Custom Light Flash Patterns

Introduction

Within Nova, the user can create custom light flash patterns applicable to moving model and ownship anti collision lights. These patterns are defined in a configuration file and then enabled via CIGI by specifying the light and the flash pattern type. The light will continually flash with the commanded pattern sequence until disabled or changed.

Configuration

Flash patterns are defined in a .csv file with the following format.

ID,Ramp Up,On,Ramp Down,Off

Each ID can have multiple lines to create a more complicated flash pattern. The pattern cycles through all lines of the given ID before repeating. Sending an ID of 0, disables the flash pattern for that particular light.

CODE

1,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.65
2,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.65
2,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.35
3,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.65
3,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.65
3,0.05,0.2,0.025,0.35

The .csv file is loaded in the system by specifying the path with the following configuration token. This token is added to the CIGI configuration file.

FlashPatternFile <light_pattern_file>.csv

Ownship Anticollision Flash Pattern

The following token need to be set in the ownship model’s fx file to enable the flash pattern feature for ownship anti collision lights.

CODE

BOOL ANTICOL_MANUAL_MODE_0  TRUE
BOOL ANTICOL_MANUAL_MODE_1  TRUE
BOOL ANTICOL_MANUAL_MODE_2  TRUE

Moving Model Flash Pattern

Flash patterns are supported with air, ground and sea moving model types that use light groups as their lights. Flash pattern logic is not supported for the built in air entity light groups such as position_wing_lts, position_tail_lts, anticol_bottom_lts, etc. Support for these light groups will be added in the future.

It is important to note that the flash pattern logic uses the per entity light_group_intensity fields so it relies on the use of the following system token. This token remaps the specified lightgroups defined in the model’s .db file to the light_group_intensity fields.

CODE

LightGroupPerEntityDimming ON

The remapping is handled by the following token and file.

CODE

LightGroupControlTable COMMON\RELEASE\V1\DB\DB_MOVING_MODELS\CONTROLS_DEFINITIONS\LIGHT_GROUPS_CONTROLS_DEFINITIONS.csv

CIGI Control

To enable the flash pattern on a light group the following Component Control Packet needs to be sent with a Component Class of Entity (0).

Instance ID	Comp ID	Description	Control Parameter
0 (Ownship)	0xAE1B (44571)	Flash Pattern controlling the first bit of ownship_lights.anticol (top)	Comp Data (0) as unsigned long
		Flash Pattern controlling the second bit of ownship_lights.anticol (bottom)	Comp Data (1) as unsigned long
		Flash pattern controlling the third bit of ownship_lights.anticol (strobe)	Comp Data (2) as unsigned long
CIGI Entity ID	0xAE1B (44571)	Flash Pattern ID	Comp State
CIGI Entity ID	0xAE1B (44571)	Light Group	Comp Data (0) as unsigned long