Pete Dowson

Just to try to speed this up (since I've not much time before December 4th) I re-checked the FSUIPC throttle sync hot key facility as follows: Latest FSUIPC3 in FS9 and default 737: --- throttles 1 and 2 assigned via FS controls. Trim keys (NUM 1 and NUM 7) worked fine when throttle sync enabled. --- throttles 1 and 2 assigned via FSUIPC direct. Trim keys (NUM 1 and NUM 7) worked fine when throttle sync enabled. Latest FSUIPC4 in FSX and default 737: --- throttles 1 and 2 assigned via FS controls. Trim keys (NUM 1 and NUM 7) worked fine when throttle sync enabled. --- throttles 1 and 2 assigned via FSUIPC4 direct. Trim keys (NUM 1 and NUM 7) worked fine when throttle sync enabled. I also scanned through the code to see if there was any possible contact point between these completely separate aircraft control functions, and there is not. There were some changes in some of the incremental updates since FSUIPC 3.75 which upset the PMDG aircraft, but those were fixed pretty quickly. The problem with you not reporting which FSUIPC version you are using is that I can only guess. In fact I can't really even guess if you meant FS9 or FSX. Otherwise I'm afraid it is certainly looking as if you have some control interference or maybe duplication in your setup. You may need to go through a process of elimination. First though do please test using the very latest FSUIPC updates from the Announcements above. If you want any more help, do please try to remember that I need to know rather more that you told me so far. Logging of Axis and Events might help too. But I may not be able to look at this for a while, as I said. Regards Pete

First 8 days is no holiday -- in Seattle with Microsoft, then the AVSIM FANCON. Hectic, exhausting. The three weeks after is the holiday! ;-) Regards Pete

Logs received. See email response. Still looks like a blockage at the Server, but the logging wasn't quite what I asked for. Regards Pete

I wish you'd not chop the beginning of the Log off. What version of WideClient is it? This report "Connection closed by server!" is usually down to firewall type blocks. Check both ends to make sure. There's no sign of any connection. Are you sure the two logs relate to the same test? There is no difference in how WideFS works with FS9 and FSX, and the Client end should be absolutely identical. Please change the Log=... entry in both INI files (WideClient.INI and the [WideServer] section of FSUIPC4.INI) to "Log=Debugall" and run a short test, just long enough to show a problem. Retain BOTH logs complete, don't chop them up, ZIP them and send them to petedowson@btconnect.com. I'm afraid after tomorrow (Monday) afternoon I am away for 8 days, then back for only a couple of days before going away again till December 4th, so it may not get attention till then. Regards, Pete

Strange -- there's really no relationship at all between throttles and elevator, trim or otherwise. Yes, please. To start with I need the usual basic information, missing above, such as * Version of FS? * Version of FSUIPC? * If not the latest version (from the downloads announcements above ), please try that first and report back. * What about default FS aircraft? You only mention two add-ons. If it is okay with the default it is most likely interaction with some non-standard controls in the add-on panels. I'm afraid after tomorrow (Monday) afternoon I am away for 8 days, then back for only a couple of days before going away again till December 4th, so it may not get attention till then. I would probably then need some logging performed, because it sounds like some of your controls may be interfering with each other. Certainly logging will be necessary if I cannot reproduce it here -- and I cannot even attempt to without knowing what versions of what you are talking about. Regards, Pete

There are no other steps. Are you by any chance pressing the button for FSUIPC registration by mistake, instead of the WideFS one? Otherwise the most likely problem is that you are making an error in one of the fields. the name, email and key must ALL be exactly as provided in the notification. Use cut-and-paste to be sure. It is easy to mistake O's and 0's and so on, and there have been many cases of folks not even spelling their name exactly the same! Regards Pete

If they use an FS control for it, yes. If not, no, unless they've made special provision for a keyboard shortcut. Isn't there any documentation? You could always enable Event logging in FSUIPC (it's one of the check options on the left in the Logging tab), when operate it with the mouse and see if there's an control logged in FSUIPC.LOG. Try both Axis and non-axis events (two options) just in case. Regards Pete

