Air Manager G1000 needed!

Sling380 · September 2, 2021, 11:25am

Reading and altering a variable is a pretty common way of instrument interaction in AIr Manager if an event is not available or not appropriate such as toggle events in some cases. Just a few small instrument coding tips if i may that will help optimise the code for other instruments that may need this approach.

1 - Its always a good idea to do an initial declaration of variables to be used at the head of the logic.lua.

2 - There is no need to return VNAVState from the subscribe callback function. You are already setting the VNAVState variable on the line above and subscribe callbacks don’t return data they collect and action it.

3 - There is no need to use an if…else to check the state of a variable that can only ever be in one of 2 states 0 or 1. You simply xor the current value with 1 which will invert it. This really shortens the button callback to just 2 lines.

Just trying to help now that Air Manager has better MSFS support after the SDK was improved.

For those that don’t know. The Air Manager G1000 now works without needing Mobiflight although I do note that it needs the vnav button implementation. I have my own custom G1000 with a matching audio panel that works with Xplane and MSFS and has black screen on shut down, key lighting etc implemented with Mobiflight nowhere to be seen.

Crunchmeister71:

local VNAVState = 0
function vnv_state_callback(vnvval)
    VNAVState = vnvval
end
fs2020_variable_subscribe("L:XMLVAR_VNAVButtonValue", "number", vnv_state_callback)

function vnv_click()
      fs2020_variable_write("L:XMLVAR_VNAVButtonValue", "Number", VNAVState ~ 1)
      sound_play(click_snd)
end

button_vnv = button_add(nil,"vnv_button.png", 98,570,54,32, vnv_click)
visible(button_vnv, user_prop_get(bezel_prop))

Crunchmeister71 · September 2, 2021, 12:08pm

Thanks for the tips and explanation, good sir. All help when learning something from scratch is appreciated.

Sling380 · September 2, 2021, 12:38pm

No worries at all. I’m always happy to help folks help themselves especially when they are eager to get stuck into it for themselves. Its one of the reasons I produced the API tutorial videos a while back now. Keep up the good work and it will soon become second nature. We all learn by making mistakes. Flying the sim has certainly re-inforced that for me.

Sling380 · September 2, 2021, 12:50pm

I currently set mine up manually and don’t really struggle with it but it’s annoying to have to do it each time. I run dual 24” touch screens so I can have pretty much a full sized panel for all of my aircraft. Because of this the instruments are placed in as close to their real world locations as possible and this means my G1000 or GPS overlays are not in the same location for every aircraft. Does fancy zones allow different profiles and if not how do you think it would handle many zones that would be overlapping each other.

Crunchmeister71 · September 2, 2021, 1:00pm

You can save 10 profiles that are hotkey accessible (Ctrl+Start+Alt + [1-0]). You can have overlapping zones.

Since I have 15.6" monitors, I have to manage my space more effeciently than. you with larger monitors. . I’ll always have my G1000 in the exact same location (1 on each screen) for any panel that uses it. As in my image below, I’ll have both the G1000 zones on a single profile. I quickly call it up with Ctrl+Start+Alt+1.

Ditto for my CJ4 panel, for example. I have all the zones for both screens defined in 1 profile. It makes it a little messy looking in setup, but it works.

Of course, you’re limited to 10 layouts. There may be other options out there that offer more options. I’ll start looking into it if I find myself needed it. But for now, this works for me.

Sling380 · September 2, 2021, 1:32pm

Thanks I might give it a try. 10 is a decent number considering that I hope some aircraft can use the same profile. It would obviously be better if the allowable profile count was larger but it might help at least. I’ll have a play.

FlyingGunny · September 2, 2021, 7:58pm

Just a little update. Ran into problems with the touch monitor. It wouldn’t keep the connection to the computer, couldn’t determine the cause, so I returned it. Got a WIMAXIT and it’s working well. Left it on and connected for two days straight. Now I’m waiting for longer USB-C cables, 3ft don’t cut it. Working on resizing the AM panels.

