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mrogers
September 12th, 2017, 03:40
I've just recently migrated over to FSX from FS9 and started spending more and more time in FSX now that I've got a brand new computer. I'm finding it a great sim to fly in with all the things it has.

Just recently I purchased the Razbam Metroliner III. Awesome aircraft, great to fly, but I've got an issue with with the power and GPU.
One day the power was working with the battery, inverters on, annunciator working, etc. all good, and went flying.
Next day the power fail light is just flashing, battery and inverters are on but no annunciator working, no GPU light on either. Can't fly without power and no annunicator. Can start the engines but still no power or annunicator.
Another day after that everything is working again somehow as if by magic. Went flying.
Then next day it's not working again with the power fail light flashing again and the GPU not on and not working and the annunciator not on either. Nothing I could do would turn on the annunciator or the GPU light, that power fail light just keeps flashing and clicking on it does not work and the GPU light is blank and clicking on it does nothing. (it should be working)

Anyone here had this issue with the Metroliner? Was there a fix for it? Had a look in the razbam forum and found there was a Service Pack 1 for it, but that was in 2014 and this is now 2017 so I'm not sure if the service pack has been incorporated into the Metroliner pack. One of the issues fixed by the service pack was reversed ailerons, so taking that for a clue I checked the ailerons and they appear to be working normally, so it must have had the service pack already incorporated.

Had a look again in the forum and found more than one person had the same problem but they did not get a response from razbam. And a lot of posts there have no response fron Razbam either. What happened to Razbam?

There was a list of fixes by our Bjoern here, on the Razbam forum, but as that was in 2014, do they still apply today? Or were they then included in the service pack?

BTW, I start with a cold and dark cockpit as the default. I'd really appreciate any help or information to fix this issue if possible. Thanks.

Cees Donker
September 12th, 2017, 05:55
Mark,

there are two switches to the right of the center console. Did you switch these on? These resolve your problem if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers,

Cees

Daube
September 12th, 2017, 05:56
I think you have found the solution: the fixes by Bjoern are still valid because Razbam has never updated its birds anymore.
So you should definitely check the topics where Bjoern describe his enhancements for this aircraft. I think that topic is one of them:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/84216-RAZBAM-Metroliner-for-FSX-P3D-released!

Bjoern
September 12th, 2017, 10:24
Yes, the modifications are still valid.

Normally, I'd blame malfunctioning avionics on an improperly installed MM3SM.dll, but the periodical power failures are totally new to me.

Cees Donker
September 12th, 2017, 12:03
I have no problem with this plane. I love it! Great add-on!

Cees

PhantomTweak
September 12th, 2017, 23:06
I don't have that plane, but often that sort of problem is due to the default flight. I've found that it's best to have the default flight as the FSX default. The Trike over Friday Harbour. You might try restoring the FSX Default, default flight, if you see what I mean.
Worth a try, anyway...
Pat☺

mrogers
September 13th, 2017, 00:21
Thanks to all who replied, much appreciated.


Cees, yes, thanks, the two switches were the inverter and avionics switches and they were already on, but no joy.


I had to uninstall the Metro and started over again by reinstalling it again. And hey..it's all working now, as it should! The power fail light now goes out when I click the inverter, and the APU light (the one I was referring to as the GPU) is now working, the Annunciator panel is on too. I checked all the lights on the annunciator panel and they all go out when all the relevant switches are clicked, NWS, SRL, SAS, etc all extinguished when these switches are clicked. Except for one little green light flickering on and I couldn't work that one out, it was flickering like crazy. I realised it was something to do with the NWS so clicked that switch again and it went out. Is that what it's supposed to do, shouldn't it be a steady green light rather than flickering?


I'll keep an eye on the Metro and see how it goes.


Is it possible that if you make changes to the aircraft cfg, it will stop working? Because I noticed that when I corrected the atc entries for the model and type for the metroliner to be called out correctly by ATC, it stopped working. I didn't make a backup of the cfg unfortunately, so had to make that reinstall. I don't know if that caused it, may be unlikely.


Bjoern, if your fixes still apply, would I have to download all of them or just one of them?


And where would I find the service pack 1 if the Metroliner was not updated in the first place? I looked for it at Razbam but couldn't find it....was it already built into the Metroliner package? Edit: I looked up the Razbam forums again and found the service pack was a full install pack that replaced the first release pack, so yes it has been updated at that point.

