Pete Dowson

You use you current keys, and with the exact same name and email/address (even if it is out of date). All three parts must be exactly correct. Best to make a safe copy or printout of your FSUIPC.KEY file (in the FS Moodules folder) before deleting anything. Regards Pete

Sounds a possible. Is that loaded by Gauge code, or via the DLL.XML file like FSUIPC? And also assuming there are no SimConnect problems recorded in the FSUIPC4 log file. Two things there: 1. SimConnect and FSUIPC don't use TCP/IP since SP1 of FSX. Certainly there are no such problems with SP2/Acceleration. 2. If there are problems with FSUIPC connecting to SimConnect you'll be getting loads of stutters and an FSUIPC log showing re-connection attempts. Unless you are still using the old buggy original issue of FSX I can't imagine any of those things affecting matters. I'm really a little surprised the author doesn't want you to enable monitoring of the variables he's needing or setting in FSUIPC to produce the effect you are missing. He could see what is going on from the resulting log. Regards Pete

Ah. Is that what it's called: "Carrier Operations"? Oh yes, I know about that, and also a VTOL application by Rob. Sorry -- I'm not good at 5 letter abbreviations. Doesn't the author know what's going on? Whilst I assume this RCBCO will be using FSUIPC or SimConnect for the acceleration, I don't know how it works or what it is doing. I'm sure Rob would be able to advise you on what logging he would need to see what is happening. There's plenty available from FSUIPC, but it is technical and really needs someone who knows what values are relevant. Regards Pete

Got them, but it's getting late here now so I'll look at them in the morning. It is interesting that you say: because if merely logging gives regular stutters it does tend to indicate some sort of disk access problem -- after all nothing else is being done when logging except for the regular relatively continuous output of data to disk, which would be being cached and written to disk at intervals. When you have the 5 second stutters do you notice any disk activity? Could you watch for it? It is starting to sound like some sort of scenery scan -- in which can it could be related to the "nearest airport" reports SimConnect sends, though they would be at intervals depending on how fast you are moving through the scenery. If you are static I don't think SimConnect sends any, and I certainly don't request them unless you've moved a good distance. The log should tell me if it is anything to do with this, but meanwhile please check for disk activity -- and be sure to defragment your disk properly. A badly fragmented disk is a major cause of stutters in FSX, and they'd tend to be regular too. [LATER] I just had a quick glance at what you sent me, and first off there's only the second set, the one with the full FSUIPC logging too. Didn't you do the first test with only SimConnect logging, so I would know to look for 5 second events? Second, looking through the logs there's nothing irregular. Everything is smooth and on time. It is looking more and more like some disk cache related problem. If you go to http://www.sysinternals.com you'll find some good monitoring programs there. Procmon can monitor disk activities among other things, for instance. You might want to investigate down that avenue. On my previous FSX system, a dual processor SkullTrail running (water-cooled) at 4.5GHz I was getting great performance EXCEPT for a periodic slow down -- the frame rate would take a dive at regular intervals -- not 5 seconds, more like 20, but the drop was quite severe. I never did figure it out, but it never happens on my new Corei7 system, also running water-cooled at 4.5GHz. The main difference I think is the memory speed -- my new one has of course the Corei7 memory interface advantage plus DDR3 2000 MHz memory, whilst my old one was the usual separate NorthBridge memory interface with DDR2 memory at only 800 MHz. But why a bottleneck affecting things at regular intervals? Beats me. Maybe it's like highway queueing -- fast, slow, fast, slow ... And why only when FSUIPC is running? It must surely be the data exchange -- that's all that's going on. With FSX SP2 or Acceleration versions, SimConnect uses memory pipes* -- it stuffs data in one end and sends me a message, I pick out the data at the other end. It would be constantly using fresh memory in a big cycle. Maybe the free memory on your system is just that amount which take 5 seconds per cycle then needs a big garbage collection? [* SimConnect was worse before, using TCP/IP for data exchanges, allocating and freeing buffers in memory all the time. Ugh]. If you have the first log I asked for I'll look at that as well, but I suspect all I'll come up with are more theories. I might just try a test version, patching out the airport requests I make, but looking through the log I don't think they happened during the time of the log in any case. At least I've not found one yet. Regards Pete

