A/C Battery Life.

[Nigel H-J]

Hopefully some-one may be able to advise on this.

Yesterday prior to my return flight in the Viscount from Glasgow, I was going through the pre-engine start checks when the phone went. After some three to four minutes I was back, took one look at the instruments and all had failed. No Power, even though I had the Ground switch set correctly.

Is there a way of extending the a/c battery life so it does not go flat so soon?

Many thanks in advance.

Nigel.

[DaveB]

Hi Nigel..

Yes there is mate. If you run the registered version of FSUIPC.. you'll find a setting in there to extend battery life. Alternatively.. look in the aircraft.cfg and add the following section..

[electrical]
electric_always_available=1

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[petermcleland]

I use this in the Aircraft.cfg file:-

[Electrical]
//max_battery_voltage=12.6 //Battery Voltage - fully charged
max_battery_voltage=0 //Battery will not discharge

Notice that the first line, which allowed the battery to go flat, is Remmed out with the // and the second line is the one I have inserted and is Active.

That second line does what its comment says and stops the battery going flat...I know it looks funny but it works just fine and is very useful on an aircraft that you do long and slow checklists on before starting engines :flying:

[Nigel H-J]

Very many thanks Dave and Peter, now I can do my checks without needing to rush and worry!!

Regards
Nigel.

[nigelb]

Peter - do those aircraft.cfg settings affect the panel instruments such as voltage readings and amp readings? I know the electric_always_available=1 setting will prevent a true cold and dark start.

I have the registered version of FSPUIC so I use that - you can extend the battery life by a factor of your choosing, from Infinity down to no extension at all. Seems to me that is a more elegant solution if you have a registered version.

:flying:
Number 2, number 2, number 2.

[petermcleland]

Peter - do those aircraft.cfg settings affect the panel instruments such as voltage readings and amp readings? I know the electric_always_available=1 setting will prevent a true cold and dark start.

I have the registered version of FSPUIC so I use that - you can extend the battery life by a factor of your choosing, from Infinity down to no extension at all. Seems to me that is a more elegant solution if you have a registered version.

Nigel,

I use a registered FSUIPC for a lot of things but my particular setting (not the electric_always one), I have always applied just to any aircraft that I find needs it. I don't often do cold and dark starts but if I do then I apply my setting just to prevent the battery running out in the middle of it all. To be quite honest my normal start is CRTL+E.

Another reason I apply my settings is for Traffic Watching...I like to listen to the R/T while watching traffic and usually on two frequencies simultaneously, so whatever I use as base aircraft for watching needs the engine off for the whole time and it can be annoying if the R/T suddenly cuts off. I often publish Traffic Packages and incorporate the settings into the watching "Base" aircraft. This is necessary so that people without FSUIPC can use the package as advertised.

[nigelb]

Ah, didn't think of distribution to others - good enough reason to use your method since it does not require FSUIPC at all, registered or not. I am a little suprised to learn you use CTRL-E to start. I admit to using it on occassion when I get frustrated trying to start something that apparently does'nt want to start. Nothing like a good CTRL-E kick in the arse to wake it up.

:think: I wish CTRL-E worked on everything. ;-)

[petermcleland]

Nigel,

I use CTRL+E a lot because most of the stuff I do requires me to get in and GO. My projects involve a lot of flying and checking things with flying and I'm afraid I can't really spare the time to go through long winded check lists. I rarely fly my 747-400 these days because it takes so long to get going! Echo and Little Bandit I just jump in and go...I do actually taxy out from parking and nearly always taxy back in and park at the end. Even my Trident flying is generally done from a Saved flight that has the engines running. Time stationary on the ground is generally spent watching the Traffic work from my Mobile Tower or building scenery from my scenery placing graticule (which doesn't fly). :flying:

[nigelb]

Oh, I was just pulling your leg a bit. No need to exlain to me why you use CTRL-E! My philosophy is you do whatever you want to do because this is a hobby and it is supposed to be fun! Whatever floats your boat.