Pete Dowson

Ah, yes. Thanks. Same sort of thing as the N1 button on the 737, which is based on the N1% value set. Of course 737's don't use the EPR. I have been concentrating on 737 so much i forget all about other things that I definitely once knew! In FS the TO/GA control does more or less the same thing, at least for default aircraft. i.e. the control called "Auto throttle to GA". Regards Pete

Ah, i clean forgot we talked about that a year or so ago! Here's the link to your thread back then: Thanks! Pete

I 've done some testing and comparisons with key-press programming in FSUIPC3 in FS9, comparing the results to FSUIPC4 in FSX. Something odd is going on. The code in FSUIPC for these parts is pretty much identical in the two cases, yet in FSX the KEYUPs are consistently sent within 100 mSecs of the last KEYDOWN.which they cancel. On FS9 the time varies considerably, from 200 or so mSecs up to several seconds! The longest i've recorded so far was in excess of 8 seconds! So far I've not managed to get any result where the KEYUPs never got sent, though. I am wondering if the loading on your system, or other events, are somehow making the time extraordinarily long or even losing them due to other things (as we saw when you had the '@ key press intervening). Something seems to have changed a bit on your system since you submitted the earlier logs (see your entry, message #7 in the thread). The log showed it getting KEYUPs, at least when there's no interference: 3981271 Button changed: bRef=0, Joy=1, Btn=23, Pressed 3981271 [buttons.iFly 737-800 Air Berlin (Normal screen)] 33=P1,23,K65,9 3981271 SendKeyToFS(00040041=[shft+A], KEYDOWN) ctr=0 3981271 Sending WM_KEYDOWN, Key=16 (Shift) (Scan code 42), Ctr=2 3981271 [buttons.iFly 737-800 Air Berlin (Normal screen)] 37=U1,23,K65,9 3981271 KEYDOWN: VK=16, Waiting=0, Repeat=N, Shifts=1 3981271 .. Key not programmed -- passed on to FS 3981318 Sending WM_KEYDOWN, Key=65 (Scan code 30), Ctr=1 3981318 KEYDOWN: VK=65, Waiting=0, Repeat=N, Shifts=1 3981318 .. Key not programmed -- passed on to FS 3.588 seconds gap here 3984906 SendKeyToFS(00040041=[shft+A], KEYUP) ctr=0 3984906 Sending WM_KEYUP, Key=65 (Scan code 30), Ctr=1 3984906 KEYUP: VK=65, Waiting=0 3984952 Sending WM_KEYUP, Key=16 (Shift) (Scan code 42), Ctr=1 3984952 KEYUP: VK=16, Waiting=0 I'm looking to see where the long times in FSUIPC3 are coming from. If i can reduce those to similar levels to those in FSX I suspect your problem will disappear. [LATER] I found one place where there is a delay made deliberately (so watching programs don't miss the keypress) but it looks like it sohuld have been of the order of 100-200 mSecs, like FSX, but the value has also been used for something else. I've separated the two and made the KEYUP delay separate entirely. Please try version 3.993 from this link and let me know: FSUIPC 3.993 Regards Pete Regards Pete

What's an "EPR" button? I thought the Engine Pressure Ratio was a gauge value, not a function? If it is something specific to that add-on aircraft, you'd need to check if they've made provisions for a keyboard short-cut for it. If not then you'd have to investigate other possibilities like mouse macros or local gauge variables (L:vars). I note that in this thread: folks list the QW757 as non-mouse macro friendly, so maybe it uses L:vars? Regards Pete

Ah, what I think of as map view. Yes. In FSX that is easy enough as it is one of the Cameras. FSX has separately definable camera and there are some standard ones including that. I find it a little difficult to help directly as I've not been a true FS9 user now for 6 years, being exclusively on FSX. In order to work it out for FS9 I'd need to try each control in turn till I found one that worked. looking at the list of FS9 controls I would suspect it could be one of the six VIEW AUX controls. Or you might simply need to toggle with something like VIEW MODE? There's also FLIGHT MAP, NEW MAP, and MAP ZOOM FINE IN/OUT controls. They sound more likely perhaps? There's a possibly alternative using FSUIPC's offsets. You'd need an "Offset Byte Set" with offset x8320 and parameter 5, as per this data from the offsets list: Regards Pete

