Pete Dowson

Event logging in FSUIPC's Logging tab will log any FS events (controls) which might emanate from a gauge. But there are no chronometer controls in FS at all -- all such functions are purely local to the gauge itself. If it is an add-on gauge there's a (small) chance that the designer has thought of hardware users and provided a mechanism -- maybe a keyboard shortcut -- but otherwise there is really no way to do what you want other than perhaps use "Key2Mouse" or something similar. That would convert a chosen keystroke into mouse positioning and clicking actions. The Key2Mouse program is by Luciano Napolitano. Regards Pete

Yes to the first part -- look for the function you want in the Offsets lists (part of the FSUIPC SDK). Note that they aren't all bit-oriented. when there's a value involved, as for Parking Brake, you'd use the "Offset XXXX Set" control with the value as parameter. the "XXXX" is the size of the value -- byte for 1 byte, word for 2-byte, dword for 4-byte, float32 or float64 for 32 and 64 bit floating point numbers (which are divided by 1000 so fractions can be used). I'm not sure what you mean by "ingame 6*** offsets", but I suspect if they are application ones it will depend entirely upon the application. Certainly many of the Project Magenta offsets are offset both read and write enabled, and most folks' cockpit switches operate them directly. Parking brake is listed at 0BC8, and is a 2-byte value (so a "word"), and is 0 for off, 16383 for on. Regards Pete

Good. Hope it all works well for you now! Regards Pete

The second file you appended IS "FSUIPC4.LOG", as I asked for. It can't be anything else! There won't be an "FSUIPC.LOG" file -- that only gets produced on FS9 and before, by FSUIPC3. Some remarks on the logs: It is rather odd that you have the base (original) SimConnect, from the FSX DVDs, and the SP2 or Acceleration one, but no SP1 copy. Have you done any sort of uninstalling or re-installing of FSX or its updates at all? It seems this often results in a messed up SimConnect setup. Apart from that the install was good. The previous version of FSUIPC4 you had was 4.40. The FSUIPC4 log was good too: Now this is the point where it has loaded your default flight, "Clearwater" with the Cessna 172. All well and good, no crash at all. I assume now you were at the selection screen where you seemed to stay for many minutes -- unless it took a very long time for the selected flight to load: This is where you apparently loaded a different flight -- the one called "Previous flight", now actually 6 minutes and 36 seconds into the FSX session. Looks like it took nearly 3.5 minutes to get to choose the flight to be loaded, and then the flight itself took over 3 minutes more to load! That's a very long time! Have you got very complex scenery, or a slow PC or a very slow disk? Two questions therefore arise from this: 1) What happens if you just "Fly Now" with the default flight, instead of making other selections in that initial menu? It seems to me that the likely problem is something corrupt in that "Previous Flight". 2) The "previous flight" is normally one created at the end of a previous session. However, FSX normally doesn't do this, unlike FS9, and, in fact, FSUIPC4 provides this service. Could it be that, at the time of that last "previous flight" being saved, things were in, perhaps, a precarious state? Please try with the default flight, and with creating a different flight. Avoid that "previous flight" for now! [LATER] Oh, one other thing which may save time. In case there's some interaction with another SimConnect add-in, could you please find the DLL.XML file in this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel1\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX and paste it into a reply here? It is a text file despite the name. If there's an EXE.XML there as well, let me see that too, please. Thanks. Regards Pete

Okay. I've printed this out now, and will try to make sense of it. Basically I think that, in the XML file only, all you want is this: "UNKNOWN 3" --> grass "UNKNOWN 5" --> grass "UNKNOWN 6" --> grass "UNKNOWN 10" -->concrete "UNKNOWN 11" -->concrete Right? Regards Pete

