Pete Dowson

I am rather bemused by this sudden "attack". There was a long discussion on this several months ago which I thought was resolved. Have you looked through the other threads on this? Which PFC.DLL version are you using? The more recent versions have additional "filtering" in (quite crude, I admit) which can be adjusted for longer-term smoothing, and also include a Throttle Sync facility which operates also on other axes. That facility has been working well since version 1.80. The current version is 1.83. Have you used Throttle Sync in any of these? Since all this, back in October last year, I have heard no more until now. I don't know if that is because all the complainants have been on an extended holiday, or because whatever problems there were have gone away. Coming out of the blue, in attack mode like this, doesn't help anyone at all. If you would like to be more specific, in particular about what you are using, what options you have tried, and what still remains to be done, I am here to listen and to try to figure it out. The PFC throttles are the smoothest and most flexible I have used, and believe me I have been through many different sets (some of which are still in my junk box upstairs). For most every purpose they perform impeccably. If there is a specific problem in certain applications let's look at itbut I need information, not rants. As you'll see from the recent messages I now have some suggestions for a more "scientific" approach to flitering and smoothing, and evening-out differences between axes. I may well try these out. Perhaps you would like to volunteer as one of the test sites if I do? But whether this is useful depends upon what appears to be the causes of your problem. That is something I don't know at all at present. Regards, Pete

Oh, yes, I have records of all those, don't worry. They can write to me (privately) with their details. But they are very much in the minority of course. :wink: There are also those who got them from Enrico Schiratti, mostly Porject Magenta customers of course, and they should ask him. And, since late December, there will also be customers of InterCraft of Tokyo, Japan, who do a Japanese translation of the documentation and sell both FSUIPC and WideFS there. In each case, apart from the purchasers, the details and access keys are only known to the specific suppliers. I hope this is clear. There is no central database and I don't hold keys I didn't issue personally. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I don't deal with any of that. I do programming and technical support. Registration is dealt with by the retailers -- SimMarket mostly. If you bought it from SimMarket then I think you can get your key by going to http://www.simmarket.com and logging in to your account there. Otherwise contact their Customer Services. When you do get a copy, don't forget you need to enter the EXACT same name and email details as you used originally. I'd also advise either printing out the details and keeping it safe (much like anything else you might purchase), or backing up the FSUIPC.KEY file (on separate media to your HDD) after you have successfully re-registered. Regards, Pete

That's because it is called FSUIPC.LOG. If will be in the same folder as FSUIPC -- in other words, in your FS Modules folder. There will be 4 files there with FSUIPC as a name: The DLL itself, which is the program The INI file which vcontains all of its configuration settings The KEY file which contains your key details, and also those of any registered programs The LOG file, in which FSUIPC saves any details needed to answer problems. I don't know about a Beta version of Squawkbox, but certainly there's a Freeware key in the list for Squawkbox 2.3. That should be all you need for FS2002. For SB2004 I think you also need something called SBRelay in order to convert the multiplayer protocols. But this is not my subject so I won't confuse things further. No. COM1 is supported directly by FS itself. It doesn't need any additional modules. I don't know if that panel uses FSUIPC for anything else. You'd need to check the LOG file. Regards, Pete

That means you haven't registered FSUIPC yourself, and you are using a program which doesn't provide an access key automatically. If you do as the message says and look in the FSUIPC LOG file (in the Modules folder) there will be entries there which tell you the name of the culprit program. Well, part of that may be due to the program you are using not being able to talk to FSUIPC, but I thought the visual image part was dealt with by the multiplayer protocol. Perhaps there's a mixture of things going on there. :? I thought you said you had read the documentation? :wink: If you want to register FSUIPC in order to unlock all of its facilities you have to go to SimMarket and purchase the access key. All the details are there, within the first few pages of the User Guide. If all you want to do is run some freeware programs, then take a look at the list of Freeware Keys for applications provided in a sticky message near the top of this forum. Regards, Pete

Actually, after further thought, this might well be useful -- with something like e=6, as you say. I don't think necessarily that the levers will line up, but it make it easier for the pilot to get a constant symmetric thrust, as the lever positioning will be a little less critical. Of course there's more code that this, as I have to be able to cope with 2, 3 and 4 engines and throttle levers. Thanks again, Pete

