Pete Dowson

This is the problem using generic calibration systems on such a huge variety of axes as supported by FSUIPC. Since the whole thing is based on numbers, I had hoped Min and Max was obvious. Sorry. With all axes the orientation (left/right/forward/backward/pull/push etc) is all relative and dependent upon both hardware and driver implementation. This is why both FS and FSUIPC have "reverse" options. Spoilers/speed brakes for instance are off when pushed away from you, completely opposite to throttles. Flaps are the same. It all has to be configurable. Yes, I was trying to be helpful where I thought that confusion was less likely. Well, that would doubly confuse folks whose control was the other way around. Also I need headings for pairs of controls (or change the design considerably), so it is difficult to fit that in. On top of this, the interface has been like this for over five years and this is the first such complaint. Seems most folks do manage to dollow the documentation -- I do provide steps there which should be clear. For instance the documentation most definitely doesn't tell you to start in the middle as you said you did. ;-) Unfortunately I had to make the aircraft-specific system for axis assignment work differently to that for buttons and keys. The "general assignments" do not apply to aircraft which have specific assignments. I did have it the way you are thinking, but that gives really terrible problems if on some aircraft you don't want one of those to apply. The reason is that connected axes are never inert. Unlike buttons and switches, even if they are not used they are providing inputs when polled, and those when enacted on an aircraft for which you didn't want cause havoc and utter confusion. In the current implementation I simply only poll those axes assigned for the current aircraft, which solved a lot of weird problems. Sorry that the interim documentation wasn't explicit here (it only shows when you compare the wording of that option for axes with that for buttons and keys). Here is my proposed User documentation paragraph replacing it: Your best bet now, to save time, is to copy your generic settings from the general [Axes] section to the specific sections in the INI file. Just be sure to renumber the left-hand values to retain a complete nummeric sequence. When you confirm by pressing Ok. You can do all sorts of things throughout any of the FSUIPC option pages, but if you then cancel, close or escape they are all wiped and previous settings restored. Then buttons, keys and axes are written to the INI, but many options are not written till the session is closed -- this emulates FS quite closely in its practices (we both use the same sort of mechanisms). No, as it certainly says someplace in the documentation, you can always do that whilst running FS by simply using the Reload button -- there's one on each of the Axes, Buttons and Keys pages. Regards Pete

Actually that document was submitted by someone else. I don't include it these days as it was for Roger Wilco / Squawkbox and the mechanism for those has been built into WideFS without the need for parameter changes in WideFs now, only assignment of buttons or keys to the PTT/PVT controls in FSUIPC's dropdowns. Actionkeys is redundant completely now in any case -- all WideClients look for keys without needing that. As far as I know the gentleman (whose name I've lost) who submitted the original help was only trying to help others in any case and would not object to the continued use of it in any form for similar purposes. Regards, Pete

Hmmmnot sure why, unless you have some parameters for the aircraft which make PM more sensitive to pressure changes (though you say you eliminated those by using pressure smoothing?). I always fly with PM, with weather from ActiveSky and ATC from Radar Contact. I don't fly on-line. I don't have the problems you mention. Well, have you tried to look? Do you know if it is pressure changes? FSUIPC provides logging facilities. You can enable the weather logging and when the phenomenon occurs, look at the results. If no one else has these problems I'm afraid you have to try to help yourself first. Regards, Pete

If it isn't pressure changes, it's something else. Sorry, you may need IVAP support to help. No, not necessarily. How often are you downloading weather in FS? How often is IVAP changing it? Check using FSUIPC's weather logging. the tools for investigation are at your disposal. Regards, Pete

Have you checked the documentation? Look at the Technical options -- there's a facility to smooth pressure changes when they are sourced from an external program. If the IVAP software is injecting the weather via FSUIPC, that should work. Regards, Pete

Well, I'm not sure about that. C# is a "managed" language, which as far as I can see means it is interpreted -- hence the large memory usage. I don't know C#, but "Sleep" is no good for your program if it is in the one and only thread. Doesn't a C# Windows program process Windows messages? Surely for a single-threaded program you should be processing messages anyway, and then using the Windows timer (SetTimer, WM_TIMER message or a TIMERPROC routine) to trigger actions at regular intervals. Please also just open the FSUIPC link once at the start of the program, and close it at the end. Regards, Pete