That shouldn't present any problem at all if you make a secure copy of your scenery.cfg file. You shouldn't need to re-install any sceneries in fact. What I do, for a clean install of FS, is simply rename the current FS folder (e.g. C:\FS9 to C:\FS9old), then install FS to C:\FS9. You still have your original then and can change back and forth by merely renaming folders. (This isn't quite so easy with FSX for other reasons). It's handy also to have a "virgin" installatiion as a standby as a source of both testing and corruption-replacements. Regards Pete

If you know the keyboard shortcut for it, then all you need to do is enable event logging in FSUIPC, use the shortcut, then see what the log says. I've just loaded FS9 and tried F9 but that doesn't seem to do anything. Shift+Num5 does the job, and logging the control sent does indeed show it is "VIEW DOWN". Releasing Shift+Num5 sends "VIEW RESET". I assigned F9 to VIEW DOWN and that works (without the reset, of course). So, Vincent, I'm afraid I don't know why it doesn't work for you. Here it works in both 2D and VC mode. This is with a default aircraft. Maybe something you are using or have installed stops that control? Regards Pete

Just the [buttons] section, as stated. All the overall parameters fpor buttons go there. Create the section if none exists. Interesting, because i searched back and found this: INSTALLATION FOR FS9: EXE Path="C:\Flight Simulator 9" Checking if there's already a version of FSUIPC installed in: C:\Flight Simulator 9\Modules\FSUIPC.DLL ... Version 3.990 found. Okay -- installed FSUIPC into "C:\Flight Simulator 9\Modules\FSUIPC.DLL" Have you since renamed the folder? Also I noticed this: ********* FSUIPC, Version 3.99 by Pete Dowson ********* Running on Windows Version 5.1 Build 2600 Service Pack 2 which i think is XP SP2.. Are you running FS9 in a "compatibility mode"? If so, why? Can you try it natively, just in case it's a factor. I'm having a job separating things in that mess, but there seems to be a *LOT* of add-in modules. So you can see which are added, here's a list of FS9 modules (obtained by a DOS window command "dir *.dll >moduleslist.txt": 01/09/2004 03:46 90,112 ABLSCPT.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 90,112 ACONTAIN.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 118,784 AI_PLAYR.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 311,296 ATC.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 167,936 CONTROLS.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 73,728 DEMO.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 16,384 DYNAMIC.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 212,992 FACILITIES.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 102,400 FE.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 135,168 FLIGHT.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 937,984 FSUI.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 950,272 G2D.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 487,424 G3D.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 8,704 GLOBAL.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 110,592 gps.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 6,144 gps_export.dll 01/09/2004 03:46 13,824 INSTRUCTOR.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 192,512 MAIN.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 9,216 mpchat.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 114,688 MULTIPLAYER.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 401,408 PANELS.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 7,168 REALITY.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 602,112 SIM1.dll 01/09/2004 03:46 14,848 SimScheduler.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 73,728 SOUND.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 159,744 SYMMAP.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 393,216 TERRAIN.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 39,936 Traffic.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 131,072 UTIL.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 208,896 VISUALFX.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 229,376 Weather.DLL 01/09/2004 03:46 73,728 WINDOW.DLL I've highlighted those in your list which are added (other than my own) and which need eliminating altogether, just to see if any one of them is interacting: ABLSCPT-ACONTAIN-Active Radar-AeroCore-AFXModuleFS9-AI_PLAYR-AirbusNewHUD-ATC-Autosave- bglman-cf0_tfxmap-ConfigModule-CONTROLS- DEMO-DYNAMIC-F1_view-FACILIIES-FE-FLIGHT-fsint-FSUI-FSUIPC-G2-G3-GLOBAL- gps-gps_export INSTRUCTOR-LVLD-LVLDSDK-MAIN-mpchat-MULTIPLAYER-PANELS-PMDGOptions -REALITY sbmpjoin9-sbtrans9-SIM1-SimSchedule-SOUND-SYMMAP TERRAIN-Traffic-TrafficInfo-UTIL-ViMaCore2004-ViMalScn-VISUALFX- Weather-WideClient-WINDOW If it still happens just add them all back. If it doesn't happen add them back one at a time till it does. Yes, of course. And a good job I did! I've never seen an FS9 installation with so many additional DLLs!:neutral: I'm not saying it is any of those, but in order to make any headway, a new chapter in the saga, we have to eliminate possibilities. One is the joystick are, the other is conflicting software. Since I've never encountered any problem such as yours before (and FS9 + FSUIPC has been out now for nearly 8 years), I realy have no other way to proceed. Once it is narrowed down a little I can consider adding extra longing to see what the last thing FSUIPC does may be. But I've got no where to put that at present. Regards Pete

