Altimutater

If you've ever looked at a Garmin GNS530 and thought "that's just a bit too mid-2000s modern for me"... today I've successfully integrated Todor Radonov / Todir's KLN 90B plugin with the MU-2: The outline of the installation process is: install the KLN90B plugin place the GPS and MD41 panels in the 3D cockpit in PlaneMaker customise where the GPS screen gets drawn on the MU-2's panel texture, along with the UV mapping for the GPS object - don't worry, I've done this step use a utility that comes with the plugin to add manipulators for the GPS and MD41 to the MU-2's cockpit Steps: Download Todir's KLN90B - get the latest .zip: https://github.com/todirbg/kln90b/releases (at time of writing this was 0.99.1b) Copy the `objects` and `plugins` folder into your MU-2 directory - don't copy `cockpit_3d` Replace the `kln90b_click_regions.obj` file in MU2/objects/kln90b with the attached version (this has the updated UV mapping) Make a backup of your 4B OEM acf file e.g. `xsMU2B60_4B_OEM.ackbak` Open the 4B OEM acf (not the backup!) in PlaneMaker Standard > Objects > Add: select `kln90b.obj` from MU2/objects/kln90b set its coordinates to 6.94, 0.10, 0.71 set lighting to Inside, shadow mode Interior Only, hi-res Yes/ticked/green/selected Add `MD41_V.obj` in the same way, coordinates 6.94, -1.68, 0.56, same parameters Save the .acf - leave PlaneMaker open for now At this point, you can test your progress by launching the MU-2. You will see the KLN90B and the MD41 mode controller on the panel, albeit with a blank screen and no clickspots. Edit MU2/plugins/KLN90B/data/modules/main.lua (in Notepad++ or VS Code or some other sensible editor): line 28ish, the KLN90_panel component, change `position = {814, 0, size[1], size[2]}` to `position = {0, 1138, size[1], size[2]}` (this determines where on the MU-2's panel texture the GPS screen is drawn. I've picked a spot which appears unused.) The next three steps are to accommodate a bug in the installer utility Copy MU2/objects/Cockpit_3D/Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj to the MU2 folder Make a temporary copy of `xsMU2B60_4B_OEM.acf` Edit the temporary copy in Notepad++ or similar: search for kln90b. you should find where the KLN90B object is specified, and just below it the MD41 mode controller search for Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj - you will probably find it just below the MD41 note the objects are identified with a number e.g. _obja/27/, _obja/28/ cut all the lines for the KLN90B and MD41 objects and paste after the Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj - for me they were numbered 27, 28 and 4 respectively. (cursed alphabetic number ordering strikes again) change "Cockpit_32/Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj" to just "Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj" Save the changes to the temporary copy .acf Run MU2/objects/kln_installer.exe: select your temporary .acf copy select Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj it should generate a new file in MU2/objects/kln90b: Cockpit_3D_OEM_kln90b.obj - this is the existing cockpit object with extra clickspots and the screen all in the right places Move MU2/objects/kln90b/Cockpit_3D_OEM_kln90b.obj into MU2/objects/Cockpit_3D In PlaneMaker, under Standard > Objects, find Cockpit_3D_OEM.obj, click the box to the left of its name and change the file to Cockpit_3D_OEM_kln90b.obj Save the plane in PlaneMaker To undo all of this: Replace xsMU2B60_4B_OEM.acf with xsMU2B60_4B_OEM.acfbak Steps 10-12 are a workaround for a couple of bugs with kln_installer.exe, which doesn't expect files to be in certain locations or for a numbered sequence to go 27, 28, 3, 4... they might become unnecessary with a future version of the KLN90B If you'd like to position the KLN90B instruments elsewhere, use the Visualisation settings in PlaneMaker to hide most of the exterior and interior objects, and make adjustments. Then run kln_installer.exe again to regenerate the _kln90b.obj cockpit object. Snags: MD41 buttons don't seem to light up properly in the 3D cockpit. You can click on the annunciators to get a 2D popup - but I'd rather the 3D instrument worked correctly and I never see the 2D popup KLN90B overlaps slightly with the top of the weather radar Autopilot / FD / HSI mapping not figured out just yet Powered by the default battery bus (or battery switch?) - you can give it a dataref representing a voltage bus but there's none available currently representing the radio bus voltages. This could be modded in though. Happy flying folks! kln90b_click_regions.obj

The manipulators for the range buttons are apparently backwards for the RealityXP GNS530 and 430 - on the popout displays the up-arrow is "increase range" but the 3D model the up arrow is "decrease range" Also I suspect I've done something in the course of setting up the RealityXP Garmins that screwed up my HSI perhaps... are the default RealityXP settings from RealityXP or from TOGA...? I deactivated a bunch of settings for "Garmin speaks to autopilot" and now the heading steer is Surprising. Could just be I barely know how to use the Garmins though. edit: I enabled a bunch more RXP settings and now the GNS530 has full control of the P1 HSI, including setting OBS, deflecting CDI, and showing distance. NAV/GPS switching via the CDI button on the GNS530. I'd like to get it back to heading-steer-only if I can… but I'm also slightly regretting the RXP purchase. I thought they'd use the X-Plane nav database for which I have a Navigraph subscription, but they use the same proprietary Garmin/Jeppesen databases as the real GNS units. So the best nav data available is from 2016!

Just catching a couple of other minor snags as I go... The course and distance readouts on the HSI do not show leading zeros - e.g. a course of 002° is displayed as "2". A course of 000° is just blank. Likewise distance - it's a bit odd seeing ".7" on the display instead of 0.7! Adjusting the course on the HSI does not move the course needle against the compass card. Edit: whatever this was, it was transient - next flight the HSI is working as normal! Please could there be commands to set condition to MIN CRUISE and TAKE OFF LANDING as well as to TAXI and EMERG STOP? Likewise for all three positions for the Run Crank Stop switches. I've just today received a Thrustmaster Airbus throttle quadrant - it's almost perfect for the MU-2, except the MCT detent pulls the levers and gets in the way. Quite happy with it though.

Bit of a tangent - given the condition levers only ever exist in EMER STOP, TAXI, MIN CRUISE and TAKE OFF LAND positions, I wanted to just map eight keyboard commands - but there's only commands for EMER STOP and TAXI, and for some reason I can only see them on the joystick screen, not the keyboard screen. Could commands for the other two positions be added perhaps?

Hi folks, I got the new Mu-2 yesterday and love it. Immediately had to get the RealityXP GNS530 and 430 to go with it. The "ghost throttle" detent management works well and as we can have per-aircraft control bindings now it's no trouble to reuse HOTAS buttons for "lift out of detent". One thing which did catch my eye - the radio altimeter updates continuously and with 1ft precision, which is a bit exuberant and makes me feel I'm looking at DataRefEditor rather than an aircraft instrument! I found a video which just barely shows the radio altimeter - most clearly from 17:00 - and it appears to update about twice a second with 50ft precision, increasing to perhaps 10ft precision closer to the ground: Perhaps if this could be modelled/guessed at - 10ft precision below 250ft AGL and 50ft precision above? Cheers!