Pete Dowson

Keeping up to date does not affect controls and settings, it just gets bugs fixed and performance improved. You don't delete INI and CFG files. And it gets you support, because I cannot support old versions. The connection is fine: 86893 Reception maximum: 38 frames/sec, 5584 bytes/sec 86893 Reception average whilst connected: 33 frames/sec, 3209 bytes/sec That's very good performance. Really you should be limiting FS frame rates to get a balance, but an average of 33 seems excellent for WideFs. That's not a real error, just the client closing normally as shown in your client log. Regards Pete

Hmm. Something is very wrong with them if they get you setting the minimum calibration point at almost the maximum value you can possibly get! :-(. Why not try the simply numbered steps in the FSUIPC User Guide? Pete

Not a problem, though i'm still a little mystified. The lua script you are using was designed for someone who tested it for me (i don't have the means to test it properly here). It isn't an example I support or provide anywhere, so I assume you got it from that original thread? If so, were there instructions there on how to use it? When you started this thread you appeared to know what you were doing, which is why I was getting more and more mystified as things changed inexplicably. If you use the script exactly as I supplied to the original tester, and you have the fully tested and working version, then really there is no more programming needed. It should work, though you may need to adjust timings and, of course, the device details and button numbers used. The main thing you seem to be getting wrong is starting it. As I said ipcReady.lua is the name of the script which is always started by FSUIPC when FS is ready. Really all you need to read is the introductory document. The library document is for reference when actually programming, and only gives the ADDITIONS to Lua provided in FSUIPC (and mostly in WideClient too). The language and main bulk of lua is described and defined in books you can purchase, or view less comfortably on-line at the Lua website. Regards Pete

No, of course not -- you surely already saw my amazement at that! But ever since that was clear, I've been trying to get you to download the current release version which will give you the manual as well. Regards Pete

No, it cannot have been done by me! I have not been to your house and calibrated your throttles. You have to do that! It should have been one of the first things you did after connecting up and running FS. That says I made the drivers. I used the drivers for my quadrant to calibrate, just as you need to for yours. I cannot calibrate YOUR throttle quadrant from here! I cannot even see it let alone reach it! The very latest FSUIPC (3.998e or 4.742) is available here, in the forum, just as are the PFC drivers -- check the Download Links subforum as I already told you. The oldest supported version of the PFC driver, which is later than yours, is on the Schiratti site, as I also already told you, along with all the rest of my software. Shall i repeat this again? (I am starting to understand why PFC charge for Support. I don't get anything for supporting PFC, and it is evidently hard work even just to get someone to update and read a manual!). Regards Pete

Are these assigned in FSUIPC or FS? If in FSUIPC are they assigned "Direct to FSUIPC calibration", or to the FS controls? If to the FS controls are they to the "Axis throttleN set" controls or the "ThrottleN set " controls? Er, only "top idle" whatever that means? What about the other two numbers needing setting? start on the left. You should pull the levers right back, the full reverse position, then push forward a little, making sure the numbers increase. The SET the Minimum (left-most value or the 4). Then move the lever to where you want the idle zone to begin, SET one idle position, then forward again, SET second idle position, and finally fully forward, then back a bit (ensure numbers decrease) and SET the max. All this is as per the numbered steps in the user guide. I really don't know what is different in the guide you are following, but the proper method always works. You must have 4 different numbers in the calibrations, MIN lower than both CENTRES and MAX higher than all. It isn't complicated! Just numbers. The numbers are simply the points on your axis where the different functions will occur. Pete

I have not heard of such behaviour before, but it may be related to the recent security changes in Windows. Please go to the Download Links subforum and get the latest 3.998 update. Let me know. Regards Pete

Without the whole INI file those mean little to me -- they just say to run whatever Lua program is number 1 in the Lua files list in the INI. If that is "ipcReady" then you should most certainly NOT be doing that! Yes. Remove them! Is this something you've changed at some stage AFTER you came here with your questions, after the earlier logs with things half done okay? ipcReady is always run automatically. Please see the short Lua introductory document included with your FSUIPC Installation. Please, can I ask: where are you getting your instructions from for all this? When you started out I assumed you knew something about what you were doing, what with the debug logs and so on. But if you were already then starting off the ipcReady with Debug, then the clash with the already-running ipcReady would have certainly affected the results! Regards Pete

No, they are definitely NOT the same. The PFC drivers use FSUIPC, but they are only for folks with PFC serial devices. I also made the "PFCHID" driver for PFC USB devices, and the EPICINFO driver for EPIC cards. All of my software for FS is supported here, in this Forum, and available through the Schiratti site with updates provided here in the Download Links subforum. Strange. Tell them they don't know what they are talking about. This is the problem, eveidently. I can't understand why they gave you no manual! Wasn't the PFC driver in a ZIP file? Did you check in there for a manual? There's no excuse for them not to provide one! Strange? I don't think so. I am simply amazed that you have no manual and are trying to use such complex and feature-full software without. All i'm asking you to do is go get it, now, and read it! I've never had any trouble like this with any other PFC user. I don't understand what has gone wrong. Can you PLEASE re-check the ZIP file. Now you are being just silly! How do you work out that I "don't want to answer"? The answer is to calibrate in the PFC driver. THAT IS THE ANSWER! There's no other needed. If you have a question about that, then come back and ask, but please do NOT claim your questions are not answered! Pete

