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6B. "Easy" Cue Settings Windows

In V3.30+ changes have been made to the five small buttons provided - P, R, H, Y and M plus the Adv. checkbox to open the settings windows for the Pitch/Surge, Roll/Sway, Yaw and Heave degrees of freedom and the range utilisation proportions.

When the Adv. (advanced) checkbox is clear (default) the P, R, H & Y buttons will open "Easy" cue settings windows which provide sliders to adjust the key settings for each cue.

When the Adv. checkbox is ticked the cue settings windows show the numerical cue parameters to allow more advanced adjustment and tuning.

IMPORTANT - hold the mouse over each setting to show a detailed pop-up tool tip for that setting.

P button - Pitch & Surge

QUICK DESCRIPTION   PS1: Pitch/Surge Acceleration Frequency Split High frequency components of forward acceleration are used to drive the surge cue, low frequencies drive the pitch tilt cue. This setting allows adjustment on the frequency split.   PS2: Pitch tilt sensitivity to vehicle acceleration This is the main pitch tilt component scaling - it generates a tilt to simulate the strength of the vehicle fore/aft acceleration. With PS3: washout rate - to adjust how quickly the tilt washes out to zero when acceleration is sustained.   PS4: Pitch tilt sensitivity to vehicle pitch angle This component is used to add an element of pitching motion to the cue when the vehicle pitch angle is changing. With PS5: washout rate adjustment.     PS6: Surge sensitivity to vehicle acceleration - this is the main surge scaling setting. With PS7: smoothing adjustment.   Note the surge cue will automatically washout to zero. This is a result of the frequency isolation filtering used in setting PS1.   Click Use to make settings changes active, and Save to save them to the config file.

R button - Roll and Sway

The Roll and Sway settings are very similar to the Pitch and Roll settings shown above. In the case of roll and sway it is vehicle lateral (sideways) accelerations that are used.

H button - Heave

QUICK DESCRIPTION   HS1: Heave acceleration smoothing filter. To apply noise filtering to the vertical acceleration used as input for the heave cue. The telemetry data can be noisy depending on the sim software.   HS2: Heave cue sensitivity to vehicle vertical acceleration - to scale the heave cue. With HS3: washout rate adjustment.     HS4: Heave cue final smoothing filter. To apply some final smoothing if required.     Click Use to make settings changes active, and Save to save them to the config file.

Y button - Yaw

QUICK DESCRIPTION     YS1: Yaw velocity smoothing filter. To apply noise filtering to the yaw velocity used as input for the yaw cue.   YS2: Yaw cue sensitivity to vehicle yaw velocity - to scale the yaw cue. With YS3: washout rate adjustment.       YS4: Yaw cue final smoothing filter. To apply some final smoothing if required.     Click Use to make settings changes active, and Save to save them to the config file.

Scope Buttons S1, S2 & S3

A useful way to visualise the effects of slider adjustments on the cue output is to use the oscilloscope buttons S1, S2 & S3. The changing behaviour of the cues as a result of slider adjustments can visualised in the scope window and so be assessed BEFORE the new settings are used with your LIVE platform drive.

The effects of the changes on the cues can also be checked by watching the cue progress bars on the main software window.

It is also recommended that the Disable check-boxes in the M (mix) window are used to disable all outputs other than the DOF being adjusted. This makes it much easier to assess the true effect of the slider adjustments being made.

Advanced Cue Settings

The "Easy" cue settings adjustments will apply to both the on-ground and in-air cue parameters equally. To make separate on-ground and in-air settings the Advanced settings windows must be used. To access the Advanced settings tick the Adv. checkbox next to the P, R, H & V buttons.

Important Flight Events

Setting the configuration parameters for the motion driver can take a fair bit of trial and error. You will get there quicker if you have good knowledge of the main driving/flight events that produce significant vehicle accelerations.

To assist in your set up activities here is a short list of the flight/driving events you may wish to consider. Some of these produce relatively small acceleration changes and the set up task may be one of finding a good balance between having sufficient sensitivity in the force cueing to be able to feel the events in the platform and having enough scaling not to loose lots of the higher magnitude acceleration changes.

The more moment range your platform has the easier this balancing act is.

My suggested list of key motion events is (covers both flying and driving)

Events affecting pitch motion of the platform:

1. Throttle-up on take-off or hard driving acceleration.

2. On-runway braking – when landing or general manoeuvring or general driving braking.

3. Significant throttle adjustments in flight – eg reducing speed on approach.

4. Flaps operations – decelerations when flaps are extended and accelerations when they are withdrawn (air braking and spoiler operations may be included here).

5. Pitch attitude changes at take-off rotation.

6. Pitch attitude changes on touchdown.

7. Pitch attitude changes during normal air manoeuvres or driving on significant gradients.

Items 1 to 4 affect the fore/aft force cue sensitivity and items 5 to 7 affect the pitch angle following sensitivity.

Events affecting the roll motion of the platform:

1. On-ground cornering – taxiing or fast cornering in car.

2. Lateral force impulses during flight turbulence or car on car sideways bumps.

3. Lateral force impulses during in-flight rudder adjustments.

4. Bank attitude changes on touchdown.

5. Bank attitude changes during normal air manoeuvres or driving on steep cambers.

Items 1 to 3 relate to lateral force cue sensitivity and items 4 & 5 to bank angle following sensitivity.

And events affecting the heave motion of the platform:

1. Lift-off accelerations.

2. Touch-down bumps.

3. Short term in-flight pitch adjustments.

4. Turbulence.

5. Off-runway excursions or driving off-road!

6. Runway roughness (difficult unless you have good high frequency response).

7. Driving fast on undulating tracks - can produce large heave movements.

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