Pete Dowson

Thank you Petr! Pete

Ah, sorry. I assumed not as you wouldn't really give it up so easily. It is possible. Regards Pete

Odd, though. I checked with the default 738 on a different system, and that doesn't have this loss at all. I'm now pretty sure that something I've installed on my main cockpit system is doing it -- yes, for realism as you say -- but I've not the foggiest notion what add-on it is doing it. It certainly isn't doing in through FSUIPC, so it's either direct, like a gauge, or via SimConnect. But at least we can be happy that it is not unreasonable. Regards Pete

Only in FS9 and before, via 32F0. Pete

I haven't done that flight yet, but I've checked what is going on whilst parked. In FSX (not sure about FS9) I have to compute the ZFW from the total weight (30C0) and the total fuel weight (126C). FSX doesn't supply the ZFW. Using logging I can see that when the aircraft is cold and dark, the Zero Fuel Weight, Fuel Weight, and Total Weight all stay firmly stable. As soon as I turn the battery on, the Total Weight is declining at about .055 pounds per second, regularly and evidently deliberately, every second. This is in the 738. The payloads aren't changing. I checked that. So it something accounting for electric power and associated machinery, activated by the battery. I think you need to ask someone who knows more about aircraft systems. At something like 3 pounds per minute it certainly isn't completely insignificant, so if you find out before me please do let me know! Regards Pete

Okay, the odd effects you noticed have been fixed in the releases today. Versions 3.997c and 4.714, already available in the Download Links subforum. Regards Pete

I've modified FSUIPC so that pre-processes the INI file as a normal file and tries to eliminate bad section title lines like your '[' alone. It also now prevents empty profile names being created from entries containing multiple [ or ] characters. Versions 3.997c and 4.714, already available in the Download Links subforum. Regards Pete

I don't think they could be fuel, but I suppose they could be related to some other consumable, such as oil? If they were fuel consumption then the amount would be very noticeable. Check ZFW before takeoff and after landing, for instance. How different are they? Maybe it is something to do with the ejection of other matter from the pressure vents, like the air as the cabin pressure is reduced? If so then it should increase again as the pressure is increased again during descent. I shall log the value over my next flight and see what these changes look like. Regards Pete

No. I do get PC Pilot, but I didn't remember the article you are referring to. However, I just found it and have seen the insert about that on the first page, and all that seems to say is call up the options then cancel them. That actually does nothing except cause the Winsdows USB driver to re-scan connected devices (so they can show up in the axis and button assignments tab). The only thing I can think that might do is wake up any connected joysticks which have "gone to sleep" because folks forget to turn off their power management in Windows. However, possibly the person who put that "hint" forward has a rogue device which is interrupting all the time and thereby causing FS to slow down (irrespective of FSUIPC) and the occasional "reset" it gets from FSUIPC's scan makes it settle down for a while. In both cases the solution is to fix the devices concerned or their settings in Windows. Of course if you haven't paid for and registered FSUIPC (which I assume you haven't, or you would not discard it so lightly), then it won't be doing any such scanning in the first place as it is not offering any assignment facilities. In that case your problem is absolutely certain to be not FSUIPC itself but some other add-on using it, which is effectively stopped by removing FSUIPC. Since you haven't registered FSUIPC I assume it was only installed on your system in the first place because of some add-on. FSUIPC does nothing by itself, so there is no way it can have any noticeable affect on frame rates. Regards Pete

No, it isn't being stupid, because I don't think that little bracket should do so much harm. I'll check that here. The format of the INI files, like FS's own CFG files, are determined by a Windows interface called "Private Profiles". The files are not read and written using normal file operations but by special calls into Windows. I will check and see what that bracket is doing. Maybe it treats [<newline[Joynames] as the section name, so making FSUIPC lose the letter assignments. That would explain a problem whereby your assignments lost effect, but it wouldn't explain how you got a section called [JoystickCalibration.] Regards Pete

Okay, if Linda isn't really involved it makes things a bit easier, but a working INI shouldn't change to a non-working one just because you change to Profiles. I'd like to make that changeover easier if I can understand where it went wrong. Mind you, changing back from Profiles to Aircraft-Specific would never work automatically unless all of the Profiles bore actual aircraft names (or substrings if allowed). Then you'd just lose assignments for the additional ones, if any. Not that anyone should go that way. If aircraft-specific settings weren't so well established when I thought of Profiles I would have forced the change to Profiles in all new INI files automatically. Maybe I should do that anyway. Thanks & Regards Pete

Okay, I started looking at this today, though probably i will spend more time on it tomorrow. But after a brief look and trying things in FSUIPC, I cannot work out what it is you find wrong, nor how you managed to get this section [JoystickCalibration.] created except possibly by entering a new null name -- which I find IS actually possible if you only enter bad characters for the name, like [ and ] . Those are eliminated leaving nothing. I may change the code to reject them during entry to avoid this. If this is only happening with Linda (which I have not tried), should I assume that this Linda package actually alters the INI file itself? If not how can it be interfering? So, can you tell me EXACTLY what steps you took to "do a new start with profiles enabled and check this for you." and "get the problem back", and also explain exactly what the problem is? Does exactly thge same thing happen with and without Linda? If whatever it is only happens with Linda I'm afraid I'll have to ask the Linda developer to tell me exactly what is happening. There's really nothing complicated in FSUIPC regarding Profiles compared to aircraft names. It is only a level of indirection. the aircraft name is looked up in the {Profile ...] sections, and if found then the other sections are looked for with that profile name. It is exactly like aircraft-specific operation except with an indirectly obtained name. Regards Pete