That's only if you buy one of their digital consoles, which connect direct to my PFC drivers and cannot be seen as a normal game device in Windows. You have got a normal joystick type of yoke which needs a normal Windows driver! Surely, there must have been some sort of paperwork supplied with the device telling you how to use it? If not you should complain bitterly to your supplier! There's really nothing more I can tell you about it. I don't have any PFC equipment here except for their range which connects via one of their digital controllers. I don't work for PFC and I cannot support their hardware -- I couldn't even do that for the stuff my driver does know about. I wrote the driver for my own use and they supply it by agreement. I support the driver, nothing more. Please do refer to the documentation I supply with the PFC DLLs: Regards Pete

Agreed. Sorry, there's no easy answer. PMDG did talk about a Software Development Kit for their products a couple of years ago, but nothing came of it, at least not that I know of. I know there are special commercial arrangements with folks like GoFlight. I doubt they'll want to make individual arrangements, and if they did they'd probably be expensive, but you could always ask them. I use the PMDG aircraft, but none of the cockpit, panels or subsystems. I use Project Magenta stuff for all that. Regards Pete

Really? How can you enter routes, waypoints and so on then? Although PMDG do use offsets in FSUIPC for quite a few things, I don't know if these are among them, and even if they were I think they may be encrypting it all too to make such cracking more difficult. Not that I know of, but I've not done any searching to see. One answer for mouse clicking is to use Luciano Napolitano's Key2Mouse program. but of course this needs the gauges to be fixed in position on screen I think (in the same position each time, I mean). Regards Pete

The normal way is to check the combustion flag for the respective engine (e.g. 0894 for Engine 1), but of course you can check N2 if you prefer or if that is more correct. I'm sure you can find all these things for yourself if you have downloaded the SDK? Engine 1's N2% is at offset 0896, 36% would be 5898 there as 100% is represented by 16384. The starter switch position is at 0892. There are equivalent offsets for the other three engines. Pete

Sorry, those links aren't working for me. But I think you must be confused about WideFS, which is an extension to the FSUIPC application interface to work across Networked links, so that you can run applications which work with FSUIPC on the FS PC on separate client PCs instead. I don't know of any program which interfaces to FSUIPC which can give you any terrain or sky. Such visuals are only provided by Flight Sim itself to my knowledge. When you say "second monitor" do you mean a second monitor on the same PC as FS? Or are you actually meaning "second PC" when you say that? If you mean "second PC", then possibly you are thinking of WidevieW, not WideFS? WidevieW is by Luciano Napolitano, and is a method of linking up two or more copies of Flight Sim across a Network. WidEFS is not at all involved in that, surely. What application are you running to display this "copilot's panel"? If you could kindly explain what you programs are actually running, and where, possibly it would become clearer as to where you are getting confused, because nothing of what you say seems to relate to anything to do with WideFS, or even networked PCs so far! Regards Pete

How is the yoke connected? My PFC drivers don't support any yoke as such, they support the digital control systems in one of the PFC consoles. If you only have a yoke it is probably a normal joystick control, calibrated in Windows and assigned in FS normally. For my driver to see it it must be connected via a digital control system, and it has to be especially wired for that. By "green V" I assume you mean green "ticks" as opposed to red "crosses". What are the ticks and crosses against? That's obviously what matters. I can't guess I'm afraid. In that case please delete PFCFSX.DLL from the FSX modules folder. That yoke is nothing to do with anything I do. I only support the digital systems interface. Didn't your supplier provide any documentation at all? No instructions? Who told you to install PFCFSX when it is entirely irrelevant? Sorry, you'll have to ask the supplier of your yoke I'm afraid. I cannot support hardware which is nothing to do with my drivers. Regards Pete

