MobiFlight Community Support

hey guys

when setting the FSUIPC offsets there are 3 steps, Up, transition and down.

I have been battling to get the LED to light through the stages. using tri colour, I want Green for down (works) red for up (works) in transit (not working)

1. When the gear is up red lights BUT stays on. How can i extinguish after say 10 seconds.
2. when gear is moving i want the blue segment to light - How do i do this?

hope i made sense?

1. gear leaver down
2. Gear in transit - blue LED
3. Gear Down - Green LED Lit
4. Gear lever up
5. Green LED off
6. Blue LED on
7. Gear up
8. Red LED on
9. 10 seconds Red LED off

Hi,,
what simulator and which aircraft do you mean?

Hey Stephan,

For general aviation. I am using MSFS2020 and FSX. I can't get MF to work in Xplane.

I was testing with Cessna and Baron. When i activate the Gear, there is a "Trans"light that comes on and then the gear down "green"comes on. I see there are settings but offests are the same for Nose Gear as an example. Gear up, moving, down.

So is there a way to set LEDs for the different states.

Also how much can be used in the syntax. i.e. Gear Moving LED If(($>5),1,if($<15000),0)) something like that. I am new to this lol

Hi

Stephan ask that question, cause Professional AddOns mostly support own Offsets for there Gear Indications.
Means we not need to calculate "situations" .... We coud simply read a Boolean 1/0 Offset that tell us if LED is ON or OFF.

For FS2020 and specialy without AddOns you still figure out the logic. Here the Presets in MF are not correctly and i think they will be never correctly cause each Aircraft can be a little different here..... But you can use them still as the "starter" so you finaly just must enter the needed formulas.

Step1: Decide if you need a Realistic 3 way System ( Nose, Left Right) OR if you just need a One way System. ( If you fly without technical malfunction then all 3 Gears will always work fine and you not need to read each single.... Then you can simply use Nose as indicator for all 3 LED same time)
So.... Realistic means 3 Configs each that read the corespondending Offset ..... Quick and dirty means you wire 3 LED together to one output and make 1 config only that read Nose!

0BEC 4 Gear position (nose): 0=full up, 16383=full down
0BF0 4 Gear position (right): 0=full up, 16383=full down
0BF4 4 Gear position (left): 0=full up, 16383=full down

NOTE: Some Aircrafts not use 16383 ! Some stil stop at 16381 for example..... So you should check this out or use something like "Bigger then 16380" instead of 16383 if you work with a multicockpit for different aircrafts !


Step 2:
Use the Offset and define WHAT you need. For example the Green LED normaly light only if the Gear is DOWN. So Set the Gear to DOWN and check what Value the Offset got in that moment....
You can work with TRANSFORM by a formula OR you use the Compare Tab and it´s IF THEN ELSE Fields .... Both result same way.

For example:
If Offset shows 16383 if Gear is down..... And Your LED should only be on in DOWN Status....
Transform: if($=16383,1,0)
Compare If Value = 16383 THEN 1 ELSE 0

************
Same for the other LED.

The Transit should work between UP and DOWN .
UP means "0" Down means "16383"
In case "0" is still OFF we simply say if($=16383,0,$) . So If 16383 it is set to 0 .... If its UP its also 0 .... between it is 1-16382 and will light.


The 3rd LED is problematic. Here i not know what it should do.
Mobiflight NOT support Timers. So you can not say Light Red for 10 Seconds after moving the Gear.
Ecplane me what it should do.... May i know a solution !

Yes i totally understand and i believe i came across the limitation which is acceptable because Sebastian has offered this for free

In some planes, if the gear is up the LED lights and then extinguishes. But, again,like you said, planes are different.

I believe i will just go with a single LED for now with fully extended and LED light from 16000 then on.

thanks so much.

Yes i totally understand and i believe i came across the limitation which is acceptable because Sebastian has offered this for free
In some planes, if the gear is up the LED lights and then extinguishes. But, again,like you said, planes are different.

Not 100% Correct i think.

Sure.... We can basicly say the missing "timer" Option in Mobiflight is the fault of Sebastian and accaptable for a Freeware Software. But thats not the Point.

I´m 99% Sure there exist no Real Aircraft with a "timer" for those LED. The remaining Red LED for e.g. some seconds are pretty sure a indication for something and NOT a hardcoded timer event.
For example as i know this can show that the Gear is UP ( Transit LED get Off) BUT the Gear is not Locked by a mechanical Bolt e.g. to protect a self-extracting in case of Vibration.
Or maybe the Red LED show the Landing Gear Bay-Doors..... So Gear is UP but Doors are still open and move to closing.

So overall.... the Big Point here is.... Your AddOn Aircraft ( or the Sim and/or FSUIPC) miss to support us this needed Offset. For a accurate Gear Inicator we not need only the Gear Position data.... We would also need the Hydralic Pressure, The Locking System, The Door Positions and so on.
OR.... As i said.... Most easy and comfortable we would need a Offset that simply show the Virtual Cockpit LED Status for RED, GREEN and BLUE each single !

