Pete Dowson

Why not use cockpit mode then? Or possibly find a simpler visual model -- if there's a stutter in spot mode but not cockpit mode then I think it can only be the graphics causing that. An alternative would be to throw more processing power at it -- faster PC and video card. You could also try using normal flight mode by with the simulation set to zero sim rate (check the FSUIPC offsets). Pete

How have you assigned the axis as a tiller then? You mean you assigned it as another rudder in FS? FSUIPC options, "Axes" tab, then as per directions in the documentation. The tiller only appears in the direct to FSUIPC mode (as there's no such axis in FS). Calibrate both tiller and rudder in the Joysticks tab. Pete

As it says on SimMarket, get the software from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. The ZIP file includes full documentation and other goodies. Pete

The current version is 3.65 and, as always, is available at http://www.schiratti.com/dowson, along with all my othe FS software (for seven years now). I'm sure it tells you this on the SimMarket sales page! Regards, Pete

It sounds like either you are using a bad (pirated) key for FSUIPC, or you are using a version of FSUIPC before 3.53 with a Key purchased in 2006. These are the only two known possible reasons for an application to work without registration but not with. Best to leave it alone then. I'm sure ActiveSky can manage very well in any case ;-) Regards, Pete

Yes, assuming you've not actually got a second copy of FSUIPC (renamed perhaps) in the Modules or the main FS folders, it sounds like something you've installed into FS is not terminating correctly. There will be a copy of FS9.EXE (with all its modules including FSUIPC) still running on your PC from the previous time you ran it -- the window etc has closed, but FS has not terminated because something is running a separate thread which isn't terminating. Check by using CTRL_ALT_DEL and looking through the Process list -- you'll probably find FS9.EXE there. Terminate it using the button at bottom right, then I think you'll find FS loads okay. Assuming this is what is occurring you'll need to find the culprit. I know early FS2004 versions of Active Camera could do that, but that was fixed long ago. Please note that version 3.53 of FSUIPC is over six months old now and not supported. The current version is 3.65. Regards, Pete

I don't know FSXpand at all I'm afraid, and these are messages from that program not from FSUIPC -- you really need to contact their support. But if you like I can look at an FSUIPC Log. Do this: Load up FS, go to the FSUIPC Options, Logging page, and enable IPC read and Write logging. (I hope you aren't using many FSUIPC-dependent aircraft gauges or modules, otherwise the Log will become very large). Then run FSExapnd, get your problem, close FS completely, and show me the Log. If it is too big to show here, ZIP it up and psot it as an attachment here or to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Regards, Pete

Ah .. is that a later version? Last time I looked it didn't. Does it also support 16-bit (short) values too now? Pete

Yes, -19.68761 is correct. Think of the degrees round a circle, Counts 0 to 360 clockwise, 0 to -360 anticlockwise. -19.68761 is identical to 340.31239. The problem is only that you are using signed numbers instead of unsigned numbers (the Heading is unsigned), but that's not your fault because VB stupidly doesn't support unsigned arithmetic. Just add 360.0 when you have negative result. This is not rocket science by the way, just elementary junior arithmetic. Regards, Pete

I don't know why VB is crashing (I don't know VB) but why are you setting the length of the write to 3380 to 1 when the string you want to write must be at least 4 bytes (5 with the needed terminating null, which I think you may need to add explicitly when using VB). Does VB come with a debugger? You should be able to use it to work out what is wrong. Pete

No, he's not telling you that. Please read it again. The heading provided by the offset you are reading is in degrees TRUE --i.e. it is relative to TRUE North. The one shown on the panel is Degrees MAGNETIC. The difference is the magnetic variation, which is also readable if you want to convert one to the other. Your ".312" may well be the correct TRUE heading. Why don't you use FSInterrogate to check your results against? That is why it is provided after all. :-( Please read again the comments in the documentation about these offsets. Pete

No, not without getting a new Key. There's no need to change it in any case -- it is never actually used as an email address, it is just a way, along with your name, or identifying you uniquely. It's a system I use for access keys instead of tying FSUIPC to a particular PC and having to make new keys after you change enough of the hardware -- I don't like that type of system. With FSUIPC and WideFS you are free to use them on any of your PCs. It is one license per user, not per PC. Regards, Pete

I don't think VB supports short integers, so just declare an ordinary Integer and set it to zero before reading the 2 bytes from offset 0D0C into it. The bits representing the light switches will still be in the right places, the top 16 bits (bit numbers 16 to 31) will be zero, is all. Regards, Pete

