Pete Dowson

Er .. why have you removed the crucial line, the first line, which proves to me which version of FSUIPC you are using? By deleting that you've rendered the file you posted almost useless... except for one important thing: You are running FSX with no updates, the base version with none of the bugs fixed. I'd advise you to download the SP1 and SP2 updates and apply them, one at a time (run FSX in between), to get your FSX up to date and fixed. The reason you have no "Mouse Macro Creation" buttons is stated quite clearly in the User Guide -- the very first lines in the Mouse Macro section, which state: NOTE: These facilities need FSX with at least the SP1 update incorporated. Macro files should work with the original version of FSX, but the easy user macro creation facilities will not be available. Additionally, it looks like it's either a faulty FSX install in the first place, or your frame rates are so low that Simconnect and FSUIPC are simply not communicating. These errors show this -- every 3 seconds because no data whatsoever is arriving! And this proves it: That's a really atrocious average frame rate. You need to turn down most of your FSX settings in order to get something flyable! Finally, you've deleted the last line too! That tells me things as well. Please do NOT edit the file and delete important lines! Pete

Thanks, accepted. Glad you are now all sorted out. Good flying! Regards Pete

Are you ever going to do what I asked? If not I can see no way to help you further. I'll repeat my requests: Show me two things: 1. The FSUIPC4.LOG file, which you will find in the FSX Modules folder. It is a text file, you can paste it into a message here. 2. Capture a picture (ALT+Print Screen) of the options page on which you cannot find the button you want, and attach it to your message, so i can see what it is that concerns you so. Regards Pete

Why are you installing the PFC driver? Do you have PFC equipment as well as GoFlight? If you don't have any PFC devices, connected via serial port connections, then you certainly do not want that installed. No, do not delete everything. Just consider whether you have PFC equipment needing the PFC driver, and if not, then delete PFCFSX.DLL from your FSX Modules folder. Then download the FSUIPC4 update fronm the Updates announcement, and copy the DLL from than into your FSX Modules folder, overwriting the version 4.53 version. This is what i have asked you to do several times now, and Andy has even provided you with a direct link, as i see now. Please notice that the name "FSUIPC4" is not really the same as the name "PFCFSX". Do you see that? If fact they don't even look remotely similar! Pete

FSUIPC4 is not and never has been sold or supplied as part of FSX. You must have installed something else which tried to install it. But you haven't registered it yet, apparently? Or else you have but have since installed something which has placed that pirate's KEY file in your FSX modules folder, overwriting your own. Well something you've installed was, even if you didn't know it. That is absolutely not possible. If it appears on your FSX Gold edition disks then it sounds like those disks themselves are a forgery. There is NO "register now" button in FSUIPC4 and never has been. Registration is only ever done via the Installer. I'm insinuating no such thing. According to what you have said, either someone has fobbed you off with a pirated copy of FSX Gold, and/or you've installed something a bit dodgy (without being dodgy as far as you knew) and you've forgotten about it and assumed it came on your FSX disks. I have no idea which is the more likely, and I cannot investigate -- only you can. Regards Pete

Show me two things: 1. The FSUIPC4.LOG file, which you will find in the FSX Modules folder. It is a text file, you can paste it into a message here. 2. Capture a picture (ALT+Print Screen) of the options page on which you cannot find the button you want, and attach it to your message, so i can see what it is that concerns you so. What item in the Announcement are you clicking, and why are you unsure it is correct? I'd rather understand why you cannot understand the list of downloadable parts on the Updates announcement, so I can improve the layout if necessary. Regards Pete

Release 1.30 is available now, in the Updates above, and the documentation now includes your MCP Pro code as an Appendix. I have also now completed code in FSUIPC for Lua access to GF displays and lights. This provides a "gfd" library ("Go Flight Displays") with the following functions: gfd.GetNumDevices("") gfd.SetBright("", unit, brightness) gfd.BlankAll("", unit) gfd.SetLights("", unit, setmask, clearmask) gfd.SetLight("", unit, lightnumber) gfd.ClearLight("", unit, lightnumber) gfd.Setdisplay("", unit, displaynumber, "") I might also add more direct ways of reading the switches to save having to work out the correct joystick/button numbers, but at present, since this is intended as a replacement for GFDisplay (at least when used on the same PC as FS) I'd like to get this properly tested with only displays handled. Could you possibly help with that -- for the GF166 and the MCP Pro, at least? (Do you have any of the others?). I know it works ok with the Lights (I have RP48s, T8s and P8s), so it is only the "gfd.SetDisplay function I need testing. I can supply a Lua test module, just testing the displays with different weird values and patterns. I might also do a Lua version of the MCP and MCPPro examples from the GFDisplay package, to assist those unfamiliar with Lua programming. If so, please state FS version and confirm you are using the GF devices concerned on the same PC as FS. I'l have stuff ready pretty soon, depending on what you need. I am posting this separately as well in case others can help too. Thanks, Pete