There's no attached jpg, and in any case what is required is the FSUIPC4 install log, which you will find in the FSX Modules folder. Just paste it into a message. Really? Where have you read that? It seems to me, from all the reports I've ever seen, that the opposite is the case. The FSX uninstall is very poor and does only a half-job with SimConnect, so that when you try to reinstall it makes a complete mess, for which often the only recourse is to reinstall Windows too, from scratch. I know this from recent bitter experience when trying to find a better way. You also need to install FSX base, run it, then SP1, run it, then SP2 (or Acceleration). Only then try installing addons. Regards Pete

Hi Nico. Yes. The bit handling is by a mask with functions of byte, word or dword size to do setbits, clearbits and togglebits. Those of course all involve both reading and writing the addressed offset. For simple writing of values to offsets there are a set of write functions, for different types of offset and even structures. They are more efficient as they simply write to the offset, no prior read necessary. These functions are part of the libraries added by FSUIPC and WideClient, not part of the Lua language as such. Regards Pete

Sorry, I haven't had time to look at it today. It's on my list to look at tomorrow. It isn't going to be that easy. I shall have to get my FS9 installation up and running again to check. If you don't see a reply from me by Friday evening, get back and shout at me. Regards Pete

But they are there to explain the code. Do you mean the code is utterly meaningless to you even with the explanation? Have you looked at it? It uses common symbols, as in normal school arithmetic and so on. Time is not of the essence. ;-) Regards Pete

What other non-FS DLLs are being loaded, please? Sorry, I don't understand the bit "this time I LC axis tab"? Do you mean you selected the "axes" tab, and that's when it froze? If so it is most certainly a joystick driver problem. it might not even be one for a device you still have. What version of windows are you using? If I know that I can probably tell you how to export from the Registry the details for all the joystick devices FSUIPC will be polling, and checking through that may elicit details of the culprit. Also, I think you said you tried this, but can you re-confirm or even re-check this check I asked about earlier? A couple of things also to try: first add PollEpicButtons=No to the [buttons] section of the INI. See if that makes any difference. Then, one way of telling whether it's a joystick driver problem is to set this in the [buttons] section: PollInterval=0 That will stop it polling joystick buttons altogether. If this "fixes" it then one of your joystick drivers is hanging. It may be one you have installed which isn't even being used, an old one. Not sure of the relevance of that comment. The problem with Actigate was always weird -- affected some folks all the time, others not at all. I could never make it fail at all. so it was/is very dependent on all sorts of other things. In case it is interaction with another add-in DLL I need to see what you have added, and then will probably ask you to eliminate them one at a time. Regards Pete

Probably "View Down". Have you tried that one? Some of the View commands only operate as direct view changes in 2D cockpit mode -- in 3D mode they tend to pan instead. I'm not sure about this one. Regards Pete

No. The codes never become invalid unless revoked by SimMarket for wrong-doing. If your code is not recognised then you are entering something incorrectly. All three parts -- name, email, 12-character key -- must be 100% correct, exactly as originally used. If you don't remember them, go to your account at SimMarket and retrieve them. Regards Pete

Sounds okay assuming you know how to deal with the Phidgets boards. Do you interface direct to the hardware on a COM or USB port, or do they have a driver you must interface to? Regards Pete

