Pete Dowson

I don't know. It is one possibility. I need more information. Is this the first time you've installed FSUIPC4? Can you find the FSX/Modules folder, and there find the Install FSUIPC4 log file and the FSUIPC4 log file? If so, please show them here (they are both ordinary text files and can be copied/pasted from Notepad). Regards Pete

Hi Thomas! Ah, but you have Acceleration installed! Thanks for the confirmation, nonetheless! Best Regards Pete

Okay. Thanks. I'll take a look. If you don't hear back from me by the end of the month, please write again. I should be able to get to it on or soon after the weekend. Regards Pete

Yes. You send the message as a normal ASCIIZ string to offset 3380, then write a control word to 32FA which specifies stuff like time of display and whether it scrolls or not. Please see the FSUIPC SDK. Regards Pete

Sorry, no. I really don't know much about it, and would naturally have a problem unless I bought one myself. The main problem with these innovations is that there are many of them -- Saitek has one, there are keyboards with displays (from Logitech and others), as well as the CH devices -- and they all need different drivers, different programming and so on. It really isn't something I could start dabbling in. The drivers from the specific manufacturers really do need to cope. I'm sure it will improve with time. Tell them what you think! Regards Pete

I can't reproduce the problem here no matter what I do. I checked the code also, and the button scanning actions in WideClient are not at all related to its connection to the Server. So it remains a mystery at present. Just in case it is related to a configuration setting, could you just run a simple test please. Rename the WideClient.INI file the problem client is using, so it doesn't get used, and allow WideClient to run purely on default settings. [i'm hoping here that you are using XP throughout and have WideFS automatically connecting. If not, let me know in case that is related, and just edit the default INI to insert your ServerName and Protocol parameters]. Let me know the result, and please show me or append the WideClient.INI file you normally use. Regards Pete

Okay, I've tested all combinations of FSX base, FSX+SP1 on both WinXP and Vista, and I cannot reproduce anything like the problem you have. The really odd thing is that the code for detecting the version of SimConnect is identical in both the Installer and FSUIPC4 itself, yet the Installer shows you have the base version (60905) and SP1 (61242) whilst FSUIPC4 gets an initial response as if there's SP2 or Accelerator installed. I cannot begin to guess how that may arise. The Windows "side-by-side" library system is very complex. I can only assume either your Registry or WinSxS folders are is some sort of disarray. Can you offer any details of your FSX install history? Have you had problems, uninstalled, reinstalled, repaired, or anything at all? You've not been involved in Beta testing have you? I'm struggling to find something which may help explain these extraordinary results. Do you recall exactly which of the post 4.16 interim versions gave you this problem in the first place? Why didn't you tell me then? There were so many, over a period of more than two months. At present I've really no way of knowing how to help, I'm afraid. Regards Pete

If it's a training manual it should surely tell you what you might ever use such a facility for. As I say, it makes no sense at all to me I'm afraid. Regards Pete

Okay. I'll have to work out how to find out what is going on. There is nothing complicated about the button transmission to the Server, it is only setting or clearing bits in offsets exactly the same as FS Communicator is doing. So it must be something to do with the thread in WideClient which scans the buttons. Maybe, if FS isn't already running at start up, the thread doesn't get started. However, if that were always the case some things wouldn't work here either. I'll get back to you. Regards Pete

In that case, I wish you'd told me before I made the full release. The main reason for interim releases is to shake such problems out! :-( It isn't a firewall problem. For some odd reason, though the installer knows you don't have Acceleration of SP2 installed in FSX, FSUIPC4 seems to think you do: I'm not sure why that is happening. I'll need to do some more tests on Vista here. Regards Pete

don't see why not, but you'd need to check about Active Sky. I doubt very mainly because .NET Framework v1.1 is required. Otherwise they state in the readme file 'Windows XP (Other OS versions may work but have not been officially tested)' Probably not. I have heard that people have failed running FS9 under Linux even after trying hard. That don't surprises me but AS and RC (also forget FSflying school) are no advanced games so shouldn't there be better hope? No, unless you don't want to hear the ATC which makes it rather pointless. RC produces its own sound, it doesn't use FS. One of the biggest benefits of having ATC on a separate PC is that the sound is separate, so you can use a headset, for instance. Pete Hmmm ... Sorry, no idea at all on that. I don't know Linux nor do I know how good the emulators are. BTW, it is quite difficult to find your replies amongst all this. I don't think you've quite got the hang of the "quote" facility? Maybe you could just do plain messages in future? ;-) Regards Pete

So it is nothing whatsoever to do with the StartUp folder and WideClient getting started early?! Have you never ever before started WideClient first? You only discovered this when using the StartUp folder? I don't understand how we exchanged so many messages before we found out we weren't talking about the same thing at all! :-( When WideClient is waiting for a connection, after FS is started and FS is ready, does WideClient connect? If it isn't connecting it cannot transmit button information! If it is connecting but still not sending button data, there's something extra weird going on. Let me know, I may have to devise some logging options. Regards Pete

That's also an option in the "Miscellaneous" tab in FSUIPC's options in FS, and explained in the User Guide. It is nothing to do with what you were describing, but merely an option to prevent an erratically behaving Trim axis wrecking AP's pitch control. With the FS autopilot, when it is enabled, it causes FS to disregard the aileron and elevator axes, but not the elevator trim axis. Not many folks have a separate axis for trim -- they usually use INC/DEC type arrangements, even with things that look like trim wheels. All the FSUIPC option does is disconnect the elevator trim axis when the FS A/P is engaged so that the axis cannot interfere. I expect Microsoft would have done this if they'd thought of it. What are "trim systems" in this context, and why on Earth would you want to disconnect them all? I can't see any sense in that at all -- unless their autopilot drives the whole shebang on trim only (very odd/bad). In that case it might be a sort of temporary A/P disconnect, but it isn't a true CWS option (Control Wheel Steering) as for that it would have to at least reset the A/P to target the new altitude attained. It wouldn't matter if you had as PM hasn't yet implemented CWS ;-) . Regards Pete

don't see why not, but you'd need to check about Active Sky. Probably not. No, unless you don't want to hear the ATC which makes it rather pointless. RC produces its own sound, it doesn't use FS. One of the biggest benefits of having ATC on a separate PC is that the sound is separate, so you can use a headset, for instance. Pete

