IVSI/TCAS With 767PIC Interface version 1.1.16 30 July 2003 Lee Hetherington ilh@sls.lcs.mit.edu REQUIREMENTS BEFORE YOU START This gauge requires FSUIPC for the source of TCAS traffic information. Without it this addon will not work properly. Get it here: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html. Note that this gauge contains a license key enabling it to work with an unregistered copy of FSUIPC 3.x. Note: although 767PIC does not currently work in FS2004, this gauge does. ___________________________________________________________________________ Traffic is displayed with one of four symbols, a two-digit relative altitude, and an arrow indicating a vertical rate of at least +/- 300fpm. The altitude is indicated in units of 100ft, with a + indicating above ourself, and a - indicating below. A red square indicates a Threat and would be accompanied by an aural warning and a commanded vertical speed along the VSI scale for a Resolution Advisory (RA). Neither the aural warning or vertical command is implemented at this time. I hope to have a future version that implements both aural warnings and vertical speed advisories. A yellow circle indicates a Potential Threat and would be accompanied by the aural warning "Traffic, Traffic" for a Traffic Advisory (TA). A TA generally precedes an RA by 15-20 seconds. A blue or white solid diamond indicates Proximate Traffic that is within 6nm and +/- 1200ft vertically and is not an RA or TA. A blue or white hollow diamond indicates Other Traffic that is within a settable vertical range of own aircraft. See the option "other" below for this setting, and the setting of ABOVE/N/BELOW on the transponder gauge for exceptions to this range. Note that for the duration of an RA or TA all Other Traffic is removed from the screen so as to remove clutter during a potentially critical encounter. The blue/white color for Proximate and Other Traffic is settable via gauge options, as described below. Note that Potential Threat and Threat traffic that would otherwise be offscreen is drawn right at the edge so it can be seen. In this case, the range is incorrectly displayed, but the bearing is correct. Also note that the traffic is displayed with heading and not track up. USAGE The IVSI gauge has four hidden click spots that operate as follows: o upper left: cycles the transponder mode between TEST, (STBY), (XPDR), TA, and RA; o upper right: cycles the TCAS range between 6, 12, 18, 24, and 40nm; o lower left: cycles TCAS vertical range between (BELOW), (N), (ABOVE); and o lower right: cycles the TCAS altitude display between (REL) and (ABS). Here, labels put in parentheses are not displayed on the IVSI itself, but they are displayed on the transponder panel. All of the above can also be controlled by clickspots on the transponder panel. In addition, you can control the squawk code. NOTE: all click spots on both the IVSI and transponder are sensitive to both LEFT and RIGHT mouse clicks. A LEFT click reduces a setting, and a RIGHT click increases it. The modes are as follows: o TEST: a test pattern with all four intruder types displayed. The range is displayed as 6nm, regardless of the TCAS range selector. o STBY: transponder is in standby (not squawking), and TCAS is disabled. o XPDR: transponder is active, but TCAS is disabled. o TA: transponder is in TA ONLY mode, displaying other, proximate, and potential threat traffic, but no threats will be identified. o RA: transponder is in TA/RA mode, the normal TCAS mode, displaying all types of intruders. If RA processing were fully implemented, threats would generally result in vertical speed commands on the IVSI. For all ranges, a 2nm range circle is displayed around the aircraft. For selected ranges greater than 6nm, a 5nm range ring is added. The ABOVE/N/BELOW selection can be used to limit how much traffic is visible by limiting the vertical range of other traffic. By default, selecting N will only show traffic in the relative flight level range -27 to +27. With ABOVE, the range is -27 to +99. With BELOW, the range is -99 to +27. (The value 27 is settable via the gauge parameter "other" on the IVSI gauge line in the Panel.cfg.) Finally, the ABS/REL selection controls how altitudes are displayed for TCAS intruders. With ABS, absolute flight levels are displayed. With REL, relative flight levels are displayed. You should make sure your FSUIPC settings have TCAS enabled, preferably to 40nm range so that the gauge's 40nm range is fully utilized. If you have TCAS turned off in FSUIPC's settings (i.e., range set to 0nm), you will not see any TCAS targets. If you see an amber TCAS "flag" and no plane or range rings, then a usable to connection to FSUIPC could not be established. This could mean that FSUIPC is not properly installed, or that the licensing for this gauge is no longer valid. TCAS will be functional, but the gauge will still display V/S. ============================================================ MULTIPLAYER OR SQUAWKBOX USE You will need the program AIBridge, available in the AVSIM file library, in order to see other aircraft. AIBridge injects multiplayer traffic into FSUIPC's traffic tables. Otherwise, only AI traffic seen by FSUIPC and thus this IVSI/TCAS gauge. Within SquawkBox, the multiplayer range setting will limit the range of visible TCAS traffic. I have heard that SB3, currently under development, will inject traffic directly into FSUIPC without the need for AIBridge. GAUGE OPTIONS The following options can be specified in the panel.cfg file for the ILH_TCAS!IVSI gauge (Main Panel, [Window01] section, after the final comma "," on the "gauge14" line as mentioned above): fontscale: Scale the TCAS altitude font by (e.g., 0.8 or 0.9). You may want a value smaller than 1.0 depending on your eyesight and the resolution at which you run FS. other: Limit Other Traffic to +/- hundred feet. The default is 27. Some carriers might use 45. Setting this to 99 will show all possible traffic regardless of the setting of ABOVE/N/BELOW. blueplane: The TCAS self plane and distance scales will be blue if "yes", otherwise white. The Other and Proximate Traffic will be the opposite color of the self plane. Think of this as a carrier option and defaults to "no". vsirate: The target rate in redraws per second for the VSI needle. The default of 18 means once per 1/18th second FS tick, and 0 means for every FS frame, which in my opinion would be overkill. aa: Whether antialiasing should be used within the gauge. Defaults to "yes". You could set it to "no" to see the effect of antialiasing. I do not support the "no" option as it really offers no advantages. pic: Whether the gauges should respond to 767PIC internal state such as panel lighting, power status, IRU status, etc. You will want to use no if you are using the gauge(s) outside of 767PIC. This option also works on the ILH_TCAS!Transponder gauge. The following is an example of changing the "fontscale" and the "other" options: gauge14=ILH_TCAS!IVSI, 545, 391, 158, 158, other:45 fontscale:0.8 USING THE GAUGES OUTSIDE OF 767PIC There are so-called "named variables" that can be used to control the IVSI, and the transponder is linked to the IVSI through them. Email me if you are a panel designer and wish to control these gauges. KNOWN ISSUES Some versions of FSUIPC before 2.973 are known to cause blinking of TCAS targets when used with AIBridge traffic. This gauge was developed to work with 767PIC patches 1.2 and 1.3 for FS2002. Various offsets into APS.dll are used to read the state of panel flood lighting, left main bus available, and the left IRU alignment status. For other versions of APS.dll, the 767PIC specifics will be inoperable. LEGAL This IVSI/TCAS gauge(s) is a freeware product and a labor of love and may NOT be included in any commercial package or website without permission. The IVSI/TCAS gauge(s) is an add-on to Wilco's 767PIC and is not endorsed, part of, or related to Wilco Publishing. If you decide to use any part of this package, whether it is for freeware use or commercial, you MUST obtain prior permission from me, the author. Should there be any damage done to your system after using this package, I and all parties involved will not be held responsible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Nick Jacobs of Dreamfleet gave me several pointers on general gauge programming that proved invaluable. Mark McGrath, Ryan O'Malley, and John Selph provided me with TCAS documentation that was very helpful in developing my threat classification and display code. Claude Troncy provided guidance on a technique to read the main panel lighting status through an offset into APS.dll for the 1.2 patch. I have since figured out many other offsets for the 1.2 and 1.3 patches. Mark McGrath provided the motivation for me to implement the new transponder, and Ian Riddel provided a photo that served as the starting point for the background bitmap. Finally, the beta testers Michael Bevington, Robert Hall, Mark McGrath, John Selph, and Ryan O'Malley, all provided valuable feedback on the first version of this gauge. Beta testers Michael Bevington, Robert Hall, Mark McGrath, Bill Van Caulart, and Ian Riddel helped extensively with testing this version and its documentation. Thanks!