Pete Dowson

Sorry, but what is this part about. are you creating a new section in FSUIPC.INI called [start]? Why? Where do you get this from? Well, if you don't run the Lua plug-in, I'm not surprised. Also if the file only contains those two lines, as just written, it will run when it is started and probably not find the button pressed so do nothing and end. Once it finishes doing what you ask it is finished, done, gone. The only way a Lua plug-in stays running is if there's a loop keeping it so, or it establishes events to act upon -- in the latter case it suspends itself till the next such event. I've no idea why you would ever want a plug-in to do something so basic in any case, when you can do it by direct assignment. You seem to be suffereing from several misunderstandings. If you want to mess with Lua why not first study some of the examples provided with FSUIPC, and those contributed by others in the User Contributions subforum? Regards Pete

Assuming that's the path to your BAT file, yes ... almost. You'd need ext.shell("C:\\Saitek.bat") i.e. a double \, because in Lua the \ character is used to say the next character is "special" (for example \n is new-line). \\ comes out as a single \. I don't know. Does A2A's utility perhaps read the USB frames, and not simply use the Windows joystick interface. With FSUIPC's Lua com and HID facilities you could write a script to do the same, but it isn't easy as you'd have to know how to decode the raw frames. Regards Pete

That's bad. Are Saitak planning to fix this? I assume you've reported it? To get some other program run whilst FSX is running you would need to use a Lua plug-in. The ext library can do it -- check ext.shell in the Lua lobrary documentation (all in the Lua plugins stuff installed in your FSUIPC Documents subfolder). You can initiate the action by button or key. The use of the ext.shell command is easy enough -- two parameters, one line of Lua. What more do you need to know? When there's a Lua file in the modules folder you can assign a button to it in the dropdown. It is that easy. Why is the documentation for this so difficult for you? Pete

Almost all buttons are like that. Buttons which have depressed "on" states and released "off" states are exactly the same as toggle switches 9like normal light switches). So, I'm not sure what is 'special' about this that it needs macro attention. Doesn't it return when you press it again? Most such types do. I don't recall offhand what ",11" or ",17" mean, but i seem to remember that most things to do with mouse buttons need experimentation. Regards Pete

Only if it wasn't a fault, but a designed feature. It most certainly sounds faulty then. Either the switch indications are "flickering" (i,e. giving spurious indications) each time you cause an input by operating one, or the interface is adding the spurious indications. Well, it implies that they are separate switches for each button, certainly. Doesn't tell me why it's misbehaving. Pete

Pretty much all the user parameters in the INI file are documented in the Advanced User's guide. Where did you look? I certainly don't remember everything in any case. FSUIPC has been going now for about 14 years, and i'm getting old. I have to search often. Searching on Poll or PollInterval or interval finds it pretty quickly! Pete

Uninstalling and reinstalling usually causes more problems that it solves. If the one switch you are using gives a different button number, alternately, the either it is meant to do that )which I'll explain in a moment) or it is faulty. I can't tell you which, you'd need to ask VRI, or use a test program which shows you exactly what is going on. In the serial port VRI devices, every button gave two different signals, alternately. In order to program a button to do one action then you had to program both of those to the same action. Or you could treat it like an on/off toggle switch and have one of the pair of inmputs turning something on, and the other turning it off. I suspect that was VRIs intentions. If your one switch/button gives both 18 and 21, alternately, then either it is because those are the set values for that switch, or there's a fault someplace -- perhaps in the hardware or the connection. Regards Pete

I'm bald already ... not enough help? ;-) Pete

Of course it does! Why do you think that? They are indistinguishable from other buttons. I have many encoders programmed in the buttons & switches section of FSUIPC! Pete

Sorry, I don't understand. If the Pokeys card is emulating a joystick input, with buttons, then those buttons will be seen in FSUIPC, providing only it is one of the first 16 joystick devices registered by Windows. It will have a joystick number, and buttons 1-32 (0-31 in FSUIPC's terms) will be seen. Oh, sorry forgot to mention -- you need a limit too. Please do refer to the FSUIPC User Guide. It shows what to do there, with examples. In this case look at the boxed section, about page 32, entitled Offset Increment/Decrement Controls. I published the documentation to save having to explain separately every time! ;-) Pete

Ouch. So Pokeys doesn't emulate a device with buttons, for direct assignment? Can it only send keypresses? If so then you are limited by the Windows keyboard system and its buffering I'm afraid. I was assuming a proper hardware interface card provided normal HID jystick type inputs, like, for example, the Leo Bodnar boards. Regards Pete

Sorry, I've really no idea when it comes to sourcing hardware. You could try googling it I suppose. In the UK I always used to get stuff from Maplins, but they wouldn't be any good for specialist needs. Maybe Contad? www.conrad-uk.com. Do you have anything in Australia? Pete

Sorry, that doesn't sound right. you either assign to keypresses OR to controls. Not both, so what do you mean? Keypresses recognised by FS are converted into those same controls by FS referring to its own assignments list. Encoders are of two types. One type sends a pusle on one line for one direction (off or on on each click) and another line for the other direction, so look like two buttons repeatedly pressed and released, one for "up" the other for "down". The other type is changing both lines at the same time, out of phase. The phase determines the direction. Those types need more intelligent decoding -- I suspect that's being done on your interface card, otherwise you wouldn't have got to where you are now with what you've done. By "direct input" I've really no idea what you mean -- the direct input is the detection of each pulse. It can't actually measure the voltage on the line, it's just going to look on or off., the interpretation being done in the interface card and encoded in USB messages to Windows drivers. You can make FSUIPC scan buttons faster by adjusting the poll interval -- there's a parameter in the INI file controls that. Reduce the interval to scan faster. The on or off-ness of a switch or button IS "digital". It certainly isn't seeing an analogue input. What more can you expect from a switch? If you want to use a potentiometer or optical encoder which gives positional information, then that is converted to a value by an ADC (analogue to digital converter) in the interface and sent to Wndows drivers in USB packets as an AXIS. You'd assign that sort of readout in the Axis assignments, like all joysticks readouts. Regards Pete

