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Radio-Electrical issue


SH427

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Hi there! I just got this plane not long ago and I love it except for one issue I can't seem to shake, and its something I want to nail down pretty quick, if possible. 

So, having completed the full startup checklist and flipping all the lovely switches, the engine is idling above 800 revs and the generator is pulling a charge, I pull up the radio to contact ATC and the dialog box says "no electrical" 
hmm, odd. 
SO I flip the gen switch off and I see the ampere meter jump back up from zero to say 4, the GEN light comes on and suddenly I have radio power again. Then after a while the battery dies and I flip the GEN on again to charge and my radio goes out again saying there's no electrical. 

Everything else works fine, I'm running a brand spanking new install of P3D4, and the sim starts the aircraft with the engine running, which I promptly flick to C&D, I've set the inverters to on and everything seems kosher with the other systems. I'm really lost as to what could be the issue with the radios, I also notice the artificial horizon went out a couple times in flight too, loss of electricity there? 

SH427

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10 hours ago, Mathijs Kok said:

Let me ask the developer for some assistance.


Thanks Mathijs, I'll keep an eye on this space. If you guys need any screens of my panel setup or anything like that let me know and I'll get them along ASAP.

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I had this problem some time ago. Two things you might try;- 1) Make sure your default flight in the sim is an aircraft with an avionics suite and that the avionics are set ON. 2) Set a keystroke for AVIONICS ON and try using that if the radio is dead.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Greetings,

 

I also seem to be having this problem. I do not believe that it is related to the master avionics switch setting. I've mapped a key to this switch to be sure it is on, and even when so, I have a problem similar to described here.

 

In the video at

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcGSOTaerK8

 

all appropriate switches and the master are on. The generator is on, the battery is charging, and the voltage is normal. The ATC window is open and an ADF station is tuned. But the ATC options are greyed with the Prepar3D message "ATC Disabled - No Electric", and the ADF signal meter is at zero. You will note that when I turn the generator off, the ADF signal meter immediately shows a high reading and the ATC window becomes active, showing the radio is enabled. This seems to work indefinitely with the generator off. But you will see that after I turn it back on, after ten seconds or so the power for the radios drops off. The ADF meter again goes to zero and the ATC window again shows "No Electric" and becomes greyed.

 

The same test at higher engine speeds produces the same result.

 

So, it seems this is indeed a bug or perhaps user misoperation in the power system modeling of the aircraft and not just an issue with avionics master switch position. When the radio power drops out, operating the avionics master via keyboard shortcut has no effect.

 

I have a much higher res version of the video available if it would help, but the forum uploader generates an error when I try to attach it (a mp4 file) even though it is smaller than the file size limit.

 

Thanks for any advice,

Ryan

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P.S. I realized that high-res playback is available in the YouTube video: Be sure to select 1080 resolution from the settings menu of the video. This will make it much easier to see the dialog text and ADF signal needle.

 

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I believe I may have found the cause of this behavior. I believe I had inadvertently selected ground power on via a keyboard command. After toggling it, the radio power behavior now seems to be normal so far.

 

Hopefully this helps if someone else has a similar experience!

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Hello Mathijs,

 

Another update: Unfortunately, the problem reoccurred after taxi and about ten minutes of flight. Perhaps I had actually toggled ground power on, which helped provide power for a time? Not sure.

 

The behavior seems almost as if the generator/battery/inverter logic is reversed in the sense that when the generator is turned off, the radio's bus seems to "charge" during that time and, after turning the generator back on, seems to continue to operate for a time period proportional to the amount of time the generator had been left off. During my subsequent test flight, I have been able to leave the generator off for several minutes and then (after turning the generator on again) get a couple of minutes of operation of the radios before they kick back off.

 

I've had the sim running for several days' worth of intermittently studying systems and configuring the aircraft for its first flight, as my schedule has allowed. Perhaps I inadvertently "confused" the aircraft's systems model at some point with something like application of ground power. I'll try again soon with a fresh start to see if the problem crops up again. Perhaps I should start a new topic for the issue if so.

 

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Great, thanks Mathijs. It seems that some others have managed to trigger this behavior as well.

 

Other than the electrical strangeness, I enjoyed a great first flight in the An-2! Because I was using the ADF for navigation, I settled into switching the generator on and off every few minutes in order to keep both the "normal" and "reversed" aspects of the electrical system charged.

 

There is one more potential clue: After landing and rollout with the generator on, the radios were again dead. After parking (with the engine still running), I cycled the generator to bring them back online. After that, the behavior of the radio power again appeared normal and did not drop out! After about ten minutes of uninterrupted normal operation while parked, I cycled the ground power setting with a keyboard shortcut several times, waiting several minutes between each change. There was no change in behavior, and the ADF and COMM radios never lost power again until I finally turned them off at aircraft shutdown. I did not again move the aircraft.

 

I'll post more info if this issue reoccurs. Thanks for looking into this to further refine this great aircraft model!

 

Ryan

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