BFF Motion Driver v2 - Short User Guide


 

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4. Configuration File Settings

The motion driver configuration settings are held in a .bff configuration file which is selected and opened when the motion driver is run. There are a wide range of parameters that can be configured to affect the basic configuration and motion output by opening and editing the file in a text editor (eg NotePad).

The detailed pitch, roll, and heave settings and the range utilisation parameters can also be set through the motion driver window using the P, R, H and M "settings" buttons in the main window. These settings windows also provide more detailed pop-up tool tips for each of the parameters.

The Basic, Platform Geometry, Hot Button/Key, Runway Effect and other non cue related settings should be made directly in the .bff file before the motion driver is run. Many settings can also be made user the Driver_Setup .exes in the motion driver folder.

NOTE some parameters have different uses for different platform types - these are indicated below. The configuration parameters are:

BASIC SETTINGS

Drvr_Rev=2  Motion driver revision.

Rig_Type=1  Platform Type, =0 for independent DOFs, =1 for 3 point support coupled actuator drives.

Act1_Rev=0  For 3-pt rigs with non-reversible feedback encoders - software drive direction reverse on individual 
Act2_Rev=0  channels. (No effect when Rig_Type=0).
Act3_Rev=0

Mode=BIN  to define motion cue output mode, must be BIN, HEX2, MEM, GAL, SCN5, POLO or NONE for the V2 motion driver.

Port=COM*  set the output COM port number, COM1, COM2 etc for modes which use a COM port.

Baud=115200 serial output baud rate. Note for MEM output use with the PID Servo Controller the controller's baud rate is set in the PID26.cfg file.

Nsets=100  Number of data sets to run before sending motion data to output. This setting allows the driver to execute a number of calculation loops to allow the noise and washout filters to stabilise before starting to export data. The main function buttons on the driver will remain disabled until the loops have been executed.

PitchStart=127   For Rig_Type=0 initial positions for cues on a 1-255 scale whilst driver stabilises, for Rig_Type=1 the

RollStart=127     midpositions of actuators 1, 2 & 3.

HeaveStart=127

PITCH CUE SETTINGS (See the pop-up tool tips in the driver P settings windows for more details)

FaScaleg=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw forward accelerations for pitch calcs - when aircraft is on the ground.

FaScalea=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw forward accelerations for pitch calcs - when aircraft is in the air.

TCfg=0.5 Time constant for low frequency isolation filter for forward acceleration tilt cue - when aircraft is on ground - secs/rad.

TCfa=0.5 Time constant for low frequency isolation filter for forward acceleration tilt cue - when aircraft is in air

FaCap=10.0 Cap level for scaled forward acceleration magnitude that will be processed for cue in m/s^2.

TCpa=0.0 Time constant for low pass filter to washout pitch accel part of cue in sec/rad.

RateP=1.0 Proportion of pitch angle to be added for pitch rate contribution.

TCpr=3.0 Time constant for high pass filter to washout pitch rate part of cue in sec/rad.

FAMax=1.0 +/- Pitch angle cue demand that will give full scale rotation of rig in radians.

FALim1=200 For Rig_Type=0 Lower bound of movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 the actuator working stroke length.

FALim2=100 For Rig_Type=0 Upper bound of movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 the %tage of stroke the pitch cue can use.

Pitch_Rev=1 Reverse pitch output sense, =0 No, =1 Yes

ROLL CUE SETTINGS (See the pop-up tool tips in the driver R settings windows for more details)

LaScaleg=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw lateral accelerations for roll calcs - when aircraft is on the ground.

LaScalea=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw lateral accelerations for roll calcs- when aircraft is in the air.

TCllg=0.5 Time constant for low frequency isolation filter for lateral acceleration tilt cue - when aircraft is on ground - secs/rad.

TClla=0.5 Time constant for low frequency isolation filter for lateral acceleration tilt cue - when aircraft is in air.

LaCap=10.0 Cap level for lateral acceleration magnitude that will be processed for cue in m/s^2.

TCla=0.0 Time constant for low pass filter to washout roll accel part of cue in sec/rad.

RateF=1.0 Proportion of pitch angle to be added for roll rate contribution.

TCpr=3.0 Time constant for high pass filter to washout roll rate part of cue in sec/rad.

LAMax=1.0 +/- Roll angle cue demand that will give full scale rotation of rig in radians.

LALim1=100 For Rig_Type=0 Lower bound of movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 the %tage of stroke the roll cue can use.

LALim2=50 For Rig_Type=0 Upper bound of movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 the %tage of stroke the heave cue can use.

Roll_Rev=1 Reverse roll output sense, =0 No, =1 Yes

HEAVE CUE SETTINGS (See the pop-up tool tips in the driver H settings windows for more details)

VaScaleg=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw vertical accelerations for heave calcs - when aircraft is on the ground.

VaScalea=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to raw vertical accelerations for heave calcs - when aircraft is in the air.

TCva=0.1 Time constant for initial low pass (smoothing) filter of vertical acceleration in sec/rad.

VaPw=1.0 Exponential factor to be applied to accel values above 1.0m/s^2 to exaggerate response.

