Button programming not recognised

[PaulusP]

The construction of our Airbus A-320 cockpit is well underway and now we have started to make things really work.

Thanks to your wonderful FSUIPC program (we use licensed version 3.71 in FS 2004) many buttons in our overhead panel and pedestral are now functional!

There is one problem however: the programming of the buttons only works if we can use a command from the "FS commands" list.

But for some buttons, for example "APU Master" or "APU start" there is no corresponding command in the FSUIPC list.

Our panel has been programmed so that APU master will start with "Shift + F9" , but when I type this combination in FSUIPC, it does not work.

When I press this combination on my keyboard it works perfectly.

I have checked FSUIPC-ini file and it says "59=H1,29,K120,9 "

I am new into FSUIPC and there is definitely something I overlooked, but can you tell me how to make that button work?

Paul

[Frank.O]

Paul,

go to the buttons page in FSUIPC and press the button you want to assign something to. Then the first line should display the joystick# and button#. Just below this the are two checkboxes labeled "select for key press" and "select for Fs control". You should check the first one (left side).

Then in the lower part of the left side are two entry fields labeled "press the key(s) to be sent when you press this button" and "press the key(s) to be sent when you release this button" and either of them has two buttons next to it labeled "Set" and "Clear". Click on "Set" next to "press the key(s) to be sent when you press this button". The Entry field becomes active and you can now press the key combination on your keyboard and it will be recorded there. If you made a mistake click on "clear" and start again.

You can the (optionally) assign a key combo to the button release in the same way and choose wether or not the keypress shall be held while the button is pressed and if the key press shall be repeated while the button is held.

This is how it works when your sent key press actually triggers something inside FS, i.e. something that is simulatedand in FS and I assume you know this?

I'm not sure about the APU here.

How is your panel programmed? Is it an internal part of FS (then the above should work) or is it an application that interfaces to FS and simulates the things FS doesn't? In this case you'll have to make sure your app has the focus and can actually receive the key press. Is it on the same computer as FS?

Regards,

Frank

[PaulusP]

Frank, thanks for your answer.

After reading your reply, I was glad that at least I had programmed the button correctly, but unfortunately my problem is not solved,

because it still does not work when I push the button (although the keypress combination is sent correctly).

About my panel: it is an Airbus A-320 panel written by a member of our flightsimilatorclub (FSCB= FLight Simulator Club Belgium - http://www.fscb.be)

and it is installed like any other commercial FS add-on. I use the panel inside the beautifull IFDG Airbus.

The commands "APU master" and "APU start" do not exist in FS 2004, but they exist in the panel. When I make the keypress "Shift + F9"

on my keyboard it works perfectly, but when this command is sent through FSUIPC it does not work anymore.

Yes, FS2004 and the panel are all on the same computer (to be fully correct the panel gauge is inside "FS2004/aircraft/IFDG A 320/panel"

Do you have other suggestions to fix this?

Paul

[Frank.O]

Hi Paul,

The commands "APU master" and "APU start" do not exist in FS 2004, but they exist in the panel.

I see, but what do these commands actually do then, I mean they can't operate the APU because it's not simulated. Do they simply flip a switch on screen or light an indicator?

Yes, FS2004 and the panel are all on the same computer (to be fully correct the panel gauge is inside "FS2004/aircraft/IFDG A 320/panel"

OK so it's all inside FS. Hm... strange, it must be down to the programming of the gauge then - at least I think so.

Do you have other suggestions to fix this?

Well - not really. I can only guess and I am on rather thin ice here since I have no idea about programming.

When I make the keypress "Shift + F9" on my keyboard it works perfectly, but when this command is sent through FSUIPC it does not work anymore.

As I said it's really not my cup of tea, but this may be due to the way the gauge traps the key press. I've searched the forum and I found two replies from Pete which could be related to this. I'll quote them here:

Sounds like the panel in question is getting its keypresses some way other than by intercepting the Windows keyboard messages. Maybe it is "hotkeying" them -- do the keypresses work in the panel even when FS doesn't have the focus, i.e. you've windowed FS and are using some other program?

This is something you could try. Set FS to windowed mode switch focus to something else and then try the key press on the keyboard and see if it takes. If yes then I think it would be up to the author of the panel/gauge to fix this (make the gauge able to work with windows keyboard messages).

I know it can use the keyboard, but from what everyone has told me this is not "normal" in the sense that it gets the keys from normal Windows keyboard messages, such as those WideClient can produce. I think it must be using direct keyboard access -- interrogating keys in real time, not processing them via the message queue.

I know that wideClient isn't involved here but the problem seems the same to me.

This is all help I can provide I'm afraid. You would have to wait for Pete to return if the problem persists to discuss it in more detail.

Regards,

Frank

[PaulusP]

Frank,

Thanks for searching this forum!

I also tried to find a solution for this problem, prior to posting (as recommended :wink: , but you are clearly more experienced

since I did not find what you found. And what you found is really interesting! Here is my story:

I started FS and than I started to type this message (while FS was reduced to the small tab in the bottom of my screen)

and when I pressed the Shift +F9, indeed the APU Master was initialised!!

So perhaps I should try to contact the creator of the Airbus 320 panel, to hear whether he can change this.

Regarding you other remarks:

Paul wrote:

The commands "APU master" and "APU start" do not exist in FS 2004, but they exist in the panel.

Frank wrote:

I see, but what do these commands actually do then, I mean they can't operate the APU because it's not simulated. Do they simply flip a switch on screen or light an indicator?

When I am in FS and I click with my mouse on these buttons (APU and APU start), than the indicator in the panel lights up and after 10 seconds

there will be a message in the engine display that says: APU available". Only then it is possible to start up the engines.

The buttons are there in my cockpit (they are connected and recognised in FSUIPC), I only need them to be operational.

But that will be a software matter.

Paul

[Frank.O]

Hi Paul, me again,

I'm glad my babbling was of some use for you.

I started FS and than I started to type this message (while FS was reduced to the small tab in the bottom of my screen)

and when I pressed the Shift +F9, indeed the APU Master was initialised!!

That seems to indicate then that the gauge does not use the Windows keyboard messages. So there's nothing FSUIPC can do about it.

When I am in FS and I click with my mouse on these buttons (APU and APU start), than the indicator in the panel lights up and after 10 seconds there will be a message in the engine display that says: APU available". Only then it is possible to start up the engines.

Ah.. I see. So the panel/gauge provides some clever additional logic to emulate what is not simulated in FS.

So perhaps I should try to contact the creator of the Airbus 320 panel, to hear whether he can change this.

Yes that would be the first thing to try. But if he can't do this there may be another solution. You could try using a hardware keyboard emulator that works in parallel to your original keyboard (I did something similar once using a Y-type cable but it is easier to use one with USB connection) and wire the buttons that need to issue real hot keys to that instead.

Just a thought.

Regards,

Frank

[PaulusP]

Frank, It took some time to come back to this forum, because it was difficult to contact the creater of our Airbus panel and to discuss this with him.

As indicated by you, he told me indeed that the solution is to build a key board emulator.

However, this means that we will have to rebuild also our MCDU in a Holtek structure.

This is an unpleasant setback for us. We are not sure how to continue, but as it is now,

our panel will thus never be fully functional. Only the buttons that can be connected through a "FS command" available in FSUIPC will work.

Anyway, thanks for your input: at least we now know why other buttons do not work.

Paul