I can't say I understand much of that. However, there is one problem, but probably easily dealt with. The PFC device provides values only once a second, unless they change. So there is no regular sampling from the PC -- the firmware is doing the sampling and all I see are the results. In order to "simulate" a sample rate of, say, 18.2Hz I would need to assume the previous last values seen, even up to a second earlier. Does this change your proposals? Presumably not. Okay, I can try this, though proving it's effectiveness will be difficult as very few folks seem to be having problems, and I am not one of them. Thanks! 2 lines of code per channel. That's not complicated, is it ? And it doesn't use branching, which is nice for your Pentium's pipeline. An optimizing C-compiler will also allow simultaneous execution of the addition and the multiplication on the FPU. Ah .... now this is a different subject. You seem to be assuming that the two separate potentiometers are identical in everything. I don't think they go to such expense. This is not a noise difference, it is a difference in the characteristics and linearity of two separate components. I don't see how anyone can expect 100% agreement -- even in the real aircraft I doubt it occurs between throttles due to slight differences in engine performance, in the connecting wires, leads, pulleys, whatever. Regards, Pete

Originally it was called RW transmit on/off, or similar , but since it also applies to AVC that seemed unfair, so it is now called PTT transmit on/off (RW or AVC). If others come along I shall probably drop the parenthesised part altogether. The PTT is "push to talk". Sorry for the confusion. So, look in the "p's" and you'll find it. Regards, Pete

Well the generic M magneto selector assignment doesn't actually operate the mags or starter switches, it only selects them. The + or - keys then turn the switch. For props the starting needs the start position to be held against a spring, so you hold the + key down till the engine starts. Jet starting is similar but I think it uses a different selector. There are hundreds of FS controls and I do not know exactly what they all do. I suspect some do nothing and are just left-overs from an earlier version, or possible new facilities which never actually made it into the code. Scrolling through the list in FSUIPC, looking for likely candidates to try, is not so easy and you can miss things. For each version of FS since FS98 I have published lists of the controls FS declares (I won't say supports for the above reasons. :) ). I used to try to explain what each one did and how to use it, where I knew, but I gave that up as an almost impossible task with all the other things I have to do. But the list, just as a bare list, may be useful to you in any case -- http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. Don't press them together. Press M first to select the Mags. I don't think the Dash7 has any does it? For jets I think you select the jet starter with a J. The + and - keys operate on the last thing selected, which could be almost anything -- by default when you load up, the view is selected, hence the Zoom operation. Regards, Pete

That was the algorithm actually implemented, and over a year ago now. It was originally specifically aimed at curing severe jitter on a user's system in Myanmar where the power supply was the jittery component. All I did more recently (last October/November) was add an extra layer and allow the time value to be set by the user -- one or two users had much longer term "drift" (a better term than jitter for something not quick! :) ). Yes, but the circuitry on the PFC controller board, and indeed its firmware, is supposed to deal with that. Here I hardly ever experience any jitter at all -- there are some specific positions of the levers which are, shall we say, "ambiguous" -- the value it wants to provide is half way between two of its measurements and it flutters a little between the two. That is the phenomenon my "filter" was designed to fix, and it works fine here. Values from PFC axes (provided by the PFC firmware) can only extend from 0 to 127, but that range is never fully achieved and it usually provides something like 10 to 110, for example. The "granularity" appears to be 3, so in fact there are only between 30 and 40 distinct positions measurable. I think your proposals need to go to PFC? Or are you saying implement a digital filter in my FS module? I would be a little concerned over the effects on FS performance if there were too much processing going on. After all, FS wants to use the processor too from time to time, and with up to 15 PFC axes all throwing values at me all the time I need to make their processing as fast as possible. Thanks. I'd like to understand this a little more. Like what are the values a2, a1 and a0 -- are they derived experimentally or is there some way of determining what they should be? And you say 'e' depends on the resolution -- is this my "3" for PFC axes? Oh, and isn't there some sort of elapsed time involved here someplace, or are these only ever concerned with the three most recent values read? If there's no time factor then I can see the long term "jitter" experienced by one of my correspondents still remaining. Thanks for your ideas. I am struggling a bit to see the need for such added complexity and programming within the FS process, and, in fact, don't have any jitter problems in any case with any of my PFC gear. I don't understand why some folks do (excepting the site in Myanmar with dreadful mains power), and was quite pleased that the updates I did provide late last year seems to answer their questions. However, I am always seeking to improve things, so if you could just elaborate on the simpler parts of your proposals I'd be interested to try them. Thank you, Regards, Pete

Yes, and I think the freeware arrestor cables should work -- it will unless it is deliberabately set to check version numbers. The reason that might be done is that I think it is now part of a commercial product. Ah .. that's the one! And I think it is advertised for both FS2002 and FS2004, is it not? Regards, Pete