Hmm. That's unusual. Most of Windows' crash reports give an ability to click to get more information. The only reason it asks (again) about FSUIPC is because when you delete the CFG file you also delete all of the Trusted Module permissions you've agreed to beforehand. If it asks about no other add-ons then really you have no other SimConnect applications installed, nor any add-on Gauges which require trust permissions. Either that, or you've told Windows you trust their publisher but have not yet told it that you trust mine (simFlight in current versions of FSUIPC). Right. And are there any other files there named as FSUIPC4? I am particularly interested in an FSUIPC4.LOG file, which is a text file and can be pasted in a message here. It may tell us what the problem may be, or at least provide a start. There may also be an Install Log file there. It would be useful to see that too, as it contains information about your system. if you really don't want to use FSUIPC4 at all, then naturally you have no need to bother. But I would be concerned that there is something quite seriously wrong with your system which may well manifest itself in other ways. It would be best to determine what the problem is, if you'd care to help discover this. Okay? Regards Pete

It is quite possible that the FMC is not amenable to the mouse macro mechanism. If there's no detection window appearing when in mouse macro creation mode and clicking on the FMC gauge, then I'm afraid it is probably not possible to create them. Doesn't PMDG provide keyboard shortcuts for most or all of the FMC functions? It would seem to be a severe oversight if not. Regards Pete

The "IPC read" and "IPC write" entries in the Logging page merely turn the Logging on. They don't enable or disable the ability for programs to connect. Look in the FSX Modules folder and find the Log, see whether anything got through with those options enabled. Also investigate the FSInterrogate program from the SDK, which can show you everything you need. If you are running on Vista or win7 are you by any chance running FSX "as administrator" and the applications not, or vice versa? If so then they cannot talk to each other -- Vista and Win7 prevent programs of different privilege levels sharing data. Run them both normally, or, if you must (why?), both as administrator. The symptoms you suggest are exactly what you'd get if Vista (or Win7) was preventing the exchanges. Show me a log next time, okay? Regards Pete

You don't need anything so complicated. All the lights (10 of them in all) can be individually controlled by 10 bits in a word in FSUIPC offsets. You can assign buttons to "Offset" controls in FSUIPC's dropdowns to set and clear individual bits, thus controlling individual lights as you wish. Try reading through this thread, which i found by searching for "Lights": viewtopic.php?f=54&t=76621&p=472792 If there's anything not clear from that, after getting through it, let me know. Regards Pete

Good. Thanks, Pete

If you don't use FSUIPC for anything, and you have no addons which use it for anything, then you don't need it installed. But please tell me. Why did you install it, and what, exactly is this "fatal error message"? It needs to be investigated and fixed because even if you don't need FSUIPC it may be the result of a problem in SimConnect, and that will also affect other addons, not just those using FSUIPC. So, could you do three things, please: 1. Tell me the exact content of the fatal error message -- and if there's a place to click to ask for more details, please do so and note the Module name, Error code and address of the error. 2. Find and paste here the Installer log for FSUIPC4, which you will find in the FSX Modules folder. 3. Find and paste here the FSUIPC4.LOG file which you may find in the FSX modules folder. If it isn't there, please say so, as this is an indication that SimConnect didn't load it. Thanks. Regards Pete

The hat is known as a POV ("Point of View" control), and you'll find the assignment as something like: POV_MOVE_EVENT_00=PAN_VIEW POV_MOVE_REPEAT_00=1 Regards Pete

Thank you very much for your kind words and support. I do try to take a pride in my products, including documentation and support, and whilst I appreciate constructive feedback and hopefully take it on board, it does get somewhat upsetting when folks criticize it without showing what needs improvement, or simply appear not to have looked at it at all. Feedback such as yours is always very encouraging and it certainly helps in motivating myself in continuing to try hard! ;=) Thanks & Best Regards Pete

