Pete Dowson

You don't need them reset The keys only work with the email address they were made for. It doesn't matter that it's old, as it isn't used for emails in any case. The key file will be okay, but you still have to re-register through the Installer. You can cut and paste from it. Pete

How could it do that? It won't have any knowledge of the function name unless it is provided (i.e. by the event call), and, further, would have no idea what parameter values to pass. And how would it know which functions were for events and which just functions you are using for something else? It would obviously have to execute the event function first, for all these reasons. And what would be the point? How would it "initialise things", as per the stated purpose of executing the function? Not only that, but please notice that the statement you are quoting appears in the description of the event facilities. I can't see how it could be interpreted like that, sorry. Not really. Generally functions are executed, whilst procedures are called. That's the normal use of those words. But it isn't a rigid rule and it really makes no difference. "Execution" means the lines in it are obeyed. Regards Pete

If the file is in the Modules folder, FSUIPC will read it. There's nothing else to do except go ahead and assign your buttons and switches. All of the assignment names will begin "737PMDG:" then. For instance "737PMDG:MCP_LVL CHG". Haven't you looked? What do you mean? If you copied the macro file as shown then each macro line would have been on a line in any case. How did you lose them? NEVER EVER use "Wordpad" or any word processor for plain text files, only a text editor like Notepad. Pete

Which update? Please show the FSUIPC log file for when you ran "the update". BTW, this is NOT good: Why isn't your installation of FS9 identified correctly in the Registry? Have you moved FS9 from another PC rather than installed it on this one? That could give problems in any case. [LATER] I've noticed that there are two registrations for a "chris j. hickman", but with different emails and different addresses. Did you buy it back in November 2004 too? Pete

All joystick axes differ -- but not normally all the way along the axis. If it is 1/2 inch different for the whole movement you've not calibrated correctly. If the gap varies, you can sync them using the sync facilities in FSUIPC -- that allows you to set up to 16 points of matching, which interpolation between. In practice you usually find you only needs 3 or 4 such points. You should note, in any case, that in real aircraft the throttle levers are rarely in line for the same thrust on each engine. Also, if your "problem" only occurs with the one aircraft maybe it is more something to do with how that one has been implemented? You may have the wrong settings for the LDS then. Perhaps you need to select the "No Reverse Zone" (NRZ) option, or even UseAxisControlsForNRZ=No (look it up in the Advanced User's guide). That seems to disagree with your statement that they differ by 1/2 inch. Regards Pete

The function is executed once when the calling event is executed. That's the only time the function is called without the nominated event actually occurring. It is to provide the initial values. What else could it possibly mean? I can see no other possible interpretation! Yes, of course, once for each of the associated events, and with the data relevant to those events. Again, I ask, what else could it possibly mean? I fail to see how it is ambiguous. What else could it do? You should have included the "offset" and "value" parameters the function was called with in the Logging, then you'd have seen how obvious it is! Pete

Not in assignments. Assignments is where you assign axes. Please CALIBRATE. That's what the joystick calibration tab is for. Calibration includes setting the range, the dead zones, the reversal, when needed. All that stuff. It all applies no matter where the axes are assigned, in FSUIPC or FSX. Regards Pete

That's where the "what is not to understand" comes in and what it referred to. I saw no other question, and you made a big meal of that one question by even including a picture of it! :-) Yes, as I explained -- it would make the dialogue far too complicated for 99.9% of what it is used for to try to include conditionals there. To edit buttons for multiple uses and for conditionals I decided to refer folks to the INI file. I thought I said this in my first answer? Regards Pete

You simply need to select the REVerse option, a checkbox. The same should actually apply to the Flaps. For the quadrant axes, to have any disabled, you must either select an existing configuration without that lever assigned or, more flexibly, use one of the User Configurations. Those allow you to assign whatever you like to each lever and enable/disable each at will. Regards Pete

Please try downloading and installing the current interim update, from the Download Links subforum. There have been some recent changes in Windows which seem to have changed security settings and prevented proper Registry updates. I programmed around those when I found out. It doesn't seem to affect everyone, though. The other thing to try s to re-run the Installer, but do it "as administrator" (i.e. right-click on it and select "run as ..."). If it still doesn't work please show me the Log files -- there should be one for the Installer and one for FSUIPC itself. Paste them into a reply. Regards Pete

