Has anyone had any luck setting the detents for the TCA Quadrant using the Dev version of the FBW 320?
Trying to use the “iPad” calibrate but am having two problems:
When you use the “set from joystick” button to pick the detents you end up with all kinds of weird overlaps because the default ranges are all too wide. Also, there is not enough range for the Reverse Idle detent which exists on the 320 but not the TCA.
When I try to type/edit the ranges manually, there are all kinds of problems with the number input boxes in the iPad interface. You type -.91 and you get something completely different in the box. Pretty maddening.
Am I missing something or is this just really buggy right now and I’m wasting my time. Seems like it should be completely straightforward but very painful.
It’s not buggy… You just need to do a bit of housekeeping at the start. It’s a hassle at first, but once you have everything set up properly, it flies like a charm. First thing’s first, it’s best to do a hardware recalibration to make sure your quadrant is properly calibrated. See my post here on how to do it.
Once you finished, make sure the Sensitivity Curve in your sim is reset to linear. Meaning 0,0,0 with 100% reactivity. You should see a straight line in your throttle axis.
Then, you can follow the video that AGuther shared. You probably misunderstood how the EFB calibration work. The main concept is:
If you properly calibrated the throttle using the steps I mentioned above, you wouldn’t need independent axis. That means both throttles will line up properly, allowing you to only use one axis calibration for both throttles and they should line up in any case.
The Range that you set in the EFB IS NOT the value of the throttle position. It is actually the range of Deadzone that you want to have for each detent. If you type 0.90 range. Then the EFB calibration would think that you have almost half of the entire throttle range as a deadzone. This is why it’s easy to overlap them if you set it too high. So don’t type in -.91 in the range. That’s not what it’s for.
The Range should be optimal for the TCA Quadrant at 0.05. This means, there’s a 0.05 lower than the middle positon and an upper 0.05 from the middle position that the aircraft is reading from your throttle position. So that means, if you calibrate the IDLE detent at -0.50 position. The range would be from -0.55 to -0.45 value. It’s 0.05 range on either side of the -0.50 position. That means, if your throttle is sitting at a position that values between -0.55 and -0.45 position, the A32NX mod will treat that position as sitting at the IDLE detent.
So the Range should be the same for each detent, so keep it at 0.05.
When you click the button “Set from Joystick” make sure you position your throttle accordingly. This means, when you open the Full Reverse in the EFB, make sure your TCA Quadrant throttle is positioned at the Full Reverse position, then press the “Set from Joystick” button. The EFB will read the positon of your TCA quadrant, and records it with the range that was set. If the value is reading -1.00 when your throttle is positioned at the Full Reverse, the EFB will set it as -1.00 to -0.95 since it has a 0.05 range.
Same goes for the other detents, click the IDLE REVERSE in the EFB, move your throttle to your desired IDLE REVERSE position, then press the “Set from Joystick”. Then open the IDLE → Position your throttle into the IDLE position, press the “Set from Joystick”, and continue for the CL, then MCT, then TOGA. moving your throttle to the set position before you press the button.
Don’t forget to Apply then Save and Apply button to save the configuration.
Thanks for the help… I figured out that setting things to linear as you suggest really helps – I was able to get it to work and what you mention above I had figured out.
That said, there is definitely something not right about about the fields that allow you to either alter the range or edit the ranges once they are set. You type a number – say 5 – but the field registers a 9. So strange.
The range is there so that it can be device agnostic. Meaning it can work on any throttle hardware. But the issue here is that, throttle hardware are different. They can have different standards and different values.
For the TCA quadrant, for example, has a total throttle values range of from -1.00 (FULL REVERSE detent) to 1.00 (TOGA detent), where 0.00 is the position of the CL detent. You can still type in 5 in the range number. But that wouldn’t make it valid because it’s out of range from what the TCA quadrant is feeding the sim with.
The range is only valid when you’re about to Set the value from the throttle, once it’s set, it’s set. And changing the range value won’t do anything until you actually set a new value from the throttle using the range value.
I’m not sure why you would want to enter number 5 though. I got my TCA quadrant working the first time I got the EFB with the new calibration update after going through them within a minute to understand what it’s doing and how it behaves. If I want to change the range, then I change it appropriately, either 0.05, sometimes I tried 0.03 or even 0.10. I never even thought of trying to go over that value because I know it won’t be valid.
Not yet. It’s only available in the Development version… Though, with the custom autopilot and the custom fbw functionality in the development version. I find it difficult for me to find a reason to use the stable version instead.
It’s just too much improvement and features that’s already available in the development version that the stable version is too outdated for me.
What do you mean Arm? you mean the APPR button to be used for RNAV? I think they disabled it for now because they’re working on the VNAV feature in a separate branch. For now, you have to treat RNAV as a Lateral navigation only for the autopilot, and you have to manage the vertical navigation yourself.
Thankfully the VDEV indicator is working, so we can use it as a guide to do our descent. This is a video of my RNAV approach, using the FPA/TRK mode, and manage my descent angle.
Reverse Full should be from -1.00 to -0.95
Then Reverse Idle should be roughly from -0.75 to -0.65
Calibrate your throttle from below. Move your throttle to the full reverse position, then press the Set from throttle button. Then switch to the Reverse Idle on the EFB, then move your throttle to the reverse idle position (there’s really no detent so you’ll have to guess the position yourself). Then press the Set from throttle buton. Then move on to the next one, IDLE in the EFB, then move your throttle to the IDLE detent, then press the Set from throttle button again. And so on until you go through all your detents.
Could be problem with my TCA Quadrant Throttle setting…When throttle is move to Reverse Full the current value is not active (0.00). Have done the calibrating and reset at control setting. Physical throttle sit between CLM and IDLE only even when tried to move it to Reverse Full.
Is your sensitivity curve fully linear? And that it’s bound to the throttle axis 0-100% (not the one with just the throttle axis without the 0-100%). And I think you also need to have the reverse axis ticked in the control settings
And that in your EFB calibration page, make sure the Reverse on Axis is enabled.
Throttle axis on 0-100% and ticked for reverse. Sensitivity linear for Reverse Full could not moved but when move to CLB/FLX/TOGA it ok. do we have to reset sensitivity before we calibrate in EFB?.
Sensitivity linear for reverse full? The sensitivity curve needs to be linear for the whole thing. So your sensitivity value should all be 0,0,0 (100 for Reactivity) but everything else should be 0. Yes, the easiest way is to press the Reset button in the sensitivity curve settings. This should bring everything to 0 as above.
But you can’t use the default Throttle Profile, because the sensitivity in that profile is under the assumption that you’re flying the default A320 and not the A32NX with their custom EFB calibration.
When Reset button is set, the sensitivity curve is all 0 but the the throttle will not go to Reverse Full. Have done factory calibrating many times/reset at control page/preset manager. In calibrating page when throttle is set Reverse Full the blue gauges should move down while mine nothing move.
In the sensitivity curve, when you move your throttle from Reverse Full, does the dot starts at the bottom left corner? then as you move up, the dot moves linear until you get to TOGA at the top right corner?
If the sensitivity curve is working, your hardware should be good, and just focus on the EFB Calibration.
Make sure you also enable the Reverse on Axis switch on the EFB calibration page. It’s usually disabled by default.
When Reset button is set to 0 in control Sensitivity. Reverse Full dot start in the middle and dot will move down to the bottom left when throttle is push to TOGA.