Sorry, all I know is that if Windows says it cannot translate the Server Name into an IP Address, then it cannot see that PC correctly. Maybe it is firewalled, ir is in a different workgroup or has its IP address in a different sub-net (i.e. the part of the IP address masked by the subnet mask). I really don't know enough to analyse it more. You may want to see if you can get help from Katy Pluta over in the FS2004 forum. I have had to ask her for help with my own Network from time to time. Regards Pete

I'm not familiar with VB, which I assume this is, but assuming "Single" is a type of floating point I would have thought it advisable to convert "x" to floating point first, before doing the calculations: Plane_heading = x Plane_heading = (Plane_heading * 360.0) / (65536.0 * 65536.0) Note that I always use parentheses () to force the order of computation -- I never trust compilers to get it right! ;-) Pete

There seems to be only two possibilities left -- either your FS CDs really ARE corrupt, or your video system card or drivers are faulty (this is regarding the white text, nothing more). Sorry, I cannot imagine what is going on there. Pete

You need to calibrate with a wider zone for idle! ALWAYS allow more space than you think, as no joystick prodcues 100% consistent values. Pete

Why would you do that? Although I think it is all-round more efficient to have fixed IP addresses rather than have parts of Windows going out searching for connections now and then, there is no way I'd suggest doing this as a fixed rule. It can make it more complicated setting up routers, for instance (though I think it is worth the trouble, in the end). I don't know what Windows ICS does, but it sounds like you have it confused. Just switch back to the automatic addressing mode for now. Make sure it all works. then read more about ICS configuring before changing it again. Regards, Pete

This most certainly means that your Client PC doesn't recognise the name "FS9MOBIEL". Your client doesn't know your server. There is nothing you can do in any of my software, you need to get your Network working first. Sorry. Pete

One registration per user, any number of PCs. I don't like the one copy one PC systems. ;-) Regards Pete

Neither am I. What "setting up" did you do? If you had the network working already, and both machines are running Win2K or WinXP, then there's nothing much to do -- just put the DLLs into FS's modules folder and run WideClient on the client. Sorry, I wouldn't know what you changed to cause that. You shouldn't have changed anything if your Network was working. Certainly there's nothing WideFS or FSUIPC does to affect any other Network use, they are completely self-contained in that regard. Regards, Pete

Okay. I was a bit restless so I had another look before going to bed. The clue was in my last message. It's all to do with that change from 4 to 6 decimal places in the NMEA data. The fraction was being divided by 10000 to cope with it, but for 4 places it should be divided by 100. The thing I don't understand is why this didn't affect the previous two versions I sent youas I said, I'd not changed anything much that last time. The hundredths of minutes should have been wrong in both 2.602 and 2.603. Perhaps they were and you didn't notice, or forgot to mention? Anyway, this one (2.604) seems okay, and I've made the AV400 output independent of the 4/6 decimal option setting. Regards, Pete GPSout2604.zip

The TCAS data inserted in that way is not seen or understood by anything else in FS at all. It is merely a fabricatiion in FSUIPC data space to make TCAS displays reading such FSUIPC data show the 'target'. It is intended for those programs such as Squawkbox which feed in MP aircraft to FS, which are visible in FS but which aren't detected by FSUIPC because it only gets AI aircraft data. I have no idea whether Active Camera can handle MP aircraft, but certainly the Multiplayer interface is the only way I know of having more than one controllable aircraft in FS. Regards, Pete

Hmmm .... I don't understand that. All I did was do the same rounding as before (exactly the same) except inserting a check for the last two digits being >99 in which case I replace them with 99. I can't see how that can lose all other values except 00 and 01 -- that is totally weird! It should just fix those cases of xx100 to make them xx99. The minutes calculation hasn't been changed at all -- that is still EXACTLY as it was. Only the two hundredths digits are revised, just be that check. The code is several years old. I'll need to leave all this till I have time to work through it properly. I was trying to help in little bits of time here and there, but evidently this is a much bigger problem than I thought. It'll have to wait a week or three. Sorry. Erjust one thought. Do you have "PosTo6Decimal=No" set? It looks like it will go completely wrong if you try to set 6 decimal places -- which is defaulted by the looks of things. That was a recent change for more accuracy on NMEA devices. Even then, that would only affect the hundredths, not the minutes pair! Regards, Pete

Well, yes, but Project Magenta uses an FMS instead of a GPS style control and plan system. Take a look -- http://www.promagenta.com. Regards Pete