Avionics master switch gone after reinstall

[aurel42]

Hello,

I installed P3D v3.4 on a fresh Win10 system, installed all my usual addons, including the Comanche, updated the Comanche (when I run the updater again, it confirms I have 05_09_16). I know where the Avionics Master Switch is supposed to be, but there's just a little "indent" in the panel where the switch used to be.

Possibly related to this, whenever I load the Comanche, P3D's failure dialog tells me that some (changing) subset of radios has failed, but the mechanic keeps telling me she's in "excellent shape" and doesn't offer any repairs to me. When I reset the failures, they return at some point later during the flight.

When I use the physical switch I've assigned to the Master Avionics Switch (using FSUIPC), I can hear the action in one direction, but not in the other (this worked in both directions when the switch was visible on the panel before I had to reinstall), and the F1 GTN750 is powered up either way I move the switch.

I'm kinda lost. I tried reinstallation, re-applying the upgrade, loading different aircraft before loading the Comanche, loading different models of the Comanche, I checked all the different avionics stacks (both using the Shift-3 window and by switching to "default" in the aircraft configurator). The only solution for issues like this I could find in the forum involved reinstallation of P3D and I would like to avoid that, since I just did that and there's no other indication that P3D could be broken.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Marc

PS: What I haven't tried yet is deinstallation of the Comanche, cleaning out any leftover configuration files, followed by reinstallation. Trying that now. The ashtray was full anyway.

[aurel42]

I just took delivery of a brand new 1959 Comanche with empty ashtrays and a working Avionics Master Switch. No idea what was going on, but deinstallation, deleting the A2A folders in the P3D main folder and the user documents folder, followed by reinstallation and upgrade did the trick.
The switch is back, works in both directions, and the GTN750 doesn't power up with Master Battery set to off any longer.

This did not resolve the issue with the failures, though.

Immediately after loading that new aircraft for the first time (Airframe 0.0 hrs, Engine 0.0 hrs, beautiful shape), and before even switching the Master Battery on once, I have failures of ADF1, COM2, NAV2.

Here's what I do:
- in the aircraft configurator, I select the F1 GTN750
- I launch P3D without the usual addons like Active Sky, no SimConnect clients are running
- in P3D's default scenario, I pick a Baron 58
- I check Vehicle / Failures / Radios and all boxes are unchecked, Random Component Failures is unchecked
- I load the Comanche
- I check Vehicle / Failures / Radios and the "Failed" boxes for ADF1, COM2, NAV2 are checked.
- In the maintenance hangar, I select "complete overhaul", failed radios stay failed

Is this working as intended? Am I missing something?

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Marc,

For future reference, if the Accu-Sim update isn't being successfully applied as in your case, the specific folder you need to remove is this one:

C:\Program Files (x86)Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\A2A\Comanche250\Update_fsx

It contains a "client.wyc" file which, in the case of reinstallation or P3D updates, may be telling the A2A updater everything is updated when it isn't!

As regards your issues with the scripted P3D radio failures, this is a new one to me. The Accu-Sim failures are completely independent to the scripted P3D failures as far as I'm aware, so the maintenance hangar won't help.

When you load the Comanche, are you loading the flight with that Baron first, or are you switching to the Comanche in the scenario screen? With P3D (more so than FSX) things seems more stable if a simple aircraft is loaded fully at the departure airport before you switch to the complex, SimConnect dependent A2A product.

With 'weird' stuff like this, something else I'd recommend is to establish early on if FSUIPC is involved. You could do this by running the sim with it disabled (e.g. by temporarily moving the FSUIPC4.DLL).

Thanks,
Nick

[aurel42]

Thanks for your help, Nick!

When you load the Comanche, are you loading the flight with that Baron first, or are you switching to the Comanche in the scenario screen? With P3D (more so than FSX) things seems more stable if a simple aircraft is loaded fully at the departure airport before you switch to the complex, SimConnect dependent A2A product.

I never had trouble loading the Comanche directly after starting P3D before, but looking through the forum for help, I read that loading a default aircraft first might help, so I actually launched the scenario with the Baron selected in my tests, then checked the Failure dialog for the Baron, then loaded the Comanche and checked the Failure dialog again to make sure I was seeing the failures only with the Comanche.

I also tried with other default aircraft and the Milviz Cessna 310R. The failures reproducibly appear when I load the Comanche, and only then.

With 'weird' stuff like this, something else I'd recommend is to establish early on if FSUIPC is involved. You could do this by running the sim with it disabled (e.g. by temporarily moving the FSUIPC4.DLL).

This is what I tried today:

- I used the Aircraft Configurator to switch to the default avionics stack.
- I renamed P3D\Modules\FSUIPC.dll to P3D\Modules\FSUIPC.dll.inactive (after P3D had launched, I made sure FSUIPC was gone from the Addon menu).
- I set scenery related modules to ManualLoad and denied loading them during P3D startup (except OrbX ObjectFlow, default gauges, and the GTN750).
- I launched P3D without the usual addons like Active Sky, no SimConnect clients were running
- in P3D's default scenario, I picked the Baron 58 and started the scenario
- I checked Vehicle / Failures / Radios and all boxes were unchecked, Random Component Failures was unchecked
- I loaded the Comanche
- I checked Vehicle / Failures / Radios and the "Failed" boxes for ADF1, COM1, COM2, NAV1, NAV2 were checked (note that this is a different selection of radios than yesterday)
- I used the "Reset all Failures" button and loaded the Comanche again
- Again, ADF1, COM1, COM2, NAV1, NAV2 were checked as failed
- I used "Reset all Failures" again and loaded the Milviz Cessna 310R
- All boxes in the failures dialog stayed unchecked