I really would need to see the Logging to understand what is happening. It really does sound like you are writing something wrong somewhere, because the FS98 interface still works okay. I mentioned in an earlier message the need for logs and told you which options to select. You can ZIP the logs and send them to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Please don't report any more of these without also supplying the needed information, as it merely wastes both our time. Thanks, Pete

Er, let's get more specific please. You have a single throttle and you want a reverse zone on it, with a "centre" idle zone? First get your throttle working normally in FS, ignoring FSUIPC altogether. Until you do that there's no point. THEN follow the instructions in the FSUIPC user guide to convert it to a lever with reverse zone. This entails not calibrating it in the single throttle section, but Mapping it to 4 separate throttles, then calibrating in the 4 throttles section. Sorry, I've no idea what this paragraph means. Values below the three separate "Set" buttons don't change unless you press the buttons. There's no "allow" or "disallow". I'm sorry, but I really cannot picture what you are doing, nor where. Get the thottle working correctly in FS first. Then come back after revising the documentation. If you've made some mess with assignments and calibrations in FSUIPC, just delete the FSUIPC.INI file and start again. Pete

Not a good idea. Always work from left to right, setting the minimum value first, then centre, then max. Eronly if you are using the "RAW" setting, bypassing Windows' calibration. Why are you using Raw? That is happening because 254 sounds more like the Max, not the Min. you cannot have the centre values LOWER than the MINIMUM. "MIN" means lowest value! .Of course not, because MAX means "maximum", so it has to contain a value larger than all the others. 5 is NOT larger than 254. Please look up the meanings of the English words "minimum" and "maximum" and you will immediately see why what you are trying to do is impossible! Calibrate them in the correct order, will low values left moving to high values right. If you want the elevator axis to operate the other way around, simply check the REVerse option too.It is probably reversed on input because you are using RAW for some reason. I think it's the title. It is whatever uniquely identifies the aircraft to FS -- the name used in the FLT files, for instance. You can see the name in the Flap details section of the Calibration tab. There's an option, enabled by parameter in the INI, which allows you to shorten the "title" in the INI file [] headings and have them apply to all aircraft which match the title to the number of characters left. Please look for the "ShortAircraftNameOk" parameter in the Advanced User's document, described early on in the section on "Format of Button Definitions". Regards, Pete

It would be too late now for new features in FSX -- the feature list would have been frozen months ago. I hope your request got to them in time, otherwise it will remain on the list for FSXI. Regards, Pete

There is much confusion in your question. What are your "thrust reversers" and how are they related to your throttle? Are you talking about several different throttles and several separate levers for reverse, or buttons for reverse, or what? Get your throttles working properly in FS first, without FSUIPC. And what do you mean by "get FSUIPC to give you another try". FSUIPC never stops anyone doing anything. If your joystick axes are not being seen in FSUIPC then they are either not assigned correctly in FS or they are but have sensitivity (in FS) set to zero. Make sure all your axes work in FS, make sure sensitivities are at maximum in FS and null zones are at minimum. If you have got into a mess with settings in FSUIPC simply delete the FSUIPC.INI file and it will make a new one with none of your settings still there. Regards, Pete

Oh, rightShows how much I know, as I thought they all had to be in the same workgroup for WideFS to work at all in the first place! Do you mean to say you can get two-way interaction between PCs in different workgroups? Anyway, thanks for telling me. It's something I shall have to be explicit about in the documentation. The Microsoft report you reference describes the problem like this: Yet it is certain that no such error was reported back to WideServer when it sent the mailshot. Of course it is not explicitly sending the mailshot to a specific PC, it is a broadcast. So I presume that's why it never fails. How annoying. The article also says it is fixed in SP2 with the following file or later: Mine appears to be version 5.1.2600.2180 dated 03-Aug-2004 and 162,816 bytes in size. Regards Pete

No, sorry, but I would have no idea how to do that. I think it will only not reset if you select the "ignore crashes and damage" option, but then of course you just bounce off the ground instead. As far as I know the closest you could get to what you want to do would be to use my Autosave module with a fairly tight timing, say saving every 10-20 seconds, so that when it resets the flight it only goes back that far. You'd need it to go back far enough to have time to pause it, though, or end up in a loop. Unfortunately though, you still lose the Flight Analysis options. I never understood why the option "detect crash and show graph" (i.e. a sort of auto-analysis) was removed. It was in the Realism menu in FS2000 but not FS2002 nor FS2004. Maybe there are third-party addons which may help. I'm constantly amazed at what has been done -- programs like Active Camera, for instance, which can do things I didn't know were possible. Why not ask over in the FS2004 Forum? Regards, Pete

