Reversed Ammeter in Steam C172

[Tom Clayton]

If you've paid attention to the systems in the "Classic" C172, you should have noticed that the ammeter reads backwards. When the alternator is running, it shows a discharge, but turn on the battery and fire up the avionics before starting, and it will show juice going into the battery. I speculated a while back that there was an errant minus sign in some piece of code, but had no idea where, and was sure that it was inaccessible due to the fact that it's an upgrade plane and very few edits are possible.

Well, I was half right. It is an errant minus sign, but it's in an editable shared xml file. Look in \Packages\Official\OneStore\fs-base-aircraft-common\ModelBehaviorDefs\Asobo\Common\Subtemplates \Instrument_Subtemplates.xml and find the section shown below. I've compared my active file with my backup in NP++ so that you can see the edit. As always, make your backup file first before editing. It was a user whose name I can't remember over at the official forum that found this. I'd love to give credit, but I can't find the dang thread now!

[Penzoil3]

But which one is correct? Right or left?
Sue

[Tom Clayton]

The one on the left is the current xml file in use on my system. The one on the right is the original with the ".bak" file suffix added to designate it as a backup file. That's also why Notepad++ only colored the code on the left - it only color codes common coding languages based on both syntax and filetype extension.

[Tom Clayton]

For everyone that made this edit prior to 1.14.5.0, guess what? Asobo just undid your edit! This file has been replaced with the new update, and the ammeter is back to its backward ways. I did a compare with my backed up version and the new one, and there are several other changes. Why they didn’t incorporate this change is beyond me. Anyway, toss out your old backup and make a new one from the fresh Asobo version, then re-do this one edit and the gauge will once again behave as it should.

[Dangerous Beans]

For everyone that made this edit prior to 1.14.5.0, guess what? Asobo just undid your edit! This file has been replaced with the new update, and the ammeter is back to its backward ways. I did a compare with my backed up version and the new one, and there are several other changes. Why they didn’t incorporate this change is beyond me. Anyway, toss out your old backup and make a new one from the fresh Asobo version, then re-do this one edit and the gauge will once again behave as it should.

Yea any changes made in the Official folder get reverted when there's an update so I tend to mostly leave it alone.
I do go in after each update and reclaime the Cessna and Beechcraft planes back from Textron though

[DennyA]

Thanks for the fix, Tom. Tweaked it and made a backup of the tweak in case I need to revert it again.

Have you filed this as a bug to Asobo in Zendesk? I know there are some posts on it over in the official forum, but getting it logged in Zendesk is best for the kinds of bugs that aren't likely to get a ton of upvotes.

[Tom Clayton]

Have you filed this as a bug to Asobo in Zendesk? I know there are some posts on it over in the official forum, but getting it logged in Zendesk is best for the kinds of bugs that aren't likely to get a ton of upvotes.

Bet on it. It was marked "solved" a while back, but I have no clue when they will actually address it. Apparently, the C152's ammeter also uses this snippet, since it's now backwards in my sim. Of course, I don't fly that one, so I really don't care. The real fix will apparently need to be made by modifying the model animation.

[FlyingsCool]

Bet on it. It was marked "solved" a while back, but I have no clue when they will actually address it. Apparently, the C152's ammeter also uses this snippet, since it's now backwards in my sim. Of course, I don't fly that one, so I really don't care. The real fix will apparently need to be made by modifying the model animation.

"Solved" means only that they aren't tracking in the Zendesk software. It has no other meaning, and is extremely frustrating. It would be nice if they at least marked it as "Accepted" or "Rejected", rather than the meaningless "Solved"