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Post by Bjoern on May 12, 2016 13:05:05 GMT -5
This is a small gauge that I've thrown together in 30 Minutes or so. It will essentially control the mixture levers whenever they are in a range of 15 to 95%. This is intentional as it allows shutting down the engine or having the mixture at full rich during startup, takeoff or in emergencies. There's two versions of the gauge. One that keeps the engine at auto rich and another that switches between auto rich and auto lean whenever the autopilot's altitude hold mode is activated. Both versions are safeguarded against unintentional shutdowns by leaning the mixture too much (see above). The gauge is set up for four engined airplanes, so use it in whatever piston powered aircraft you want. Read the readme as it contains a bit more information. Download: drive.google.com/file/d/0B6K_xiE2GqmMMER5M2pNR2NlZUk/view?usp=sharingI've only tested it in FSX with the DC-6 so far, but I've used entirely FS9 compliant formatting and variables. Leave some feedback whether it works for you or not. P.S: This will not play well with the "automixture" feature in MSFS or any other aircraft-specific method to control mixture. In the former case, disable the UI option before testing this gauge. |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on May 12, 2016 14:51:44 GMT -5
Hi,
Thanks for these gauges. However, I agreed to release FSAviator's flight dynamics with the caveat that they use full time Automixture, since that's the way he tested them and thus he cannot support them any other way.
But I will try them out and see how they work, and others could too if they are interested.
Thanks again,
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Post by Bjoern on May 12, 2016 16:53:14 GMT -5
You're always welcome, Tom. Your comment about the flight dynamics and MSFS' automixture prompted me to test the automixture in FSX and I found out that it basically always sets FAR to 0.083. So with that value as a target, I've improved the equation used in my gauge to calculate the required mixture setting. The model now delivers the following results for sigma vs FAR (via mixture):
Sigma 1.0 (SL @ ISA): 0.0828
Sigma 0.9 ( 3500 ft): 0.0840
Sigma 0.8 ( 7400 ft): 0.0818
Sigma 0.7 (11700 ft): 0.0821
Sigma 0.6 (16450 ft): 0.0854
Sigma 0.5 (21850 ft): 0.0832
Sigma 0.4 (28200 ft): 0.0781
Sigma 0.3 (35800 ft): 0.0833I don't know if it's "FSAviator compliant", but considering MSFS' limited refresh rate in 2D gauges, the results are okay. The equation probably simulates a day-to-day automatic fuel governor more realistically than MSFS ever could (because of the deviation from the target value).  Anyway, the download link for the updated version is the same as in post #1. |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on May 12, 2016 19:41:25 GMT -5
Thanks for the update.  |
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Post by Defender on May 13, 2016 4:21:21 GMT -5
Bjoern/Tom,
FSAviator's FDE for automixture sets the fuel_scalar at the real aircraft's autolean setting in high blower, and pretty accurately too. Automixture, on the DC-7C for example, then gives you a reasonably high "autorich" for the takeoff and climb, although less than the true FAR because of FS9's max FAR limitation. What you don't get is a manual lean cruise option which reduces the FF slightly and thus gives greater range.
I'm not sure I see any way of exploiting another leaning option unless you have an accurate BMEP indication and you know the manual lean cruise settings, as in the Connies.
Bill |
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Post by Bjoern on May 13, 2016 11:27:13 GMT -5
FS9 has a FAR limitation?
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Post by Defender on May 13, 2016 16:22:14 GMT -5
I'm assuming, wrongly perhaps, that it's the reason why the true maximum power FF isn't possible in FS9.
For example the R3350 uses 2,400 pph at T.O. power 3,400 bhp but in our models with these engines we get around 1,500 - 1,600 using automixture, at most 1,700 with the Super Connie/Starliner's autorich.
Is this perhaps because these engines needed an FAR nearer 0.10 for cooling purposes, well above best power level, but FS9 doesn't allow for that?
Bill
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on May 13, 2016 19:08:07 GMT -5
Yes, probably. On the real thing the fuel systems injected extra fuel above certain throttle settings, I believe. That's generally limited to 2 minutes or less, so it makes little difference to your flight plan.
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Post by Bjoern on May 14, 2016 11:30:35 GMT -5
Well, as I've said before, the automixture setting in MSFS keep the FAR at a constant 0.83, so simulating extra fuel injection is not possible. With manual mixture control, however, FAR is freely adjustable.
With custom automixture code, one can implement a crude simulation of the fuel boost by artificially bumping the mixture with throttle input. This would, however, not provide a constant FAR of 0.1 but it would at least produce increased fuel consumption.
The limited fuel consumption scaling possibilities in MSFS are really one of the greatest drawbacks of its engine modeling. In jets, for example, you can only set the thrust specific fuel consumption to a value valid for either takeoff thrust, climb thrust or cruise thrust. Most of the times, it's tweaked for cruise. And I see that FSA did about the same for piston engines, assuming that high blowers and autolean is the standard cruise setting.
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on May 14, 2016 12:05:55 GMT -5
Yes all of our flight dynamics have set this to match the cruise values. The time spent in other modes of flight are relatively small, except for short flights where fuel consumption is not an issue.
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Post by Bjoern on Jan 9, 2017 16:40:51 GMT -5
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Post by Defender on Jan 10, 2017 13:25:02 GMT -5
Anyone else having problems downloading from that link?
Sounds like a very useful gauge thanks Bjoern.
Bill
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Post by paulopp on Jan 10, 2017 14:32:32 GMT -5
Bill, you can go to his site and try downloading it from there:
sites.google.com/site/fsxstuffbybk/
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Post by Defender on Jan 10, 2017 16:50:16 GMT -5
Many thanks for the tip but it turned out to be an IE issue. When I tried the same link in Edge it worked instantly. Yet never had any other download issue using IE.
Bill
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Post by Bjoern on Jan 11, 2017 12:01:18 GMT -5
It doesn't matter whether you try the download from forum threads or my homepage, the download location will always be Google Drive.
Download problems with IE is news to me. Maybe the security settings are too strict, but GD itself is a reputable file host.
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