TszChun.Anson

https://youtu.be/LX_BNFEjzME?t=4681

November 6, 2018

10 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

I don't know what sort of coordination there is between AS16 and PMDG aircraft. I only thought the latter might read the weather radar information from AS.

Active Sky does have the option of automatically loading a plan into itself when it sees it loaded into the Sim, but what is relaoding it every 5 minutes?

BTW i assume you mean ASP4 rather that AS16, as you are using FSUIPC5 and therefore P3D4.

Pete

Thanks for your correction. Indeed I use ASP4 not AS16.

I will further investigate the loadings, but maybe after I solve the in-flight fuel cut-off issue since they seem not related. Anyway thanks for reminding me about that.

What I am going to do, is to enable the loggings and clear the assignments of locking toggle switches which involve “when released...” command. As far as I notice, the landing gear lever and fuel cut-off switch which both moved at the exact moment of the issue (2:48:08 of my Youtube video recording) were assigned with such “when released...” command.

Particularly, if the physical toggle I assigned for gear lever is flipped up, it is detected by PC as a button-holding and FSUIPC will send the command of gear up (but I set control not to be held so that it will not repeat the gear up command endlessly). Then, if the toogle is flipped down, it is detected by PC as a button-release and FSUIPC will send the command of GEAR DN. At 2:48:08, for some reason the landing gear lever was set down then up, I suspect that it related to such kind of control assignment. Maybe the toogle has been detected as released?

Sorry that my explanation may be confusing.

Anson

November 5, 2018

24 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

You need to enable Button logging AND Event logging, and check the log after it happens to see which button or switch made the changes.

The log you attached is no use. In fact it is very odd indeed. It contains nothing useful, but this repeated every 300 seconds (5 minutes):

1532328 Planned flight from WSSS to VHHH
1532328 E:\Windows Libraries\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\WX.pln

What is reloading the plan every 5 minutes?

Also, the log finishes in the middle of that sequence. Looks like the session was not terminated.

These "buttons" are actually locking toggle switches, then? Not normal "on when pressed" buttons?

A log with the correct logging options selected will show if those are operating at times you don't expect.

Pete

Thanks for your help.

I have never paid attention to the loading of WX.pln. However, is it possible that the action was stuff relevant to the weather up-/downlink coordination between Active Sky 16 and PMDG 777?

I did type this post with the problematic sim paused (if I remember it correctly).

I will enable the loggings you suggested and report back. Thanks very much for your advice.

Anson

November 5, 2018

For your easy reference, this MIGHT be the relevant lines as when issue occurred the fuel control switches and gear lever moved themselves without my input:

13=PT,24,C70153,0    -{Custom control: <70153>}-
14=UT,24,C70153,1    -{Custom control: <70153>}-
15=PT,23,C70152,0    -{Custom control: <70152>}-
16=UT,23,C70152,1    -{Custom control: <70152>}-

5=PT,19,C66079,0 -{GEAR_UP}-
6=UT,19,C66080,0 -{GEAR_DOWN}-

P.S. 70152 and 70153 are the event IDs of left and right engine fuel control switches respectively; 0 and 1 are the parameters of start and shutdown respectively.

November 5, 2018

Dear Pete,

I am glad that my issue of unexpected in-flight engine shut-down can now be replicated. I would be very thankful if you could diagnose with me.

As you can see, when the plane was cruising, suddenly without my control the two fuel control switches switched themselves OFF. Also, I didn't know why the landing gear lever also attempted to switch itself to DN position but bounced back. Based upon this observation, I suspect that I did something wrong in my control assignment.

Particularly, the two buttons on my Thrustmaster warthog throttle unit that I had assigned to fuel control switches are both "on-off button", which means that it was ON and HELD when it was flipped UP while OFF when flipped down. Therefore I assigned the buttons, when released, will send the command of switching the fuel control switches to OFF. I know it is very hard to understand, so I have attached my FSUIPC config file for your reference. Please take a look at the assignments of fuel control switches (event ID 70152 & 70153) and landing gear lever.

Thanks very much.

Anson

October 30, 2018

Thanks for your clarification.

One more thing I would like to know is that, should the selection between rawinput and directinput matters for FSUIPC?

Anson

October 29, 2018

Dear Pete,

Greetings! I am writing to consult about the letters for joystick devices.

As far as I understand, with AutoAssignLetters=No, if I manually change the numbers to meaningful letters (e.g. from 0 to T for throttle) under [Joynames] section and start the sim again, FSUIPC will adjust itself and eventually the buttons and axes sections of different aircraft profiles will be using those letters set instead of numbers.