You have the format incorrect. You need the shift code after the keycode. e.g. for unshifted value: KeySend1=118,8,runready1 I assume you actually instigate a KeySend by assigning it with parameter 1 to something in FSUIPC, too? Regards Pete

Sorry, but I don't know "RCBCO". What is it? Is that an abbreviation? Do you think this "RCBCO" uses either of those? I don't think it can use FSUIPC as else surely the authors would have contacted me? Is it payware? If so and they are using FSUIPC they need to contact me for a license agreement, at the very least! I don't understand why you are looking at it as an FSUIPC or SimConnect problem, but if the FSUIPC4 log file shows no issues then it is running fine. Pete

That's okay. It is only loading FSUIPC4. That's okay too. I think we need to see what SimConnect is doing. If there's a SimConnect.xml file in that same folder, show me that. But there probably isn't, and there shouldn't be. Get a SimConnect log file. Instructions for this are provided in the "FSX Help" announcement above. Just run FS for long enough to see a few of these regular 5-second "stutters", then close FSX down, ZIP up the resulting FSUIPC4 and SimConnect logs and send them to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. I'll see if there's anything happening at that sort of frequency between SimConnect and FSUIPC. One question: are all your FSX options and settings defaulted, or fairly standard? At present I haven't a clue what could be wrong, but I'm assuming it must be something to do with the data exchange between FSUIPC and SimConnect, because really, in an unregistered install and with no add-ons or other add-ins, that's about all that's going on. With that in mind, there is some extra logging you can do in FSUIPC too. Add these lines to the [General] section of the FSUIPC4.INI file: Debug=Please LogExtras=x400 Then run FSX to do the same test again. FSUIPC will log every exchange it has with SimConnect. ZIP up the logs and send those too. Regards Pete

For experimentation and prototyping you might find first steps are easier with a Lua plug-in. There are examples already provided to do things like export LLAPBH (Lat Lon Alt Pitch Bank Heading) data to a file -- that could easily send things to a serial (COM) port or over an Ethernet (TCP or UDP) link instead. There are examples of a Network client-server link between two copies of FS, to slave one to the other, and so on. Lua is a programming language well suited to quick testing and prototyping, and FSUIPC supports most of its main libraries and facilities as well as its own extras for FS read/write access. However, to use these facilities you would need to purchase an FSUIPC registration, whereas the application interface is free for non-commercial use. Regards Pete

INI files and CFG files are the same beast. The are what Windows calls "Private Profiles" and are most easily accessed using special Windows API's which also dictate their structure into [sections] and parametername=value lines. They have been deprecated by Microsoft since Windows NT days. They'd prefer everyone to put all of this stuff into the Registry. I don't like that because it is less directly checkable and accessible to ordinary users, it is more difficult to do things like move to other PCs without complex uninstalls and re-installs, and so on. FS itself tends to use "CFG" ratherr than "INI", but in general most programs, including FS, tend to read the INI/CFG files once, when they load up, and save everything back at the end, before they close. with FS9 and FSX you would notice this because most settings if changed and FS later crashes instead of terminating properly, those changes don't get saved. However, this isn't always the case. FSUIPC reads and re-writes its INI settings when you enter and leave its options, and in fact includes options for re-reading many sections in those options. No. If you change them when FS isn't running, they'll be read and used (if valid) when it runs. Of course if they are invalid it will probably revert to default vlaues and you'll lose your changes. Pete