Someone else quoted this too, and I replied thus: "All that's talking about deleting your settings and re-doing assignments and calibrations to suit the NGX, because it just might be that your own axis calibrations and assignments may not suit the way the NGX is set up. All you really need to do is create a new Profile or Aircraft-specific set." I think it's a bit drastic to delete all of your settings, which might include a lot of stuff which you've developed specifically to suit other aircraft, just to suit a new aircraft. A more sensible approach is to treat it as exactly that, another aircraft needing its own assignments and calibrations. This is why FSUIPC is replete with facilities for aircraft-specific or Profile related settings in the first place. All PMDG are doing is putting all the work and responsibility back on the user because they don't want to be plagued with folks telling them they've got it wrong just because someone has made non-standard assignments or calibrations. You can't blame them, but please just treat it for what it is, a get-out clause. ;-). Why is that weird? The "G" keypress is presumably being intercepted by the aircraft code. The PFC driver uses the FS controls, not keystrokes. Just reassign things in FSUIPC to whatever the PMDG aircraft needs, as already suggested. On your second message: There's a mixup here. Pretty much all new equipment made by PFC is USB native, not a serial adaptation but a HID ("Human Interface device") implementation. I wrote the driver, PFCHID.DLL for those new controllers, and that replaces the use of PFC.DLL or PFCFSX.DLL (though you can have both running if you have a mix of old and new, as I have). Unlike the serial port drivers, the USB HID one has no configuration or calibration facilities. It does default actions only. All differences have to be done in FSUIPC. This way of implementing things allows me to concentrate on making FSUIPC do all the work and provide all the facilities whilst the PFC drivers do the interfacing. I don't see the point of duplicating lots of complicated user needs in both drivers and FSUIPC. And at least I do earn a little money for my time on FSUIPC. Same here. Those adapters are pretty poor, especially the cheaper ones. I've got BrainBoxes PCI or PCI-Express serial port cards in all my PCs now. Regards Pete

The "what is not to understand" was in reference to your saying that you didn't understand the message shown on the screen, which simply pointed out that because you now were using a compound button setting, you couldn't change things in the dialogue but had to edit the INI fie instead. Since you'd already been editing the INI file, I couldn't understand why this came as a surprise to you, nor why the plain English message wasn't clear. You still haven't said why this was so? Why didn't you take my answer as the answer to your question? I fail to see how you can see anything "rude" in any of it. What was there not to understand in the message you asked about? Why go to all the trouble of capturing and posting a picture of something you were asking about if, in fact, you weren't really asking about it at all? Anyway, apology accepted. I note your objections to my reference guide, but I should state that I am simply NOT a good teacher. There is really little point in me writing loads of guff which would only confuse folks more. The current reference material has been accepted and used by many many users now for 12 years, with small additions now and then, but no tutorials by myself at all. The Appendix you like was a user contribution, and there are others around which may help you, as well as examples of all sorts. Browse the User Contributions sub-forum, for instance. And do ask specific questions. I'll answer them as well as I can -- which is what I thought I did when you asked about the displayed message (and look what arose from that, :-( something I still fail to understand!). Regards Pete

Sorry, I do have enough to do here supporting my own programs. I've checked out the methods I stated with the PMDG 737NGX and they work fine. The PFC equipment has always interfaced to FSUIPC through the PFC drivers I provide (PFC.DLL, PFCFSX.DLL and PFCHID.DLL), but the latter are only designed for default aircraft -- and Project Magenta (the latter because PFC use PM in their jet cockpits). For other sophisticated add-on aircraft the PFC user is in exactly the same boat as those users with other add-on hardware, and should use the facilities of a registered install of FSUIPC to take full advantage. If the other PFC users you mention need help with this, then the place for that is here. I'm not starting to support my programs on other Forums. That would turn into a never-ending and expanding task, and I am not going to embark upon it. Regards Pete

Quick work! Excellent -- thanks Ed! Pete

what "register" button? There hasn't been a facility to Register from inside FS for several releases. It sounds like you are not using a currently supported release. You need at least version 3.99. That would probably be the reason. New registrations aren't valid for old versions. Regards Pete

It's the way some aircraft have the throttles programmed. There are two distinct sets of FS throttle controls, one set runs from -16k to +16k, all forward thrust, no reverse, whilst the other set uses 0 - 16k for forward thrust and the negative part for reverse. The PFC driver has always opted to use the more flexible ones with the reverse range, and either provide reverse (the "ThrottleR" selections) or just forward using 0-16k (the more usual "Throttle" selections) so that separate Reversers can be assigned. Well, for the throttles I think it's probably the only way. I don't know about the other things, but it's quite likely the 737NGX doesn't obey the FSX controls for those either. By assigning in FSUIPC you have the full range of its capabilities to choose from. I've just tried my PFC quadrant on the NGX, and assigning to the FSX controls "Axis Throttle1 Set", and "Axis Throttle2 Set", then calibrating on the 4 throttles page in the Calibrations tab, you can have the full range, reverse included, on two levers, or use the "NRZ" (no reverse zone) option to just use the two for forward, and choose two other levers for reversers. For those you assign "direct to FSUIPC calibration" then calibrate in the 4 Reversers tab. I've just checked all this and it works fine. You can probably do the same sort of thing for flaps and speedbrake. Really? Where do they get that idea from? And where will the additional control inputs come from? That doesn't make sense. Just make a user configuration in the PFC driver for the quadrant where none of the axes are assigned (i.e. untick the enabled check mark), and in FSUIPC make an aircraft-specific or profile for the PMDG aircraft, go to Axis assignments and assign the axes there. Calibrate in the calibration section. All this can be automatically enabled when you load that aircraft, just by making them aircraft-specific in both drivers. There's lots of FSUIPC documentation -- it's all the same for the PFC axes and switches as for any other. If you assign buttons and switches in FSUIPC they'll override the normal PFC ones. Only the axes need de-selecting in the PFC driver, else they will conflict. Regards Pete