But here, if I change font size, the window size changes too. It should do that, because the window is not specified in absolute screen terms but in font-related units. That applies to all standard dialogues and parts of them. There's something odd there. It still sounds like maybe the video driver has installed a DLL which isn't correct for that version of Windows. Regards, Pete

Sorry, all these things are matters for SimMarket. I have contractual arrangements with them, and they do the business. Regards Pete

Odd that, because FSUIPC itself doesn't draw any of that. It is all standard Windows stuff, sized according to your Windows font settings. I have heard of it happening before, but not for a couple of years (with FSUIPC3 then, of course). Perhaps you should check your Windows font, make sure you haven't got some odd non-standard setting, or "large fonts" or something. (However, really that should be taken into account by Windows when drawing the window frames and so on). The only other thing I can think of is that you have some non-standard COMCTL32.DLL system library installed, maybe one from an old video driver -- some rather badly constructed driver installs replace the perfectly good official Windows version for some unknwn reason. COMCTL32 is used to draw the tabbed windows within the standard dialogue window -- it provides extra 'common' controls like that, as well as things like file selection, colour selection, font selection dialogues. Try updating the video driver, or repairing windows. Search for COMCTL32.DLL and see if you have a multiplicity of different versions -- only one will be the true correct one to match your Windows installation. Regards Pete

What do you expect to see in the Window? It is only a blank substitute for the FS window, for application programs to link to or even to dock to if they wish. These days there aren't really any docking programs, so you'd normally either minimise it or shrink it to a title bar up in a corner of your screen. It will remember this and come back that way next time. There's even an option to have no window at all. Please check the documentation. Whichever program you are using to show the weather on that PC should have its own window. WideClient is merely the program which links any FSUIPC client application program to WideServer, across your network. What application programs are you trying to use on the client PC? Please do take some time to read some of the documentation. You don't need to read the technical bits, just the bits saying what WideFS actually is for and does. Regards Pete

No. What are these "nvidia/acceleration lockup issues"? I have nVidia cards on all my PCs these days (gave up on ATI), and Acceleration runs fine on all of them, both under Vista and XP. Pete

There are only two outlets for FSUIPC -- the main SimMarket one, as detailed in the User Guide, and one in Japan (with a website in Japanese). SimMarket do business all over the world, and we have had many customers from China, so I'm sure there's no problem. Regards Pete

So, your control doesn't provide a U axis. There isn't one to "show up". You can check what the Windows Joystick API can see and read using the Joyview utility I attach below. Pete joyview.zip

Yes, but whilst assigning axes directly in FSUIPC and calibrating them their may, theoretically, be a little more efficient than having FS reading them and FSUIPC still calibrating them, I doubt if the difference is at all measurable. The problem with FSUIPC3 not using DirectX at all does restrict the axes it can read, so it isn't always the best choice. I've always thought that, for trim, an INC/DEC control arrangement is often more sensitive and controllable than having an axis in any case. But an axis is very usable providing it has enough range (so it can be sensitive enough) and adjustability with a good linear readout. One of the problems of having FS read the axes, even with FSUIPC calibrating them, is that by default it does some sort of rate-of-change over time interpretation of the incoming values. FS started doing that back in FS2002 times I think. It can be stopped, and returned to a straight linear reading, by a parameter in the FS CFG file. I document this in the FSUIPC User Guide: For more predictable responses from your joystick, consider editing the FS CFG file and adding: STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=0 To the [CONTROLS] section. This makes FS treat the raw joystick readings in a linear fashion. By default, since FS2000, FS has applied a time-change formula to the axes that, in my opinion at least, which can give rise to some unwanted behaviour. You will need to edit the CFG file before running FS, as any changes you make whilst FS is running will be overwritten. Sensitivity is a funny word. When I said the axis needs to be sensitive, I meant that you need to be able to make teensy-weensy adjustments to trim, with just a nudge on the control. The "sensitivity" is in the number of sensible values the trim can actually be set to. You probably mean if was making big changes with a little nudge. That's the opposite of course. Special use? No, all I was saying is that there are folks with yokes for aircraft, and G-sticks and Collectives for helicopters, and maybe even joysticks for fighters or Airbuses. Using FSUIPC's aircraft-specific assignments you can have them all connected and assigned separately for separate aircraft, as appropriate. FSUIPC will disable one set and enable the other set when you load a different aircraft. That was the original and main reason axis assignments were added. Regards Pete