However, I just realise that the profiles of some aircrafts are not using the letters that I set but the original numbers even though I have already restarted the sim for the sake of auto adjustment of FSUIPC, like

Quote

[Axes.PMDG 777]
RangeRepeatRate=10
0=TZ,256,D,10,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Throttle2 }-
1=TR,256,D,9,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Throttle1 }-
2=TS,256,D,22,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Spoilers }-
3=SR,256,D,3,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Rudder }-
4=RX,256,D,7,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: LeftBrake }-
5=RY,256,D,8,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: RightBrake }-
6=RR,256,D,3,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Rudder }-
7=YX,256,D,1,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Aileron }-
8=YY,256,D,2,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Elevator }-

while

Quote

[Axes.Alabeo DA40]
RangeRepeatRate=10
0=0X,256,D,7,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: LeftBrake }-
1=0Y,256,D,8,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: RightBrake }-
2=0R,256,D,3,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Rudder }-
3=2Z,256,D,5,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: PropPitch }-
4=2R,256,D,4,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Throttle }-
5=2S,256,D,6,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Mixture }-
6=3X,256,D,1,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Aileron }-
7=3Y,256,D,2,0,0,0   -{ DIRECT: Elevator }-

The reason I check the files and realise this is that, when I fly PMDG 777 today, the aircraft suddenly lose all power while no failures are armed or set previously. Having consulted PMDG, I was told that having mixture control set even for other aircrafts with separate profiles MAY need to the issue. In my case, controls are intentionally separated between individual aircrafts (i.e. checking the box "profile specific" in FSUIPC. I do have a physical slider assigned for both PMDG 777's spoiler and C172's mixture control but in separate profiles. May I know if PMDG's interpretation is reasonable from FSUIPC's point of view? Will assignments in separate control profiles occasionally affect each other?

Regards,

Anson

https://youtu.be/Y5ITGr4NMRo

August 15, 2018

Dear NixDevelopment,

Greetings! I am writing to consult about the update method of the TOPER 777 program.

I downloaded and installed the .exe from SimMarket, the version was v3.0.4. As I know there is an update available from your support forum, I tried to install the update v3.3.13. An error popped out "Previous version of TOPER 777 already installed......Please run TOPER uninstaller to remove previous version...". However, actually I had tried to run the update file BEFORE I run the installer from SimMarket, but it stated "No TOPER installation found". May I know the correct way to update the program?

Best Regards,

Anson

June 17, 2018

17 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

The GUID is generated by Windows. If the new one looks absolutely identical to the old one, and you don't update Windows in the meanwhile, I think it may well be the same. But don't "uninstall£ the old one from Windows.

No. Don'tdelete anything. Best to make sure you are using JoyLetters NOW, before unplugging it,. Then when the new one comes even if Windows treats it as a different device it will simply be a matter of editing a couple of lines in the FSUIPC INI file "JoyNames" section.

Pete

Oh! I got it. Thanks very much Pete.

Anson

June 17, 2018

Dear Pete,

Recently my throttle unit does not work properly therefore I need to do a RMA and get another unit from the vendor. May I know if the GUID of the new unit will be different from my current one provided that they are both the same model? This is my concern because I am not sure whether I should delete all the corresponding assignments and the entry in [Joynames] section as a good practice (according to user guide, users are advised to manually delete unused entries in that section).

If I have to delete the entries, should I just go to FSUIPC options in the sim and delete the assignment one-by-one? Or is there any faster way to do it?

Thanks very much for support.

Anson

June 12, 2018

This is a short video showing the issue. Hope this helps!

Note that at the beginning of the video, actually I did physically moved the yoke but as you can see nothing happened.

Anson

June 12, 2018

Dear Pete,

I'm sorry that the issue still persists. This time the yoke did not respond although it seemed to be correctly detected according to the csv and ini files. They were extracted and uploaded to here immediately after I noticed the problem (P3D still running).

Y, x1E, x06A3, x0763, Flight Rudder Pedals, 4, 4, 0, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, Y, Y
Y, x1E, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, 5, 5, 0, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}, Y, Y
N, x11, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, -1, -1, 1, {NULL}, {AF4AF840-3E72-11E8-8011-444553540000}, {NULL}, N, N
Y, x1E, x044F, x0404, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, 2, 2, 0, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, Y, Y
Y, x1E, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, 3, 3, 1, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, Y, Y
N, x11, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, -1, -1, 0, {NULL}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8005-444553540000}, {NULL}, N, N

June 10, 2018

Thanks very much Pete! I followed your advice to modify the ini file. The lines seems ok now and so far the yoke works perfectly. I will continue to see whether the issue exist.

Anson

June 9, 2018

18 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

You cannot change the IDs in mid-session. You need to let it do the assignment changes first.

