GoFlight Interface Tool X-Plane

Using Detective

The article assumes the reader has read and understood the Concepts section and all previous articles in the Detective section.

The following process should be followed when using Detective.

  1. With Detective running, enable monitoring by clicking the "Monitoring Toggle" button.
  2. Allow activity to show for at least 30 to 60 seconds so that DataRefs that are continually being updated are detected.
  3. Now click the DataRefs "Detected" button, click the all tick-box so all shown DataRefs are ticked and then click the DataRefs "Hide" button.
  4. Step 3 will have now removed all the "noise" from the Monitoring area so its easier to work.
  5. Next decide on which gauge, switch, button of the aircraft you wish to map to hardware, e.g. the EFIS range selector.
  6. Now click on the part of the gauge, switch or button in the Virtual Cockpit or 2D panel and watch what is output in the Monitoring Area.
  7. Examine the DataRefs and their values to determine what tasks need to be created to mimic the action carried out in the aircraft's cockpit.
  8. If nothing appears in the Monitoring Area, see the next section below called "No Monitoring Area Activity".
  9. Now add a Bespoke Event giving it a suitable name. Its always useful to give each Bespoke event an initial identifier so all Bespoke Events group together and are easily identified such as "BE_". e.g BE_EFIS_RANGE_10.
  10. Add the Tasks that are needed to mimic the action carried out in the aircraft's cockpit.
  11. Once complete, click the "Test Bespoke Event" button to see if the Bespoke Event is working correctly. If it isn't, try a different order of tasks or DataRef values. Also review the next section "No Monitoring Area Activity".
  12. Once the Bespoke Event is working correctly, it can be assigned to your hardware in the normal way.

No Monitoring Area Activity

If nothing is appearing in the Monitoring Area, do the following:

  1. DataRefs are normally sampled at 6ms, however when Detective is used the sample rate is decreased to avoid system overload. It is quite possible that a DataRef is changing so fast it beats the sample rate and therefore does not show up in the Monitoring Area. To counteract this, try initiating the activity in the cockpit multiple times and as fast as possible and see if something appears. You can also increase the Polling Interval slider by moving the slider under the Monitoring Area to the left.
  2. Search the Hidden DataRefs for keywords relating to the area of interest. E.g. EFIS, range etc. If something is found, consider un-hiding these DataRefs as they may be the ones needed.
  3. Search the Custom DataRefs/Commands and Standard DataRefs/Commands for a keyword such as "strobe" for setting strobe lights and try using those.
  4. Try using another part of the aircraft to check that DataRef monitoring is enabled and also not paused.

If none of the above solve the problem, its most likely that the developer has not exposed any suitable DataRefs and so that aircraft function cannot be mapped.