, but when I restart it, it retains the "full blast" settings from when it came up conventionally. Then I wind up having to reset the parameters I want.
That sounds like a weak battery that's not holding settings from startup-to-startup. PS2 engines need a strong battery to hold any changes that you make to their settings under DCS.
I suppose I could dial down the volume and smoke pots under the engine manually
That would only work when in conventional mode.
My other DCS engines exhibit this as well - I am unaware of any way to change this particular behavior.
All DCS engines will come up in conventional mode with sounds and smoke as per the pots under the engine. If all of your engines don't hold their DCS settings form startup-to-startup, I'd suspect that their batteries also are not sufficiently charged.
As long as they don't come up conventionally, they always hold their settings. Save for two PS2 engines, they are all PS3, so there's no battery to be concerned with anyway. The tech I talked to today did mumble something about the "super cap" and that they have had some recent issues, but then he got wrapped around "loose wires" and unseated pins/sockets. He might be right, but I think it's something else. I used to troubleshoot a lot of high end components, and this "feels" like a firmware thing to me. Maybe a bad board, but I don't know... I just have that vibe.
The thing is.. I know I can work around it at this point, but I want to SOLVE it; I'm just goofy that way. I like to tinker and I like to understand. I wish I had a more solid EE background sometimes. One thing I thought about was that the E-8's (and the F units) are kind of unique in that they have two engines but are not technically a lash-up. I have a lash-up that runs great, but it is a true lash-up. Could this be a contributing factor with the timing? Heck, now Im just grasping at straws
I need to chill out and see what MTH says. Hopefully I get a report back on what the issue actually was - I really want to know.
