Dead throttle quadrant with PFC 1.90

[airforce2]

Pete;

When I made the switch to PFC 1.90, the throttle quad was no longer recognized.

After several unsuccessful FS restarts I added the line Speed=9600 in the Connection section of PFC.INI, and that cured the problem. It's odd, because the driver removed that line when it re-wrote PFC.ini, but the driver continues to work now without it. Is it possible that, with the new logic arising from use of both 9k6 and 19k2 PFC devices, the port config is not being positively written under some circumstances when using a 9k6 device? May be worthwhile to allow explicit port speed assignment (Speed=9600 as well as 19200) to remain in the ini.

Cheers

[Pete Dowson]

When I made the switch to PFC 1.90, the throttle quad was no longer recognized.

Strange!

Is it possible that, with the new logic arising from use of both 9k6 and 19k2 PFC devices, the port config is not being positively written under some circumstances when using a 9k6 device?

There's no such new logic! The driver has ALWAYS supported any speed. It simply defaults to 9600. Nothing in any of that has changed in two years!

Furthermore, because it is defaulted it isn't needed in the INI, as you've found out. I honestly don't know what happened in your case, but simply changing from 1.8xx to 1.90 couldn't have been responsible.

May be worthwhile to allow explicit port speed assignment (Speed=9600 as well as 19200) to remain in the ini.

The internal value is predefined, as a constant, as 9600. If there is no parameter provided, that is undisturbed. There's no simpler logic, and making the parameter explicit won't change a thing.

Regards,

Pete

[MeatWater]

Well, what shall I say...the same problem kept me upset for the past 4 hours, and the same tweak solved it! Added that line, and tadaa - all is fine again.

[MeatWater]

Well, what shall I say...the same problem kept me upset for the past 4 hours, and the same tweak solved it! Added that line, and tadaa - all is fine again.

ARRGH! Nope - after a minute or so it quit working again! The PFC Hardware must be OK as it works on the other 'puter.

No matter whether I use the built in serial ports or a USB2Serial adaptor, pfc.dll does find the port but fails when looking for the throttle quadrant.

I am desperate. Sigh.

[Pete Dowson]

No matter whether I use the built in serial ports or a USB2Serial adaptor, pfc.dll does find the port but fails when looking for the throttle quadrant.

Sounds like a hardware problem, but first try the 1.92 version driver now available.

Pete

[airforce2]

I'd start first by reseating both ends of the cable, and if that doesn't work, then try a different serial cable.

If that doesn't do it, try monitoring the serial port with a simple terminal program.

Otherwise it's probably time to send 'er back to PFC.

I like your sound sets, BTW.

Cheers

[MeatWater]

Thanks guys, will try the new driver tomorrow. I did tamper with the beta drivers Pete had released via this board, I hope the new one does it.

The PFC hardware is working fine when connected to my notebook, so I doubt it has to do with the cable or quadrant itself.

What is also strange is the fact that the problem is present no matter whether I use one of the onboard serial ports or a USB2serial adaptor.

[airforce2]

OK, well then I'd be looking hard at something like an IRQ or address conflict. Make sure the USB adapter isn't using the same I/O address as the onboard ports, or that there aren't two devices trying to be the same serial port. I've found that serial I/O does not always coexist peacefully with other devices doing interrupt-sharing, even though Windows PnP seems to think it should.

Have you tried other serial devices on the ports in question...like a modem, perhaps?

Cheers

[MeatWater]

OK I think I managed to fix it.

For some reason data transfer via the built in COM ports is jammed. The USB2Serial adaptor I used also appears to have problems with my system, which - apart from this issue - runs flawlessly even with high end audio and video applications.

I bought a new USB2Serial adaptor today, and when that one is directly (!) connected to one of the four USB ports on the back of my PC, the PFC hardware works without problems.

I really don't know why my system doesn't like both the built in COM ports AND the USB adaptor.

Thanks for your suggestions and time, and Pete: thanks for all the work put into this.