AV-8B Helios

Im putting Ikarus on my weekend to do list. Has anyone done a comparison between helios and Ikarus? Is one easier to deal with. Ive been able to get Helios running mainly from Capt Zeens profiles. When I have to make my own Im stuck. Looking for an easier method.

2 different animals. Quite some time ago I struggled with Ikarus, likely due to my monitor arrangement. I never resolved it. I will be making another attempt for the Harrier profile though,,, that will start sometime next week though. Good luck to you, might be a learning curve, but likely well worth the effort.

Hi,

currently I run Helios on a second machine and I began a migration for the AV-8B this weekend. Unfortunately the second machine requirement meant that I could not use SICARIO's profile because it uses the keyboard interface.

Thankfully Gadroc made Helios source available on GitHub, so I now have a VERY basic AV-8B Interface working in Helios, however the one significant item I cannot figure out is how to get the indicators & gauges exported so that the AV-8B interface can have indicators bound to them.

Does anyone know how to export AV-8B gauges & indicators, or if not, does anyone have any suggestions how to progress this? At the moment I would settle for the Master Warning & Caution and the warnings/cautions.

My guess is that this is difference between RAZBAM & DCS aircraft because it is a pretty straight forward thing to do with DCS aircraft.

Anyway, any help / suggestions would be most welcome.

You should pm Capt Zeen. He gave a friend some help on his MiG 21 Helios profile. (It's awesome BTW!) And got all the Gauges working.

He doesn't have the AV8B, But maybe he can get you Started in the right direction? Or if you gift him a Harrier maybe he'll write the export.lua code?

Sent from my Moto Z Play using Tapatalk

Snacko, Thanks for the ptr to Capt Zeen. The MiG-21 isn't by Razbam so I suspect that it'll be a different story again. I did see that Cylution did a partial Helios interface for the MiG-21 so there maybe some clues there.

Since posting, I stuck a UDP listener on the port and started to get some values. Finding the lights test switch was a big win, so I'm sure I can eventually flush out all the codes and identify the indicators. There are also lots of changing decimal values which I'm guessing are gauges, but that will take a lot more time to decode. I have also been sniffing through the AV-8B LUA files, and I have regrettably concluded that all of these values are not externalised anywhere.

If there is any kind Razbam forum member lurking, I'd really appreciate a list of codes for indicators & gauges if you're feeling generous ;-).

So I have a way forward now - albeit a slow one - so the next step is to finish off the AV8B Interface in Helios which will include all of the items that I personally need to use. My plan is to contribute it back into Gadroc's project, but after that, I do not know how I would make it available if another version of Helios is not released... Something to consider assuming there is interest from anyone else.

I thought the main complexity is not in Helios but in the export.lua that sits behind helios. I went through mine and Cpt Zeen made all sorts of updates in there to make it work. That is where I take a header. I looked at Ikarus and it only really works if you use a single monitor for the interface. We with Lilliput monitors cant use that.

Hi gunterlund21,

Thanks for the pointer to Capt Zeen. The exports file is important in the process, but the data then needs to be bound inside of Helios and the cleanest way to do this is with an interface for the specific aircraft. I guess you could do translations in the exports.lua to map AV8B codes to A10C codes and then use the A10C Interface in Helios, but this would cause a lot of work in the exports.lua, and limit helios processing to the functions that are implemented for A-10C. Since the code is open source, it seems easier to implement a new interface in helios and keep the export as simple as possible.

I have been able to identify 84 indicators for the AV-8B, but I only know what a handful of them do. Next step is prototype the Master Caution and Master Warning indicators but I'm hopeful.

i wish I could help you, but thats all well beyond my payscale Im sorry to say. I would very much be interested in a Helios Profile for the Harrier. I recently got a hold of a beta release for Ikarus and finally got it working, I just have some tinkering to do. I am a long time user of Helios, new to Ikarus. I always follow this thread. I will help when I can contribute anything. Good luck sir.

I thought I'd give a brief update on where I'm up to. There is some good and not so good news.

Firstly I should state that my intention is not to tease you and then take something away. If you're wanting a virtual cockpit for the Harrier, then Ikarus is really your only sensible option and from what I've seen, Heinz has done a great job. I've pushed forwards with Helios more out of technical curiosity than anything else. I just want to give you the facts.

I think I'm about 80% complete on the what I set out to achieve with the AV-8B Helios interface. I'm thinking that there are a few esoteric things that I'm simply not going to implement, but I'm pretty much complete with most panels, and it is flyable and stable with the Helios Control Center. I've still got minor bugs to fix but everything is looking good at the moment.