First off, you aren't getting the hang of posting here are you? When you use the Quote or Code buttons you have to select the text you want to so mark FIRST. You are simply putting blobs in. Second, when profiles are being used there's a Profiles section in the INI which lists the aircraft belonging to each profile. You give you own names to profiles, like "Prop", "Turbo", "Helo", "fighter", "Airliner", etc. whatever is applicable to the sort of assignments and calibrations you are making. Then when you load a new aircraft, you simply assign it to one of your profiles, or, if you like, create a new one to suit. FSUIPC takes care of all the arrangements in the INI file. Looking at your profile-less INI file: 1. You only have one Buttons section, so you aren't assigning buttons differently for each of your selected aircraft. That's okay. 2. For some reason you have a generic axis assignment for your 8 axes, and an identical one specific to the Epic LT Prototype 9: [Axes] 0=0X,256,D,1,0,0,0 1=0Y,256,D,2,0,0,0 2=0Z,256,D,4,0,0,0 3=0R,256,D,5,0,0,0 4=0V,256,D,6,0,0,0 5=1X,256,D,7,0,0,0 6=1Y,256,D,8,0,0,0 7=1Z,256,D,3,0,0,0 [Axes.Epic LT Prototype 9] 0=0X,256,D,1,0,0,0 1=0Y,256,D,2,0,0,0 2=0Z,256,D,4,0,0,0 3=0R,256,D,5,0,0,0 4=0V,256,D,6,0,0,0 5=1X,256,D,7,0,0,0 6=1Y,256,D,8,0,0,0 7=1Z,256,D,3,0,0,0 You might as well delete that second Axes section. It is pointless and will only serve to confuse. 3. You have separate generic calibrations and specific calibrations just for Bellanca Viking 12 Turbo Kodiak Cargo in Red Epic LT Prototype 9 which is okay, though certainly most of the settings are identical in any case -- especially that first one which only has a very small change in the slope value for one axis and is otherwise identical to the generic settings you have. Unfortunately, the log file you provided shows me nothing because it's for a session lasting less than 17 seconds. In fact it looks like you closed it immediately before SimConnect could even tell me the aircraft name, for me to check. If you want me to spot a problem for you you will need to actually demonstrate it to yourself and show me THAT log, not just load and close FSX and show me a log containing nothing. I am, however, a little puzzled at what you are trying to do here. What is your aim with these tiny changes in calibrations? Normally calibration is a function of the hardware, not of the aircraft -- excepting quite different needs like helicopters version jets versus props versus gliders, say. And then, often, the assignments change too. It isn't that you are necessarily misusing anything, it's just that I'd like to understand what it is you want to do. So far I can't see anything which would stop controls working. But maybe we'll get onto that when I can see a working log with whatever problem it is happening. Then we would investigate further by enabling logging. Regards Pete

Not just the log. I need to see the INI file so I can see what you've done. If you paste them here enclosed in "Code" quotes (see the code button?), they'll not take up a huge abmount of space and be scrolable. Please also try quoting your quotations from my message as else it makes your replies very hard to read correctly. see the "Quote" button? But you actually mean you made different assignments for each specific aircraft. A "profile" would be different, and much easier to use and apply. If you are using aircraft-specific settings rather than profiles, yes, provided the iarcraft had EXACTLY the same name. And i mean EXACTLY. Many aircraft come in several variations. The way you did it the other variations might not work because the names don't match. You mean FSUIPC.INI, and now you are telling me you set "UseProfiles=Yes"? Did you do this before or after making aircraft specific settings? If you had UseProfiles=Yes you would have entered profile names of YOUR choosing into the drop down selector. You certainly wouldn't have used complete long unique aircraft names, as that would really defeat the object! There's nothing in FSUIPC which would induce any lag. Regards Pete

No, not showing up -- it looks like your yoke was once seen by Windows as device #2 and then you plugged things in differently but didn't delete the old assignments. As I said, using joystick letters instead will solve that for the future. As for removing those assignments, use the "delete" key on your keyboard to delete all the button assignments to device number 2, the ones i listed!That is why i listed them for you! If you want to start all over again just delete the FSUIPC INI file before running FS. I'd still recommend using the joystick lettering facility. It will save you having this sort of problem in future. Regards Pete

