RKG_fuelstat.gau
August 01, 2002   version 2.0
by Robert K. Guy

What's New
__________
V2.0 now runs under Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and is designed for FS2002 only.

This version (V2.0) is a drop-in replacement for previous versions of the
gauge - it will not break a panel designed for a previous version.  The gauge
operation is identical to previous versions.  The name of the gauge may
have to be changed if the designer of a panel has changed the name.  It is
usually only necessary to put the gauge in the gauges folder overwriting
any previous version of the gauge.  If the designer of the panel has
customized this gauge by changing any of the bitmaps then the bitmaps
in this version will need to be similarly changed.


This gauge may work with FS2000 and CFS2 but it has not been fully tested.


The Gauge
_________
This is a fuelstatus gauge for FS2002 and Win98/ME/2000/XP. There is another
'famous brand' gauge that is similar but it does not support FS2000/FS2002
type aircraft.  This gauge is entirely original and only visually
resembles that gauge.  This gauge contains no funky code that prevents
you from playing with it. You may rename it or replace or modify the
graphics.  All of the bitmaps used are opaque and the gauges may be
placed on any background bitmap.


OPERATION OF THE GAUGE
______________________
AIRSPEED/GROUNDSPEED
The airspeed gauge will change its' units of display when left-clicked.
The display is initially Knots and changes to MPH then KPH then back
to Knots on each click.  This applies to the stand-alone gauge and the
airspeed gauge that appears in some of the fuelstatus gauges.
The airspeed value is TAS or IAS and dependent on the realism settings.
The groundspeed value is true groundspeed in the forward direction.
The groundspeed value is not reliable while on the ground.

FUELSTATUS
The gauge has on the left top a low-fuel indicator that indicates the
Microsoft FS2000 low-fuel status.  It flashes red then turns solid red
driven by the built-in FS2000 code.  I haven't been able to confirm
what MS thinks is a low-fuel condition.  It seems to be arbitrary.

On the top left is a units indicator light.  You can left click it to
change the units used in the display.  When green it uses US/English
units and when yellow it uses Metric units.

On the bottom of the gauge are the following indicators/buttons:
FLOW  : fuelflow
REM   : remaining fuel
USED  : fuel used so far
TtoE  : time to empty in hours:mins
RNG   : range (until empty)

Units used:
GPH - gallons per hour
PPH - pounds per hour
LPH - liters per hour
KgH - kilograms per hour
GAL - gallons
LBS - pounds
L   - liters
Kg  - kilograms
KN  - nautical miles
MI  - US miles
Knt - Knots
MPH - miles per hour
KM  - kilometers
KPH - kilometers per hour

Left clicking a button lights it up and indicates what is being
displayed on the gauge.  Some of the buttons can be clicked again to
change what is being displayed.  Click again to change the color of
the indicator and the display changes as follows:


           units=green (US)             units=yellow (METRIC)
         ___________________            ____________________
button   green        yellow            green         yellow
     ____________________________________________________________
FLOW      GPH          PPH               LPH           KgPH

REM       GAL          LBS                L             Kg

USED      GAL          LBS                L             Kg

NOTE: You can right click the USED button to reset used fuel to 0.
      You could use this feature to measure fuel use over a flight
      segment.  The fuel used calculation takes into account the
      addition of fuel.  If you use the Aircraft|Fuel menu to add fuel
      (or any other method) the gauge will continue to add to
      fuel used.  If you land and refuel, for example, the fuel used
      quantity will not be reset - it will continue to add up resulting
      in a fuel used value greater than the total fuel capacity of the
      aircraft.  If you change aircraft inside the simulation to an
      aircraft containing this gauge in a panel, the gauge is freshly
      installed and the fuel used is set to 0.


TtoE   Time to empty does not change when clicked.


RANGE: The distance displayed is range until empty based on current
       speed and fuel consumption.  No assumption is made in
       consideration of lower fuel use during descent, approach and
       landing.  The groundspeed values are true groundspeed in the
       forward direction.  The groundspeed values are not reliable
       while on the ground.

      units=green (US)
      green        yellow       blue                  red
    ________________________________________________________________
RNG    KN            MI         Knt (groundspeed)     MPH (groundspeed)


      units=yellow (METRIC)
      green        yellow       blue                  red
    ________________________________________________________________
RNG    KN            KM         Knt (groundspeed)     KPH (groundspeed)


NOTE: When the low-fuel light is red, when FS2002 signals a low-fuel
      state, the color of the display will change to orange.
      REM (remaining fuel), TtoE (time to empty) and RNG (range) will
      change color.



A NOTE
______

This gauge was tested with WinXP with service pack 1 and Q306676 hot-fix
from Microsoft which includes a new D3D8.dll for Windows DirectDraw3D.
The Q306676 may not be required for all installations and fixes some Video
card related problems.  The Q306676 hot-fix is available from the WinXP
update site at Microsoft.com.  This gauge was tested with NVidia geForce2
and geForce4 video cards.

The behavior of the previous version (V1.0) of this gauge has been fixed.
When the V1.0 gauge was run under WinXP and FS2002 it would cause FS2002 to
abruptly close with no warning or error message.  This was apparently a
WinXP problem possibly related to the inclusion of debugging info and
exception handling code in WinXP.  This gauge now includes exception handling
code which makes it somewhat larger and unnecessarily complicated but does
not seem to slow down FS2002.


Copyright 2002 Robert K. Guy.
You may not make money with this gauge in any way whatsoever but you
may freely distribute this gauge with any panel you design that is
exclusively freeware.  You are also free to upload this gauge to any
other FS site that does not charge a fee for access or for downloads.

This is Freeware.

Bob Guy
[email protected]