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An alarm clock, seriously

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An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Jabberwocky » Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:57 am

Hi,

okay, it's too late for 3.2, but what would be nice would be an alarm clock, you can hang on a waypoint and, when the plane reaches the waypoint, makes a hell of a noise, like those old mechanical alarm clocks or so (everything but the sound of master alarm).
For the background: I do some testing and I have a plane in the air, but I am busy on another computer while the autopilot is at work. But it could be also helpful for our long-haulers.

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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Hooray » Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:00 am

Jabberwocky wrote in Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:57 am:what would be nice would be an alarm clock, you can hang on a waypoint and, when the plane reaches the waypoint, makes a hell of a noise, like those old mechanical alarm clocks or so (everything but the sound of master alarm).


That should be less than 20 lines of Nasal code, and should require less than 20 minutes to implement, maybe 1 hour if you have never done any programming before.
Keep in mind, such things are not hard-coded, there's a scripting language in FlightGear, and it can access the route manager, including flight plans, we also have a timer/clock dialog, and even a dedicated timer API - and there are also ways to play sounds - see for example the tutorial system (100% scripted), or ATC chatter (also 100% scripted).
So all the ingredients are in place, you just need to combine them. Working on such a feature is possible without being bound by the release plan at all.
We can walk you through everything during a single weekend.
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Jabberwocky » Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:07 am

Okay, okay, I will take a look when UI have more time, after the next book. Hey, want to hear something weird? I downloaded FG to overcome my fear of lying during the usual writer stucks ...
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Hooray » Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:14 am

This tells you how to run scripted code in FlightGear: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Nasal_Console

This demonstrates how to use timers to regularly run a piece of code to check some condition: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Nasal_Loops

$FG_ROOT/Nasal/geo.nas contains library code to deal with distance/bearing calculations, i.e. to determine how close you are to a certain location

This introduces the route manager/flightplan API: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Nasal_Flightplan

This tells you how to turn your script into a file that can be saved on disk that is loaded automatically:
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Nasal_Hello_World
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Creating_new_Nasal_scripts
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby legoboyvdlp » Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:08 am

This would seriously be good, especially if it would alert you at a TOD calculated by a formula based on your altitude speed and distance.
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Foxtrot15 » Tue May 17, 2016 11:38 am

Hmm is this alarm clock still in the making?
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Thorsten » Tue May 17, 2016 12:03 pm

The Space Shuttle has plenty of time-related functions on the SPEC 2 display (count for <seconds>, count to <time>, adjust time offsets,...) as well as automatic timers for pre-programmed OMS burns and attitude maneuvers using this functionality - feel free to utilize for your needs.
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby daveculp » Tue May 17, 2016 3:45 pm

I've seen pilots bring egg timers with them for this purpose. You use the timer to warn of an impending way point crossing and also to mark the waypoint+10 minute point so that the position can be plotted on a chart (this is to verify that the aircraft made the proper course change after the waypoint). You place the timer on the dash in front of your face.
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Re: An alarm clock, seriously

Postby Hooray » Tue May 17, 2016 4:10 pm

there is a timer GUI dialog (PUI), it should be straightforward to take that and adapt it for your needs, or even make it use Canvas instead - which means that an actual skin/theme could be used as a background image
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