Still in trouble

[baslar]

Hi Pete,

I managed to set up FSUIPC to do what I wanted, brakes worked fine mapped two F buttons to do certain things. I thought great now I'l try Voice Buddy again after reinstalling it after a system install and clean up.

Once Voice Buddy was activated FSUIPC didn't work on one of the mapped buttons, but worse it refuses to re-map it now. I have had previous experience of this and the reason, as I see it, is because Voice Buddy is set up to use the same hot keys ie F12. So what we have is my CH pedals trying to work the brakes and also Voice Buddy can do the same, if used. I'm sure this causes a conflict.

In the past I have just reinstalled FSUIPC and started again. Then changed the hot keys used by Voice Buddy. What a lot of hasle.

I know you are not directly concerned with other programs like this but first I wondered why FSUIPC refuses to repeat the button setting even though Voice Buddy is closed down? Is there any other way of resetting without having to reinstall FSUIPC? Can it be done by editing the ini file? Is so what do I do?

Thanks again Barrie

[Pete Dowson]

I know you are not directly concerned with other programs like this but first I wondered why FSUIPC refuses to repeat the button setting even though Voice Buddy is closed down?

If it sees the button it will act on it. It sounds like somehow Voice Buddy stops this working. Does it install its own driver, which perhaps doesn't deactivate or stop when you exit it?

FSUIPC is very simple in its approach to buttons, it merely uses the basic Windows joystick API (no DirectInput or anything complex like that). A single read on each possible joystick number from 0-15 presents it with the state of all buttons that can be handled by the Windows API. (More can be via DirectInput, but FSUIPC doesn't use DirectInput, for sure).

Is there any other way of resetting without having to reinstall FSUIPC?

Reinstalling FSUIPC does nothing whatsoever! You replace one DLL by an identical DLL? What's the difference? Every time FS is started FSUIPC has been reset! It re-reads the settings from the FSUIPC.INI file and starts life again as if it had never run before. There is no other memory, and the program code is not live and does not change from run to run.

Can it be done by editing the ini file? Is so what do I do?

Can what, exactly, be done by editing the INI file? If your button definitions are correct in the INI file they will be the same, correct definitions the next time FSUIPC loads. If you want to edit them to do something more complicated, go ahead, but there's nothing else short of going into the FSUIPC Buttons page and changing something there which will change what you had before.

It seems to me you are clutching at straws, and in the wrong direction. Sorry.

Regards,

Pete

[baslar]

Oh well it looks as though there's something seriously wrong with my set up because it's just not working for me.

I have deleted the ini file and it now alows me to set a joystick button to F12 which it wouldn't before. But now I have a serious swing to starboard again. I followed your instructions carefully so I'm at a dead end again.

But I'll keep trying or take up another hobby :lol:

[baslar]

Hi Pete,

Checked the ini file and both brake settings are identical. Then I loaded the default flight in FS9 and took off. Perfect, no swing off track what so ever, until I pressed the joystick button that was mapped to F12 when the aircraft swung badly to starboard. I cannot understand that at all. There's obviously a conflict somewhere which must be associated with the programs I'm trying to activate with F12. Could be either TrackIR or Voice Buddy. Voice Buddy wasn't loaded at the time so could it be TrackIR.

Bit of a mystery.

Barrie

[Pete Dowson]

I have deleted the ini file and it now alows me to set a joystick button to F12 which it wouldn't before.

If deleting the INI file allowed you to program a button you couldn't before, then the reason will have been that there was complex programming for that button in the INI file beforehand -- even simply duplicating the entries in the [buttons] section in the INI will tell FSUIPC to action that button more than once when it is pressed. Such programming cannot be handled in the dialogue and has to be dealt with by editing the INI file. All that stuff is dealt with in the FSUIPC Advanced User's documentation.

If this was the case, and there's really no other explanation, then when you pressed that button and FSUIPC stopped you programming it, there would have been a message on the screen near the top of that dialogue explaining exactly why!

If you had not achieved this by editing the INI file then it sounds like, somehow, it had been corrupted.

But now I have a serious swing to starboard again. I followed your instructions carefully so I'm at a dead end again.

If you fixed your joystick problems before by calibrating correctly in FSUIPC you should certainly not have deleted the INI file. To re-program all the buttons you only needed to delete the [buttons] section, which would have left all your joystick stuff intact. Now you will need to do all that again, unless, of course, you took the wise precaution of making a backup copy before deleting it? Always a sensible thing to do.

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

... until I pressed the joystick button that was mapped to F12 when the aircraft swung badly to starboard. I cannot understand that at all. There's obviously a conflict somewhere which must be associated with the programs I'm trying to activate with F12. Could be either TrackIR or Voice Buddy. Voice Buddy wasn't loaded at the time so could it be TrackIR.

Sorry, I've no idea. But you have double-checked that F12 is not assigned in FS too? (Options-Controls-Assignments)? FS's default assignments for brakes are F11 (left brake) and F12 (right brake). It sounds more likely to me that you simply have not deleted the assignment in FS.

Never just assume that a key is free for re-use. Same goes for joystick buttons. If you were programming the keypress action in FSUIPC then, certainly, FSUIPC would see it first and "steal" it from FS (it can't do that for buttons, mind). But it sounds like your other programs are simply sharing the key? Mind you, didn't you say "Voice Buddy" wasn't loaded? So if it was supposed to "steal" F12 it wouldn't have been able to, would it now?

Regards,

Pete

[baslar]

Sorry Pete I have removed the brake allocations F11 & F12 within FS itself, I am wise to that one.

I didn't notice any warning message when I tried to map the buttons in FSUIPC but I'll ckeck again, could have missed that. It wasn't a pop up message for sure I'd have noticed that.

I'm fairly convinced it's something to do with a clash between TrackIR and Voice Buddy because they have the same F keys mapped as default and they happen to be the F keys I want to use in FSUIPC.

When you talk about saving the ini, I can see there's merit in saving a backup copy but once I have the brakes working ok which they were do I delete the button entries in the ini file because there isn't a reset for buttons as I recall?

Thanks Barrie

[Pete Dowson]

Sorry Pete I have removed the brake allocations F11 & F12 within FS itself, I am wise to that one.

Hmmm. Seemed the most likely problem, given the results.

I didn't notice any warning message when I tried to map the buttons in FSUIPC but I'll ckeck again, could have missed that. It wasn't a pop up message for sure I'd have noticed that.

Not a popup, no. A message within the Window itself, near or at the top.

do I delete the button entries in the ini file because there isn't a reset for buttons as I recall?

There's no overall deletion facility for all buttons, no. You can certainly clear any individual button in FSUIPC's dialogue UNLESS it has multiple or advanced programming for it in the INI file. Once you have advanced program sequences, conditionals, etc, all that has to be edited in the INI file. That's why all the parameters are documented in the Advanced User's guide.

Each section [Keys], [buttons] and [JoystickCalibration] can be entirely deleted independently in the INI -- when FS isn't running in the last case. The Key and Button programming is actually all reloaded when you change aircraft, so you can edit it "on-the-fly", so to speak, and simply change aircraft to get FSUIPC to see the changes (or deletions, if you like).

Regards,

Pete