Pat, thanks for the suggestion, my saved default flight is the default C172 with a cold dark cockpit on the ground. I'd rather have the C172 than the Trike.

mrogers
September 13th, 2017, 02:24
It's odd, but that green light is now working properly, coming on steady green when the NWS is activated and going out when its deactivated. I took it up for a short flight from KPWT Bremerton, overflying KEWL Emma Field and then back to KPWT. Flies like a dream, I love it! I"ll have to do more reading of the manual to familiarise myself with the autopilot, ehsi,etc. then I'll plan for longer trips. I bought the Metroliner on special, for only $10.

alpha charlie
September 13th, 2017, 03:40
Is it possible that if you make changes to the aircraft cfg, it will stop working? Because I noticed that when I corrected the atc entries for the model and type for the metroliner to be called out correctly by ATC, it stopped working. I didn't make a backup of the cfg unfortunately, so had to make that reinstall. I don't know if that caused it, may be unlikely.

Exactly. I've had the same problem a while ago and tracked it down to "atc_type" and "atc_model" parameters in aircraft.cfg. So don't touch them. As a workaround, I created custom entries for this aircraft in ATC voice database with EditVoicepack utility in order to hear correct ATC calls.

PS: Just did a quick search and, yes, these strings are hard-coded in mm3sm.dll. I believe it is possible to hex-edit the dll but that may violate the user license (have to review this).

Bjoern
September 13th, 2017, 08:16
In terms of time spent in it, the Metro is my best payware purchase ever, despite having to mod it and cut textures in half (it's an OOM magnet otherwise). Twenty or so flights using the same save file and MI Tool works flawlessly with it.



Except for one little green light flickering on and I couldn't work that one out, it was flickering like crazy. I realised it was something to do with the NWS so clicked that switch again and it went out. Is that what it's supposed to do, shouldn't it be a steady green light rather than flickering?

It's a bug, don't worry.



Bjoern, if your fixes still apply, would I have to download all of them or just one of them?

Five hundred billboards, but the product is the same, if you catch my drift.





PS: Just did a quick search and, yes, these strings are hard-coded in mm3sm.dll. I believe it is possible to hex-edit the dll but that may violate the user license (have to review this).

Where did you find that information? RAZBAM forums?

I still need to figure out what exactly MM3SM does besides controlling payloads if I'm ever going to switch to P3Dv4. Because I sure ain't leaving the Metro behind.

alpha charlie
September 13th, 2017, 14:35
Where did you find that information?

In mm3sm.dll itself. Just opened it with a hex viewer and searched for "Fairchild Aircraft" and "Metroliner III". Et voilą, there they are.

(A:ATC MODEL, String) 'Metroliner III' scmi 0 == if{ 1 } els{ 0 }
(A:ATC TYPE, String) 'Fairchild Aircraft' scmi 0 == if{ 1 } els{ 0 }
I'm not an expert in gauge coding, but there's a lot of plain text code in there mostly pertaining to electrical system.

Bjoern
September 13th, 2017, 15:26
Thanks. I'll take a look at it at the next opportunity and see if I can figure out what the DLL does.

Bjoern
October 5th, 2017, 13:00
Found the time (and motivation) to take a closer look at MM3SM.dll.

The good news:
- There is hardly any black magic involved.
- Both of the ATC_model and ATC_type conditions above were implemented to prevent the .dll running amuck among other installed aircraft
- I managed to extract some bits of code, put them into a XML gauge and the corresponding elements in the cockpit started working
- Load manager interactions can be restored by using XMLTools and editing the load manager gauge

The bad news:
- Some of the mundane magic is quite confusing. I'm getting the impression that the VC switches mostly don't interact with the .dll at all.
- I'm counting 480+ lines of code and conditions. That's an awful lot to dig through. Also, some logical operators can't be decoded, so I have little idea how all this stuff interacts.


Observations:
- There are a whole lot of fuses mentioned in the code. Could be that the electrical system was planned to be...complete, to say the least.

Bjoern
October 6th, 2017, 15:29
Woah, I think I cracked the secret of the rather chill startup and start locks. Took me way too long to find out such a comparatively simple workaround.

PeteHam
October 6th, 2017, 19:10
I'm in the process of rebuilding FSX:SE and I've just done a manual install of the Metroliner (I dislike auto installs).

As there's no Modules folder can someone please tell me where the MM3SM.dll goes.

I've just placed it into the FSX main folder.

Thanks.

Pete.

PhantomTweak
October 6th, 2017, 22:08
FSX:SE doesn't come with a Modules folder. You need one, like for FSUIPC or whatever, make it yourself. Not real hard, after all. Open the FSX folder, rclick on a blank space someplace, select NEW>Folder. Type in the name you want, hit enter and awwaaaayyy ya go!

Then you can stick whatever you want in there.

Have fun!
Pat☺

Bjoern
October 7th, 2017, 07:47
MM3SM can go wherever you want it to, as long as you point the path of its dll.xml entry to the correct location.

JD_LincsUK
November 12th, 2017, 12:52
Hi Bjoern - thanks very much for your mods, I haven't installed them yet, but plan on doing that in the next days.

I've been testing and trying out the Metroliner with P3Dv4 and it's a bit of a nightmare. Much of that is explained by the statement above, that the dll deals with the electrics of the model - because that is what most of the nightmare in P3Dv4 is.