You should be getting 4 different button indications for Joy#64, depending on how fast you turn the knob. 0 and 2 for slow turns, 1 and 3 for fast turns. If you are only getting 0 and 2 then you will need to try a lower time for the max value for fast turns. If you asre only getting 1 and 3 then it needs increasing instead. Without the device here I can't set that for you. You don't want to assign anything to the 2 button indications for the card itself, because those will occur all the time no matter how fast or slow you turn it. No. Assign a key combination, eg Tab+1, to "LuaKill ipcReady" and another key combo (e.g. Tab+2) to "Lua ipcReady". Then after making changes you can kill it and start it again. Yes, it's all based on times -- mainly "FastTimeLimit". Ignore the Joy 4 indications -- I can't get rid of those, though for clarity it might be a good idea to add an "ignore" line in the [buttons] section of your FSUIPC INI file, thus: IgnoreThese=4.30,4.31 Then those won't get in the way. Note that even with ideal values you'll still get a mix of fast and slow . This certainly occurs with the GoFlight knobs. The important thing is that you need to be always assured of getting a consistent "slow" so you can do precise settings. The fast will occasionally register as slow simply because the computer is doing other things too, and the last click, as you stop turning will always look like a "slow" of course because there's nothing following. One question: do you understand the Lua program? Are my comments helpful? If not, please ask questions so I can raise the level a bit before posting in the FAQ sub-forum. Regards Pete

Yes, of course. And thank you! Pete

Yes, that's what I thought originally when you were posting in the main Forum. Well, yes and no. The FSUIPC dialogue doesn't let you do multiple commands for one press or release, but you can easily add them in the INI file. There are lots of examples of that, including even conditional ones See the Advanced User's document for FSUIPC, Buttons section, and especially the part headed "Sequences, combinations and mixtures". All that's been in FSUIPC since very early days. Later things became a bit more sophisticated with Macros (another way to do it), and then of course Lua, but just basic two or three or more sequences of actions are pretty easy with a line or two in the INI file. I think a Lua plug-in is not an overkill, and may well be a good example for others and lead to more advanced things which do really justify using Lua in their own right. It's just that it isn't the most basic answer to the problem -- but an interesting alternative. Okay? Regards Pete

Well that seems to eliminate the Saitek hardware, then. So, either bad USB ports or something very odd going on at driver level. Might be worth uninstalling everything Saitek and trying again. Regards Pete

Thanks for the clarification, Jim. Regards Pete

Well, you are doing something I've never tried, and you need to bear in mind that the environment you are running inside is as a thread in FS. Your program looks deceptively simply but it is using a load of C library routines. Have they been statically linked so that they are part of the code, or does your DLL in turn try to call the C run-time? If so is it the multithreaded or single-threaded version? I think there could be a huge tangle down there somewhere. Since you evidently have a development system to make this, have you used the debugger to determine where exactly it crashes and why? See above. All my extensions use facilities in FSUIPC or in FS or in the libraries already in use by both. Bear in mind this is all one program. A "classic Lua environment" is simply the Lua interpreter, not the Lua interpreter running as one of many threads in some fairly complex multi-threaded program like FS. If you want me to check what is happening on FSX, instead, email me the parts ready to run (petedowson@btconnect.com). I can't promise anything. I am not set up to do debugging on FS9 these days, but why don't you try doing something with that there? Regards Pete

Seems a bit drastic, but assuming you've not got too much to reinstall afterwards it can often lead to a more efficient system. Some folks do such things regularly. Me, I'd hate it. Never seem to get the system back to the way i had it, and it takes me ages reinstalling everything, finding keys, re-registering, etc etc. Regards Pete

The offset control for the size of parameter (byte, word or dword) toggle, set or clear bit. The parameter gives the mask of bits -- one or more -- to be changed. If you don't understand how to work out the decimal or hex value for the bit or bits you want to change please see the short tutorial on numbers, buts and so on in the FAQ sub-forum. You can set, clear or toggle any one or up to all bits in any byte word or dword. That's what the togglebits, setbits and clearbits controls are for. Regards Pete

There#s still something wrong. The KEYUPs for the press programming are not being sent. It is acting exactrly as if the keys are being held down. Please post your FSUIPC.INI file -- just the buttons and keys sections. Something isn't making any sense at all! Pete