Boeing E-3A simulator

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ZeroAltitude
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Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ZeroAltitude » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:39 pm

Yours truly is just about to finish work on a software module that will be part of a brand-new simulator for the Boeing E-3A.
http://www.e3a.nato.int/html/skywatch/S ... 010_18.pdf (see last article on the cover page)
They (CAE) have purchased the cockpit section of a commercial Boeing 727 that was stored in some desert boneyard (claiming it is identical to a 707/E-3A cockpit section), they get a set of original cockpit instruments from NATO, and are assembling the cockpit in an old factory near Aachen/Germany (it will eventually be moved to Geilenkirchen airbase, a few miles north of Aachen).
Amazing technologies used for these oldish instruments that have to be driven by computer signals now, and an awful lot of custom engineering that goes into the design of this unique simulator.
I'm trying to get a set of photos of the sim once it's near completion, and I hope they'll remember I swapped several good ideas I had for them for a free simulator ride in the completed rig.
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby flyboy2548m » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:52 pm

I remember reading that it takes more than five hundred lines of code just to simulate an aircraft battery.
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ZeroAltitude
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ZeroAltitude » Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:22 pm

I remember reading that it takes more than five hundred lines of code just to simulate an aircraft battery.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were much more than that. Think temperature, ambient pressure, maybe vibration as factors that have to be taken into account.
I'm afraid I will never see those parts of the code since I believe it's a well-kept secret of the manufacturer of the sim.

Note to ITS: Parts of the code is actually in FORTRAN.
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ocelot » Fri Nov 12, 2010 10:30 am

500 lines of code isn't really very much. Just the code for talking to a real battery in a laptop is more than that. 5000 is probably more reasonable for modeling a battery, although it depends heavily on what generic facilities the battery code can make use of. I'd guess the whole simulator is probably on the order of 500,000 lines, possibly more.

(these guesses are good only to the nearest order of magnitude and are void where prohibited by law)

AndyToop
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby AndyToop » Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:11 pm

500 lines of code isn't really very much. Just the code for talking to a real battery in a laptop is more than that. 5000 is probably more reasonable for modeling a battery, although it depends heavily on what generic facilities the battery code can make use of. I'd guess the whole simulator is probably on the order of 500,000 lines, possibly more.

(these guesses are good only to the nearest order of magnitude and are void where prohibited by law)
Still think you might be out by at least one order of magnitude.

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ZilogMan
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ZilogMan » Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:23 am

500 lines of code isn't really very much. Just the code for talking to a real battery in a laptop is more than that. 5000 is probably more reasonable for modeling a battery, although it depends heavily on what generic facilities the battery code can make use of. I'd guess the whole simulator is probably on the order of 500,000 lines, possibly more.

(these guesses are good only to the nearest order of magnitude and are void where prohibited by law)
I code in Assembler. My programs are running in highly secure custom cores and I find your estimations quite high. I do control ALL parameters on multiple LiIon cells with roughly 500 to 600 instructions (no macros here, 1 ASM instruction = 1 line of code)...
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flyboy2548m
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby flyboy2548m » Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:08 pm

Calutron.
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ocelot
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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ocelot » Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:00 am

(these guesses are good only to the nearest order of magnitude and are void where prohibited by law)
Still think you might be out by at least one order of magnitude.
yeah, probably. I think I was thinking modeling and forgetting about graphics...

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Re: Boeing E-3A simulator

Postby ocelot » Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:03 am

I code in Assembler. My programs are running in highly secure custom cores and I find your estimations quite high. I do control ALL parameters on multiple LiIon cells with roughly 500 to 600 instructions (no macros here, 1 ASM instruction = 1 line of code)...
Yeah, that's the same "more than 500 lines for talking to a battery" that I said above... the driver I was looking at was written in C, but it probably does somewhat more (e.g. interface to user battery monitor displays and whatnot).


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