Actually, for most little utility needs like that, I'm more and more inclined to implement them, even provide them, as Lua plug-ins. They are more flexible, easier to amend and understand, more adaptable to individual needs, and actually, for most purposes, more efficient in FS, as they occupy no main thread time -- all Lua plug-ins run in their own threads and in fact, unless very badly written, inflict no measurable penalties on FS, especially in multi-core systems. Although very few folks are familiar with Lua, and certainly no programmers would seriously use it for main production programs, it is eminently suitable for little plug-ins and is well documented on the Lua sites. I think it is used in many games and simulator programs for exactly the purposes I am proposing for FS/FSUIPC, and also even for main configuration files (CFGs and INIs). In fact if I were starting over with FSUIPC I'd have the main INI file a Lua-based series of declarations, where actual programming bits could also be included (eg for buttons and so on). As a programming language, whilst it does have some very sophisticated functions, it is also, for small applications, easy and logical to understand. More so than modern Basic in my opinion, and not that far removed for simple logical English. Regards Pete

You could do that quite easily with a little Lua plug-in. In fact it was exactly for implementing such little things that I added the Lua interpreter in the first place. The easiest way to do it would be to simply have a Lua program like this: time = 0 while time < 240*60 do ipc.sleep(1000) -- do nothing for a second time = time + 1 -- count the second end ipc.writeUW(0x0262, 1) -- set Pause Save that in the FS modules folder as, say "Wait240.lua", and then you can assign a key or button to "Lua Wait240". When used it will do nothing for 240 minutes then set the Pause. Of course you can make it much cleverer than that if you like. You could read the FS time offset and have it pausing after an elapsed time in FS rather than in real time. And you could either supply the period, in minutes, as the Parameter to the Lua plug-in, or even use the "ipc.ask" function to ask the user for the time value. Going further, of course, you could read the user aircraft's position and when the distance from a defined point is reached, set the pause then. The permutations are almost endless, and all with a few relatively easy lines in a text file. Regards Pete

Have you managed to find the Manual yet? You've gone very quiet. I would still be interested to know the answers to the questions I posed. The current documentation has been developed over a long period through feedback from users, so if you think it still needs improvement then your feedback is still required. Thanks & Regards Pete P.S. There's an unpleasant and rude, prejudiced Brit-hater who is trying to interfere with my Support efforts here and whose poison I am deleting when I see his name. I cannot read it any more as my blood pressure goes through the roof. Apologies if you wanted to read it and agree with him, but I am not tolerating such neo-racist types here, and may seek to get him banned from SimFlight altogether if he persists. It's only the second time in the nearly seven years I've been supporting my programs this way that I've had cause to delete messages, which I really don't like doing.

That sounds roughly like a PM MCP bug when used with FSX which I thought had been corrected in recent PM builds. I added a special FSUIPC fiddle to get over it in the earlier builds -- try "FiddleMachForPM=Yes" added to the [General] section of the FSUIPC4.INI file. Regards Pete

Can be. Those WXR and STA buttons cause the PFD program to go find data separately from WideFS too, of course, maybe from its own files on the local disk, so disk access speeds and local fragmentation may come into it too. For WideFS, if you have a good reliable network connection (check logs for no errors), and with no loops (i.e. only one route to each PC from the Server), then the UDP protocol is definitely preferred over TCP. It has no checking and is faster as a result. Regards Pete

I googled your adapter and it clearly says "PC Compatibility Note: PC support is generally limited to mouse and keyboard support." The cursor in FS is only hidden when no mouse activity is detected -- so it sounds like either your joystick or the adapter itself is jittery. Apart from a couple of very special cases (GoFlight USB and PFC serial devices) FSUIPC can only program buttons and joystick axes which are recognised as such by Windows. Well, it isn't possible with that adapter. I don't know if there is one which will convert it into a PC-recognisable joystick device. It would probably be cheaper to treat yourself to a new joystick. Regards Pete