VaSat=10.0 Cap level for acceleration magnitude that will be processed for cue in m/s^2.

TCvp=5.0 Time constant for high pass filter to washout heave cue in sec/rad.

Turb_Scalea=0.0 Scaling factor to be applied to recorded light-turbulence heave accel in air.

Turb_Scaleg=1.0 Scaling factor to be applied to generated heave accel for runway rumble.

TCvf=0.1 Time constant for final low pass (smoothing) filter of heave cue in sec/rad.

VAMax=10.0 +/- Heave demand that will give full scale heave of rig (in accel units - m/s^2) set this to the same value as VaSat.

VALim1=10 For Rig_Type=0 Lower bound of heave movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 the %tage of stroke length of the start/hold position.

VALim2=000 For Rig_Type=0 Upper bound of heave movement range within the 1-255 scale, for Rig_Type=1 this MUST be left at 000.

[NOTE when Rig_Type=0 setting VALim1 and VALim2 to the same value is a special case for 2 DOF independent actuator platforms. This special case setting mixes some of the otherwise unused heave cue into the pitch and roll axes to allow some heave effects such as touch-down bumps to be felt in a 2 DOF platform with no heave axis. The value of VALim1 sets the percentage of the heave cue which will be add to the pitch and roll axes, so should be in the range 0-100.

Heave_Rev=0 Reverse output sense, =0 No, =1 Yes.

RUNWAY HEAVE EFFECTS SETTINGS

The runway heave motion is generated from two superimposed sine waves. The combination of slow and fast sine waves can be configured using these parameters. The overall effect is scaled using the Turb_Scaleg parameter in the Heave settings section. The notional unit of the wave amplitude is m/s^2 and the resulting value is added to the actual heave acceleration which is used for the heave cue.

RW_Amp_3=0.0 Slow acceleration sine wave amplitude at takeoff speed m/s^2.

RW_CPS_3=0.75 Slow sine wave frequency at takeoff speed - in cycles per second (Hz).

RW_Amp_1=1.0 Fast acceleration sine wave max amplitude m/s^2, set a very small value to effectively disable if platform does not have good high freq response.

RW_Dia=0.5 Wheel Diameter for Fast Wave Frequency - m, set at unrealistically large dia to simulate centerline bumps.

RW_Tos=100.0 Reference take-off speed for calcs - knots.

HOT KEY/BUTTON SETTINGS

Key_Kill=Esc     Kill, Prefix, Drive and Hold hot keys. The drive and hold hot keys require the "Prefix" key to be held down
Key_Prefix=\   at the same time to operate
Key_Drive=d
Key_Hold=h

Joy_But=1    Joystick number for driver remote control buttons, =0 to disable, otherwise set to joystick number on system

But_Kill=2      Kill, Drive and Hold joystick buttons, set any =0 to disable it (these are active only if Joy_But is non-zero)
But_Drive=11
But_Hold=10

MISCELLANEOUS SETTINGS

MD_Delay=10    Motion Drive data loop sleep time in ms.

itrace=0  Trace Output, =0 no output, =1 raw accels & final cues, =2 heave cue calc outputs, =3 pitch cue calc outputs, =4 roll cue calc outputs. Use for setup purposes only - do not leave on - the processing will eventually grind to a halt as it tries to store all the data.

Use_Bool=1 Flag to indicate whether Booleans are needed, =0 No, =1 Yes, setting to 0 will reduce the processing load slightly (non LAN operation only).

PortS=48001 For Remote version, Receiving Port on this machine, defaults to 48001 (for MSFS or X-Plane LAN comms).

IPAddress=192.168.1.68  IP Address of this machine on the LAN.

vis_fname=vis.cfg The name of the visual system motion driver config file to use with this set up - must be in the same directory.

Use_Yaw=0 Use Yaw acceleration instead of heave? =0 No, =1 Yes. For MSFS version only.
 

Use_Joy=0     Use Joystick input for motion input? =0 No, =joystick number for Yes, eg =1 =2 =3 etc. If active the full range joystick movement will produce +/- 10m/s^2 forward, lateral and heave accelerations which will be used as the input accelerations for the motion cue calculations. This feature MUST be used with correctly configured cue settings, the driver will adjust scaling settings internally however check the output using the cue progress bars before using this feature with a live platform drive.

 

MD_Delay=10  Motion driver data loop sleep time in ms. This can be used to adjust the balance between motion driver loop time and CPU utilisation of the driver process. Set =0 to allow the driver process to run at maximum speed. If the PC spec is good enough this will cause MS9/X driver to run up to the frame rate of the flight sim, but with a consequent increase in CPU load. Specifying a delay time will potentially slow the loop time but will also reduce CPU load. If there is significant conflict between the driver and FSX CPU utilisation then it may be better to run the motion driver on a LAN PC.

 

Priority=Normal  Motion driver process priority. This provides a further setting which may be used to adjust CPU access for the driver when running on the same PC as the flight simulator to affect running smoothness.

 

Scope_Mode=0  By actuator or by DOF scope output, =0 by dof, =1 by actuator.

 


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