A320FBW loses Ext PWR when opening charts from panel

Well, this is one of the most weird issues I’ve encounter with MSFS so far and I have no idea where to begin.

I’m standing at the gate with my A320FBW dev version, with the internal power turned on (default).
My Navigraph icon in the panel is the sixth one from the left. When i click it and the chart opens up, ext power goes of, repeateadly. I’ve tested not to open the panel and I then can continue doing my checklist, planning for the route by using the external Charts-app.

Can someone check this. It could as well be a FBW issue, I have no idea.

Mats

Hello! Thanks for the feedback!

Hmm, that sounds very peculiar. I can’t think of anything we intentionally have in the panel that would cause this!

Which simulator are you using? I can try to reproduce the situation!

Kind Regards,
Malte

Hi Malte
It’s all in my post.
Mats

No, it is not. Please specify which simulator you are using - MSFS 2020 or MSFS2024.

Kind Regards,
Malte

Ok it’s MSFS 2020. And for what it’s worth, it does not happen in PMDG 737.

Thank you! I am not able to reproduce. Am I doing something different and/or incorrect in this video? Toward the end, I am toggling the panel with the keyboard shortcut.

Kind Regards,
Malte

  • Have the ext pwr turned on from the beginning
  • Sign in to Navigraph so that the large map is shown.

How do you configure a keyboard shortcut to open the panel?

Mats

All right, I will also try to sign in and turn on the external power! You mention here that you are on internal power, default state?

I’ll load into the sim, enable the external power in the overhead and open my (signed in) Charts panel.

You can’t configure it through the simulator, you’d have to change one of the installed files! The default is Ctrl + N.

To change it, open navigraph-ingamepanels-charts\html_ui\InGamePanels\NavigraphPanel\NavigraphPanel.js in a text editor!

You can find valid values for "shortcutKey" by visiting https://keyjs.dev/, type the letter you want and check e.keyCode in the result.

Kind Regards,
Malte

Unfortunately, same result. External power remains connected:

Ok thanks a lot so far Malte
I’ll get back after checking out that keyboard shortcut and also I will vary the size of the Nav map.

Mats

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What is actually happen is that expanding the map turns off the ground connection.
So turn on the the ground power (EFB), then click ext pwr in the upper panel then click on the nav icon in the panel.
I’m also using the the SAS livery (SE-ROJ). In this “impossible” issue everything can matter.

I haven’t tested the keyboard shorcut way of opening the panel as it doesn’t seem to matter HOW the panel opens. And BTW the navig icon is No 7 from the left, not six.

Mats

I’m sorry, I can’t reproduce this issue.

In this video I am using SE-ROJ, with the Navigraph toolbar icon in the same place. GPU is connected and external power activated, and opening the panel has no side effects!

However, your video shows an “Outdated aircraft version” in your EFB. Mine does not, so I am likely on a newer version? Regardless, I am not able to reproduce the issue still. Peculiar indeed, but I don’t see how it would be a Navigraph issue…

Kind Regards,
Malte

Well of course it has to do with navigraph as only navg icon and navg map are involved in combination with A320FBW and maybe MSFS BUT who is responsible is someting else. A click on any other icon in the panel works.

This is my story step by step (with latest dev version)
Ground connection to ext power is on by default so
1 When I start i click on ext pwr in the upper panel
2 Turn on FP and battery
3 Open Navg map from the panel, everything works
4 EFB: Turning off ground pwr unit connection and then turn it on
5 Click on ext pwr in upper panel
6 Open Navg map from the panel , and there we are, ground pwr unit connection is broken

Please try this

Correlation does not equal causation. Given that I am not able to reproduce the issue despite the detailed reproduction steps leads me to believe that this is likely a case of the former, not necessarily the latter!

One sneaky suspicion I have is that this could be related to another weird bug where clicking outside of the panel registers as if you clicked inside of it during certain scenarios. We have several such cases documented on this forum, but we are powerless when it comes to fixing it since it is a simulator bug.

I can’t think of any other relations between your button press and the GPU being disconnected - there is no reasonable connection between the two. The buttons that you are pressing (toolbar icon, min/maximize/close etc.) are also out of our control - they are provided and controlled by the simulator!


Thank you for the detailed steps! I have run through them multiple times, and I have not been able to reproduce the issue. One thing I noticed was that at one point when leaving the EFB screen quickly with my cursor, one of the options remained highlighted as if the cursor was still on the screen hovering it. This did not affect the outcome, however.

Weird (and annoying) issue indeed, but it seems to be isolated to your setup somehow. I have followed your videos and your written steps exactly, and I have yet to reproduce the situation once. It could be related to performance, other addons, drivers, anything!

From FBWs perspective, they could perhaps track down the source of the GPU disconnect event. Was it disconnected due to the button in the EFB being pressed? Or something else? I’d bet that they receive a “click” event on that button, resulting in a disconnect. Unfortunately, investigating that is not simple and beyond what I can provide, but perhaps someone in the FBW team could help you out?

Kind Regards,
Malte

“Correlation does not equal causation.”
I agree, that’s what I meant when saying that who is responsible is not known. The click on the icon is involved but still what exactly causes the ext pwr to go off is not known, it could as well be FBW or MSFS as well.

Ok Malte, many thanks for this so far. And yes, as things are happeing in their (FBW) code domain hopefully they should be able to debug it. IF they can reproduce it.

I’ll get back if I find a solution.

Mats

You’re welcome! It is peculiar indeed, and I know there has been one previous similar case where opening our panel caused the fuel mixture to be pulled or something like that. I can’t find it now, but it was equally puzzling, and no solution was found…

I’m crossing my fingers, hoping that FBW can help investigate this further! Yeah, the reproduction part is a bit tricky indeed… :sweat_smile:

I wish you the best of luck, and we would definitely appreciate it if you let us know if/when you find a solution!

Trevlig kväll!

Malte

FYI

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