- I quit P3D, renamed Prepar3D.cfg so P3D would create a fresh one, and restarted it.
- This time, starting from the default scenario, I loaded a different B58 that doesn't have the GTN750, to make sure it's not the GTN which is causing the trouble
- No failures
- I loaded the Comanche
- Failures of ADF1, COM1, COM2, NAV1, NAV2

- I set everything (but the LM default gauges) in both copies of exe.xml and both copies of dll.xml to ManualLoad and denied loading categorically for everything; no FSUiPC, no Active Sky loaders, no weather radar. I went through the whole procedure, B58 without GTN: no failures, Comanche with default avionics: radio failures

- I checked the task manager while testing to make sure there wasn't some weird autolaunch background process, for example by Air Hauler 2, trying to enforce more realism by messing with the aircraft I own in the game whenever it's loaded. That's the kind of theory I come up with when I'm really running out of ideas.

Whatever it is, it appears to affect the Comanche exclusively, and it doesn't seem to be related to anything that installs itself in a way that I have control over. I have no idea what else could be interfering. I tried to exclude or remove all factors I could think of, except uninstalling scenery and textures. I've checked all the config files I could think of for corruption or weird or unexpected entries, couldn't find anything.

Anything else I could try?

[aurel42]

How about this theory: The Comanche radios are always set to failed in the Failures system until you turn them on, at least when the Comanche is set to load cold & dark?

So everything I tested since the re-installation was just meaningless and had no relation to the problem I was actually seeing (repeated Radio failures during flight). Perhaps the problem has long been solved by the re-installation. I will have to spend some time in the air to see if the failures I got randomly do return or not. Too frustrated to do that right now, but I'll give feedback soon.

[Nick - A2A]

How about this theory: The Comanche radios are always set to failed in the Failures system until you turn them on, at least when the Comanche is set to load cold & dark?

Yeah, looks like you could be on to something there Marc. I've just checked, and this does seem to be the way they're programmed in my installation too.

However, I've never had any in-flight failures of the avionics caused by Accu-Sim and it's not something I can recall being reported on the forums. However, some posters have reported the circuit breakers tripping (or potentially they've been accidentally clicked in the Comanche). However, this doesn't seem to be what you're experiencing.

So, though it looks like the "failed" radios after the initial load which you were troubleshooting was a red herring, I reckon something else must be responsible for those repeated in flight radio failures. You mention AirHauler2? I seem to recall FSEconomy also utilises the default failures simulation, though I don't have personal experience of either product. However, I guess the more add-ons which are added into the melting pot, the harder issues like this are to troubleshoot.

Hope you manage to find the culprit, but as your installation of the Comanche is now properly updated, I don't think it's the Accu-Sim failure modelling which is at work here. I reserve the right to be wrong on this however!

Nick

[aurel42]

Hey Nick,

So, though it looks like the "failed" radios after the initial load which you were troubleshooting was a red herring, I reckon something else must be responsible for those repeated in flight radio failures. You mention AirHauler2? I seem to recall FSEconomy also utilises the default failures simulation, though I don't have personal experience of either product.

I agree that there's a high probability that AH2 might be part of the equation.

In theory, I should not see any AH2 introduced failures, because I only just started my "company" and purchased a new aircraft ("condition 100%"). What I was seeing was that the avionics stack was reset to the cold & dark state during the flight, which also makes no sense in the context of the game, so I assume if AH2 is involved, it's because of a bug in the game.

Most of the time, I did let AH2 connect to P3D when I returned to the cockpit after the preflight walkaround, after setting up "cargo" and fuel in the Shift-4 window, but before starting the engine (it was always the same flow, because I have to remove my VR headset for some of the steps, like the walkaround and the interaction with AH2).

My current theory is that AH2 grabs the failure state at this point, when first connecting to P3D, and for some reason tries to restore it later, during the flight. Perhaps it uses the initial failure state as a base to add its own failures to, but then writes it back to P3D every couple of minutes, even when it hasn't added any new failures. This probably works perfectly for all aircraft that don't use the failure system in the way Accu-sim does for C&D, and I guess nobody is crazy enough to try to start a cargo company with a Comanche anyway (I just love flying the Comanche so much that I didn't care much about the economics).

I don't have the patience to do any further testing with this, especially since I don't have access to the AH2 "early access forum" (for unknown reasons, even though I purchased the product a while ago), so I can't even check whether this is a known problem.

I did try one last test flight with AH2 though. This time I only let it connect to P3D after starting the engine and turning on the avionics. I did not have any issues with failures on this flight.

I trust you when you're saying that Accu-sim wouldn't introduce failures this way during the flight, so I'll just stay away from AH2 for the time being and return to FSE. (Yes, FSE does use the failure system as well, but not to introduce failures during flight, only to make sure that the equipment available in the aircraft I'm flying matches what I have paid for in the FSE world, and the code that does this is pretty mature compared to AH2.)

Thanks again for your advice!

[Nick - A2A]

Good theories there Marc with regards to AH2 capturing the initial failed state of the radios. Maybe worth a post on the regular Air Hauler forum at Just Flight if you plan on using it again in future. The only other thing I can think of is that the SimConnect client is being overloaded with interactions with Accu-Sim, AH2 and perhaps any other software you're running too, and this is causing issues.

Anyway - happy flying/hauling!
Nick