There is something wrong with your registration. First check your System date -- if that is before your Registration key was issued, the Key won't be valid. Regards Pete

Thanks for the Log. Can you please update your FSUIPC -- that one is pretty old. 4.16 was current for many weeks, and 4.20 is now available. Let me know if it makes any difference. Regards Pete

Why not use the FS controls instead of Key Presses? There's a control for the doors, and SELECT 14 controls for the selections. I think they should work better. Never did like keypresses. All they do is get converted to FS controls in any case. Better to use them direct where you can. Either way, please use the FSUIPC logging (keys and buttons, events too) to see what it is seeing and doing. Regards Pete

Well I actually expect many current FSUIPC client applications to become direct SimConnect ones instead as they get re-written, so it isn't something so much to do with FSUIPC and WideFS as to do with SimConnect and Microsoft's policy of supporting such applications directly. I will of course review my documentation to see if it is misleading, but I think the prime reference for such things must always be the documentation for the actual application itself. I cannot necessarily keep up with all application program changes in any case -- I only knew this about ASX because I bought it myself. Another problem is that I don't expect there to be another WideFS release in which I could have the opportunity to issue revised documentation. I wouldn't like to make a release just for documentation. It will be a free download, yes, and it will be later than Acceleration (which is released today in the U.S.), but I'm sorry I do not have any idea as to any specific timetable. Keep an eye on the FSInsider web site. Regards Pete

It was actually almost as easy to do it as to describe it, so here's Wideclient 6.755. Please try it and let me know. All it does is rescan the Windows joysticks 0-15 every 5 seconds even if it didn't see any on first initialisation. Let me know. Regards Pete WideClient6755.zip

Not sure what you mean by "simconnect setup" -- you wouldn't have done that on the FS PC, only on the Client. The problem will certainly be in the SimConnect.XML file you placed into the Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX folder on the FSX PC. Running the Install FSUIPC4 program again on that PC should correct it, but if it doesn't please show me the SimConnect.XML file and I'll tell you how to fix it. (It is a normal text file, you will be able to open it in Notepad and copy/paste it into your message). I'll be glad when everyone has the Acceleration Addon or the free FSX SP2 update -- Microsoft have fixed this mess with the SimConnect local configuration possibilities. It will then be much harder to mess it up (still possible, though! ;-) ) Regards Pete

Okay. But it is also fairly easy for me to change WideClient slightly to try every few seconds to see if new joystick devices have been connected. I suppose there may be other occasions where this could be useful, in any case. Regards Pete

Okay, then please do check that you have power management turned off on the USB hub. To do this go into the Device manager (Settings-System-Device manager), select each Hub in turn, right-click, select Properties-Pwer Management, and untick "allow the computer to turn off ...". I wouldn't think so. But as FSCommunicator is also reading the joystick/buttons, do I assume that those parts ARE okay, and only the buttons being read/transmitted by WideFS are not seen? Ah, then I misunderstood your first message. What about the case where you start WideClient manually, well after Windows has loaded, but before you start FS? You need that case to determine whether it is anything to do with Windows startup or not. It will be no good for me to alter WideClient to scan for new joysticks periodically if this isn't where the problem lies. Regards Pete

Sorry, no. I don't know FSCommunicator at all -- is that something which is reading your buttons and switches? Joystick drivers are part of the Windows system and should be loaded and ready long before any "start up" program is loaded. Putting a program in the start-up folder is just the same as starting the program as soon as you can access the icon on screen, which is wel after any drivers are running. I have WideClient starting up automatically, via the StartUp folder, on all my cockpit client PCs (6 of them), and none of them have any trouble recognising any switches (though I don't have switches on them all). I can only wonder if the devices you have the buttons and switches on aren't fully powered up and responding to the drivers in time. Could that be? Are they USB devices? Can you make sure USB power management is turned off on every hub, just in case -- having it turned on may make Windows apply power later. Let me know. If you still cannot make it work I can look at adding a periodic check for joysticks in WideClient, or at least a re-check when WideServer responds. It isn't difficult, just never come up before. The way it is at present all joysticks to be used need to be connected prior to WideClient running. Regards Pete

Yes. ActiveSky 6.5 was the last version which could use WideFS (and it does work quite well with FSX too), but ASX is a brand new version which doesn't use FSUIPC at all. It interfaces directly to SimConnect. Only FSUIPC client programs can run on WideFS. :roll: This is because you evidently failed to properly read the ASX documentation for installation on a client PC. It does actually advise you to re-install FSUIPC4 on FSX! Just re-run the FSUIPC4 installer on the FS PC, which should automatically correct the bad SimConnect.XML file you made. Regards Pete

I haven't got time this week, but please remind me next week, AND please always ALWAYS send a log! BTW There is no version 9.2.0 of EPICINFO5. The current Beta version is 4.92. It will become a proper release as 5.xx when tested properly, but feedback is very slow, almost non-existent, and the feedback is always without enough data, like logs. As you know, I don't use EPIC these days, which is why I can't guarantee anything and need help. I also always need to know the FSUIPC version number, please. Pete