Radios refuse to switch on, yet the GPS and WX radar work fine. Also, the CWS panel remains dark, the torque gauges don't work, and neither does the standby power. The power fail lamp blinks continuously. These are just the obvious things I found and can remember.

I've been doing a pictorial start-up guide for my website, seeing as a) I couldn't get the thing working for ages, but recently finally managed it (in FSX) and b) I found the same goes for many people on many forums around the 'net - and many people are giving up, especially those on Steam Edition who have bought it recently, at sale price. It was while looking for answers that I came across your posts regarding the mods.

Anyway, I think it will require a lot of work to get it working fully in P3Dv4 - however, encouragingly, you can start it up from cold and actually fly it quite easily. You just can't hear or talk to anyone and are in the dark over a couple of readings!

It's gorgeous in VR, too.

JD_LincsUK
November 13th, 2017, 07:07
Okay, the guide is up:

LINK (https://virtualpilotorguk.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/metroliner-start-up-guide/#more-239)

Bjoern
November 13th, 2017, 08:38
Note: Once I'm done with the transformation into XML format, the bus tie switches won't be needed anymore (except for abnormal operation) when on battery power (I assume the battery bus supplies all essential buses as on other aircraft).

Other than that, great guide. I've posted the link into the Metro thread on Avsim, if you don't mind.


P.S: I hereby admit that I never really knew where the crossfeed control was until you posted a pic of it in your guide. Simply made do without during all these years.

JD_LincsUK
November 14th, 2017, 06:39
Thanks for your efforts, Bjoern, and no problem posting the link - I put it on Steam, too. Not much use doing a guide if no-one knows where it is!

The crossfeed control info was in the manual :encouragement:

Bjoern
November 14th, 2017, 06:46
Ah, the manual. Telling half of what you oughta know and too much of what you don't need to know.

JD_LincsUK
November 15th, 2017, 01:34
My thoughts exactly.

Makes me rather concerned about the Razbam DCS AV-8B I just bought! Their FSX Harrier left quite a lot to be desired, at least in the area of the flight dynamics. I did like the manual for that, but it also didn't include much that would have helped fly the thing.

Anyway, going a bit OT here. I really like the Metroliner, and especially in VR, it's a really nice cockpit to fly from. I remember during beta testing for Air Hauler one of the team said they had flown the type and that it wasn't the most stable platform, with too long a fuselage and too short wings - so I steered clear until a short time ago, which is a shame as I actually like it and hope to use it a lot in Air Hauler 2. Once I have it painted in the company colours, of course! :smile-new:

Bjoern
November 15th, 2017, 04:41
The real deal's pilots say that it's really nice to fly when it doesn't try to kill you (SAS system, nose wheel steering). And it survives the odd hard landing.

RAZBAM's rendition has excellent handling and it's a joy to fly. NWS reliability isn't an issue, but low approach speed still can turn a bad day worse. :engel016:

JD_LincsUK
November 15th, 2017, 06:02
Did a video:

https://youtu.be/b6GUvasdlgY

JD_LincsUK
November 16th, 2017, 02:32
Hmm, I can't find a way to edit my post above - I have decided to close my YouTube channel, so that video is no longer available, but the guide, and others I have done and will do in future, will remain available to view.

Regarding the Metroliner - I think the guy was possibly referring to earlier marks - I understand the wings were made longer on the III. Maybe the fuselage was shorter as well as the wings, on previous versions? I did read about the updates but I read so much, hard to hold it all in! :untroubled:

I know he was talking mainly about landing the aircraft, but this was about 10 years ago, so I can't remember his exact comments now.

Bjoern
November 17th, 2017, 08:14
I can never get the various models and the sequence of their introduction to the market right either. Quite a hodgepodge.

The Metro III has longer wings, yes, but in their infitinite wisdom, Fairchild forgot to move the ailerons outboard as well, resulting in a very poor roll rate.


P.S: Check Davethepilot's videos on Youtube. Former Metro driver with lots of great, digitally taped flights in the bird.

bbrz
November 17th, 2017, 08:53
...in their infitinite wisdom, Fairchild forgot to move the ailerons outboard as well, resulting in a very poor roll rate.
Hm, having flown the Metro III I definitely can't confirm the rumors about the 'very poor roll rate', neither in the real one or in the RAZBAM version.

Bjoern
November 18th, 2017, 09:20
Hm, having flown the Metro III I definitely can't confirm the rumors about the 'very poor roll rate', neither in the real one or in the RAZBAM version.

Real Metro?!
Stay right here!

I need a "Yes/No/Maybe" on this:
https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/429877-razbam-metroliner-released/?page=44#comment-3728494

JD_LincsUK
March 24th, 2019, 03:28
The video link has been updated :)

As I can't edit the original post:

https://youtu.be/F2jECtR6Zsw