No, you said you didn't find one in the Modules folder. you must look in the ZIP from which you got the DLL.. All my software is here and on the Schiratti site, the same one you get FSUIPC from. The one linked to all over the place. I already told you, the latest release in in the Download Links subforum. A slightly earlier one is at the main Schiratti site which has all my software. There are links in the FSUIPC documentation, and on SimMarket. It is inside the same ZIP file you download when you get the PFC driver. A bad analogy. The user guide is nothing whatsoever to do with how things work or are put together. It is THE essential guide to installing, configuring and using the software. I cannot imagine how you managed to get the PFC driver with no documentation. It has NEVER been supplied separately by me, not ever. Do you drive a new car with no user manual, no instructions, nothing? You just guess? That will work when you've seen a car before, perhaps, as they standardise things quite well. But yuo can't expect all software and hardware for PCs to be so similar. It has many more possible functions to choose from than a car. Regards Pete

Okay, so you are using FSX and PFCFSX. That's fine except version 4.30 is quite a bit out of date. Version 4.34 is the earliest supported, and there's a version 4.379 available in the Download Links subforum. i think you are not reading my replies? It is up to YOU, not me, to calibrate your throttles using the facilities provided in the DLL. What? You are using PFCFSX.DLL but you have NEVER even looked at the documentation? I find that rather incredible!? It isn't installed in any Modules folder. It is supplied WITH the DLL inside the same ZIP. How have you downloaded and installed the DLL and never noticed that there is documentation? Because it is that driver which is controlling the throttles directly, and does the assignments and calibrations. The calibration interface is more graphic as well. There's no point at all in making things more complicated. Please please PLEASE read the manual! That's what it is for! :-( Pete

But the HidDemo one did, and I assume you've not messed with that? If that can't see them then no other Lua HID program will. HIDDemo works on everything I've ever tried it on. So what have you changed? Additionally the Lua program you are trying to get working was half working at one time and somehow without change stopped altogether and now gets itself "killed" in some undetermined manner. None of these changes can happen by themselves, and i can't see what you are doing from here. Now here's a problem. I don't understand at all what you are saying you are doing here. How exactly are you "pointing" the encoder this way? By naming the script "ipcReady" you are asking FSUIPC to run it automatically when FS is ready. From what you posted earlier I see the script is designed to sit in a loop, in the backround, just watching for the buttons. If you have it triggered by a button instead it will be re-loaded, re-compiled and re-executed each time that button is seen. The previous running copy, waiting for a button, will be killed. I've no idea why you are trying to do it this way now, and if you are you need a completely different Lua program. So, at some time, you changed your whole method of doing things for some reason, and i now don't understand what you are up to. I think you'll need to go through it, step by step, and tell me EXACTLY what you are doing now and what you have changed since it was all nearly working and all I asked for what an extra logging line (which I got wrong on the first stab and corrected for you). If you want to use the Lua script I provided originally to someone else for the purpose of detecting fast and slow turning rotaries, then you really must use it in the way suggested for it. It works for all the other users I know using it. Why or how you are getting into a complete mess with it is bewildering me. Each time you post things are worse and less explainable! Pete

How are you assigning the throttle(s)? Is it one throttle for all or 4 throttle levers? When you say "reverser" are you wanting a separate reverser lever or a revers zone on each thorttle lever? If you get reverse on in a calibrated idle zone then you have not calibrated the idle zone. No. It sounds like you have calibrated the idle at -16383 as well as setting that as minimum. Or you have "no reverse zone" set and haven't re-calibrated since setting it. I need more information. I need to know how you are assigning (to what), where you are calibrating, what calibration options you've selected and what the numbers are. "Latest" isn't useful information: is your "latest" 4.70 or 4.742, or somewhere in between? Please ALWAYS state version numbers. That's what they are for. Regards Pete

All you need to do, for each value, is have a saved value, declared initially, outside of the loop, to something impossible for that value. Then see if it changed. For example, taking just one, your "mcphdgw", Before the while line put prevmcphdgw = -1 then within the loop: mcphdgw = ipc.readLvar("ngx_HDGwindow") if mcphdgw ~= prevmcphdgw then ipc.writeUW("66C4", mcphdgw) prevmcphdgw = mcphdgw end See? You are simply keeping copies of values written, and comparing them, so you don't write them again. I know it looks longer, but it will execute better because you are asking FSUIPC to do less. Regards Pete