Sorry, which PDF? You've lost me I'm afraid. You seem to be continuing a thread from a couple of months ago which appears to not apply any more. I'm not sure what PDF was posted if one was, so I can't follow your reference. Pete

At one time any installer (any EXE with "install" or "setup" in the name) automatically had elevated admin rights and needed nothing extra to do this. Some Windows update in the last months has changed this! :-( The way around is to execute the Installer by right clicking on the EXE and selecting "run as administrator". I did change the documentation I think. Pete

Yes, that was the main clue. I found the bug directly after my last message. It will be fixed. I want to check that Profiles problem first. Pete

Yes, thank you. It'll be tomorrow when I get to that. But is it helpful to me with the Profiles removed? Will it give the problems if I just re-enable Profiles? If not there's no point in me pursuing it with this. Pete

With a brand new INI there are no boxes except IN and OUT on any page, so do you go through and press "SET" on every entry to show the centres where applicable? Okay. Thanks. I can reproduce it with Spoilers -- only after Resetting and Setting it again. I'll fix it. It probably applies to FSUIPC3 as well. Odd no one has reported it before. Regards Pete

Changes due to different payloads I assume? else what is it you mean? On FSX, yes -- read offset 126C. Otherwise there's only the more complicated method of totalling the fuel in gallons, from all tanks, and factoring by the current weight per gallon value (0AF4). Pete

To install it simply execute the Installer program provided in the ZIP. There's nothing else to it. What do you mean by "nothing happen"? That the program does not run? You need to be clearer please. And please state which version number you are trying to install. Pete

Can you tell me the actual version number of FSUIPC please? I ALWAYS need such information! I've experimented with this on version 4.713 and I cannot make it do anything wrong. So if you can, please explain the steps needed to make it go wrong. Pete

Something must have gotten screwed up somehow. If you still have the old, bad, file, you can Zip it and send it to petedowson@btconnect.com and I'll try to find out what happened to it. Not sure how simply using something like Linda could affect it. Regards Pete

That means things must have worked? Or at least programs ARE using SimConnect successfully! It is only the early part which is relevant. Try cutting out the first 50 or 100 lines for pasting. Pete

I've read through it and I'm not sure what you want me to do or say. What is LINDA doing with the FSUIPC INI file? I als saw no mention of the FSUIPC version number. If it is earlier than 4.70 or 3.99 I don't want to know until they update. You can also tell them that the "ShortAircraftName=substring" facility works fine with Profiles. As documented. If you have a small example which I can reproduce here I will take a look, but since FSUIPC I assume is not aware of anything LINDA is involved in (or is it?) I don't see how in the one case it handles profile names and in the other case it doesn't. If you can make a small example which illustrates a problem do please let me have it to try here. However, please do not make it use more that two or three devices as that's all I can muster. Most of my stuff is PFC and handled with my own drivers. Regards Pete

Well, unless there's something not coming through when pasting, the file looks okay. So it may not be the file but one of the add-ons actually messing things up when running. You could enable SimConnect logging -- see the thread in the FAQ forum for how to do that. Then paste the SimConnect log here and it should hopefully show what was last loaded ... Regards Pete

Good. So things are not badly broken. I think you mean EXE.XML? That would only be there is there were some EXE (external programs) involved in any of the Add-Ons. Ultimate traffic 2 and EZCA, for example, use this method. Should be okay, but I can't guarantee what other programs do. They cannot both be called "DLL.XML". One is probably a backup made by one of your add-ons. It cannot have the same filename -- Windows doesn't allow two files with the same name in the same folder. That first one is a good one and will load FSUIPC4 okay. I suspect the reason you lost the AddOns menu is that one of your other installers renamed the DLL.XML in order to create its own, and then failed to do so for some reason. The other one, the longer one, also looks good, and loads these programs: FsPassengers\bin\fspassengersx.dll Modules\FSUIPC4.dll bglmanx.dll PMDG\DLLs\PMDGOptions.dll PMDG\DLLs\PMDGEvents.dll PMDG\DLLs\PMDGSounds.dll Dbs\dbs.aptGPS.dll Addon Modules\AirbusNewHUD.dll FeelThere\B737\PIC737XH.dll FeelThere\E170\EJetH.dll Modules\LVLD.dll So if i were you, before reinstalling anything else, I'd rename the operating DLL.XML (the first one you listed) to, say "DLL.was XML", and then rename the 2nd one, the longer one, to DLL.XML, and see if that works. It should do if all those DLLs are where it says they are! Then you only need to reinstall anything still missing. Regards Pete