Key presses assigned to encoders are generally a bad idea. Keypresses build up in the keyboard buffer, and you tend to get overrruns. They also aren't as fast as direct control. The offset entry would be x73FD and the parameter entry 1 (for an increment or decrement of 1). Not really hard? Pete

Please re-read my last message. I did look it up! Sorry, but when that was all done the only VRI devices were all serial port devices and I was adding support for them as they came out. They've not contacted me abut any others. Next time I make an update for the manual I'll list the supported devices and be done with it. But that might be some time yet. FSUIPC recognises devices by the numbers supplied by Windows. they are not "wrong". If you have something also connected which is giving inputs all of the time then it will see that first. Please read the first answers you got in this thread from another user. He seemed to give the correct advice way back then! Synching switches at start up is rarely a necessity, it is just a nicety. You can do it in any case, best by always leaving the switches in the same state on close down and loading the aircraft in the same state on start-up. Or else simply use the screen rendition of the switches to match the hardware condition. What's that got to do with the controller number? How many "controllers" do you have? Is the T&T more than one HID device? I'm sorry, I don't understand your problem at all. And really, unless VRI supplies me with a device to test (which is unliley as they don't really need FSUIPC), I cannot diagnose their problems. I only provide FSUIPC as a tool for all normal devices. If the VRI ones play differnt games then VRI will need to advise on support. There must surely be other users who can help you too? On the VRI forum? Did you ever try assigning the switches in FS itself instead? Why exactly are you using FSUIPC for this? Pete

VRI have a website, which is where you can download documentation and drivers. That's where I got mine. Hmm. Strange. quite honestly I don't know how you find the correct port number then. I'm sure VRI's own stuff can help though, or better the Support forum. BTW I just noticed from your first message that your device is a VRI "T & T". Would you mind telling me what a "T & T" is? Are you sure it is really a serial port device, not a plain USB controller? I know most of VRI's recent products haven't needed or used FSUIPC. The facilities you are trying to use are for these devices, the only ones I know: "MCP Combi", "M-Panel", "CDU 2", "CDU", "Micro Prop Pit", "Micro Jet Pit", "Radio Stack", "Prop Pit", "Jet Pit", "Flight Monitor", "MFD", "GPS5", "MCP2 Boeing", "MCP2 Airbus" [LATER] I went to VRInsight's website. Your "T & T" appears to be this: As far as I can see it is a basic USB joystick-type controller. You should be able to assign the switches and buttons in the FSUIPC switches and buttons assifgfnments page. I don't know why you are messing with the facilities for VRI's serial port range. Regards Pete

Hmmm. They've changed things then. No documentation telling you how to find out? It will if your unit is plugged it. That's to run the VRI driver which I thought you said you didn't have? If that the proper path to the VRInsight driver called "SerialFP2.exe"? If so, then it is correct, if not it is incorrect. Sorry, I cannot see your PC from here, I cannot find your files for you. I think you might be better off asking these things in the VRI support forum. I've not handled any VRI devices for several years now. I think they've changed things quite a bit. Regards Pete

When I was dealing with VRI devices they came with a program, a driver, to use them. When it ran and discovered the VRI devices it displayed the COM port number. Maybe they don't provide that program any more? I wouldn't have thought VRI expected their users to be so in any case. No, you probably need to look into the part entitled "Ports (COM & LPT)". It seems you are looking in the USB section, not ports? Regards Pete

Okay, but you should never need to re-assign. Why does the Pokeys connection get lost? Could it be the usual problem with Windows power management on USB? Yes, exactly. Regards Pete

Where does VRI's own driver see it? That's how I always knew. Or look in the Windows device manager and see which port 'disappears' from the list when you pull the plug out Pete

Sorry, what am I supposed to glean from that picture? Are any of the problems reported to do with FSX at all? I can't read any of them and certainly not see any details. You need to fix whatever it iscausing each and every problem. Pete

The FSUIPC log, not the installer log, will help me see what is wrong. It is when FSUIPC is running that the problem is detected, not when the installer runs. Regards Pete

WideFS 6 keys are for FSUIPC3 + WideFS6 on FS9 and earlier. You need a WideFS7 key for FSUIPC4 and FSX or Prepar3D. The popup window at the end ALWAYS appaeas, assuming the installation program isn't crashing. It's the last thing it does, always, no matter how many times you re-run it! Perhaps you'd better find the Installer log so I can see what is going on -- it'll be in the FS Modules folder. You can paste it here. Pete

Yes, that's one of its functions, and in fact there's a special assignable FSUIPC control which will do this automatically (PTT). Pete

Yes. WideFS merely extends the FSUIPC interface to networked PCs, so it is really only useful for programs actually using FSUIPC's interface. It can be used to have some hardware on networkwed PCs, like buttons and switches, linked to FSUIPC too, and for a "button screen" on a touch screen, but this would be an unusual and specialist use. Pete