Okay. So presumably you are using my PFC.DLL or PFCFSX.DLL depending on which FS you are using (which you don't even say). What is the version numbers of the PFC DLL and the FSUIPC, please? No! You never mentioned anything about a DLL, and you explicitly said it could not be calibrated. Don't you remember this? About this: Why have you not looked at the PFC.DLL User guide which accompanies the DLL? Please do so. Search for "CALIBRATION", and also "Throttle Quadrants". Why? It is easier to do in the PFC driver. Please explain. Regards Pete

You have some confusion here. The log does not show the "Killed" line, only that it ended. The ipcReady Lua will only be "killed" if you are killing it by executing it again, or by assigning "LuaKill" to it. Maybe you've assigned ipcReady to something? Without knowing what you are doing I can't help I'm afraid. You seem to have got yourself confused along the way. Every time you post less works and other things happen for no reason, or at least no reason you've described. I think you must be doing things you aren't telling me about. So you never used any of the buttons whilst the HidDemo was running. Or none are working. without change the HidDeno would still show your butons, so evidently you've changed something. Regards Pete

Since the range will be something like -16000 or so to +16000 or so, setting the MINIMUM to +16128 will obviously completely prevent you from setting a MAXIMUM or CENTRE anywhere above it! Please think about what the words mean: MINIMUM means smallest or lowest number, MAXIMUM means highest. Look them up in a dictionary if you are still confused! And negative numbers are ALWAYS lower than positive numbers. FSUIPC simply wants the numbers to be in order -- MIN less than CENTRE less than MAX. It cannot calibrate with a meaningless jumble of numbers. The sound is merely it telling you that you have it wrong. Pete

Which throttle system is this? The throttle quadrant system I have from PFC is connected by serial cable and is calibrated in the PFC.DLL (or PFCFSX.DLL in FSX) driver I made for PFC serial devices. You need to tell me more first. Why do you say I don't understand that part, unless you are using some Game Port or USB thorttles which do not use my driver, in which case they should be calibratable in the windows driver for joysticks. Regards Pete

Okay. Hopefully we can resolve it before next Friday (14th) as I'm then away till the 25th. Regards Pete

Well, yes -- half the amplitude at half the frequency, so a quarter really. Regards Pete

Okay. Tha's fine. The correct bits are changing. Didn't need the FSUIPC log. Yes, sorry, there's a typo -- I omitted the .. before the last value. The line should be: ipc.log("Datalength=" .. n .. " Buttons=" .. Buttons .. " PrevButtons=" .. PrevButtons) Pete

Look again. I sorted the lines so that the entries are next to each other, to make it more obvious: See how FSUIPC can deduce from this that your joystick "A" is device number 0 in Windows, and so on? Originally only the names were used, but then folks had trouble with multiple units with the same name (eg two throttle quadrants). So I included the GUIDs from the Registry, which are guaranteed to be unique. The "missing" lines indicate that you have assignments somewhere in your Buttons or Axes sections to joysticks lettered "R" and "Y" but no matching device. Maybe ones you've removed or re-lettered? This won't be doing any harm, but you could search for those assignments in those sections, and remove them. Regards Pete

The normal way to drive displays is to update locally at the same time as sending the value to FS. Ignore updates from FS for a while after seeing a local update -- I usually allow about 500 mSecs. It sounds like you are sending values to FS then updating the local display when you get a response. Depending in all sorts of things that can naturally seem a bit disjointed. Always update locally too. Whilst updating locally you don't want to see the FS values, just use lthe last value from FS when the user has stopped turning the dial for, say, that 500 mSecs, maybe a little more. Sorry, I don't understand most of the rest of what you posted, except to note that the Lua is VERY inefficient. You should only update things that change, not everything on every loop. And of ocurse using keystrokes in FS is awfully inefficient. Thery just pile up in Windows message queues. I'd wait until PMDG issue their SDK if I were you, rather than tolerate that. Regards Pete

Hmm. Strange. Which part about purchasing from SimMarket isn't clear? I'll have to advise them. i was not implying they weren't, only that FSX has problems, well known ones. It's more important for your FSX to be up to date (i.e. SP2 or Acceleration level). Sorry, I've still no idea what "leave flight to main screen" means. You think saying "leave flight to FSX main" is clearer? What does it mean? Are you pressing ESCape, and then going to the initial menu instead of using the Flights menu? There is nothing I know of called "FSX main". I know you are now not bothered, but next time you report a problem and really want help please do try to describe the problem a little more clearly. I have no picture at all of what you are doing. Is is happening during initial load, before FSX leaves its splash screen, or after you've actually been flying? And in the latter case, what is the last thing you do before this happens? What do you press, for example? You understand now? Put yourself in the position of someone who only has your words to draw a picture. I can't guess what you mean, and translating "main screen" into "FSX main" means nothing at all as you must surely see? Till next time ... Regards Pete

And thanks for offering your work for others. It looks very professional! Best Regards Pete