No, not a blame on Sebastian definitely an offset deficit that we don't have so we can't control it.

Apologies if it sounded like a blame on Sebastian

Nice explanation....going to follow it.

But what if i don't want to have blue light during transit but a yellow light which is possible when red = 100% and green someting between 40% and 100% fot a typical RGB-Led?

For that i must "switch on" two wires. How to do this?

Thanks

Kai

You only need 2 states for the LED. If the gear is up you do not need any led to indicate this.
If the gear is in transit you should not land and this is indicated by red led, and if you can land, you have three green led for nose, right and left.

If you want an indication for more colors then you can split the value i.e.:

if($>1000&&4<!6000,1,0)

means if the value is greater than 1000 AND smaller than 10000 then switch the led on.
The you should also cover the other areas.
from 0 to 1000: if($>=0&&$<=1000,1,0) for the area from up to 1000
and from 16000 to 16383 if($>=16000,1,0).

The colors are up to you.

If the gear is in transit you should not land

....make sense....

However, i'm not a "hardcore" fligher but only want to have some fun. Take off (from gate with cabin crew announcements etc.) flying around and land. Thats it.
(In the past, i got up earlier than needed, started in Frankfurt, switched on the A/P, went to work, got home and landed in e.g. LA...)

For this i'm just building a throttle quadrand block with speed brakes and flaps with 2 Logitech throttles and the parking brakeand gear. More to follow...(e.g. the planned trim wheel https://www.mobiflight.com/forum/topic/6720.html)
It's not "as real as possible", but more then sufficiant for my needs and wishes.

I'll try whether i can solve my color-prob with some Diodes. I have 3 outputs (up, down, transit) and have to power up two parts of the RGB Led (Red, Green, or both).

Kai

Hi Kai,

why do you want to have leds for the state GEAR UP? Normaly up is led off...

That's the nice thing about this hobby! Everyone can build what they like. You create reality yourself and nobody is watching - all for your own enjoyment.
In the past this was an expensive hobby and thanks to MobiFlight everyone can now build their own home cockpit.
I wish you a lot of fun and success with building and - keep asking!

Hi

As Stephan said.... This is not realstic.... So there exist no solution till now ( Nobody except yourself likes a LED when gear is UP)
BUT
We are Cockpitbuilders.... And we make things coming true.

So lets solve this !!!

Question:
WHAT exactly like you ?

If i understand right:
Status 1 (Red) if Gear is UP .... Status 2 ( Yellow) if Gear is in Transit .... and Status 3 (Green) if gear is down.
Right ??

Indications from Sim are no Problem.... We can clearly read if Gear is UP, TRANS or DOWN.

Finaly question is..... I not know 3 Way RGB LED´s ..... ( I would use simply 3 LED in each box.... One red, green and Yellow ) .
So tell me....
What lines ( A, B C ) must be on for Status 1, 2 and 3 .
Then we can build simply 3 ( or more profitable 2) Output Configs that do what you like to do !

Hi there,

when back from my vacation I will test following idea.

For each state I use a separated output of the MF.
In combination with 4 1N4148 diodes it should be possible to light either in red, green and even in yellow, which is the combination of R and G in most of the RGB LEDs.

I will post the results, and when successful even the wiring diagram.

But by now I enjoy the sun laying on the beach

Success! Well, at least on a breadboard , now to install it in my "Flusi-Box" and setup MF accordingly....

It uses only a normal RGB LED with common cathode, two resistors and 4 diodes.

All diodes are used to safe the output-pins of the arduino and especially d4 and d5 are used to block switching to yellow when wanting red or green.
Pretty logical and simple.

Here is the schema

Hi again

You not need 3 Output Configs ( Whatever it will also work this way)...... TWO are enough !

Config 1 : Controll the RED LED ..... It should work if gear is UP ( show Red) and it must also work if Gear is in Transit ( Show Red in Combination with green).
So in easy words..... it must Light all Time expect if Gear is DOWN and we only need Green..... Cause also in Yellow we need the Red as you said.



Config 2 : Controll the GREEN LED..... It should work if gear is DOWN ( Show Green) and it must work if Gear is in Transit again ( Cause Yellow need Green, too)
Again in easy words.... Green must Ligth always expect Gear is UP.

0BEC 4 Gear position (nose): 0=full up, 16383=full down
0BF0 4 Gear position (right): 0=full up, 16383=full down
0BF4 4 Gear position (left): 0=full up, 16383=full down

So Red LED need if($<16380,1,0) (Always ON expect Value is above 16380 ..... (I use this instead of 16383 cause some aircrafts stops gear a little more early)
And Green LED need no Formula .... It still work with $ cause Gear UP means "0" ( LED OFF) and Gear Transit or Down means Value is between 1-16383 ... so LED ON.