Okay. Attached is WideClient.exe version 6.598b. This has another [Config] parameter: MailslotTiming=2000,1000 That is the default -- you will see it in the INI after you run WideClient once. The first number (2000) is the number of milliseconds between attempts to read the mailslot, and the second number (1000) is the timeout used on the read -- i.e. how long the read is waiting, somewhere deep in Windows, for the mail. The overall retries, by default, are every 3 seconds (1000 + 2000 mSecs). I would not advise increasing the read timeout (it will make WideClient unresponsive to user mouse actions until it is connected), but you could decrease it whilst also decreasing the interval. I have found that with MailslotTiming=100,200 I still get reliable connections, and the Wideclient window is still very responsive, but if the latter figure is 100 it doesn't always connect. Intervals below about 20 aren't worth considering as other things will make them vary too much in any case. Please experiment and see if you can make it work. just to check that the mailslot messages are not being blocked, by all means set something rather unrealistic like MailslotTiming=100,5000 initially. This will make it wait for 5 seconds every 5.1 seconds. If it still doesn't see the message then I have to give up -- it is being blocked or lost someplace. You may have to kill Wideclient then by using the Task Manager, as it will be horribly unresponsive. However, if this proves the messages are arriving, then it is a matter of finding a timing solution which works properly. Something more realistic like the 100,200 maybe. If you can find some settings which work 100% I can test them here too and may change the defaults. Regards, Pete WideClient6598b.zip

Many add-on aircraft for FS come with EFIS control panels. These are the small panels with rotary switches for Nav Display mode and range, rotary encoders for DH and altimeter pressure setting, and buttons for an assortment of options and displays. You'd need to search for those aircraft which contain the type of EFIS you are interested in. To start with, Boeing or Airbus? Or some other manufacturer. For hardware implementations, PFC (http://www.flypfc.com) make an MCP with optional EFIS attachments, 737 style. Take a look there. I would also suggest asking around in the cockpit builders forum and over in the Project Magenta webgroup/forum (you would need to join). http://www.promagenta.com. Have you tried Google? There are some excellent sources of information on the real aircraft. I'm not sure what model interests you most, but for 737 try http://www.b737.org.uk/. Regards, Pete

Yes, I do know what they do. Sorry if I gave the impression I didn't. I just said I'd never had one -- all my rotary "encoders" (I use the term "switch" generically to emcompass all these things, sorry for my inaccuracy) produce pulses on separate lines according to the direction. I understand the two-phase ones are easier to obtain, and possibly cheaper. There are other threads here which discuss both and give some links to suppliers of the 'simpler' type I have. The example in the documentation was programmed and tested and provided by a user who did have the two-phase types. I'm sure the logic is sound there. Regards, Pete

No. As I said in my first reply, FSUIPC interfaces the old FS98 interface to FS2000, FS2002, and FS2004. You must have missed a paragraph? The whole point of FSUIPC, when it was first released for FS2000, was to allow all the nice FS98 programs to be used with FS2000. Similarly FS98 and FS2000 on FS2002, then FS98, FS2000 and FS2002 programs on FS2004. So FSUIPC still supports all the FS98 interface as well as the FS2000, FS2002 and FS2004 ones. It does the data matching internally. It is all smoke and mirrors and you don't need to worry about it. The weather was markedly improved with FS2000, but roughly the same in FS2002, so the "Advanced Weather Interface", developed in FSUIPC for FS2000, applies to both of those. Both of those old interfaces only dealt with Global weather setting. In FS2004 this proved to be insufficient, as weather is localised with time. So in FS2004 only the "New Weather Interface" is provided. That is actually rather more transparent, a sort of Window into FS's WEATHER.DLL, only made in a format suiting the FSUIPC interface design. There are two weather programs provided in the FSUIPC.ZIP package -- WeatherSet which uses the AWI and WeatherSet2 (for FS2004 only) which uses the NWI. Check the details provided in the SDK. Regards, Pete

