" for that...

This one and the HOTAS Mic Switches should at least display the com menu in white letters in the upper right screen corner. You will already have checked that you are trying to transmit on correct frequencies with the correct radio that is also switched on in T/R mode...

3. Did you try to enter those exact coordinates into your CDU in a single player situation outside of this mission, let's say in a tutorial? The coordinates provided seem to be fine at all. Maybe the error is produced by the misson file you are playing...

[NightstalkerNOR]

1. looks strange so far. The HUD tells us the TGP was slaved to the steerpoint but the TGP MFCD obviously says that this did not happen.

The HUD presenting SPI and TDC at the waypoint of course will give you jumping icons when reaching the waypoint. But even the distances shown in the TGP to the target and in the HUD to the steeringpoint appear to be the same. The only difference is the 90 degrees angle.

Unfortunately the TAD MFCD is no longer visible and the picture is still blurry from compression. Simply upload the original screenshots, dont reduce them.

 

2. The action "Communication Menu" is configured "\" by default. I dont know norwegian keyboard codepages, but in Germany I have to press "#" for that...

This one and the HOTAS Mic Switches should at least display the com menu in white letters in the upper right screen corner. You will already have checked that you are trying to transmit on correct frequencies with the correct radio that is also switched on in T/R mode...

 

3. Did you try to enter those exact coordinates into your CDU in a single player situation outside of this mission, let's say in a tutorial? The coordinates provided seem to be fine at all. Maybe the error is produced by the misson file you are playing...

 

1. I can't see where this issue would be of use so I think that this must be a bug of some sort. It is the most problematic issue of all three since it makes the engaging of targets harder being forced to use eyeballs, and also tricked into believeing the target is somewhere else that what it really is.

 

2. The weird thing as that this was working perfectly before, no problems whatsoever, but suddenly without warning it desides to not work...

 

3.What I have done to test this issue is to both try the Bactria mission and also flying in the mission editor, typing in coordinates that I find through using the F10 Map. It works with inserting coordinates when flying a self-produced mission through mission editor, but the Bactria mission this approach doesn't work. I see your point that there might be some problems with the coordinates that you recieve during the mission, that this might be a mission fault, BUT with my brother also flying the A10C, has not experienced the same. With him this works. We've also tried a MP mission other than the Bactria, and also here the coordinates are wrong. We ensured that both the 38T (or whatever it was) was correct, and that it was input correctly with alle numbers and letters the way they should be, but nothing showed.

[Rongor]

Your TAD shows the locations and possible co-locations of SPI, TGP and steerpoint and could therefore maybe the most useful indicator of your problem... Good luck!

And again to the UTM issue, I entered your coordinates, and they worked fine.

[NightstalkerNOR]

oh well, I guess using the "swedish solution" on this issue -reinstalling the game- is the next action I will take. I will let you know how that goes.

thanks for the help anyway

[dave4002000]

Just to let you know you are not alone with this, i have had this happen to me on more than one occasion. However, it has only started recently, has been very infrequent and impossible for me to reproduce. It also seems to rectify itself if i just redesignate the SPI through the TGP(TMS Aft Long / TMS Up Long).

 

I have been playing this since the very first public beta was released. That doesn't make me a complete expert, but i do know my way around the systems in this jet and i can tell you it has nothing to do with inputting the wrong grid reference.

 

What i cannot tell you, is how to make it stop happening. At first, i thought it was something to do with 1.2.2 because i've only noticed it after installing, but i honestly have no idea if it's related or not.

 

::edit:: Sorry, just read through your post again and didn't realize the people making reference to grid coordinates where talking about a different issue you posted about. That's what i get for skimming the posts, i guess. :doh:

 

I don't have any issues with the WP box or comms menu. The only issue i was referencing was the TGP diamond not being where it's supposed to be.

Edited January 5, 2013 by dave4002000

[Evil.Bonsai]

Please upload the track and it will be WAY easier to help.

 

As for MGRS and CDU, there are several excellent tutorials on youtube. But if you think you're doing it right but get a mission point that is VERY far away, check the cdu for 37T or 38T. Whichever it happens to be, change to the other, and it might fix your problem.

[WildBillKelsoe]

the other trick to TGP and SPI, is to slave HUD cue to TGP. As it locks outside FOV, make TGP a single INU diamond with breaking lock.

[NightstalkerNOR]

Reinstalling the game seems to have solved all and more issues that didn't even know where there.

 

The other issues were such things as Cloud coverage, Missing TAD MAP, MAP Coordinates (both the L/L and MGRS coordinates were somehow set to be way off from from the Georgia/Russia area) and more.

 

I do however not have any clue on how this might have happened, so it remains a mystery, but atleast it has been solved for now...

 

Thanks for all fix suggestions on this issue.

[Maachine]

reinstall fixed the simple comms issue you had? is it working now?

[NightstalkerNOR]

reinstall fixed the simple comms issue you had? is it working now?

 

Yes it did. works perfectly. I have activated the "easy communications" in options as well, but this was activated before also, so just reinstall and see if that works for you.

 

Should be noted that all "DCS World" compatible addons should be removed together with DCS World itself, just to be certain that all files are reset.

It took me the download time of all install files + 3-4 minutes to get up and running again (considering you have saved the keyboard/joystick settings), so for you FSX flyers out there "scared" of reinstalling and using almost a week to get back in business, this is not an issue here.

[Maachine]

cool thanks for the info