Or something which is dependent upon FSUIPC and so isn't doing whatever it is doing when FSUIPC isn't there. No. Without registration FSUIPC touches nothing. No joysticks, no devices, nothing. And certainly never sound cards in any case. There's no sound at all in FSUIPC. Without registration FSUIPC is simply an interface for applications, whether they be external or internal (other add-in DLLs and Gauges). So, it will likely be something with is contacting FSUIPC. You'll need to do a process of elimination. Try no add-ons or add-ins (check your DLLs and use default aircraft only)), no applications, nothing at all, just FS and FSUIPC. If that still does it then it's something wrong with FS, some corruption maybe. More likely that's okay and you can start adding things, one at a time. [LATER] I notice you said "no add-ons" early on. But then you talk about Project Magenta, so something doesn't add-up. Can we be really really clear. Is this truly a "virgin" FSX install, nothing else whatsoever, just FSUIPC4? Perhaps you ought to post your DLL.XML and EXE.XML files just to be sure? Regards Pete

Reinstalls of what? FSX? That's generally not a good idea. Seems to make a right mess of SimConnect more often than not. You say "Profiles" but you seem to have just calibrations for the one aircraft, the "Bellanca Viking 12 Turbo". Do you mean you are using "aircraft specific" settings but only for one aircraft? Why do you use the term "profiles"? I really can't tell much from only the one little part of your INI file. A sight of the LOG might help too. It really sounds liker you are not always using the same aircraft, or you have done some messing about in the Profile list and got names all wrong. Best to let FSUIPC take care of all that. Doesn't sound like it. But flight map is an FS menu option not a flight mode one. Do you mean "top down" view mode, which is different? If flight map is coming up as a Window, like an FS dialogue, then FS does blank the flight screen. Maybe your map window is appearing behind it? I don't think any of that could be down to anything in FSUIPC. Don't know. Depends on your symptoms. If the devices appear off initially it should matter because they'll be seen when they wake up, which they should do after you've waggled them a bit. If you assigned then in FSUIPC (and I can't tell as you posted nothing about any that might tell me) You might need to go into FSUIPC axis assignment options to make it rescan. But you don't lose assignments or calibrations that way. All in all I'm afraid there's simply not enough information. Why withhold so much? Regards Pete

A "newbie" to aviation, to FS or to programming? Why are you finding it hard to find things? Where have you actually looked? Yes. The complete list of values you can read via FSUIPC is given in the tables in the FSUIPC SDK (SDK = Software development kit). If you are programming something that's one place to begin. If you are talking about FSX and SimConnect you want the FSX SDK. All of the SimConnect reference materials you want are there. There are some easier demonstrations of getting output via simple short Lua plug-ins to FSUIPC. Those and the documentation are installed into your system when you install FSUIPC. Check the FSUIPC documents folder inside the FS Modules folder. I even added COM port I/O support to the FSUIPC Lua libraries recently. Regards Pete

Okay. Let's see: You have 11 axes assigned in FSUIPC from 3 devices, plus a hat to Pan View. The devices, from the previous part of the INI file are: 0=CH Pro Pedals USB with the two brakes and rudder assigned "direct to FSUIPC calibration". 1=CH Throttle Quadrant USB with 4 throttles, a speed brake and a reverser, also all assigned "direct to FSUIPC calibration". 2=CH Flight Sim Yoke USB with the elevator, aileron also assigned "direct to FSUIPC calibration". But of all those, the only calibrations you've set are: and even then you've not defined any neutral central "rest" zone for the three main controls, nor apparently actually calibrated the reverser (those look like default values). I'd have thought you'd at least need to reverse the reverser to make the lever operate sensibly (pulling back for "more" reverse). So, for certain, your spoiers, toe brakes and throttles won't work at all because they aren't connected -- if you assign "direct to FSUIPC calibration" they have to actually go through calibration in order to get to FS. Regards Pete

