Sitting at the gate, the gauges all go dead after a number of minutes while I'm setting up - presumably because the plane's battery gives out. I've added the 'electric_always_available=1' to the [electrical] section of the aircraft.cfg - but the power still goes off. Anyone know how to cure this?

Hi
The electrical system in FS9 is real buggy
If you have saved a senerio with an aircraft that has normal electical power then switch to an aircraft that has  electric_always_available 9 out of 10 times fs9 ingnors it.

Ive notced that when a battery go's flat it only drops to 16.9 volts so opening the aircrafts.cfg and looking for the electrical section you can drop the required voltage to a lower level here is an example that will do the same thing as electric_always_available and works 90% of the time    
[electrical]
gear_motor          = 4, 1 , 1
light_wing         = 0, 1 , 1
light_logo       = 0, 1 , 1
autopilot          = 0, 5 , 1
avionics_bus       = 4, 5,  1
avionics           = 1, 5 , 1
additional_system  = 2, 1,  1
marker_beacon      = 1, 1 , 1
gear_warning       = 0, 1 , 1
fuel_pump          = 0, 1 , 1
starter1           = 0, 1, 1
light_nav          = 0, 1 , 1
light_beacon       = 0, 1 , 1
light_landing      = 0, 1 , 1
light_taxi         = 0, 1 , 1
light_strobe       = 0, 1 , 1
light_panel        = 0, 1 , 1

also droping the ampage for which each entry uses will extened the life of the batt
1st # is the bus
2nd # volts
3rd# is amps
hope this helps
Wozza

microlight,

If you happen to be using the Matthias Liebrecht panel for the BAe 146-200 or the Avroliner.................. he emulated the electricl system outside the sim... and it matches the real battery life of the bird(s). 

The newest version of the panels have an APU... and you have to get that started.... or you have a total of about 20 minutes before things just die.  You can also get one of the engines with a gen running as another way to charge the batteries.  And he also has a GPU hookup if you are at a gate.

best,

...................john

John,

I use Matthias Lieberrecht's original cersion of the panel for the Avro, as the new one is just too hard on my FRs......