Sorry for my misleading words. I mean, AFTER closing P3D in step 3, should I change (again) the letters of Plasma MM2 and Rudder Pedals to a different numbers (like 4 and 5). I thought that step 1 have already prevented the numerical IDs from overlapping.

Thanks.

Anson

June 8, 2018

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

However, you do really need to change this line

AutoAssignLetters=No
to AutoAssignLetters=Yes

Or, for more meaningful assigned letters than A, B, C, D, change it and assign your own letters, so:

[JoyNames]
0=Flight Rudder Pedals
0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
1=Plasma-MM2
1.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}
2=Throttle - HOTAS Warthog
2.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}
3=Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick
3.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}

R=Flight Rudder Pedals
R.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
Y=Plasma-MM2
Y.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}
T=Throttle - HOTAS Warthog
T.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}
S=Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick
S.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}

Then run P3D. FSUIPC4 will automatically change all number assignments to letters. After that we can change IDs without messing assignments up.

THEN close P3D4 down and edit these lines:

0=Flight Rudder Pedals
0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
1=Plasma-MM2
1.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}

changing them to

4=Flight Rudder Pedals
4.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
5=Plasma-MM2
5.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}

so that joystick IDs 0 and 1 are avoided.

Just to confirm I understand right...

1. Manually change the numbers to letters in ini file like your example

2. Start P3D to let FSUIPC automatically adjust itself

3. Close P3D. Then manually change the letters of Plasma MM2 and Rudder Pedals to a different numbers (like 4 and 5)

May I confirm that in step 1 I don’t need to set AutoAssignLetters=Yes if I choose to manually change the numbers to meaningful letters?

May I know why step 3 is needed? Step 1 that changed the IDs to letters should have already avoided overlapping 0 and 1?

Thanks very much!

Anson

June 8, 2018

June 8, 2018

3 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

So the CSV you sent earlier was different?

Yes, the CSV and log I uploaded EARLIER were extracted when my yoke was NOT USABLE. The files I uploaded LATER was when my yoke DIDN'T HAVE THE ISSUE (after I restarted P3D).

3 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Do you know it is different each time? Or is is changing, somehow, later.

The issue seems happening randomly. Most often the yoke will be normal and responding properly. But about 1/5 chance of starting P3D with an problematic yoke.

4 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Have you asked ACE support, as it does seem a very specific problem to their device?

Not yet but I will. They are famous for their responsive customer service...

Anson

June 7, 2018

I just started P3D again and extracted the csv and log files out immediately after P3D main page was loaded. I noticed a few major difference, the ID did not overlap anymore.

Y, x1E, x06A3, x0763, Flight Rudder Pedals, 0, 0, 0, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}, Y, Y
Y, x1E, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, 1, 1, 0, {NULL}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}, Y, Y
N, x11, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, -1, -1, 1, {NULL}, {AF4AF840-3E72-11E8-8011-444553540000}, {NULL}, N, N
Y, x1E, x044F, x0404, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, 2, 2, 0, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}, Y, Y
Y, x1E, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, 3, 3, 1, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}, Y, Y
N, x11, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, -1, -1, 0, {NULL}, {AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8005-444553540000}, {NULL}, N, N

Then I loaded into flight and found that the yoke was usable. What makes me puzzled is why the result differs everytime I started P3D...

Anson

June 7, 2018

19 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

FSUIPC is just returning the error it received from Windows when it asked for the Product Name. as you can see, all the other details were accessible. I'm afraid i don't know what the circumstances can be for the Product name not being readable. I see later on that this did not occur.

Ouch! I hadn't noticed that. That shouldn't happen. The first scan shows:

125 Device acquired for use:
125 Joystick ID = 0 (Registry okay)
125 0=Flight Rudder Pedals
125 0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
125 Device acquired for use:
125 Joystick ID = 1 (Registry okay)
125 1=Plasma-MM2
125 1.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800A-444553540000}

Looks like the disconnect/reconnection messes something up. what does the JoyNames section in the INI file show?

Looking again at the CSV file, i think that's a registry issue:

Y, x1E, x06A3, x0763, Flight Rudder Pedals, 0, 0, 0, ...
Y, x1E, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, 0, 0, 0, ...
N, x19, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, -1, 1, 0, ..
N, x11, x12DA, x0920, Plasma-MM2, -1, -1, 1, ...
Y, x1E, x044F, x0404, Throttle - HOTAS Warthog, 2, 2, 0, ...
Y, x1E, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, 3, 3, 1, ...
N, x11, x0738, x2215, Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick, -1, -1, 0, ...

Ignore the RED entries which are not valid (readable) joysticks. With the Rhino I think the extra entry is a control interface to set it up or update firmware. not sure why there are two extra entries for the Planma-MM2.