I already asked you if it looks like the text in the options windows is too big and causing the inner windows to be too big for the outer options window, the one with the Tabs. All the tabs would be there but part of the options window would not be accessible because it won't fit. You didn't bother to answer that question, but if this is indeed what you are seeing then the answer is to download and install the Update as I advised. If that isn't the problem you are seeing then all I can say is that your Windows system must be behaving in a very strange way, to selectively remove buttons from a program file! Pete

Do you not see clearly listed an entry for FSUIPC4? It is not a "Goodie" you are "inserting into FSUIPC", it is a LATER VERSION of FSUIPC4 with the problem corrected. You download the updated FSUIPC4 by clicking on the link, then unzip it into your FSX Modules folder! Pete

Sorry, where does it say this? If it does it's an error. you don't need to do that at all. You tried to install FSUIPC 4.551 without first running the Installer for 4.53? That's a complete no-no. Please do as it says there and install 4.53 first!. You'll need to delete all the stuff in your FSX Modules folder first, now, because you've made a bit of a mess. A known software pirate who distributed his registration details illegally. It looks like you have been trying to install or use a pirated version. Delete all of the files in your FSX Modules folder and start again. Nothing in any of the files you get from any legitimate site will have any "Archie Scott" involved. Regards Pete

I cannot solve your problem in VB coding as I don't know VB, but if you have specific questions on interpreting the values you are reading from FSUIPC, fire away. You don't say what you've tried nor why you have problems. Regards Pete

A reload won't do it. For any of the aircraft-specific actions to occur, whether it be loading Keys, Buttons, Axes, Calibrations, or Auto macros and plug-ins, FSUIPC has to see a change of aircraft. Additionally, because quite often an aircraft load takes a while, and FSUIPC might receive the notification before it is complete, you may need to consider putting a delay (ipc.sleep(...0) before any control which is supposed to affect the drawn cockpit rather than merely internal switch settings which are pretty much set early on. Regards Pete

Hmmm. And this is a problem? Surely you wouldn't possibly be flying at the same time as manually fiddling with parameters, so it should be of little consequences in any case. It is probably caused by the USB drivers supplying a spurious value when the DirectInput devices are re-opened. That parameter is part of the [General] section of the INI file. All of those are only read when you first start FS, so you need to change it when FSX is not running, just like the rest. In my INI file it's been set to "Yes" since I first tested it and it have survived intact ever since during many FSX sessions! In any case, I'm pretty sure it was determined that the parameter doesn't really help. See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=77942&p=475049 I'll probably remove the "DontResetAxes" option before general release because I don't think it's useful. It saves FSUIPC doing one specific read, but if the USB drivers provide a spurious value when they are "started", there's not a lot I can do, short of not re-scanning joysticks in the Options, and I'm not willing to provide that option. It would lead to far more problems when folks couldn't add or change joysticks or axes without restarting FSX, and a lot more support work. And that spurious value problem doesn't affect all devices -- it doesn't happen with my Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro, for example. And since folks don't keep messing with axis settings whilst flying I don't see it as a problem. Do you? If so, why? [LATER] I've had another look at my code, and what I can do is automatically ignore the first few values read from the axis, if you've been into the options -- at all, even just to peek. I'll make this a small number, perhaps 5 values, so that it doesn't take long for an axis to become operational again, when in the program or in calibration/assignment. I don't know if that will truly help or not. Try it -- I'll put it up in the Updates as version 4.552 when it is ready to test. Regards Pete

I use Win7 Ultimate 64 bit version, and there is absolutely no difference for FSUIPC at all. Are you possibly seeing that the centre parts of the options pages don't fit the outer part, that they are too big? That the Fonts inside are larger than the fonts in the Tabs? If so, that's not specifically a Win7 problem but a long term but rare problem affecting a few users and starting with WinXP. It is fixed in the latest incremental updates. Please get the latest version from the Updates Announcement at the top of this Forum. Regards Pete

Okay -- I must have been thinking of the GoFlight throttles then. Sorry. Anyway, if that's the case you should be able to calibrate that reverse zone on the 4 throttles page, like I said. You can't use the reversers page if you are using the same axes for forward thrust. Yes, as I said and as documented. I really don't know what other way you would try. If you have spare axes by all means use them for reversers, but otherwise the reversers take up part of your main throttle axes. How else could it be? Regards Pete

