Can't start my LES SAAB 340 anymore... nor can auto-start

[Larry A]

Hi.  I purchased the LES SAAB 340 quite a while back, and had previously used it fine.

Recently, I migrated to a new PC and brought XPlane and my planes over without any problem.

But, for whatever reason, I can't seem to get the SAAB 340 fully started up.  I'm sure I'm doing it right, but what I end up with is:

-Plane doesn't go into Beta mode (engine roar) when I get to the step where I bring the condition levers to Max

-Warning panel shows yellows for Parking Brake (not an issue) and Air Conditioning (with an up arrow)

-Overhead has yellow lights in the Ice Protection panel (L/R Pitot, L/RAlpha) except for Pitot, since I turned that switch on

-Overhead has yellow lights in the Engine panel (L/R AC Gen)

 

Tried it a few times, with same results, including following the in-game checklist (rather than my own, created based on those and youtube vids)

 

Now what's even more waky, is that I then tried (twice) an auto-start... and after a seemingly very lengthy Left Engine start, the result is even more errors, and it never gets past the left engine start!
(To be fair, the increased number of errors is partially/fully due to it not getting all the way through the startup).  But, still... it fails, it seems.  Master Caution light is flashing, and  Hydr is flashing in the warning panel, along with warnings for Fuel, Elec, and Emergency Lights.

I thought maybe the plane was damaged (in sim), but got the same issues when I restarted the flight with a repaired plane.

Besides the new PC, the other change would be I'm now running it in XP12... which it doesn't 'officially' support... but others have had it run fine, or have just had issues with things like the lighting.

 

Anyone got any suggestions, wisdom, etc?

[rosseloh]

I haven't tried it myself but I'd bet money XP12 is your issue. It doesn't just "not officially support" it, it was never migrated. I'm 99% sure it will need serious tweaking to work properly in 12. Experience in a few other turboprops has shown me similar things to what you're describing, at least relating to the engines.

[Larry A]

Hi.  Thanks for the response.  You're correct, yet what is odd is that there are people who claim they are using the SAAB in XP12 with zero issues...whereas some have a random little issue... or everything works fine, but the cockpit is dark.  Meanwhile others seemingly can't even load it.

So, it's odd.  It's not like specific stuff doesn't work globally.  What doesn't work for one person, works for another just fine.

Unless certain plugins mess with it, I can't see how there is a random reaction for each instance of the same thing.

I have a feeling that (in my case) there's some simple little thing to be tweeked that will fix it.  One thing I tried was the delay between each step of the auto-start sequence, figuring maybe it was not enough of a pause, and caused it to trip over itself.

Kinda hoping someone might know what it could be specifically...

(I looked into it online, and even though most posts/articles gave the impression that any plans to create an official XP12 version, I did fine one thread where a recent post indicated that they were now looking into it.  Certainly seems to be a lot of interest (by users) for an XP12 version...)

Edited Tuesday at 02:29 AM by Larry A

[Pils]

Are they using the Carenado one? 

[Larry A]

UPDATE:

The issue (when autostarting the SAAB340) seems to happen during the Left Engine Start verification.  Just sits there forever, verifying.

In one test, several errors appeared on the warning display, and the master warning light was triggered.

This time around, I discovered some things:

-The GPU was removed during the process.  Viewing the auto-start externally, the GPU is never brought in, but the chocks, etc are removed at the start. I thought maybe this was just a visual thing, but noted that the External Power indication in the overhead panel was off... so the auto-startup was occurring (supposedly) under the plane's internal power... which may explain why I would sometimes get warnings/errors (battery low?... and then other things get affected as a result?)

-The infinite hold/stop that occurs when the Left Engine Start is being verified can be fixed by manually setting the throttle from GRND IDLE (which is what the autostart sets it to) to MIN.  This results in the rest of the auto-startup to occur, up until you reach the Right Engine Start verification, whose pause is also then fixed by manually moving the throttle to MIN.  The remainder of the auto-startup occurs, and successfully concludes (complete with Auto-Start Complete message).  And, the lovely and previously absent Beta engine growl finally occurs.

 

The only other issue I've noted so far, which I can't find a workaround/fix for, is that the windshield of the SAAB340 in XP12 appears dirty (as if covered by 'calcium stain' water drop marks).  It seems begging for the windshield wipers to be used, but unfortunately they have no effect.  In XP11, the same installed plane doesn't seem to have this window texture (or it's extremely faint), but instead it has a window scratch texture, which seems to be absent in the same plane in XP12.  So, that's a bit of a mystery.  The 'raindrop stain' texture appearing in XP12 doesn't seem 'wrong'... it just seems like rain staining after a storm, which could/should be removed by the windshield wipers (but unfortunately isn't).  Maybe some 'window dirt' flag/value is (mistakenly) set to high/full on startup, compared to 'clean'.  The window scratches, meanwhile, seemingly should be present and at a constant, non-increasing value... but isn't, in XP12.  Not seeing any windshield rain effects currently, either... at least with a stationary, unpowered SAAB340.

So, it seems the only issue as far as auto-starting is that (seemingly) the throttles have to be manually set to MIN after each engine start (verification).  I'm going to have to try a manual startup again and see if I succeed that way, too.