Setting and getting Transponder mode for Q400

Comments

• Slayer

  May 2016

  To switch from alt to standby you need to press and hold the button in the VC, so try mapping that to the  hold setting of a button. As far as which mouse event to lvar to send it I'm not sure yet.

  
  

  these are what you need to use to read the transponder codes but I can't remember what the button is called.

  
  

  
  

  EFISdata_->ARCDUs[0].stby_atc_code Like 0x1234 for Squawk = 1234 UN.SHORT 

  EFISdata_->ARCDUs[1].stby_atc_code Like 0x1234 for Squawk = 1234 UN. SHORT

  
  

  
  

  I have a functioning radio stack that closely mirrors the way it works in the Q400 but only have 2 GF-166's so I could only make half of it work at the moment . Once Steve rolls out the function to allow us to export a profile for the GF166's I can share it. 

  Steve McNitt
• Emile

  May 2016

  Press and hold a button for the "FORMAT" button works fine (using EFISdata_->EFCP_controls1.button_FORMAT_pressed) but I can't find the LSK8 button name on the ARCDU.

  And then, because I want to map this to a T8 toggle switch, I would need to get the Transponder mode from the sim to see if toggling the switch should indeed simulate pressing the LSK8 button.

  I would be very interested in your profile for the GF166, getting the NAV to work is coming up soon.

  Thanks,

  -Emile.
• Slayer

  May 2016

  Ok I looked up my code for this and maybe this will help you:

  
  

  for the Left ARCDU:

  
  

  the variable is MJC_VAR_WRITE_CODE = 81528

  
  

  Now to use the LSK's you need one of the following:

  
  

  VHF1 = 1

  VOR1 = 2

  ADF1 = 3

  INT = 4

  VHF2 = 5

  VOR2 = 6

  ADF2 = 7

  ATC1 = 8    (This is the button you need I think)

  
  

  So in Detective to send it the button you would use this in your bespoke event:

  
  

  MJC_VAR_WRITE_VALUE = 8

  MJC_VAR_WRITE_CODE = 81528
  

  
  

  if you are using my V2 profile the code for all these bespoke events is in there already, you just have to assign them   they start with MJC_ARCDU_

  
  

  I have a file all set to go but  it may not be what you want and requires hand editing of the settings.xml files until we get exports with the 166's

  
  

  Note: if you are not comfortable doing this then don't attempt it without a backup

  
  

  I recommend to use Notepad++ for .xml editing

  search through my settings.xml until you find the Q400 and the radios section, copy and replace it to your settings .xml  . 

  
  

  I only have 2 radios and I was using each radio as a part of the ARCDU

  so for my way to work you need 4 GF166's, My plan was to at some point get 2 more then assign the rest of the controls and have a full working ARCDU

  
  

  Steve McNitt
• Emile

  May 2016

  
  

  Thanks a lot, this was the information I needed to get going! I got the transponder mode working now. The delay between pressing and releasing the button must be at least 1000 msec to change the mode.

  For others reading this: the current transponder mode can be read with code 42187 (Nav_->atcTransponders[0].mode 0 -> STBY | 1 -> ON | 2 -> ALT | 3 -> TEST)

  -Emile.
• Slayer

  May 2016 edited May 2016

  No sooner did we discuss this then the new GIT version comes out, now we can export profiles for all the other hardware. 

  
  

  I'm guessing I could make a profile  to do transponder and export it then swap around hardware profiles on the radios now too without having to reprogram the radio every time. 

  
  

  Time to experiment a little bit.

  
  

  And if you have a lot of modules this is very nice because not everyone has device 0, 1, 2 etc. in the same physical position so you could for instance do the transponder and load it onto whichever GF166 you want to, you're not stuck with the authors assignments,

  Steve McNitt
• Emile

  May 2016

  Hi,

  I would be more interested in documentation or help on certain Q400 functions since I decided to switch to Lua programming for the Q400, because the Q400 requires quite some advanced actions and I need Lua anyway to program my CPFlight MCP.

  The mjc8q400.xml you sent provides excellent information. Did you find those out yourself by experimenting or do you have an information source?

  -Emile.
• Slayer

  May 2016 edited May 2016

  Experimenting and detective, mouse clicks stuff also through trial and error. if you look at the mouse clicks in detective it is pretty quick to see the naming method they used to get you into the right area of the aircraft and start poking them to see what triggers in the VC

  
  

  I started a spreadsheet on mouseclick and I think Rob was going to work on sniffing some out too but we haven't heard back on his discoveries yet.

  
  

  HERE

  Steve McNitt
• Emile

  May 2016

  I see, thanks. I'm also using the detective a lot.

  One thing I noticed: in the mjc8q400.xml file I looked at the logic for handling the NavSource-button (starting line 1436). I was wondering about the strange numbers like -0.75 and such. What I think is the case is that the button uses -1 for one click to the left and +1 for clicking to the right. What I do to get an absolute position, is to first go to the left-most position by setting -3 and then depending on the knob angle set 0, 1, 2 or 3 to make it 0, 1, 2, or 3 clicks to the right.

  -Emile.

  
  
• Emile

  May 2016

  ... after writing this I realized I could do better: calculate the number of required clicks (-3..3) depending on current knob position. That gets rid of the flickering effect of my previous solution.

  -Emile.