Hmm. Getting the menu bar up is easy. (Incidentally, I just noticed why that original Lua example didn't work correctly. The parameters should be either (18,8) or (0,24) for a press-and-release. (18,8) is the ALT virtual keycode, and 8 means "normal", whilst (0,24) says no keycode but with ALT pressed. Both end up sending the same thing, but the latter is more "proper" as it will also set the "system key" flag in the Windows message. In both cases you can add a third parameter, "1" to "press" only (instead of "press and release", and "2" to release. Even though, therefore, we can simulate holding the ALT key down for a second, or whatever, getting the menu to disappear is tricky. I'm not sure that's possible from a button. It looks like FSX reads the keyboard directly for that function. Sending a Press for ALT then a release a second or so later doesn't help. Pete

So, in that case you have a bug in your code. There's no point in logging stuff from working programs. I only suggested you use logging to find out what your program was doing wrong. Don't run anything else as well or it will be too confusing -- you only want your program using FSUIPC if you want to see what it does. BTW, looking back, if you have an FSUIPC_Open call to make a connection and you are also using Paul's DLL to make a connection, you will likely have a clash in any case. I think you should either stick to the standard FSUIPC VB example methods, or use Paul's DLL. Don't mix methods. Regards Pete

Please try things in FSX using the keyboard. You will find that pressing ALT alone does not bring up a specific menu, you then have to either press another button to select the specific menu, or TAB to it and press Enter. I'm not sure how you intended to use ALT alone? Note that the "ipc.keypressplus" line with (18,1,4) parameters presses the ALT key but doesn't release it. You really need another keypressplus line after it to select the menu, and a further line to release the ALT key. Or you can just have one line pressing and releasing a specific ALT+letter combination. For a specific menu, have you tried simply assigning a button to ALT+? That should work, but then you would still need a Lua plug-in to send further keys, as once you are in a menu FSUIPC cannot do much. FS's menus are modal (they take over). Maybe if you describe how you intend to use whatever menu it is from joystick buttons after you have it displayed, we could be more helpful. Unless you use only buttons I don't see the point -- using a button to bring up a menu and then having to use the keyboard seems to completely defeat the object, doesn't it? Yes, either the same way but using the ESC keycode, or by assigning the button to something else first, like "a", then editing the FSUIPC4.INI file entry that generates to show 27 (the ESCape keycode) instead of 65 (the "a" keycode). But there's really no good reason to assign buttons to keystrokes which are assigned to FS controls -- you should assign the button to the FS control in the first place. Then the keyboard is irrelevant. To end a flight you use the "User interrupt" control. You can find the proper name for any FS control, whether assigned to button or key, by enabling FSUIPC's Event logging, using the control, and looking in the FSUIPC4.LOG file (which you'll find in the Modules folder). BTW for further reference, Keycodes and shiftcodes are listed in the FSUIPC4 advanced user's document. Look in the Button programming section. And the Lua facilities in FSUIPC are detailed in the two Lua documents. All the FSUIPC documentation you need is stored in your FSX Modules folder. Regards Pete

Yes. Same for both. On the other question: Sorry, no. FSUIPC uses the old, simple, more efficient "joy" API into Windows, which only supports 32 buttons per joystick. Regards Pete

Do you get this with published FSUIPC client programs, like FSInterrogate, or my own TrafficLook or WeatherSet programs? Why, did you suspect you had a pirate signature? Use FSUIPC logging -- ipc read and write options, and see what you are reading. Regards Pete

If you are using Paul Henty's client DLL then you'll find he does give excellent support for his work, but you might need to post on his thread, or at least refer to the "Client DLL for .NET" in your subject title. Paul's main thread is "sticky" (i.e. stays near the top of the Forum), here: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=53255 Regards Pete

Okay. Good. I'll tidy up and make a release then. It'll be version 1.30. Thanks! I will! Pete

Two points: 1. Isn't the Saitek throttle the one with the "indent" at the point where the axis changes stop? Doesn't it merely send a button press if you pull back further? 2. The Reverser calibrations on page 7 are for separate reverser axes, as on real airliner thrusters, not little ranges on the same joystick axis. If you haven't assigned any joyystick levers to the reversers you cannot calibrate them! If you have spare levers to use as reversers, assign them "direct to FSUIPC calibration" in the Axis assignments tab, then go and calibrate them on page 7. Otherwise, if you want a reverse range on the normal throttle levers you need to do that on the 4-throttles page, following the numbered steps for calibration carefully laid out in the user guide. Regards Pete

Thanks! Pete

You are making a mistake. All three fields -- name, email and key, must be exactly right. They all form part of your registration. It never ceases to amaze me how many ways folks find to spell their name differently. If in doubt, use cut and paste instead of entering freehand. Pete