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Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: nrshida on December 21, 2022, 12:07:06 PM

Title: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 21, 2022, 12:07:06 PM
I'm presently training ACM with a friend who's moved on to DCS. Trying to teach a specific thing he seemed very fast to me, both flying G-2s. So I switched to a G-14 and still had some trouble catching him. Was a bit weird. He has very high quality controllers and I started to wonder if I might have some weird fault where I don't have full power on military-setting.

Has anyone had such an issue? I looked at the values on my throttle but they looked reasonable. I didn't check my pitch. My Sidewinder is rather worn out with one channel of FFB sometimes not working. Could that cause anything?
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Eagler on December 21, 2022, 04:35:34 PM
Both in wep should be equal

Eagler
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Drano on December 21, 2022, 07:53:49 PM
Plane out of trim ever so slightly? Sometimes I think it's that or net lag. Happens all the time trying to keep formations together in events. Everybody is at x MP and y RPMs and there are always some that get strung out.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Bizman on December 22, 2022, 01:45:21 AM
That's very familiar to me. When flying similar planes it's almost impossible to follow the leader, even worse if there's a bigger formation to follow.

I guess Drano has a point about net lag. Especially voice seems to suffer from that. When the leader tells that he's turning he'll already subconsciously is preparing for the turn which gives him some advantage. Then it takes the second for his sentence to take a round trip to Texas and back until you hear it. And then it takes another second for you to react. And then you try to compensate which eats even more out of your speed.

To speed up your conversation try Discord as their servers are closer to you. If using AH Voice, the leader should pull the throttle back for formation flying to compensate the lag in conversation.
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 22, 2022, 02:42:03 AM
Both in wep should be equal

That's how it feels.

Yes it's quite frustrating. I don't remember what my manifold pressure should be on my typical aircraft at mil setting. I feel it's slightly low. It could be net lag but then I've always flown from Europe, you'd think I'd have noticed something similar by now. I don't know what else to check  :cry
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Drano on December 22, 2022, 06:13:16 AM
If I'm leading a group I'll never be at full throttle. AND I'll purposefully NOT say my throttle and RPMs. If we were in the real world I would but we're not, of course. I've found that every time I did, if everyone ran at the same settings there would always be at least one guy that would fade further and further back--as you describe. That's why my theory about net lag. I know that my connection is different from everyone else's connection. Distance to servers too. So I just throttle back and tell the rest to stay with me. I try to use the "speed of the convoy is that of the slowest shop" approach. Helps keep the group together.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 22, 2022, 08:18:48 AM
That's why my theory about net lag.

I'll see if there's any change during my next appointment. In the meantime if anyone could tell me their max mil manifold reading in their favourite planes I'd be able to check objectively  :salute
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: SIK1 on December 22, 2022, 01:40:12 PM
If you can engage wep then you are seeing max manifold pressure. Check to make sure you're getting max rpm. If you engage wep it should push the rpm to max setting, but if you're not at max manifold it won't engage wep.

I would lean more towards a difference in trim. Are you using combat trim, and the other guy isn't, or vice versa.

 :salute
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Bizman on December 22, 2022, 02:49:47 PM
If you can engage wep then you are seeing max manifold pressure.
That^^

Back in the day I was wondering why I can't engage wep and the reason was that I had assigned RPM to a slider that had slid down a bit.

Lag in Voice is still my first bet.

Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: GasTeddy on December 22, 2022, 03:00:08 PM
When have you calibrated your throttle last time?
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 22, 2022, 03:03:37 PM
Ah so WEP will only engage IF you can already reach maximum throttle setting? I didn't know that because I have a weird throttle so I can't access the WEP control without being at the stop already.

Check to make sure you're getting max rpm.

How can I check that, per aircraft?


When have you calibrated your throttle last time?

I did that just to check but I once went eight years without having to recalibrate it  :rofl

Thanks for the help  :salute
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: SIK1 on December 22, 2022, 03:53:35 PM
If you bring up the E6B the rpm shown under max power is the max rpm of your plane.

You can use the number pad + to increase the rpm, and number pad - to decrease it.

The plus, and minus on the keyboard increases, and decreases the throttle (manifold pressure).

 :salute
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: SIK1 on December 22, 2022, 05:27:05 PM
That^^

Back in the day I was wondering why I can't engage wep and the reason was that I had assigned RPM to a slider that had slid down a bit.

Lag in Voice is still my first bet.

Engaging wep should push the rpm all the way up, even if you have rpm reduced using a slider on your controller. When you disengage wep it should return to the reduced rpm setting. Wep won't engage if you're not at full manifold pressure.

 :salute
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Bizman on December 23, 2022, 01:54:08 AM
Engaging wep should push the rpm all the way up, even if you have rpm reduced using a slider on your controller. When you disengage wep it should return to the reduced rpm setting. Wep won't engage if you're not at full manifold pressure.

 :salute
Might have been something else then, can't remember as it was long ago. The slider in question was the one at the base of my T16000m and as I had a separate throttle assigning something else to that slider seemed a good idea. But it wasn't as it easily slid back.
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 23, 2022, 02:31:31 AM
I've found it, it's my rudder! Years ago fighting DrBone I concluded the twisty stick had one advantage over CH pedals in that the centring mechanism was too stiff so I removed it. For a while I used a hall-effect sensor and an LED to show centre but eventually muscle memory took over.

The potentiometer has lost its centre so when I'm inputting 'centre' I'm getting about 20% rudder which I couldn't see with my selected views.

Thank you. I'd have never thought to look there without your input. Was too focussed on throttle, R.P.M. and WEP issues. Now where's my can of ACME Ultra-strong Barstard Grade contact cleaner... 
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Drano on December 23, 2022, 06:10:51 AM
I believe Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius) probably has some.

Glad you got it figured out.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Eagler on December 23, 2022, 06:40:29 AM
Doesn't auto trim prevent that?

Eagler
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 23, 2022, 07:07:10 AM
Doesn't auto trim prevent that?

If you mean auto climb etc I honestly don't know. Only been training lately. Auto Takeoff has been troublesome lately come to think of it.
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Eagler on December 23, 2022, 07:45:05 AM
I would calibrate everything in windows then ah

Take off and go auto pilot level at max military

I would think autopilot has trim set to optimize...what I always thought anyway

I can see your rudder trim being outa whack when you fly manually but auto trim should correct it

Eagler
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: Bizman on December 23, 2022, 08:17:18 AM
Glad you found it! Happy Friday!
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: nrshida on December 23, 2022, 08:56:03 AM
Glad you found it! Happy Friday!

 :banana:

<S> Pipz
Title: Re: Possible controller fault
Post by: SIK1 on December 23, 2022, 09:43:46 AM
Glad you found the issue.

The rudder will definitely sap your planes energy.

Auto trim, or auto pilot (lvl, climb, speed) should properly position the control surfaces for a given flight envelope. Unless there is a control input, intentional, or not. That will kick it out of auto pilot.

You can check your controllers fidelity by checking the advanced box under map controllers, then selecting the axis you want to look at. The green line should be fairly steady in the middle of the window until you move that axis. If it jumps around or is towards the top or bottom of the window with no controller input then you have a calibration, or hardware issue.

 :salute