Never really noticed, but then when I'm in my cockpit I can't see the very top of the projected screen without leaning forward and craning my neck up! ;-) Sorry, I don't know what stops those. But surely they don't last long? Regards Pete

Yes, it should do. Anyway, I just spotted the problem. Sorry I missed it before -- looking in the wrong place! You have loads of Button assignments to the Rudder device (Joystick 2), here: It looks like you once had a different device as number 2 and assigned Buttons 0 to 11 and the 8-way Hat (32-39) also. The culprit is this line: 20=R2,32,C65734,0 which is a Repeating forward Hat press. Seems like your Rudder input gives this for a non-existent Hat as a default value (it should give nothing). However, if you delete all those button assignments you'll be fine. I suspect you've been unplugging devices and plugging them into different USB sockets. Windows is quite likely to assign different ID numbers if you do that. Best to use the joystick lettering in FSUIPC so that it can keep track for you. That's what this section is for: You can simply change that "No" to a "Yes" and FSUIPC will do the rest. Or choose your own letters. Like this perhaps, Y, P, T for Yoke, Pedals and Throttle: [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=No 0=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB 0.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8007-444553540000} 2=CH PRO PEDALS USB 2.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8005-444553540000} 1=CH THROTTLE QUADRANT 1.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8006-444553540000} Y=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB Y.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8007-444553540000} P=CH PRO PEDALS USB P.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8005-444553540000} T=CH THROTTLE QUADRANT T.GUID={F75CF2C0-73CC-11DE-8006-444553540000} The joystick lettering facility is described in the user guide. Regards Pete

I don't get green bars, but then I don't use multiplayer. Maybe there's an MP option to not display those messages? Else, I'm sorry, I have no other ideas. Pete

You most certainly have something very wrong in your system somewhere, then. A corruption probably. I think you should consider uninstalling and reinstalling FS. Take care, though. Reinstalling can sometimes lead to a corrupted SimConnect. That shows you are doing nothing at all with FSUIPC assignments, so, apart from the fact you are for some reason logging axis controls still (please turn that off), there is nothing FSUIPC is actually doing. it isn't looking at, touching, or in any way interfering with any axes, buttons, or anything else. Regards Pete

It may be, but I don't know offhand. The possible message controls go into the FSX.CFG file -- check the [display] section. The parameters beginning with "Info" control these things. If you can't disable them you might be able to make them completely transparent, though I've not really tried. Regards Pete

FSUIPC4 does not interfere with any axes, or indeed, and controls, unless told to. You are certainly doing something very wrong, then. Please show me the axis assignments and joystick calibration parts of your FSUIPC4.INI file. No, the API.DLL has nothing to do with any of that. It is purely related to the FSX user facilities. It is a continuation log, so omits some essential information. The information in the INI file is more important as it will show what you've done. Regards Pete

It cannot, at least not directly, but possibly something was getting corrupted on drive D. If you can I would try doing a thorough disk check on it and possible re-format it, just in case. Regards Pete

Let's seeThe only entries relating to your pedals in FSUIPC's settings are these: which relate to toe brakes and rudder control only. So, you have one of the rudder axes assigned to pan up in FS itself. You need to go to the FS assignments and remove that assignment. Whilst you are there check for other duplicate assignments. Regards Pete

You didn't need to post a picture, you only needed to say so. It isn't an install problem, though, as the Install log showed. Is there an FSUIPC4 LOG file in the FSX Modules folder? (If you have Windows hiding known filetypes then this is just a text file). If you do have one then FSUIPC4 is running and you have a SimConnect problem. Close down FSX and show me the Log file (you can paste it here). If there is no log file then FSUIPC4 isn't being loaded, which points to a corrupted DLL.XML file. Show me that. You'll find it in this folder: C:\Users\Ralph\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX . It is also a text file ahnd you can paste it into a message here. Have you, by any chance, uninstalled and reinstalled FSX at any time? This does tend to corrupt the SimConnect installation for some reason. FSUIPC4 as well as many other add-ons are dependent upon SimConnect. Regards Pete