Sling380 · September 3, 2021, 1:51am

Some very nice upgrades in the latest Nxi 0.5.0 update. Traffic, ils capture, nexrad, map de clutter etc etc

Crunchmeister71 · September 3, 2021, 2:01am

Indeed. It’s now at a stage that pretty much matches the former 0.3x version in terms of extra features. A couple of minor QoL ones (like ability to switch frm 8.33 to 25 kHz on comm radios, a few MFD pages) are not there yet, but those aren’t that important. I would say previously, it was usable, but not for everyone. Now though, I think it’s at a stage where it can be useful for anyone at all.

I had to update my G1000 bezel for it though. Due to an overhaul of the AP, they made a couple of changes that broke some functions. There’s a new event to toggle FLC mode, so the older ones no longer work. And they added an event for VNAV now, so the functionality I had previously added to read / write the LVAR is no longer required. That’s kind of nice, actually.

Sling380 · September 3, 2021, 11:31pm

Didn’t need to change my FLC. It seems I was already using the toggle event. I’m in 2 minds about swapping the up/dn buttons over though as I’m sure it will be corrected in future. If it gets fixed in the next update I’ll probably leave it as it is and remember that currently nose up increases speed rather than decreases like it should.

Crunchmeister71 · September 4, 2021, 12:26am

New command as of yesterday’s 0.5.0…

H:AS1000_VNAV_TOGGLE

Crunchmeister71 · September 4, 2021, 1:40am

I don’t use Mobiflight for the G1000 any more. it works with native commands now. I don’t know what the Mobiflight event is.

Crunchmeister71 · September 4, 2021, 5:57pm

Good stuff. I’ve never made custom Mobiflight events before, so didn’t know how it was done. Glag to hear it works.

Rhader1129 · September 5, 2021, 7:16am

Hi, thanks for this. Just wondering if anyone has done a video on setting up fancy zones with panels?

I’m just setting up my home sim which pretty much replicates yours. I want to setup my C172 the same way as you have pictured but just not sure what instrument/panel/zone config you have and how to make it as efficient as possible.

I can see in your picture you have your two 15.6" screes. Are each of the images on those screens one AM panel or is it made up of multiple AM panels?
Are you able to post a screenshot of your zone config for the fancy zones? It would give a good insight into how you have it setup.
Are the C172 panels you have there available for download as full panels or will I need to ‘arrange’ them myself?
Do you find yourself using the Xbox controller much now you have TrackIR? Do you recommend the Xbox controller as a good option for camera control? If so, how to you have it fixed to your yoke?

Sorry for all the questions, I’ve spent hours reading all these posts but haven’t found a guide dedicated to setting all this up from scratch. I’m happy to fumble my way through it though.

Thank you for everything you contribute to this community, it’s amazing.

Cheers.

Rhader1129 · September 5, 2021, 7:29am

Hi Crunch, you didn’t happen to share your updated photoshopped version of this audio panel somewhere did you? Looking for one that matches the G1000 bezels you created.

Cheers.

Crunchmeister71 · September 5, 2021, 3:26pm

Each screen is a separate panel. You can’t really span a single panel across multiple screens.

I tried. Can’t really take screen shots or video of the Fancy Zones layout. Sorry.

I don’t have panels available for download. I just share my instruments. You arrange them as you see fit and whatever works best for you. My backgrounds in most cases are just a 1920x1080 coloured background I made in Photoshop with transparency cutouts for the locations of the popout screens. In the case of the C182 image above you replied to, I added the white text on the background as it would be in the plane’s cockpit just for looks. There’s really nothing that goes into those backgrounds.

My Xbox controller is attached to my yoke using velcro tape. That way it can easily be removed if I want to use it for another game. I use the Xbox controller less frequently now with TrackIR, but I still use it for cameras, and there’s nothing that could replace it for drone control.

I never shared it as part of my own instrument library because I didn’t make it. That audio panel is @FLRob27’s work.

That said, he and I have started a collaborative GitHub together to work on stuff. The audio panel is available here:

Rhader1129 · September 6, 2021, 5:56am

Thank you, amazing. Cheers.

kenadsf · September 15, 2021, 10:55am

I tried different G1000 and G1000Nix panels. all the buttons work perfectly. but I don’t see this PFD and MFD. What am I doing wrong? the AM4 version is uncensored of course

kenadsf · September 15, 2021, 10:56am

Can you Help me )

Crunchmeister71 · September 15, 2021, 12:41pm

You have to pop the screens out of the sim and move them into your panels.