Cannot get gpu to connect

[sharky44 3]

Hi Im having trouble getting the gpu to connect for ext power, I`ve read other forum entries and tried all of the suggested solutions. I`ve reinstalled both FS2crew and PMDG SP1c, I`m using PMDG cold and dark panel state, FO FMC is powered up and I can see selections being made on FMC but it seems to power down part way through the sequence and then ground crew say its connected but no avail lights on O/H panel. I can manually connect it myself from FMC but using FS2crew voice or button don't work. Weird thing is if I set cfg to have FO do power up (ext) during pf events, it all works fine, I`d appreciate any advice on this one as I could just use pf events I know but I`d like the choice to be able to power up before preflight.

[byork 2,258]

 

 

but it seems to power down part way through

 

You mean the FMC is losing power?  That would explain why the GPU is not connecting because the FO presses buttons on the FMC (same way you would do it), to connect the GPU.

 

Can anyone else help here.  I'm not sure why his FMC would lose power.

[sharky44 3]

Hi

     What I meant was the FMC never displays the ground connections page, I hear clicks then before it cycles to that page it goes blank ( I suspect the simulated button press isn`t being performed for some reason).

I had a further play and reset the buttons in FSX for main and secondary and now I can get it to connect and disconnect  the GPU using the FS2Crew GND panel by pressing the appropriate button (FMC cycles to ground connection page and you can see GPU change from Removed to Connected, as expected), however it still does not work using voice ( must add that its the same for A/C  and AIR Start Units).

I`m assuming the assigned buttons are the same for Voice and Button versions. I checked the green display bar and what I`m saying is understood, I even checked the CVR log and its there aswell, I guess I`m doing something wrong here but for the life of me cannot work out what, all help is greatly accepted.

[sharky44 3]

Ok after some more playing Im further along, now I can connect all ground equipment using voice, however in order for it to work I have to repeat each request twice, on the first request it says it has done it but hasn't on the second request it does it, you can see the ground services being connected on the FMC but not on the first request, as I initially reported the FMC goes blank rather than showing ground connections, think I'll just have to live with that but would be nice to know why it's occurring, hopefully this problem will not affect anything else in the program.

[1251452 0]

I thought this was about video cards...  :rolleyes:

 

Are you starting from a PMDG panel state?

[sharky44 3]

Not that kind of GPU I'm afraid, probably should have made that clear in title lol, yes I'm starting with PMDG cold and dark panel state, as mentioned before I even tried reinstalling FS2Crew and SP1c so I'm assuming the panel state isn't corrupt.

[1251452 0]

Make sure you are following the flows for the aircraft, only clicking the switches you need to click, and letting the FO do the rest.  Other than that, I don't have any other ideas.

[GAJ52 54]

You don't say at what stage you are asking for the GPU to be connected.  If you are using the Cold and Dark panel state with just the Battery turned on, I don't think the FO's FMC is fully powered enough in order for FS2Crew to connect the GPU via voice which is probably why it only comes on momentarily.

 

What you could do is load the PMDG C & D panel state, then manually connect the GPU and save this as say MY C&D panel state.  This would be a more realistic state for Freighter operations or as Bryan states in the manual, use either the Long or Short panel states for Passenger operations.  With the FO's FMC CDU fully powered the ground connection commands work fine.

[sharky44 3]

GAJ52, thats exactly what I was thinking but this does not explain why it works fine from the GND panel(button) every time or why in voice it works after a second request, unless some required switch/logic is being set during the first attempt,FYI, you can connect the GPU from the FO FMC with only battery connected even without FS2crew running, I tried it whilst trying to work this out. I would be interested to see if anyone else has this problem if they try connect ground services from cold & dark with only the battery on, . Any FS2Crew officials have any ideas why this is happening, I`m curious now more than anything.

[GAJ52 54]

You are trying to achieve something FS2Crew is not capable of doing, not through any fault of FS2Crew but it cannot access the Ground Connections via the SDK that PMDG supplied, that's why Bryan had to use the FMC CDU which needs to be FULLY powered.  If you use the Cold and Dark scenario with just the battery on, if you look at the CDU's they are not powered.  PMDG got around this problem so pilots could use the Setup menus by 'holding' the Menu button to bring up limited use of the CDU.  I suspect saying the command twice somehow tries to get around this non powered situation.

 

What may be confusing you is the ground engineer still says the GPU is connected when it isn't, maybe Bryan could disable this in another update.

 

The simplest solution is to create a slightly modified Cold and Dark panel state as I recommended above with the GPU already connected then your problems will be solved, that's what I have done.  In the real world it would be extremely rare for the flight crew to arrive at the aircraft with no power whatsoever, the ground crew would at least have the GPU already plugged in or have the APU running.

[sharky44 3]

GAJ52 thanks for the help, I'll do that.

[1251452 0]

When starting out from cold and dark, you must run the PF events.  You then also have to choose EXT for the power source.  That is the only way to get the GPU to connect in cold and dark mode.  DON'T MODIFY THE STARTUP PANEL STATES FOR FS2CREW.  (caps for emphasis)

[GAJ52 54]

Where do you choose EXT for the power source ?

 

Please don't make statements like 'Don't modify the startup panel states for FS2Crew' without stating why ??

 

If you are trying to help that's great many thanks, but at least give the OP a bit more information how to get the GPU working using the Cold and Dark panel state, I'm sure he will appreciate all the help he can get.

[byork 2,258]

 

 

Where do you choose EXT for the power source ?

 

That's actually a sub-menu open in the FS2Crew 777 CFG options.

 

I don't recommend modifying PMDG panel state files.  They can be finicky.

[GAJ52 54]

That's actually a sub-menu open in the FS2Crew 777 CFG options.

Ok I stand corrected, I thought the OP wanted to do it himself and not use the FO to power up the aircraft.