Tried three times this eve to get the pre-flight checklist sorted on a flight with the FBW A320 add-on. Love it - but it’s a pain at the moment - at least since this latest upgrade.
Once again, I’m confronted with the Autopilot panel controls all maxed out and irretrievably turned on to the full. Display icons are also full on and locked.
I had this issue a while back, and it was suggeted that I had tried to set the altitude and climb rates too early before I had switched the three NAV dials on, and not waited the 7 minutes for the GPS to align and set the MFD displays correctly.
I’m not touching the autopilot area at all - I switch the three nav dials to NAV on the overhead panel, and then switch lights on - switching the lights on seems to be the one thing that makes everything on the autopilot panel light up like an Xmas tree!!
Any reasons for this??
And more importantly, is there any way I can undo the error and reset the autopilot dials??
As I recall, the default setting for the panel lights is very low so I don’t know why your would be so bright.
Also, I’m not really understanding what your problem is with the “autopilot panel controls”. Have you watched any tutorial videos on the FBW A320? There are many.
The entire AutoPilot panel has all switches lit from all being switched off.
The default height of 5000 ft has changed so that all icons are lit, so it looks like 8888
The icons for the rate of climb/descent are also lit so that they appear as 888
Basically, everything goes into a state of lockdown with every conceivable icon lit, and every switch lit!!
Everytime, after I switch the aircraft nose wheel lights, the wing lights etc…
Are you using Mugz’s Visible Pilot/Copilot mod? If so, you might need to remove it until Mugz posted an update that would be compatible with the current dev version.
If cockpit panels are suddenly not working the way it should, that mod is the first step to check. This is because the pilot/copilot mod replaces the entire cockpit with the one with the added pilot/copilot models. So if the FBW version sent updates to add new things into the cockpit and change the cokpit panel behaviours, both of these mods no longer in-sync anymore, so that’s caused the issues.
So Mugz need to grab the latest cockpit panels from the update, re-add the pilot and copilot models, and post as a cockpit replacement mod again. That way everything works again.
If I may make a few suggestions… Try to remove the mod by deleting the folder flybywire-aircraft-a320-neo that resides in your community directory. Furthermore, also delete the folder flybywire-aircraft-a320-neo that resides in the packages directory here: Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Packages
You can get to that directory once in the community folder, just backtrack the address up in the address bar in the explorer window.
Now once all is deleted, use the installer to reinstall the latest version. Not sure if you’re using the development version or not. If you are, you’ll have to re-calibrate your throttles. Currently for me the past few version refuse to detect and load the flight I planned in the world view before I load in. Nevertheless though I can somewhat replicate it using the MCDU.
Now, if this is what you’re doing to the T then perhaps try a little differently getting the aircraft powered up properly before going through GPS align. Turn ground power on, it’s available cold and dark (it is lit green), get batteries on then proceed with GPS align. Following the proper power-up procedures see how things go from there. I don’t know, you may be doing it properly but just didn’t write all the steps you take. Not sure, that’s the only thing I have to go by though.
Furthermore, in the MCDU there is aircraft options for GPS alignment. You can select Instant, Fast and Realistic.
Does any of the knobs underneath the glare shield control the brightness of the lights? Starting from cold and dark you should be having to turn some lighting knobs to get some panel lights on. So it is interesting what you say how everything is instantly lit up.
I’m so grateful to all suggestions made - and I’m sure all will be of use to me and others in future.
This was in the end a simple switch flicked with the lights that I assumed was a light switch, but hadn’t realised it was a test switch.
The panels were lit up like an Xmas tree because I hadn’t realised that this ‘light’ switch was a lighting test switch.
Never come across it before, which is why I came to folk here for help!!
If you want the cockpit light is the “Dome” light switch. The other one is the switch to adjust the brightness of the overhead panel lights, ranging from low brightness or high brightness. The third option is to test the switches, to light up everything, so the pilot can check which buttons has a malfunctioning light.