How complicated! It sounds like that Hagstrom controller is absolutely not suited to such rotaries. To be honest I am not sure it is even possible. But I have no experience whatsoever of 2-phase rotary switches -- all the ones I've ever had produce chains of pulses on one line one way and on another line the other way. I do think, though, that your button programming looks completely wrong. I am comparing it with the example provided to me for publication in the Advanced User's documentation for FSUIPC. Please look at the example. Search for "two-phase" in the document and you should find it straight-away. There's a good half-page or more spent on explaining it. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC has not yet got beyond version 3.5xx, and WideFS has been at version 6.5xx for a long time, so I don't know where you are seeing "4 something". You can easily check version numbers -- right click on the program or module and select Properties - Version. I see your name associated with a registration for FSUIPC (29th Oct 2004), but not WideFS. When did you purchase that? You'll have troubles if you try to use a fake registration. What, exactly, says "access denied"? Please be more specific. If you want help please try again, get the error, then close down FS and show me the FSUIPC.Log file, which you will find in the FS Modules folder. Regards, Pete

Because it was set by something writing to the FS98 weather interface -- please review my earlier reply. Regards, Pete

I have had no one else report that the broadcast connection facility, which was added in version 6.50 last August, does not work on WinXP networks. Now I also find that it works well with Win2K -- it is only WinMe and earlier systems which apparently don't support the needed facilities. This of course doesn't mean no one else has such prblems. after all, I assume you have previously been using 6.51 and even 6.50, but didn't think to either try the facility or report the problem, nnot until we discover it when I propose an interesting use for it (that of easier change of protocol via server INI change only). I'll send another WideClient tomorrow (Thursday). Regards, Pete

Write the string to offset 3380 using FSUIPC_WriteS, and a code (for delay, scroll, whatever) to 32FA using FSUIPC_Write. Check the Programmer's Guide in the SDK for these offsets. Pete

Okay, thanks. It is exactly as I feared I'm afraid. The Server is okay, it is quite happy and certain it is sending mailslot messages with no errors: 44031 Broadcasting service every 1000 mSecs 44031 Preferred protocol = TCP 44531 Mailslot message sent okay ...) And the Client is also certain that is it listening and wating for them with no errors reported at all, yet nothing being received either: 3675 Mailslot being created 3675 Mailslot "\\.\MAILSLOT\MS_WideServer" created ok 4676 Readfile for mail returned 0 (read 0 bytes, needed 28 or 26), Error=121 Error 121 just means the read timed out (set at 1 second -- as can be seen here, the difference between 3675 mSecs and 4676 mSecs). So, what are the possibilities? First, perhaps they are being blocked somewhere. How that can be I don't know. Sorry. Second, perhaps there is some service or other part of Windows which isn't running for some reason. Again I have no idea what or why. Third, perhaps some other service, some add-on perhaps, is hooking this system and losing or blocking the messages -- though is is really the same as reason 1. Fourth, and this is more obtuse but possibly experimentally provable, perhaps the message is only available to be read for a short time and by some coinicidence it is never there in the 1 second out of every 3 that WideClient is waiting for it. I don't wait all the time because I found, even if I do this in a separate thread, it makes the WideClient window rather unresponsive to mouse operations such as Window movement/sizing or closure. What I could do is supply a WideClient with both the interval (3 seconds at present) and the timeout (1 second at present) configurable. Then you could experiment, from the daft (timeout of 10 seconds, every 11, or similar) to the fast (timeout of 100 mSecs every 150 mSecs) -- assuming I set the values in mSecs. What do you think? Is it worth a try? Let me know. I sohuld be able to fit that in tomorrow some time. Regards, Pete

Ah .. the ancient and venerable FS98 interface. I didn't know anyone still programmed for that these days. Yes, in FS98 you could only enable or disable gusts. In order to interface the old limited FS98 weather system to FS2000, FS2002 and FS2004 I do some manipulations on the current windspeed to calculate a reasonable gust increment, which should work out at a random value somewhere between 5 knots and 5 knots more than 120% of the wind speed. This served well in comparison with what FS98 used to do with the "on/off" option then available. This means that to get as high as your 99 knots the base wind speed must have been of the order of 40 odd knots. Are you writing the speed first? If not the gust value may be calculate based on something else. Also, I hope you are not doing a Process call for every individual read/write. You should accumulate them all for one cycel and send one Process. If you cannot figure it out, enable the Weather and IPC Write logging and show me the Log. Regards, Pete

Thank you. Pete