No problem. Thanks for letting us know! Regards, Pete

It should work okay, provided it doesn't check for FS version number or FSUIPC version number. Certainly the things it does in FS2002 can also be done in FS2004. Maybe there's someone else here using it who can chip in? Regards, Pete

Are you sure it was actually working with the unregistered FSUIPC, or was that an older version of FSUIPC (before 3.00?). Which version of FS is this with? Take a look at the FSUIPC Log, see if it says anything about FSMetar. It sounds like either FSMetar is getting data from FS it doesn't understand, or it is now working "better" but the downloads it is getting are causing it grief. Regards, Pete

Shouting "start" through a mike doesn't sound so authentic :D . You should be using a spring-loaded partly-latching toggle switch for the starter, and for airliners another (latching) switch for the fuel. Even with a co-pilot you'd probably do one or the other. You could operate the starter yourself and shout out "fuel on engine one" when the N2% figure gets to the right value, so your "buddy" co-pilot does that bit. :wink: Regards, Pete

Ah, rightthanks. I still get so many messages I forget which is what! What about using the Engine Autostart keypress as I suggested? I think that's about as good as you'll get by voice if the program doesn't have separate press and release facilities. Regards Pete

You seem to have started a new thread, so it is a bit difficult to refer back. By "on" you mean "pressed" I assume? That is done by the software sending a "KEYDOWN" and holding it down until a "KEYUP" is sent. Unless Voice Buddy provides a method of interpreting a command as meaning do the KEYDOWN part only, and a way of giving it a KEYUP, then what you ask is just not possible. There is a "cheat" control provided by FS -- "Engine Autostart", assigned by default to CTRL+E. That will work with a normal voice-to-keypress setting. I think that's your only option. Regards, Pete

No, it's hacked into a different part of FS, a part I know nothing about. Bit like Lago's FSAssist, if you remember that -- in FS2000 it fiddled with all sorts of things I've never found. There's different bits of expertise in different places. No one knows it all it seems! :wink: Pete

Because VB is rather odd in that when you run your program within its auspices, it isn't your process which is running, but VB's. So FSUIPC doesn't recognise you, and so the Key doesn't check. Please look at the FSUIPC LOG, it will be evident then. Sorry, but either you will have to only ever run your program on its own, or register FSUIPC so that it will accept all programs. Regards, Pete

All I have access to are the same controls as you could operate by sending controls or keystrokes, i.e. ZOOM_1X ZOOM_IN ZOOM_IN_FINE ZOOM_MINUS ZOOM_OUT ZOOM_OUT_FINE ZOOM_PLUS I'm not sure what they all do individually, but I doubt that any of them are "smooth". Have you tried. You may wish to ask the author of Active Camera how it is done. I think he must know a lot about that part of the innards of FS. I'm afraid it's an area I know nothing about, so it would realy take me a long time. The "Zoom" factor at 02B2 is, oddly enough, one of the few remaining original GLOBALS which FSUIPC doesn't touch. It doesn't stop you overwriting it either, it just seems to have no effect. Sorry, Pete

I'm really no good at graphics, sorry. Even those that do exist weren't done by me! Anyway, I don't particularly want in-your-face advertising! I'm one of those that cuts designer labels off clothes (they don't pay me to advertise) and peel "Intel inside" labels off computers! :lol: :lol: Regards, Pete

Yes, but sorry, there are no facilities to load a program, wait for it to be ready, then send it a key. Knowing when it is ready to accept one is a problem in itself. Most programs like that usually have some command line option to load and run with assumed settings, or similar. Have you investigated what can be done in the program? Pete

Do you know how to do it? I can add it if someone knows how. I'll investigate it myself when I get time. No promises though. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I don't understand. You are saying that "loading" and "running" this program are two separate things? Why, when you load the program, doesn't it run? Both FSUIPC and WideFS have facilities for loading and running programs (treating these as the same thing). There is no single facility which will load a program, wait for it to load and become ready (how could it tell?) then send it some keystrokes. The latter is certainly a separate action. Regards, Pete

But the FSInterrogate.exe I supply in the FSUIPC SDK comes with a valid access key embedded in its "properties" and will work with unregistered installations of FSUIPC. These are the details: FSinterrogate.exe Product = "FSInterrogate", Company = "Pelle F. S. Liljendal" Key = 161C 7AUZ D1BV If it isn't connecting for reason of registration, it will say so in the Log, and this would imply you have a pretty old copy of the FSUIPC SDK. However, I also give the above details in the "Freeware Key" list near the top of this Forum. Regards, Pete