Sorry, what is "freezing up"? There's no need to reinstall FSUIPC as the install log shows it is already installed. No, ZIP is much more common. I've managed to download a RAR decoder, but ZIP is understood by Windows by default and is generally used universally. You can ZIP using Windows or Winzip or any one of many other zip programs. No, it is most definitely an install log. I've now managed to look at it. It looks like the same one you already pasted into your message. You've never reported that before. What program does it say has stopped responding? What "box" becomes "greyed out"? Well, what was the point of trying that? You cannot re-install a running program! :-( At least it proves that FSUIPC was installed and running (as I keep saying), and thererfore must have produced a Log file! I understand that, as I did right from the beginning, and, as I keep saying, the answer may lie in the FSUIPC log file -- the log file which is produced by FSUIPC when it is running. It is absolutely nothing to do with the Installer, and so far the only information you've supplied is for the installer despite my requests. It is late here (after 01:20 am) and i am going to bed soon. I'm out in the morning, but I will be looking here again later tomorrow. Regards Pete

But you only had to read the comments alongside the offsets you are using. They are surely not that long and complex? Look, I'll reproduce them here to save you all that bother of getting the document back up on your screen (I've emphasised the parts which should have sprung up into your attention): Regards Pete

Why are you continuing to try installing when I've told you it is already installed, and in fact was running when you tried to install last? What does " the FSUIPC installer keeps going "Not Responding"" mean? I don't understand that part. If you mean this error: then that is a report from Windows -- the error message is a Windows one, and I've no reason to believe that Windows is lying. Use the Task Manager's Process list to find and delete the FS9.EXE process. If there's an FSUIPC.LOG file to show me, then FSUIPC is either running or has been running, therefore it is installed. And what is the file you attached, yet another Install log, which is of no interest in any case -- you already showed me one which i commented on? Find the FSUIPC.LOG file, not the Install file, as I asked before. There's no need to attach the file. If FSUIPC isn't doing anything, and there's a log, it must be pretty short in any case, so paste it into a message. If you want to attach files, use ZIP please, not "RAR". Kindly move on. Let's try to deal with any problems you have with running FSUIPC, not with installing it, which isn't (or wasn't) a problem according to your previous report. If there's no FSUIPC.LOG file then you've probably got two or more installations of FS, and you are running one which is not the one pointed to by the Registry, and so doesn't have FSUIPC installed. Try going to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9 and double-clicking on FS9.EXE in that folder, so that you are sure you are running the copy known to Windows. Regards Pete

The part which keeps your joystick active is not in those sections, but is the line controlled by the Enable Joystick option in FS Options -- i.e. "JOYSTICKS=1" in the [CONTROLS] section of the CFG. That would be 0 if you disabled joysticks. It's a long time since I looked at this stuff, but I think the automatic assignment of buttons and axes is controlled by files called "Devices.CFG" and maybe sometimes "Devices2.CFG" -- in the main FS folder. If you don't want to disable joysticks in FS altogether (which is generally the best option), you may need to find the sections in those files which relate to your joysticks and delete them or edit them to suit your needs. You'd need to delete those joystick sections in the FS9.CFG file too, of course. Regards Pete

You have one of three things going on: (1) a button set to repeat and which is stuck on, assigned to whatever view control which is activating, or (2) a faulty attachment which is sending sputious signals to the PC. e.g. a keyboard or gaming device. (3) an add-on application which is sending the controls internally, either directly to FS or via FSUIPC. As I said, first try simply deleting the FSUIPC INI file. That will reset its actions to default and then it will certainly not be anything assigned in FSUIPC. Did you try that? Instead, and to find out exactly what is going on, do as I already suggested, here: If you don't understand the Log, show it to me. Removing the whole of FSX is not a good idea. Folks who try uninstalling and reinstalling seem to create more problems than they solve. If you mean FSUIPC, the "whole program" is the absolutely enormous (sorry, I really mean pretty small :-) ) "FSUIPC4.DLL" module, in the Modules folder. That's the "entire program". But quite honestly, I don't see the point until you've at least tried the options I've suggested. Regards Pete

Yes, though you may wish to investigate the Profile facilities FSUIPC offers, instead of using the "aircraft specific" option. They are alternatives, but the profiles allows you to define classes of aircraft for which the controls etc will be the same. You can name the profiles then simply assign new aircraft to the correct profile in a drop-down selection list. Regards Pete