Now the not so good news. My experience of the Helios Profile Editor from the open source repository is that for me, it isn't particularly stable, and I regularly have to delete the layout file to gain access to sub-panels. I also occasionally have to tinker with the XML in the profile to work around problems. I've got used to it, but I can imagine that the issues might cause problems for many. I'm not an experienced c# programmer so I'd not going to be in a position to resolve problems with the profiler - it is what it is. I should state that this is not intended as a criticism of Craig Courtney's work. He did an awesome job with Helios and the open source version has a few issues which is probably why it never got released.

I have two additional points to this update. Firstly, I want to gauge the level of interest from the forum for having a beta version of the interface at a point when I've run out of steam. My view is that the interface (and my default profile) will never reach a point when it is "production ready" standard. I will also not be able to deliver the new Helios as an installable package, so anything I provide will be on an as-is basis, and while I will attempt to assist with any problems with the interface I've added, I unlikely to be able to help with Helios problems. Basically, I'm saying that IF I provide something, you'll need to have some experience of tinkering with Windows software to get it working.

Secondly, I wanted to ask whether there is any interest in me creating a video of what the interface is and does.... again not trying to tease... just wanted to ask the question to avoid effort on my part if there is no interest.

I'm interested to know your thoughts/interest.

Cheers, Neil

Neil, I am interested in this profile. I don't have many problems using the Helios Editor for the simple tweaks that I have done. Also the video would be nice. And even just a screenshot of what you have now.

I am interested myself in getting my hands on anything I can use for the Harrier on my touch screen, Helios or Ikarus. I have neither for the Harrier at the moment. Many thanks for your contributions.

And now the video.....

OK... sorry for the delay, but things rather busy at work. I set myself a target to get this video published before the F/A-18C shows up... only just made it.

If this does not work (and it didn't for me), then the link is

Please let me know what you think!

Link is broke

Link is broke

Apologies for the first video link in the post not working. I'd messed up the YouTube tagging. Should be sorted now.

No need to apologize, was just pointing it out. Nice work by the way. Are you planning on releasing this soon?

BluFin nice work on this. Are the MFD's separate graphics. That way we could use them on a 10 inch touch screen. Keep up the great work

BluFin, you asked whether there would be any interest in a “beta” version of your Harrier Helios set-up. There would be considerable interest from me. I am in the process of putting togther a very unaesthetic setup for my own use, but yours puts mine to shame.

I use Helios for A-10C, P-52, L-39, F-86, and Huey, in addition to my “poor-mans “ Harrier.

I await your efforts with considerable anticipating

Are the MFD's separate graphics. That way we could use them on a 10 inch touch screen. Keep up the great work

Hi Gunterlund,

The MFD screens are just holes in the helios panel for the exported screens to show through. They are not really part of the profile set-up at all (just the frames, knobs and buttons). You can still export the screens anywhere you like. I happen to use Will Hartsell's IRIS to move my exported screens to the machine running Helios, but I'm sure there are other options. If you're seeing MFD's on your 10" today, the exact same mechanism should work.

So when will you likely be distributing this? Thanks

Hi Gunterlund,

 

The MFD screens are just holes in the helios panel for the exported screens to show through. They are not really part of the profile set-up at all (just the frames, knobs and buttons). You can still export the screens anywhere you like. I happen to use Will Hartsell's IRIS to move my exported screens to the machine running Helios, but I'm sure there are other options. If you're seeing MFD's on your 10" today, the exact same mechanism should work.

Sound interesting. All I need is a 15 button panel that I can lay into my 19 inch monitor Im golden. I already have the vid ported to the small monitor.

Hi Gunterlund, It would have been nice if Razbam had used the same codes for the MFCD's that DCS did, but they didn't. While I was not planning to provide separate MFCD's, it is similar to some other tidy up activities that I need to do so I'll see what I can come up with.

Im the guy in the corner waving hello,,, LOL

Hi Fakum, I'm deliberately avoiding your question ;-) There is a big difference between me using the code and other. I'm able to overlook all the iffy stuff I've done, but I can't inflict it on others.

GunterLund, Don't let Fakum see this, it delayed getting the whole thing ready for release.... :music_whistling:

BlueFinBima, Im well aware that you were dodging me LOL, I had no clue as to why though? Im not very intelligent, so for the life of me, I have no idea what you mean exactly? As far as I can tell, Gadroc created this wonderful tool, and he eventually through it up for grabs, every man for himself. Since then, many of us have been dabbling and sharing our developments to all those who are interested. As far as I see, if anyone creates or modifies any profiles, they are free to share. In addition, the OP shared his and I of the opinion he would not mind if anyone would improve/update or create a new profile. With that being said, I view this thread as a community sharing of Helios Profiles for the Harrier. I apologize if I seem to be overlooking the obvious.