position keeper status button

[john9001]

what exactly does the position keeper status button do?

running SH4 wolves of pacific vanilla. auto TDC.

[Platapus]

Welcome aboard!

I don't know the effect of running auto targeting has on the PK, but in manual targeting, the indicator button/light is how you turn the position tracking capability on and off. The PK is separate from the TDC and in some cases you may choose not to use the PK or you may want to use the PK. This button gives you that control.

So if you switch targets or your target makes a course/speed change, you can toggle it off (to clear) and on again to start tracking based on the new data you input.

[TorpX]

what exactly does the position keeper status button do?

running SH4 wolves of pacific vanilla. auto TDC.

I'm not sure about how the PK works in auto-TDC mode, but in real life, the TDC was really two electro-machanical computers that worked in tandem. One was the Position Keeper, which tracked the target's movements based on observed inputs. The other was the Angle Solver, which computed a firing solution, based on the target data passed over from the PK. The RL TDC was more complicated than what we have in-game, and the ability to 'turn off' the PK allows us to manipulate the TDC more than we could otherwise.

[Hinrich Schwab]

The position keeper works the same way with automatic targeting as it does with manual. The obvious benefit is continuous tracking of the target without the need to expose the periscope for observations, assuming no aspect change from the target during the track. Whether one uses automatic or manual targeting, the same procedures are followed to correct a track in the position keeper once a change is observed.