Yes, I think it must be. The problem is actually very variable. It is time critical -- one event occurring at the same time as another. Probably you just altered the timings by doing that. Other ways include rearranging the order of things loaded in the DLL.XML file. Microsoft's FS team did know about this, but it involved bits of Windows as well as SimConnect and it was never resolved before the team was dispersed. To be fair to them, it has always been very rare in occurrence. I've never managed to get it to happen on any of many different systems over the years, and this applies to probably more than 99.9% of users. But for those it happens to it can be persistent until something, who knows what, changes. Regards Pete

Is this the older serial port version, using the PFCFSX.DLL driver I wrote, or the newer USB version? so, what's changed? Or do you mean this is only with the one aircraft, PMDG's 737NGX? I shouldn't think so. Why not simply disable the axes in the PFC driver and assign and calibrate everything in FSUIPC? You can sort it that way as you can assign to whatever FS controls you like. You don't have that choice in the PFC driver as it was never necessary. Regards Pete

I didn't miss the line. But what is the question? You've already seen how to make conditionals work. What is your new problem? That's all I asked. The only question I saw was about why you got a message saying you couldn't use the dialogue to edit the button programming you already had. And i explained the reason for that, which was actually stated in any case in the message you were asking about! And as it said, you have to edit the INI file, which is what you've surely been doing in any case. It isn't "new territory" for you, which is why I don't understand where you are coming from -- especially going to all the trouble of including a picture of my own program with a message I know full well! Not wasted! I don't understand why you are saying this? Where are you coming from with this attitude? I've been trying to help you, for goodness sake! :-( I do my best to help everyone with a question. Just browse the posts. I even add facilities into my programs at short notice to help folks. i was simply being honest with you when I said i didn;t understand. Why not accept that for what was meant, and actually said if you reread it? And when you say "not too many people venture over here.", how do you work that out? This forum has the most topics posted of all Simflight forums, and the third most messages posted, after only the Screenshots Forum and the Emma Field one. You should check your facts. Pete

Most folks' MCRO files for PMDG aircraft are full of such "mouse stuff". With those aircraft there aren't so many alternatives because they don't respond to normal FS controls. And mouse macros are generally easier to work out and program than L:Var settings, which tend to need a lot more investigation and experimentation. Until the PMDG NGX SDK is available I don't think there'll be many alternatives to those two methods. There are only so many keypress combinations, and I'm sure not all of the NGX buttons and so on are susceptible to those in any case. Regards Pete

It might be a good idea to post this question to the Linda folks, or at least put it into the pinned LINDA thread near the top of the Forum. Generally Lua plug-ins are not the same as Macros files, though each can use the other, so some solutions will be a combination. Now I've fixed a newly-reported bug in FSUIPC's mouse macro creation facilities, it seems it is quite easy to make them for the PMDG 737NGX. You'll need to download FSUIPC 4.721 or later, though. See the Download Links subforum. Regards Pete

Ah, you shoulda' told me. That was only a short time after 4.70 release. Never mind -- better late than never! ;-) Anyway, 4,721 is now available. I've tested it with the PMDG 737NGX. Regards Pete

Yes. I've found it. The clue was in this value: flags=000CF94C which is nonsense for Mouse flags. It's all down to a Typo, introduced to deal with differences between Prepar3D's first release (which was like FSX and ESP) and the later update. Because of the Typo, FSUIPC was taking the new Prepar3D route for mouse interception, picking up the Mouseflags from the wrong register. What surprises me is that the facility still appears to work on some panels. I don't know how -- the mouseflags are rubbish, so it cannot distinguish left/right/central clicks, or clicks at all for that matter. It seems it's taken the release of the NGX for folks to find out! I'm working on the fix now. Will upload an update later. Probably 4.721. Pete

You didn't need to go that far. It's only the DLL we're interested in. Just run the 4.703 installer. What was the result? It's different here, but only I think because of the extra logging it does automatically, which doesn't give Windows time to make the entry window flash at all. No. I can see the difference -- especially in the Mouse flags it sees -- but I'll have to trace through the code to see why. It needs my debug tools. I'll get back to you when I've got somewhere. Might take a while. Regards Pete

I think it's to do with their sending of FS controls all the time, at the rate of something like 10-20 per second. I've not seen iyt before, but it certainly occurs with the 737NGX. reinstalled what? 4.719 or 4.70 using the Installer. Yes, it is, and i'd like to know why. I'll need to narrow it down. There's something like 30 versions between 4.628 and 4.719. Can you please install 4.70 using the Installer and re-echeck? Well, I get the problem on the NGX, so you need not do that. I'll try to narrow down which version changed it. Regards Pete