The important value to observe here is the second single digit number. That's the ID read from the registry. I've highlit those by Italic large font. The -ve numbers mean none assigned. Odd that one of the non-joystick accesses to the Plasma-MM2 has been assigned ID=1 in the Registry.

I suggest two things:

1. Check the JoyNames section in the INI and make sure the IDs there are all unique. If necessary change them.

2. Uninstall the device completely in Device manager (hopefully this will remove the Registry entries) then re-boot. when the device is seen again it will be added back, hopefully with better entries. (If not there's another stage -- Registry editing. but let's leave that for now!).

Pete

There is no overlapping ID found in Joynames section. However it seems strange that none of the devices are assigned ID=1...

[JoyNames]
AutoAssignLetters=No
2=Throttle - HOTAS Warthog
2.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800B-444553540000}
3=Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick
3.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-800C-444553540000}
0=Plasma-MM2
0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}

Sorry I cannot fully understand what you mean by "Odd that one of the non-joystick accesses to the Plasma-MM2 has been assigned ID=1 in the Registry.". You mean the the rudder pedals are having the same ID with Plasma-MM2?

Anson

June 7, 2018

22 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

The Log shows that the device is continally disconnecting and reconnecting. FSUIPC is clearly receiving notifications of these events from Windows.

This was because I tried to disconnect and reconnect the yoke to see whether the yoke could resume normal without restarting P3D.

24 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

I assume you've not installed any software for the device? Best not to.

The device is plug-and-play. No software was provided by the vendor.

24 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Also, make sure that USB power management is disabled on all USB devices (hubs etc) listed in Device Manager.

Yes! I have already disabled USB power management in both Windows High Performance power plan (the one activated) and device manager (each device available).

27 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

The only alternative answer really is that it is a hardware problem. Try a different USB connection, a different cable. If nothing improves it then I'd suspect the yoke itself.

Under the section "Joystick Device Scan", there was "125 Product= <not readable at this time: maybe device disconnected?>" shown, which was indicating that my yoke was not readable. However my yoke was actually physically connected and detected by Windows (shown in Windows Device Manager and Game Controller Setting). Is this providing us some clue?

Also, is the following log may suggesting an ID overlapping issue?

  2455219 Device acquired for use:
  2455219    Joystick ID = 0 (Registry okay)
  2455219    0=Flight Rudder Pedals
  2455219    0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}
  2455219 Device acquired for use:
  2455219    Joystick ID = 0 (Registry okay)
  2455219    0=Plasma-MM2
  2455219    0.GUID={AF48AE50-3E72-11E8-8006-444553540000}

Anson

June 7, 2018

Dear Pete,

I really hope that you could help! I have experienced this issue so many times. After I loaded into a flight in P3D, my ACE yoke was not usable. The strangest thing was that, the yoke resumed normal every time after I restarted P3D. Once I noticed the yoke was not usable, I immediately opened the FSUIPC log file to see whether my yoke was recognised, and the answer was yes - the yoke (Plasma MM2) was successfully detected by FSUIPC and listed under Device acquired for use section. After that I tried reconnect the yoke a few times but it was still not usable.

Please help me! I was very tired and did not want to experience this anymore. Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Anson

February 21, 2018

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

Can we revise what is going on please. After a three week gap I need a summary of exactly what you have:

You have several devices, and all are working fine, with FSUIPC assignmets EXCEPT the Yoke. But the buttons on the Yoke are okay, it is only the two axes (for aileron and elevator). Is this correct?

Thank you very much! Yes you are right.

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

Can I have a fresh sight of the INI file, the LOG file and the Joyscan CSV file, please?

Of course! They are attached to this comment.

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

Note that P3D has two modes -- a normal DirectInput mode and a "direct mode" where it reads the USB ports itself and analyses the input (similar to the way the FSUIPC Lua plug-in "HID" functions can be used for non-Joystick devices as well as Joysticks). When you checked the Yoke in P3D which mode was it set to?

It was set to Raw Input. Should I check the other one instead?

https://youtu.be/HelcGmMwwmw

This is a short screen recording demonstrating the issue. 0:14 is the moment when I moved the yoke but not well-detected. 0:56 is when I moved the yoke but not detected by the axis assignment page. Interestingly, 1:00 is when I moved the yoke and the movements of axes were detected, but in a strange way. In particular, the changes in numbers shown were exceptionally gradual, slowed and delayed.

I suspect that this is caused by the lack of driver tuned by the yoke manufacturer. Without calibration via either Windows or P3D setting, the range of axes' parameters are not well-defined which may lead to FSUIPC's failure to detect the yoke. Actually I thought I could directly do all calibration and axis assignment work via FSUIPC, could you please clarify if I misunderstand how it work?

I hope this can help you understand more about the issue.

Anson