I assume you mean FSUIPC? You don't say. Lot's of folks make FS Modules, there are several from me as well as FSUIPC If you do mean FSUIPC, you need to buy a registration for FSUIPC4, but it certainly isn't "pay again". FSUIPC3 is for FS9 and before. FSUIPC4 is a completely freshly written program for FSX. This is clearly pointed out in the Announcements above as well as in the documentation. Didn't you "pay again" for FSX? Regards Pete

If all these things are specific only to that add-on aircraft, and work fine with all the defaults, the problems will be because that aircraft is not implemented to follow whatever FS controls your Goflight units are programmed to send. It may even be that for some of their actions there is no control which can be applied, that they can only be operated with the mouse. Maybe there's a keyboard short-cut that can be used instead. You will have to check the documentation that came with the aircraft, or ask their support. You need to check whether they work as expected when using the normal FS controls assigned in FS to keyboard shortcuts. Check the FS documentation for this, or more likely the FS Help. If not, then there really isn't much chance for GoFlight units. I explain as best as I can in the manual, but in any case it won't help if you are using add-ons which provide features which are only Mouse controllable. There is a program called "Key2Mouse" by Luciano Napolitano, which converts keypresses to mouse movements and clicks, so sometimes that is suitable, but it is awkward in that it requires the screen to have a static 2D panel on it. You can't use Virtual Cockpits because the buttons and switches then aren't always in the same place on screen. A lot of the more sophisticated add-on aircraft "do their own thing" for many of the aircraft systems and subsystems, as they try to do a better, more realistic job of it. Since they are really aimed at the majority of users, with keyboard and mouse and no fancy cockpit hardware, they rarely cater for these. However, that said, I did notice that GoFlight have released stuff (drivers?) to allow some of their items to be better used with one of two of the more popular add-on aircraft. Regards Pete

Right. Whatever it was, you have solved it. FSUIPC4 is running fine according to that, with a proper connection to SimConnect. Where "on the left" are you looking for an "Addons section"? It isn't a "section", it is a Menu item, just an addition to the regular menu. SimConnect provides the menu entry. It is called "AddOns" which appears as the RIGHT-MOST menu entry when you press ALT to bring up FSX's Menu -- the one with "Flights", "World", etc along the top. FSUIPC4 merely asks SimConnect to add "FSUIPC" to that AddOns menu. Other Add Ons will be doing the same, as and when ytou add them. You have seen Menu bars in Windows programs before, surely? They are little strips going left to right on the top of the viewing screen, just below the title bar (if you are in Windowed made). I assume you are actually running FSX? You have the scenery view before you, the cockpit gauges maybe showing below, all ready to fly? The FS Menu is part of the main FS program display, it isn't some "section" in some dialogue someplace! Have you never used it beofre, to change flights or aircraft or weather or options or anything? Pete

It is probably not one of the 6 axes (X Y Z R U V) supported by the Windows Joystick API which FSUIPC3 uses. I have changed over to using DirectInput for the axes in FSUIPC4 (for FSX), but this is not something I can really undertake for FSUIPC3. With DirectInput you get two more axes, so possibly this dial might be one of those. I'm sorry, but it might be the only way is to assign them in FS. You can still calibrate in FSUIPC if you want. Was there any particular reason you were doing assignments in FSUIPC itself? It was really added as a facility for those who needed different axis assignments for different aircraft, such as helicopter controls for helicopters, yoke control for Boeings and GA, joystick control for Airbus and military. That's the main benefit, as FSUIPC's assignments can be aircraft-specific. Regards Pete