MobiFlight Community Support

Hello,

putting it here on SW because I do think the HW is ok.... so:

made my first steps on MF....connected a parking brake light, a landing light and a switch to turn on/off the landing light: all fine.

Time for the LCD.

Connected it to the Mega, made the adjustments in the softwareconfig and long story short: it IS displaying "MF Rocks" and after that I get the test-characters on my display but whatever I try: no data on the LCD.

Now...data is being transported from the sim (MFS2020) into MF:



As you can see: IAS and VS: values are there and look very correct.

So: connection and I2C interface is fine, hardware is fine, as far as I can see software def is also fine so....what can be the problem??

Also tried other variables like com1 freq but same result, it is on the data_value in MF but not on the external display

Thanks

PS: logfile: (show nothing serious problem I think but here it is anyway: (and PS2: did a full shutdown and reboot from PC )

28-9-2020 19:52:18(792): MainForm() : Logger initialized Info
28-9-2020 19:52:19(338): MobiflightModule.connect: Connected to Default at COM4 of Type Arduino Mega 2560 (DTR=>True)
28-9-2020 19:52:21(502): MobiflightModule.disconnect: Disconnected MobiFlight Mega at COM4
28-9-2020 19:52:21(545): MobiflightModule.connect: Connected to Default at COM4 of Type MobiFlight Mega (DTR=>True)
28-9-2020 19:52:23(776): Preventing entering EnergySaving Mode: KeepAlive!
28-9-2020 19:52:24(74): Checking for updates
28-9-2020 19:52:24(91): ExecutionManager.TestModeStop:Stopped test timer
28-9-2020 19:53:29(601): Command: SetLcdDisplayI2C <25,0,1234567890123456******Test******;>
28-9-2020 19:57:23(901): Preventing entering EnergySaving Mode: KeepAlive!
28-9-2020 20:02:23(914): Preventing entering EnergySaving Mode: KeepAlive!
28-9-2020 20:07:24(40): Preventing entering EnergySaving Mode: KeepAlive!
28-9-2020 20:12:24(226): Preventing entering EnergySaving Mode: KeepAlive!

Hi

1. Does the Display show "Mobiflight Rocks" if you startup your Arduino ( power it or connect to USB before you RUN Mobiflight) ??
If not then pretty sure your IC2 Adress is wrong or the board needs manual Restart ( sometimes after adding a device the Board need to be restartet until you can use it)

2. Does the Display show " ***** TEST **** 123456789012345678 " if you press the TEST Button in Display Tab ?
If not again i think you got a device problem.

3. Do you set the needed Placeholders in the Display Tab LCD Field.....
In the FSUIPC Tab you define that "?" should represent value of Speed Config and "@" represent VS Config value.....
BUT you also need to write this Placeholders in the little virtual Display in the Display Tab.....
For example: SPD: ????? and in second line VS : @@@@@

For me it looks like you not enter data there and there is already the preselected "***TEST**** Text inside that field.

Thanks for your reply pizman82!

Answers:
1) Yes
2) Yes

3).......

Well....things have changed in this version of MF (as we also saw with the parking brake tutorial)...

1 of the changes is that the values you want to show on the display are not anymore in the display tab but in the FSUIPC tab but also....The Placeholders...where have they gone??

I only see 1 ? or 1 # in the FSUIPC tab but nowhere else, also not where they were before (in the display tab).

May-be I overlook it...or it has moved to an other location or????



This is the display tab but I can not put in the $$$$ or anything



PS: sim is not running at this moment, MF gives that yellow warning but that goes to green when running MSFS
Thanks for your help!

Your on the right direction..... Just one liitle step is missing.....

The "change" happens some versions ago..... ( i think it was 7.4) when Sebastian implement the Placeholder Tool to write advanced Formulas.
There he move the "Config Refferece/Placeholder" Field from the Display Tab to the FSUIPC Tab cause its more logical if you build formulas in the transform..... BUT the basic function ( to set a value of a other config as a sysmbol for the LCD Displays) is still remain same way...... Just in the other Tab. It also looks same like before. No Changes !!!

That means.... You define Configs ( In your case SPEED and VS ) to symbols ( ? and @ in your example) .
Then you must use this symbols (like in the past) in the "blue" Field on Display Tab..... ( Only difference is that this Choosing field is moved to FSUIPC Tab)
If you write there "HELLO" it will write "HELLO" on the LCD..... If you write there " TEST: ?????" it will write" TEST:" and behind it replace the "?" Symbols with the value of the Config you choose in the placeholder Dropdowns in FSUIPC Tab and set to "?".

In your upper example Speed is 69 and VS is 594

If you use in Display Tab (Blue field) something like "SPD: ?? VS: @@@" it will show on LCD Display " SPD: 69 VS: 594"
Simply the Symbols you choose in the FSUIPC Placeholder Field will be replaced by the Values in the Display Tab you use the same Symbols !

Thank you (again) pizman82, it's working now!

Problem was:
I did read some manuals before but as they are using an older version, it was not clear for me that I manually could enter the text and placeholders in the blue Display screen in the display tab.

So...did that and now it's working, great and thanks again!