John Hanton

Well it looks like I'm going to have to do a LOT of coding to get the panels working right but as it is going to be a long term project anyway I don't mind it. Take things one step at a time eh. At least doing it myself will mean that I will know what is going on. At least I have the FCOM for the ATR 72 now which gives me a bit better background as to how all the bits hang together. The Flight 1 panels don't even take into account the side panels that control such things as flaps up landings and source switching.

I'm going to be building a cockpit for the Flight 1 ATR 72-500 and although I can operate most of the cockpit controls via mouse macros I do seem to be having a hard time finding out how to read the annunciators before I decide on an output board. Is this the reason why you don't see many ATR 72 cockpits being built? Peter, is there a way of figuring out how to access the annunciator data or am I banging my head on a brick wall here. Any advice will be greatly welcomed.... arrghh... now I'm going blind from a migraine. Typical.

The delay thing doesn't seem to work anymore. :( if it would delay FsXPand starting just 1 second it wouldn't matter if it stole focus because it would only be the select flight screen of FSX that would be up. I tried it with several programs and all start up at the same time as FSX. Does the Delay factor only work with READY? BTW, If I use the shortcut for FsXPand (which tells it to start minimised) it starts up minimised fine (which is what I am resigned to do I think).

This is really doing my head in at the moment. I'm hating, HATING programs that steal focus. I'm running Windows 7 Home Edition with FSUIPC4 and FSX Acceleration Pack. I want to start programs like a FSUIPC monitor (ie monitors data coming from FSUIPC) and FsXPand 5.8 which is the server that allows me to run custom gauges on networked PCs. Sounds simple doesn't it? :huh: The problem is that when I start FsXPand using the "Run1=C:\Program Files (x86)\FsXPand 5.8\FsXPand 5.8.exe" and FSX starts up, FsXPand throws up an error saying "FSUIPC Connection failed: IPC request contains bad data". Thing is, I close the dialog and then if I click the icon for FsXPand now it runs just fine. It just starts too quick for FSX using the Run1= I guess. So I hear you say "Use the 'READY' option so it starts up when the main part of FSX runs." - Good idea there... So I add the READY option... Start up FSX and the menu appears... No error... great... I then click "Fly Now!"... FSX starts up fine... I am on the runway ready to take off when "FLASH FLASH... DESKTOP... Oh look, it's the FsXPAND screen and it's running fine!". So what's the problem? Yup, FsXPand ran fine... but it's stolen the focus and now I can't get back to FSX because of some weird glitch that shows me a black box when I try to task switch back. *Bangs head on desk* I think it's because I have got myself a better computer... it just starts up the programs too fast now if I try to add it into the autorun list.... What FSUIPC needs is either a flag that says "RunIfFSUIPCREADY" or a delay option of some kind. Another way would be to link to a shortcut which has the option to run the programs in minimized mode (HIDE just doesn't work right it seems). I have no idea what to do about the black screens when another program steals the focus though and I have no idea who to ask. Sorry if I'm sounding a bit miffed but I just tried to link to a shortcut when FSX starts flying and it went and got into a wierd loop which was so bad I had to hold the power button down to force the thing to shut off because the mouse wouldn't let me click on anything. I just HATE programs that argue about focus stealing... So, is there a way around this at all... I going bald with this thing ruining my flying time.